Don't let the pretty images in the coming attractions fool you!
The beautiful images in the advertisements might lure you to take young children to see this movie. However, this second movie of Avatar is violent. At the beginning, we see the beautiful green forest where the tall skinny blue people live. A strange star in the sky is a sign and soon, the forest is destroyed by fire from machine-gun operating Marines. These Marines seek revenge on one of the blue avatars for not showing loyalty—a carryover of the theme from the last Avatar movie.
From here on in, Avatar is a war movie. Lots of battles, explosions, killings of imaginary animals and more death and suffering for the tall skinny blue people. It’s a David and Goliath story where even the imaginary whales finally get some revenge, bringing up cultural references to Moby Dick. Some scenes may remind one of Lord of the Rings, (The second movie of Lord was full of battles too!) and Little Mermaid, or even Star Wars. Many subconscious messages appear through symbolic references: father’s bow, the solar equinox, and magic flowers that look like little ferries.
The women characters seem, at first, to be good moms and obedient wives, but in the end they rise above the machismo of the men. Culture theft may be involved in this movie as the tall skinny blue people seem to be based on Native Americans, complete with wisdom from the natural world. Some fight scenes bring back horrible visions of helicopters attacking innocent people as in the U.S. war in Vietnam. Don’t be surprised if the movie theater has the sound turned up loud! Possibly so you can appreciate the deep bass tones when trouble comes and the angles’ soprano voices when death is possible. Critics say it took a long time to produce this “Part 2” of Avatar. But fear not, the movie promises there will be a sequel. We just don’t know when. You might want to wait before taking small children to see this movie!
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I remember being scared by watching Pinocchio and even the terrible fire in Bambi.
Ron