MINDLESS MUSINGS

Avatar (2009)

***spoiler alert***

(plus a massive bummer alert)

This wasn’t James Cameron’s first foray into corporate greed, and I will definitely be covering Aliens in a future post. Sci-fi is such a brilliant way to critique the human condition when it is done well, using fantasy to tell the truth. This one is about as subtle as a hammer – the mineral the humans are trying to pillage is called Unobtanium for fuck’s sake! A superconductor worth more than gold, oil, diamonds etc.

The plot and the allegory are simple: Pandora is the only place this phenomenal profit producer can be found. The Na’vi are the indigenous population who live in synchronicity with the natural environment around them. The humans are doing what all humans (or white people to be more specific) do; swoop in and help themselves to the natural resources of a place they have no right to do so in. Now that all of humanity is combined it is now an equal opportunity invader and plunderer. Screw those aliens though.

The naïve (Na’vi?) natives have no clue regarding the value of this coveted mineral nor do they care. They live in harmony with their habitat. They have no concept of property, profit or all the other evils of capitalism. The corporation, for their part, has no concept of the whole “we are all connected” bullshit. To them these ‘tree hugging’ natives are in the way.

The individual humans range across the spectrum from an innate and long denied sense of kinship with the natives, all the way to the corporate cry of ‘fuck ‘em!’ The real monster is the insatiable apparatus they are all inextricably connected to. Their livelihood depends on their service to the corporate overlords represented here by the Resources Development Administration (RDA).

Eventually all of the separate clans realise they are about to get severely screwed and band together to fight the RDA and protect their land and birthright. They are technologically outgunned and it seems that all is lost, when the badass wildlife joins the battle and help defeat the villainous intruders. A huge victory for the ‘one with nature’ mob over the greedy industrialist ecological rapists.

We get to share the joy of the righteous local population as they victoriously expel the RDA. A peculiar empathic trick where the audience (I didn’t see any Na’vi at my screening) gets to distance themselves from their own species and celebrate vicariously through the virtuous natives. It also helps to have a few upstanding humans to identify with.

So, the credits roll and the evil corporation has been sent packing with its tail between its legs. Success, right? I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who felt that pang of hypothetical dread for the future of these imaginary victors. I mean you do realise this unobtanium is still the most valuable resource in the universe and Pandora is still flush with it.

The only lasting victory would be the total annihilation of the invaders combined with somehow erasing any way the fuckers might have of ever finding the planet again. Even after that you can bet your ass the RDA will spare no expense trying to locate this El Dorado and will continue to do so ad infinitum.

You see, as satisfying as it was to see the ruthless Colonel Quaritch get dispatched, he was always expendable and perpetually replaceable. There would be no shortage of ambitious military leaders only too eager to return with a brand-new battalion of fodder to ‘avenge’ their fallen comrades (and if the new colonel makes a name for himself, that might be nice to).

Either way the RDA will never relinquish this cash-cow unless through some miracle the balance can be tipped to a point where it is too costly for them to continue pursuing it. It is fucking atrocious, but it is the horrific reality of the corporate machine. The humans the Na’vi encounter are simply drones, not as far removed from slaves as they like to think themselves.

Okay, okay, settle down I hear you say. It’s just a movie. I know that, but as I said earlier, it is a piece of fiction designed to draw attention to a very real issue wrapped in a cloak of entertainment and for that reason it had to have a ‘happy ending’. Nobody is going to invest in a movie that bluntly concludes with the futility of stopping progress when your technology (especially weaponry) is horrendously primitive and you have the audacity to declare an insanely valuable piece of real estate is your ‘home’.

The only reason the Na’vi won this battle was the magical alliance with the badass wildlife. That’s enough for now. There are so many threads forming in my head from this. Thanks for reading.