Religion E11

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A Review of James Cameron's Avatar

By Arlon Staywell RICHMOND — Whatever benefits you see in brief flights of the imagination you probably recognize the importance of the landing. The arrangements of the pieces of life's puzzles can present endless possibilities. However amusing it might be to consider those there is a best fit to consider in the end. If someone told you Avatar was like The Exorcist and The Alamo with a brush of The Matrix you might think the combination couldn't possibly be a good movie no matter how much you enjoyed The Matrix. Too many arrangements of those pieces just can't fit.
Spirituality Versus Technology
The notion that technology and spirituality aren't the friends they perhaps should be seems to pervade the new movie Avatar. We have already seen a rather notable clash between technology and spirituality in H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds and we have seen that struggle express itself in various retellings of the story through the decades (centuries?). In the 1898 original story technology was a surprising new kid in town and a bully. The roles of spirituality and technology in the 1898, 1953 and 2005 versions of War of the Worlds vary. Real world attitudes and impressions did also.
Picking a Winner
Insofar as all those stories and Avatar seemed at least to place a laurel wreath on spirituality a good question might be which did that best. Perhaps spirituality finds far better light in Avatar than the 2005 War of the Worlds. Perhaps Eywa answers. Technology is the bully again more than it has been since 1898 so much the better to take the lesson from spirituality. How curious is it though that Earthlings are the new aggressors? Of course those debates cannot end in this article. You'll need to see for yourself.
Landing
Avatar might not be much about the real world. Many elements of it would be quite disturbing applied to the real world. But the relationship between technology and spirituality probably is a more significant reality of the times and one most in need of care and tuning. If our politicians fail, if our spirituality is lost on them, then perhaps our movies will tend the helm enough to bring us through.
Should we find that we have as much bad religion as bad science that would be a second step forward. There would be more steps to go of course. Will future movies or politicians show them first?
3D technologies
Avatar is available in "Real 3D" and "IMax 3D" formats as well as 2D. The Regal Commonwealth Stadium in Richmond, Virginia has all those formats. The "Real 3D" uses polarizing filter glasses and "IMax 3D" uses color filter glasses. The IMax 3D color filter glasses might seem like polarizing filter glasses as the color difference might be difficult to notice. If you hold the glasses about a foot or two away and look through them at a source of light you can see the color difference between the left and right lenses. The color filter glasses enable a much larger screen than the polarizing filter kind, although there can be traces of color distortion. For Avatar the color filter type is recommended. The enormous quantity of detail is best viewed on a larger screen and color distortion has been avoided well. Of course much of the art and color in that movie is artificial and fanciful anyway.

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