# Avatar: What Am I Supposed To "Take Home" From Seeing It? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 22, 2010, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-what-am-i-supposed-to-take-home-from-seeing-it/540351 "2010-05-22T08:37:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-what-am-i-supposed-to-take-home-from-seeing-it/540351/1 "2010-05-22T08:37:45Z")
We watched a couple of weeks ago at the home of some friends (so not in 3-D). If it was the special effects, then I can’t comment on them, except that the dragons (I love dragons) looked real, and I liked the part about how to bond with one’s own (dragon). But the storyline itself? Just a re-telling of what happened to Native Americans, only the skins were blue instead of red? Have I got that right, or am I missing something? Not being critical, Avatar fans. I really wanna know, and if I am missing the point, then set me straight. Thanks Q ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-what-am-i-supposed-to-take-home-from-seeing-it/540351/2 "2010-05-22T10:00:41Z")
Sorry! I meant to add that _this_ time, the natives won! Yeah, and THAT felt good to see. Thanks Q ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-what-am-i-supposed-to-take-home-from-seeing-it/540351/3 "2010-05-22T13:13:29Z")
Most movies don’t have significant messages. The most common is, hey, there are bad people in the world (or universe) and you gotta beat them if you can. _Avatar_ is typical in that regard. Where it isn’t typical is that it’s visually stunning. Not just the special effects, but the whole film. It’s the best looking film in history, although that might not come through watching a DVD in your den. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-what-am-i-supposed-to-take-home-from-seeing-it/540351/4 "2010-05-22T15:08:54Z")
What you’re supposed to take home is “I just made James Cameron and several other people connected with this film really, really rich.” ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-what-am-i-supposed-to-take-home-from-seeing-it/540351/5 "2010-05-22T15:31:05Z")
Yeah, it’s strictly a moronically heavy-handed retelling of a thousand earlier pictures, with all the complexity stripped away so that Cameron could concentrate on visuals. For many people, visuals alone are enough to make a movie. I can’t comprehend that, but it’s said often enough that I believe it. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-what-am-i-supposed-to-take-home-from-seeing-it/540351/6 "2010-05-22T15:36:06Z")
Without having seen it, the central message of the film seems to be “We have enough computing power to defeat the Borg.” ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-what-am-i-supposed-to-take-home-from-seeing-it/540351/7 "2010-05-22T15:36:26Z")
It is really just an incredibly heavy handed retelling of west meets natives with also some corporations bad, nature good thrown in. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-what-am-i-supposed-to-take-home-from-seeing-it/540351/8 "2010-05-22T15:48:35Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > It is really just an incredibly heavy handed retelling of west meets natives with also some corporations bad, nature good thrown in. That’s about all there is to it. Oh, and it looks very pretty. ---
**Author:** ![PsyXe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@PsyXe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PsyXe)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-what-am-i-supposed-to-take-home-from-seeing-it/540351/9 "2010-05-22T15:50:17Z")
Imaginary ecology! Bioluminescence! Gaia hypothesis! Antigravity minerals! Three-lobed brains!!! Sure, it was pretty, but my favourite thing about it was the world-building aspect. The story was minimal and functional, and really existed only to make it a movie rather than a fictional documentary. I would totally have watched it if it were a fictional documentary. And what you were meant to take home from it? Ok. Seriously: \*Hey, that’s actually a sea fan, just big and on land! And that’s a gargoyle gecko mixed with a chameleon, with helicopter wing things! Oh look, all the cool stuff here is stuff that actually exists on earth, just mixed up so it looks new and cool! I guess sea fans and gargoyle geckos and New Zealand cave glowworms and stuff ought to be preserved, then, too! \* And what I was thinking: _Hey, can helicopter wings work on a living creature? Does it twist the wing around first and then let it spin back? Or is it really free-spinning? How would that work? What if they developed from two zygotes, and one became the animal and the other the wing, and they fused? It could secrete oils to lubricate the joint… but how would the wing get enough nutrients and oxygen? How would something like that evolve?_ YMMV 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RhapsodyInBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RhapsodyInBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RhapsodyInBlue)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-what-am-i-supposed-to-take-home-from-seeing-it/540351/10 "2010-05-22T16:26:58Z")
Having seen it in 3-D when it was released, it struck me as a very upscale _Dances with Wolves_ meets Pixar in outer space. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-what-am-i-supposed-to-take-home-from-seeing-it/540351/11 "2010-05-22T17:07:57Z")
There’s nothing to take home. It’s just an entertainment. ---
**Author:** ![A\_Spoonful\_of\_Awesome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@A\_Spoonful\_of\_Awesome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Spoonful_of_Awesome)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-what-am-i-supposed-to-take-home-from-seeing-it/540351/12 "2010-05-22T17:43:46Z")
I didn’t see the receptacle in which to deposit the 3-D glasses upon exiting, so I took those home. I also walked out with my unfinished box of Sour Patch Kids, and a nifty piece of neon green chewing gum affixed to the bottom of my shoe. All in all, a decent night. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-what-am-i-supposed-to-take-home-from-seeing-it/540351/13 "2010-05-22T17:54:38Z")
> [@Quasimodem](#): > > Sorry! I meant to add that _this_ time, the natives won! Until the evil corporation gets back with that massive invasion force from Earth, anyway… ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-what-am-i-supposed-to-take-home-from-seeing-it/540351/14 "2010-05-22T17:54:53Z")
In a fictional world, USB cables have no plug and play issues, it just works. Declan ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-what-am-i-supposed-to-take-home-from-seeing-it/540351/15 "2010-05-22T21:11:14Z")
Why are you supposed to take home anything? It’s just a fun movie that looked really cool. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-what-am-i-supposed-to-take-home-from-seeing-it/540351/16 "2010-05-22T21:28:49Z")
What you take out of it is significantly less money than you brought into it. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-what-am-i-supposed-to-take-home-from-seeing-it/540351/17 "2010-05-22T21:59:22Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Why are you supposed to take home anything? It’s just a fun movie that looked really cool. Really? You were beat over the head with a MESSAGE for over two hours and you think you weren’t supposed to even notice? You’re giving James Cameron even less credit than I do. That’s impressive. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-what-am-i-supposed-to-take-home-from-seeing-it/540351/18 "2010-05-22T21:59:47Z")
White man bad. Natives good. Corporations evil. Rinse, repeat, add color. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-what-am-i-supposed-to-take-home-from-seeing-it/540351/19 "2010-05-22T22:17:24Z")
> [@](#): > > I didn’t see the receptacle in which to deposit the 3-D glasses upon exiting, so I took those home. I also walked out with my unfinished box of Sour Patch Kids, and a nifty piece of neon green chewing gum affixed to the bottom of my shoe. All in all, a decent night. You can also do some nifty home experiments with them, especially if you have two or more pairs. They’re a lot more complicated than just simple polarizers. ---
**Author:** ![PsyXe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@PsyXe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PsyXe)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-what-am-i-supposed-to-take-home-from-seeing-it/540351/20 "2010-05-22T22:25:38Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > You can also do some nifty home experiments with them, especially if you have two or more pairs. They’re a lot more complicated than just simple polarizers. Do tell? I’ve still got mine as well, and was wondering if there were any further use for them. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-what-am-i-supposed-to-take-home-from-seeing-it/540351.md?page=2)