oats

The torch run came through Halifax over 2 months ago. I was pretty perturbed when they ran it through the main arteries into downtown during rush hour. I was stuck in traffic cursing silently for the extra 30 minute hold up as I watched the torch run by right beside my vehicle. It didn't calm me that the runner was quite large, on the obese side, and moving at a snail's pace, thereby backing up traffic and clogging all routes throughout the whole city. I hope the Olympics are better planned and execute than the torch run through the busiest main roads of Halifax during rush hour. I'm such a curmudgeon.

I am surprised that no one has discussed the parallel of the main character's adaption to the avatar technology with the audience's adaption to the RealD 3D effects of the movie. The audience is taken on a 30 minute journey wherein the human protagonist and audience learn and experience new ways of feeling and sensing. The indigenous culture and manner of sensing, at first so foreign, eventually becomes familiar to the protagonist. By far the best 3D experience for all viewers, and the first 3D experience for many, we share a parallel journey as we are introduced to 3D visuals - the new step on the technological frontier, and the next big step in entertainment technology. I watched for 10 minutes without the glasses. The story, dialogue and script were nothing new. Would be a hit without 3D but would not compel people to go back for a second watch. I literally got bored and wondered how I would endure 3 hours. More of our senses are immersed in the 3D experience and our experience is made slightly more real because some feeling is incorporated. This is also a perfect fit with the movie and the way the indigenous people understand things. They understand things in a holistic way that involves feelings and an unspoken, unwritten understanding of the interdependencies that exist between all things. The movie reinforces our new found feel sense evoked by the 3D with the idea that understanding the world around us can also happen through feeling, and not only linear written scientific models. It doesn't spew forth an agenda that white people are bad and natives are good. If you look closely it simply identifies why Native American descendants don't respond well to ideas born from Western world thought process. The two cultures have two completely different perspectives and methods of learning. They feel differently and think differently. Each has its strong points to understand and manipulate different situations. Neither is inherently better than another. There is something to learn from the movie but I'm quite sure the real intent is not to polarize or demonize individuals according to their cultural inheritances. Two more points to this rant: 1. These 3D movies will eventually embrace realistic violence and pornographic material. You think kids watching 2D violence and porn causes problems and addictions? Wait until the edgier material starts popping out in 3D. Horror movies with ultra-realistic kill scenes in 3D? We've been treated to a treat with avatar, and the addiction potential of 3D from pretty landscapes alone is astounding. Wait until you mix it with the stuff that holds serious addiction potential. 2. The medium is the message :) The medium, in this case 3D, has a greater impact and influence on our actions and activities than the story of the movie or the words that the characters speak.