Avatar Movie Review

I saw Avatar last week and reviewed it on my blog (http://pachydermnz.blogspot.com/2010/01/avatar.html)

I thought it was amazing. I thought it was an amazing culture that Cameron had created (along with all of the beautiful world created right here at New Zealand’s Weta Workshops, who also did The Lord of the Rings). There was also a really interesting spirituality – for me, it was about the fact that all life is connected to all other life, and that God has given us a responsibility to care for it. This was really graphically shown with the physical connection the Na’vi had, particularly with the various animals they rode. I also thought it was a story of redemption for Jake Sully – he’d lost his legs (we never really find out why) and he’s given a new chance – and in accepting that new chance, he is changed forever.

I give it 5 out of 5 stars!

Thank you, Sister Julie.

My husband and I saw the movie last night and loved it. We are devoted Catholics, and I am a catechist. Today I’ve been thinking about themes in the movie that I might use as lessons in one of my classes (they’re seventh graders). But first I wanted to know what Catholic reviewers thought about the movie, so I went searching online.

The first review I found slammed “Avatar” in a very alarming fashion. The message I got was that if I liked the movie, I must be a liberal leftie moron (I am none of those, I hope!).

Then I found your review and one other, which are much more gracious. Thank you.

I do agree that the spirituality of the movie is problematic, but I think that we can make interesting parallels to our own beliefs. I think the movie touches an often-dormant hunger in people for a deep profound spirituality that they’re not finding in everyday life.

Our culture is becoming more and more atheistic. Maybe a movie like “Avatar” provides a teachable moment when we can reach out to that hunger for the spiritual in people. It seems to me we could easily talk about Pandora being like the Garden of Eden, about how sin (especially greed) can corrupt and kill, about how we need (and can be) strong leaders to do what is right and show us the way. And ultimately, how we can’t in our own puny strength save the day, but there is still a God who can and will, and has already done so through His Son.

It’s true that “Avatar” is a rather cliched storyline, but it’s been told time and again because it’s based on a great deal of history and truth. We need constant reminders, because we so easily fool ourselves and fall back into sin.

There is a big difference between worship of the creation and reverence for the creation. Anything created by God deserves our deep respect and care. As Saint Francis taught, all creation is our brother/sister. I can’t see anything wrong with our being reminded of this by a movie like “Avatar.”

Hi –

I am a Third Order Franciscan. Seeing the movie from a Catholic and Christian point of view, and recalling Bible symbols, I disagree with most everyone. I did not think this movie’s key themes were about the damage we have done to the black race or about worship of a pagan-type goddess — though one could come away with those understandings at a secular level. Instead, I saw many-many compatibilities with the Catholic and Christian religions:

- To me, the mother goddess, Aiwa, who makes herself present through the large tree at the center of Pandora represents the Holy Spirit, which sustains us daily. Christ was often referred to as the vine. Aiwa behaved less like a pagan goddess and more like the Holy Spirit. For example, pagan Goddess’s never really nurtured or talked directly to their people (mind to mind). People were considered to feeble minded — not in tune. They generally communicated through priests and prophets (as God communicated with us in the Old Testament, before Jesus Christ left the comforter — the Holy Spirit with us). Having to stop and connect to her through a biological adapter at the end of their braids, in order to communicate, did not bother me either. To me, it represents our need to stop and pray, and open ourselves to receive guidance from the Holy Spirit. Guidance may, as in the movie, come in any form — through a silent voice within us, a hunch, from another person, and our community. We too, must wait to hear that guidance before we act.

- They refer to themselves as brothers and sisters, so do Catholics and Christians. We, who are baptized, are one in the body of Jesus Christ. We especially know this when one of us dies and loved ones feel so strongly that they are still in communication.

- They refer to a nerve type network among all people — we have that because we are one in the body of Christ and in that body, we are networked with each other, alive and deceased, and our Trinity.

- They refer to ancestors that can continue to be heard through the tree — we do that through the one body of Jesus Christ

- The avatar helps them fight the enemy which seeks to destroy the weak and vulnerable. Pops John Paul II, in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, encourages all Catholics and Christians protect and be responsible for the vulnerable (who are members of all races — not just the black race — throughout the world). A persistent enemy of the vulnerable, through the centuries, has been those who promote population control for the economic gain of the more powerful — similar to this movie. These are the same that funded Hilter and have funded massive abortion and contraceptive programs around the world. Now, they are trying to pass public healthcare which will massively kill the sick and elderly too.

- The movie’s heroes fight to protect the lives of people and especially women and children and babies — that is what all Christians and Catholics should be doing — fighting to pass legislation that treats human life as precious and protects the life of all humans from conception to natural death — just as the avatar did in this movie.

- As in the movie, Christians and Catholics do not feel threatened until it is too late — until their culture is about to be destroyed. So it is in our culture today. Most are willing to let the powerful and evil kill masses of people. Not it is the unborn babies; tomorrow it will also include the elders and sickly.

- The Na’vi learn how to work with the Holy Spirit — that is , to follow the will of God though one does not understand it (as Mary did when she answered God’s call and said yes to becoming the mother of Jesus Christ). This is symbolized in the movie by the free-fall that they do when they jump off a cliff down into the trees below with the “faith” that leaves will be in the right place at the right time, to brake their fall or propel them to another branch. When in a challenging situation, we, too, must step out in “faith” and trust God will help us or redirect us.

- Like the teaching of Pope John Paul II, the Na’vi value people based on their heart — not on their usefulness to them or society. Currently, the majority of Christians have closed their eyes to the massive killing of unborn babies and secret Euthanasia that is happening. They are not using their hearts or are not acting on inputs from their hearts (turning a deaf ear).

- Lastly, we are created by a man and women in union with God. God make a soul available to every human at the moment of conception. The soul is a part of God. Through the soul then, we all have a connection to God. Because of that connection, we are asked by God to behave like saints. That is, to know and apply our religion, to avoid temptation, try not to sin, put loving others and God above all things, and continue the work of Jesus Christ on this earth. All of us are capable of being help to behave like saints or avatars for God. As the movie shows, people who do this acquire a supernatural degree of talents, peace and joy. They are sustained by the Holy Spirit, and in their case, they know it and depend on it in the design of their lives.

In summary, my take is the movie is very Christian and Catholic. Furthermore, it suggests that to deal with the opponents, we should bring all “clans” together as one — unite all Catholics and Christians and like-minded people and fight legislatively as one. We should have faith, that the Holy Spirit will help us (as in the movie), once we make the first step.

How can you too do the work of an avatar? To do this, contact your Right to Life organization — every state has one. They function to lobby and fight for the vulnerable in our society of all religions. Every state has one. Join it. These people are among the avatars of our world. Others are the Respect Life organizations in churches, Knights of Columbus, Franciscans, Sisters of Life, pregnancy care centers around the nation, etc.

God Bless – Eileen B.