Is Avatar Racist?

So I’ve finally seen the movie “Avatar.”

I remember the movie “Titanic.” And it has nothing to do with the fact that both movies were mega hits and both were directed by James Cameron. I remembered “Titanic” after watching "Avatar" because I went to see it (Titanic) only on its fifth week of screening, just like I did now with "Avatar. Why was I not so eager to see it like the rest of the world did? Because it was known to be a very tragic movie... shows a super-sized ship with multitudes of people on it sinking. Then came the fact that it’s been over a month and it was still showing. So I finally gave in and went to join the madness. Let’s call it a worldwide phenomenon and I just wanted to be a part of it. If only out of curiosity.

Fast forward to the present. “Avatar.” I was not so keen on seeing it even if I read that it took the makers 15 years to finally complete the movie. And it has been a much talked-about movie even long before it was released. Why am I not so keen on seeing it? Because Im not really a big fan of fantasy films. I have already seen two movies which are being simultaneously shown with “Avatar.” “Sherlock Holmes” and “The Morgans,” the latter being a new year’s treat of my Thai friend to me…

Then I went to finally see the movie today. And it was good. Really good. But not only did I want to be a part of this another worldwide phenomenon in the film industry, but also want to see for myself how true were the comments that I read about the film.

Mostly, it was the allegation and interpretation that the movie consists of racist theme… Since the film opened to widespread critical acclaim, hundreds of blog posts, newspaper articles, tweets and YouTube videos have said things such as the film is "a fantasy about race told from the point of view of white people" and that it reinforces "the white Messiah fable." Much like Kevin Costner in "Dances with Wolves" and Tom Cruise in "The Last Samurai." A white man visits another culture, learn their ways and become their hero. They even go further to saying that the film also is an obvious metaphor for how European settlers in America wiped out the Indians.

But regardless of how some view it, I was actually completely entertained with the movie. Racist or not, some people (like me) just want to go to the movies to relax and escape from the real world for at least two hours of their lives. (In the case of “Avatar” it’s close to three hours). I just didnt like the ending. It's not just Jake apparently leaving his human form to be one with the what-do-you-call-them-again? (Depends on you'd interpret that part). But it's more of the typical hollywood way of ending movies like this... It's always like this, the last quarter of a hollywood film, follows a very typical, predictable formula. (Rememebr 2012?) But what they hey, that's why it's called Hollywood... Love it or leave it kind of movies.