Suicide fantasy in Avatar?

[Purple Rabbit]

Claiming that it harbours a suicide fantasy is a completely over the top statement of the jaundiced eye and a case of misplaced identification with the portrayed bad guys (Dr Zero: "During the big battle scene, as dinosaurs were chowing down on soldiers, the middle-aged couple seated next to me were grinning happily… delighted by the defeat and destruction of their own miserable species."). Was he happily laughing at the flying Na'vi bodies? He could have but he chose to act the victim part. Go rinse your brain out with peanut butter I'd say. Dr Zero really pays credit to his name when he jumps from his own teenager suicide fantasies to the believe that this movie is the ultimate wet dream of teenage payback time. His column being in the hardcore jerk of genre for maximum effect itself.

Thanks. Whenever I'll need a mind read, I'll turn to you to tell me of their limited decisions, so limited that, like a machine, they can be expected to choose in a simplistic manner. Obviously, being delighted by "flying Na'vi bodies' or playing the victim card are exclusionary actions? Right? That is what I get from your flippant mind read of the column author. And since he theoretically could be tittilated by such, then he surely mustn't complain and expect his complaints to be taken seriously. That is what you seem to make as a point, though I am most interested in "washing [one's] mind with peanut butter". Please, do tell about that, in a PM. "Dr. Zero"'s use of his anecdotal evidence is indeed troublesome, until you consider how difficult it is to prove intent behind a movie beyond a shadow of a doubt. I posted this as it rang true with how I felt. It most likely is wrong or incomplete (if only we could read minds of the writers and directors for the intent behind the silverscreen) - I get that people see things differently and bias themselves for particular characteristics they like (hmm, like religion? Humbug).

You're welcome. It wasn't a mind read however, but my measly attempt to comment in Dr Zero style who so clearly can probe the brain of this director while dealing with some personal trauma in the process. If you saw a mind read in it, I've made my point. Saw LOTR on the TV yesterday and was flabbergasted to find nobody in my surroundings with any empathy for those poor Orcs that get so thoroughly hammered. And that while these poor Orcs are so clearly a result of genetic manipulation of that bad ass Sauron. Sounds as social darwinism to me. How people totally lack any historic awareness these days!

The peanut butter idea must have come to me in some hallucinory flash of absolute lucidity while contemplating on the meaning of sandwich in this universe, I can't recall really. It was emotion about Dr Zero though, not aimed at you.

Don't feel offended. I'm totally OK with the fact that you don't like the movie and use over the top analogons and agitated language to stress your point. But hey, don't expect me to comment on it in my usual mode of controlled cool.

I just feel that there is a difference between fantasy and reality and that there is nothing intrinsically wrong about the emotions we as humans have about fantasy. Dr Zero misses that point totally by projecting reality directly onto fantasy and base his comment on that. Did he interview the elderly couple next to him about thier reaction to on screen events or did he read their minds directly?

Why do I find that Zero's take on teenage payback intriguing as he reduces down the movie to it's base components? Because of the simplicity of the plot, the childishness of mass audiences, the sex scenes, the fall back to special effects to keep attention, etc,. Certainly, I love being entertained, but I sure as hell don't like being flat out manipulated like an animal with another appeal to my lower brain.

Then jettison that lower brain.