I saw Avatar over the Christmas break and was pretty blown away by the epic battle scenes and special effects (something that doesn’t usually do anything for me). The film, however, also had intentional parallels to America’s occupation of Iraq. If you didn’t notice that, perhaps the overt references “shock and awe” and “insurgency” were enough to give it away.

I left wondering whether I should be impressed by the message of the film: imperialists bad; natives good. The movie is presented in such a way that makes it difficult not to agree, but the simplification of the issue was silly.

Today I came across an article that puts things into perspective quite nicely, and then some. I was especially interested in the article’s conclusion that examines reactions to Avatar from different sides of the political spectrum.