Avatar 2: The Sequel

I don't want to wait 10 years to review the sequel to Avatar (2009), so I thought I'd pick up on some of James Cameron's main ideas and make my own sequel to review.

My Avatar 2: The Sequel begins with crowds jeering and spitting on the defeated corporate warriors as they return to earth.  The President declares that this defeat shall not stand.  Determined to lick that Pandora thing, corporate America returns to Pandora in force.  They use germ warfare this time, the kind of germs that have always worked on natives.  Measles bring the Na'vi to the brink of extinction.

After a few scenes that establish the brutality of the corporate invaders -- things like soldiers handcuffing Na'vi kids and shooting them -- the Na'vi and the anti-colonial human scientists who stayed behind on Pandora use the Avatar machines to create human avatars for the Na'vi and take the battle to earth.

Jake and Neytiri lead a band of avatars who hijack a couple of spaceships and crash them into New York City and Washington, D.C., killing millions and wiping out the government, while the Na'vi snooze comfortably in their pods.  Unfortunately, wiping out millions of bad guys doesn't stop the measles, and the Na'vi, including Neytiri and Jake, whose parents were vaccine deniers, die off anyway.

I believe that recycles enough themes and situations to be a hit while maintaining at least a semblance of historical reality, so let's review it.

Cameron has done it again!  And he has finally figured out how to use the subjective POV to exploit 3D.  Megan Fox rocks as Neytiri's human avatar.  You know the rest.

The Hurt Locker May Have A Chance After All

(AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Just when I thought Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker didn't have a chance to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, the AP reports that some pesky Palestinians have decided to get into the act. Palestinian protesters at Bil'in have painted themselves blue and posed as characters from Avatar.  Apparently, the demonstrators equate their fight at Bil'in to the Na'vi's fight against intergalactic corporatism in Cameron's film.

With the Best Director Oscar already in the bag for Bigelow, Cameron now finds his Best Picture Oscar in jeopardy. Hollywood needs 3D, but do they need it enough to associate themselves with a film that's been picked up on by those controversial Palestinians?

Could be a sweep for Bigelow.