Avatar Is Not An Option (It’s a Requirement)
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Recently, I was at a small gathering at a friend’s house, and I was talking to a nice young lady for a while. The conversation was going quite well, and I felt like I was making a new friend. But then, folks, she said something that totally turned it around. It’s something that both shocked and dismayed me, and I want to discuss what happened. You see, we were just going along, talking about things that were going on in the world right now, and then, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, she said, “I don’t know what the big deal is with that Avatar movie. I don’t think I’ll go see it.”
I was absolutely flabbergasted. NOT see Avatar? Not see AVATAR? She didn’t even say she might wait until it came onto DVD, or until it was on HBO or something like that. She totally dismissed the idea that she would see at all.
Look, it’s one thing to skip a forgettable movie like Invictus, or even Sherlock Holmes someone might go either way on. But this is Avatar we’re talking about. Need I remind you that it is in 3D? Probably not, because I trust my fans to be on the ball with this sort of thing.
I had a bit of morbid curiosity, so I pressed her for more information. What could possibly be compelling her away from the greatest visual feast of the eyes since the Matrix? She shrugged and said, “I just think it’s probably trash, like everything else. I’m not going to go see something just because it’s hyped a lot.” Yes, folks, she did suggest that Avatar was trash, a throwaway lump of garbage that James Cameron happened to spend twelve years to construct. Twelve years, ma’am. TWELVE.
But, despite this young woman’s extreme departure from reality, I thought there was a learning moment there. You see, the truth was that this young lady didn’t want to see something almost precisely because it was so beloved by so many people. Sometimes, people don’t allow themselves joy and happiness if they’re not the ones who’ve controlled how it arrived. They’re more concerned with controlling their reality than allowing their reality to gift them, even when their reality is offering that gift in not two but three dimensions. Some will reach for control and say, “I don’t like it because you like it,” which is like the petulant child who reaches for the only rebellion available to them. Some will say, “I’ll only allow that joy and happiness when I am ready, when I have everything in line, all my ducks in a row, and it’s financially feasible for me to be joyful and happy.” The thing about that last one is that if you wait until you’re ready, then you may find that Avatar is not the same experience that it could have been in a theatre with your polarized 3D glasses. In other words, the joy and happiness that you wanted to wait for may no longer be an option. Sure, there may be a different option that brings some joy and some happiness, but it won’t be the same gift, the one that’s being offered to you RIGHT NOW. IN THEATRES.
Hey, if you go see Avatar and don’t like it, that’s one thing, but to refuse to even take a gift into your hands when that gift contains hot aliens making out? Well… I just don’t know what to say to you. Which is why I walked away from you at the party at that very moment. Because if you’re willing to refuse a gift like James Cameron’s Avatar, then how good of a steward will you be with an even more precious gift like Dr. Matt?
Just My Thoughts,
Dr. Matt*
You’ve got a brilliant mind and I LOVED Avatar! While the 3D effect was absolutely magical and soooo advanced and wonderful, I mostly loved the story. I cried and remembered and remembered and cried….it was a most healing movie and I’ll be seeing it many more times and then buying my own copy when it becomes available.
It is truly a gift…and I truly embraced it!
This was so moving… I cried. but not as much as when Home Tree came crashing to the ground in the violent flames of corporate industrial greed while the (not so little) smurfs had their culture crushed so that Gargamel could turn it into Gold…. I need a tissue.
You just reminded me very succinctly how my rebellion mechanism works – or perhaps USED to work. Because I HAVE seen Avatar, in glorious 3D, in a packed theatre. What a rush!
Incredible. Not see Avatar!?
“We should be careful to get out of an experience all the wisdom that is in it – not like the cat that sits on a hot stove lid. She will never sit down on a hot lid again – and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore.” -Mark Twain.
Was lucky enough to see it in 3D in an IMAX theatre. Brilliant. While in the theatre, Greg and I also saw previews for Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Depp. Looks like a ‘must see’ as well.
Often, we do wait for movies till they’re out on video, however Avatar is so deserving of our attendance, even if simply to honor James Cameron’s excellence, genius, hard work and mastery.
The Rolling Stones in http://www.shinealightmovie.com was another movie that we just had to see on a HUGE screen, and it was fitting to see it in a La Premiere cinema. Some movies are ‘flicks’, others are experiences worth adding to our ‘bucket lists’. Avatar is a ‘bucket listable’ experience.
Cheers, Thea