Opening a Pandora's Box
The colossal megahit that was James Cameron's Avatar earned its fair share of detractors. Some scoffed at the film's decidedly formulaic plot. Others balked at its overly stylized, computerized action. Both left-wing and right-wing critics recoiled at Avatar's implicit political message, which was interpreted either as paternalistic and racist or crudely anti-imperialist and unfair in its depiction of American soldiers. The Holy See turned up its nose for other reasons. A report on Vatican Radio complained that Avatar "cleverly winks at all those pseudo doctrines that turn ecology into the religion of the millennium ... Nature is no longer a creation to defend, but a divinity to worship." L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, ran a series of articles decrying the animist spirituality of the film's atavistic blue aliens. "Not much behind the images," sniffed one headline. Avatar was all "stupefying, enchanting technology" with "few genuine emotions." Still, both reports ultimately concluded that, for all the movie's questionable messaging, it was still very pretty to look at.