By now, I’m assuming you’ll have been to see the greatest-hyped film of recent years. Presumably you’ve seen it in 3D, perhaps even in an IMAX. You’ll have witnessed its lush visuals, its vivid colours and exotic lifeforms, its dizzying heights and immersive environment. And if not why not?
I stumbled across this article recently and frankly it boggled my mind.
Whole communities and forums for people who’ve developed depression after watching Avatar and realising they’ll never visit Pandora? Erm? I know the special effects were brilliantly done and the 3D made the whole film a fantastically immersive experience, but doesn’t this reaction seem a little “¦ extreme?
Now I don’t want to be mean, and I but I find this “˜Avatar Blues’ phenomenon a rather depressing development. An obsession like this conjures images of screaming Twi-fans and pale youths in velvet calling themselves Lestat. Alright, maybe I want to be a little mean. It’s just that there are wonders enough on this miraculous planet we happen to actually inhabit without having to covet wonders that have been conjured up by computers. These fans obviously aren’t insane or mentally troubled (beyond the actual depression, that is); they’re fully aware that Pandora is a fiction and a construct. It’s not Pandora so much as the allure of space travel and alien vistas rendered almost tangibly by new technology.
I want to experience an alien world as much as the next man. If first contact occurred tomorrow then I’d be ecstatic (even if they whipped out their death rays and started obliterating our monuments minutes later). I crave that excitement. I just have to deal with the fact that it probably won’t happen and live in the real world in the meantime. We all do. We have to find our happinesses and excitements where we can and while we can, and the real world does offer plenty of it if you can find it within yourself to get up and go looking for it. We don’t need six-legged horsebeasts and not-pterodactyls to make our lives complete, we can find all the joy and beauty and wonder we need right here at home.
What are your thoughts on this?