Author: Inzel Jugpal
Avatar was released in December 2009 and went to become the highest grossing film of all time, earning over $2 billion. The movie, which had ground breaking and breath taking visuals, was a technical masterpiece, and had the audience drive to in droves. Technical mastery aside, I believe the reason for the movie’s popularity was due to the masses connecting with the movie’s central theme of the destruction of the planet’s valuable resources by corporations.
The movie is set in 2154, at a time when Earth’s natural resources have been severely depleted. Resources Development Administration (RDA) goes to the planet Pandora in search of a valuable mineral Unobtanium. The planet is inhabited by a race called Na’vi who live harmoniously with Nature. The movie proceeds to show the greed of the RDA, which can threaten the planet and the way of life observed by the Na’vi.
This theme of the movie highlighting the role that corporations can play in the destruction of natural resources of the planet was what resonated with the movie going public. Our dependence on non-renewable sources of energy has resulted in a drastic drop in the resources we rely on such as fossil fuels and minerals not to mention the global impact on climate. We also started to educate ourselves on the roles these corporations had to play in the destruction of habitats in various parts of the world and their poor standards of conducting business.
Al Gore, the scientific community and the UN had been trying to get us to realize that the way of life that had been adopted by us was not without consequences, and that we along with these corporations had to be held accountable. I believe this movie was released at a time we were collectively waking up to the idea that our planet as we know it may be irreparably damaged, and that is why the audience flocked to the theaters to see the blue skinned race fight against the greedy corporation threatening their home.
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