Avatrocious

I watched Avatar for the first time for this class, and hated it. The argument made throughout the movie is that those that are different that us or act differently are primitive and can easily be homogenized into one clear sect. The scene I chose to analyze is when the Na’vi tribes are being described as Jake goes to each of them asking for help to fight against the humans. There has never been mention of other tribes throughout the rest of the movie, so their existence is a bit of a shock at first. What is interesting, though, is that there is literally no explanation as to why these tribes are different from one another, or why they are not a single unit. Throughout the film, we are functionally told that all the Na’vi live together in a home tree and that the community is centralized on Pandora.

Each tribe reacts the same way to Jake’s plea for help. There is never a question of the “alien” smelling avatar, particularly because we are led to believe that the other tribes have not had to interact with humans while on Pandora. The Na’vi are commodified into primitive and gullible animals that are thirsty for violence, when we were originally told that ALL Na’vi were peaceful. So which generalization and homogenization of indigenous cultures are we supposed to believe, James Cameron? The viewer is meant to feel excitement and support for the Na’vi as they rally for war against the human invaders, but we are more or less told that, not only are the Na’vi weak, but also that there are clearly some Na’vi that are smarter and more worthy of survival than most. This draws back to colonial roots of the American Empire as it expanded across North America, taking advantage of gullible indigenous people while giving preference to those who seemed more “civilized” than others. This is one of the many reasons that I really seriously hated Avatar.