Written by
S.T. VanAirsdale
| 20 Jan 2010, 11:00 AM |
23 comments
Golden Globe triumphs notwithstanding, the list
of those who’ve found something to dislike, discredit, disagree with, take
offense to or simply hate in Avatar has grown exponentially since
those innocent days when all anyone wanted was better dialogue. In China,
for example, where James Cameron’s megahit is the country’s top-grossing
movie ever, government officials
announced Tuesday that they would pull the film off more than 1,600 2-D
screens in favor of a domestic film about Confucius. Their motivation: Not
protest, but rather wanting something in theaters more keyed into the
Chinese New Year. (Avatar will remain on the country’s 3-D screens,
for what it’s worth, which, of course, is still millions of dollars.) But it
was just the latest in a backlash that, unusually, extends more to ideology
than any critical or awards-season motivations.
I mean, the
anti-smoking lobby and
the Vatican are one thing, but as a
helpful new
report in the NYT elaborates, it
seems like every other special-interest group has managed to inveigh against
Cameron’s worldview as well. It’s open revolt! And as usual, China leads the
way in exports:
In China […] the film’s imperialist themes have
upset audiences who believe that the plight of the aliens, the Na’vi, who
are forced from their home by human industrialists, is a parable for
Chinese people whose dwellings have been forcibly razed by local
governments to make way for new construction. As one pseudonymous
commenter quoted on Chinasmack.com wrote: “China’s demolition crews must
go sue Old Cameron, sue him for piracy/copyright infringement.”
Ha!
Get.
In. Line.
But at least $1.6 billion in grosses (and
counting) still splits up pretty robustly 100+ ways.
|
Global
