AVATAR-visual reality?

Before I start blogging this, I keep telling myself that this is not going to sound like a movie review... I can count with my five fingers the number of times I went to a cinema to watch movies within a fifth less than half a century of my life... Today I watch Avatar for a purpose.. I want to know what so great about it that it ranks second after Titanic  (forgive me if I'm wrong).. Well, that movie is FANTASTIC! For someone who had once struggled to create animation, I really and truly salute the creator of this fantasy. With the 3-D specs on, I watched the movie in awe... I know I am a technophile.. or maybe a cautious technophile now (after attending Digital Literacy..haha!)

For the digital natives, this show is nothing spectacular.. they are like the characters in the movie who flourished themselves with high technology like a cup of tea (I wonder if transferring image from one screen to another with the touch of a finger will happen in future... mmm) Creating an avatar of oneself is nothing new as they are used to all of these in video games, wii, x box, playstation and what not. They are always the hero in their own stories.( I have tried creating an avatar of myself and 'flew' into the SEcond Life... it's awesome! .. but it takes too much of my time. ) And they can identify themselves with the soldiers in robots especially the wii players. For these digital natives, the only message that they may feel strongly is 'saving the mother earth mission'.

For the digital immigrants, I was truly amazed by the animation and the visual reality that the movie creators have designed... and the message that they are trying to portray is not only about saving the earth.. but it's more than that. In the movie, the 'people' who are close to nature and refuse change are labeled as 'savages'. The latter's home is destroyed and 'the civilised people of the machines' enforce authority over them by driving them out of their homes with force and brutality.. (My tears nearly dropped when I saw this)...  This reminds me of how the internet creators have been successful in controlling the people's mentality... they do it subtly (not like that in the movie.. but it does seem similar) I also recalled some news lately about effort put in by the authority in America to extend ICt convenience to 25% of the American population and the Malaysian 's authority's effort to provide free wifi service to   the people living in the rural areas. To them, with ICT facilities, people can easily email forms (they don't have to take the hassle to travel far to submit a hardcopy) and distance learning can take place with ease.....REALLY????? Remember what our classmate said..'thing done remains undone'.

This movie is a fantasy.. no doubt... but there must be a reason why the 'hero' character' is disable and wheel bound, isn't it? Think of those who are stuck in front of the computer and immersed themselves in the virtual games on their chairs. Can they be represented  by this character 'Jake', a dreamwalker? There are many 'avatars' out there.. they need to wake up!