Thursday, January 14, 2010

Post-Cinematic Depression

We had to wait an extra few minutes after we went to see "Avatar" while my wife pulled herself together. She was in the ladies room, sobbing. So taken with James Cameron's vision of a future where ten-foot-tall blue people mingled with fluorescent flora and fauna on a paradise known as Pandora. It should be noted that my wife tends to cry at the weddings of characters in sit-coms, but that's only because she is so very sensitive. It's a good thing. You could be the curmudgeon half of the relationship, after all.
As it turns out, she is not alone in her longing to be a part of that Brave Blue World. Avatar forums are beginning to spawn threads discussing ways to cope with the fact that Pandora is not a real place. To wit: "I just watched avatar a few weeks ago and I'm feeling depressed and sad. It's like I want to reach out and be in Pandora. I'd do anything to be in Pandora. I've tried so hard to dream about me being on Pandora but it hasn't worked." Or, "Ever since I went to see 'Avatar' I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na'vi made me want to be one of them. I can't stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it. I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora and the everything is the same as in 'Avatar.'"
This makes me wonder about the relative ages and socialization of these poor souls. I understand that they have been witness to a profound movie-going experience, but when the lights come up and you have to put the 3-D glasses back in the bin, Real Life returns.
Or does it? Perhaps this new technology that Mister Cameron has launched actively promotes a schizophrenic panic. Three dimensional motion capture IMAX tumor that burdens viewers with a confusion between what is real and what is the domain of Gollum and Smurfs. It's only a movie, after all.
Then I remember how my eyes welled up at the end of "The Blind Side." I want to live in a world where college coaches come to my house and chat up my adopted parents and siblings until I deal with my dark past until I am able to find my way onto the roster of a 2009 NFL playoff team. They got to eat fast food all the time. Sandra Bullock was his mom. If it really is only a dream, don't wake me up.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"Okay... I want to tell you something... when the Jaws die, nobody cry... when my Kong die, everybody cry. Everybody love my Kong... kids, women, intellectuals, all love my Kong."