The Women of Avatar

I totally LOVED Avatar.  It was a great forward thinking film with tons of passion and made me excited to be in a movie theatre.  I can't wait to see it again (my friend and I tried several times last weekend but were sold out.)  Next time I am seeing it in 3-D.  I loved the fact that it was basically an anti-corporate movie paid for by one of the biggest corporations in the world - Fox Corp.  This kind of makes me laugh.[Wholesale DVDs]

For those of you under a rock for the last several weeks the story is basically a revisiting of American history when the white European settlers wiped out the native Americans.  But it's been updated to the moon Pandora and the army wants a valuable resource and they are willing to destroy the natives who are blue and huge and called Na'vi to get what they want.[Wholesale DVDs]

The thing I love about Sci-fi is that it affords creative people like James Cameron to be forward thinking about gender.  Just like in Battlestar Galactica, gender doesn't matter in Avatar.  There was nothing in the film that gave any indication of the bullshit gender constraints that usually populate Hollywood flicks.  The women were everywhere and they were strong, smart and bold (thank you Girls Inc.)[Wholesale DVDs]

Let's start with Sigourney Weaver as Dr. Grace Augustine.  Grace is the person who created the way to communicate with the Na'vi.  She has dedicated her life to trying to gain the Na'vi's trust and from what I can tell she is the one who created the technology for the Avatars.

Zoe Saldana — who we never see as a human — plays Neytiri the daughter of the leaders of the Na'vi.  She is charged with showing the ropes to soldier, Jake Sully and is a kick ass warrior on her own.  She is one of the few who has tamed a mangoose (did I get that right?) and is clearly a leader among her people.

Michelle Rodriguez plays a kick ass (I know I repeated that description but it is appropriate) helicopter pilot who questions authority and will not shoot and kill just because she is told.  She sees the bigger picture and is willing to die for it.

And I can't forget CCH Pounder as the queen Moat, Neytiri's mother who becomes the leader after the death of her husband.

So I give props to James Cameron a man who has been married to several of the strongest women in Hollywood including Gale Ann Hurd, Kathryn Bigelow and Linda Hamilton.  While none of those marriages worked out something clearly rubbed off on him.[Wholesale DVDs]