Stephen Lang is going to be on CNN tonight to discuss whether or not Avatar is anti-American. This I want to see.

Is Avatar anti-American?

Avatar is clearly critical of American military policy when it comes to Native Americans, Vietnam, Iraq. The aliens who attack Pandora with the intent of decimating in order to claim it's bounty are AMERICANS. And they are depicted as evil murdering thugs. Of course, there are a handful of good guys in the film who are Americans. But, overall the message of the film is a straight up condemnation of American militarism and corporate greed.

Criticism of American policy/history through art/speech doesn't get more American.

I usually like alien movies where the aliens are the real bad guys. That's why I was turned off by Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I hate touchy-feely aliens. H. G. Wells had the right idea.

I don't plan to miss Avatar. It's not like I avoid movies with good aliens, it's just when they get sappy that I get turned off. Mars Attacks was a wonderful critique of those kind of films. I certainly didn't hate CEotTK. A lot of the visuals were impressive, but it is certainly not high on my Sci Fi list.

District 9, had bad earthlings and admirable aliens and it was terrific.

There are individual scenes in Close Encounters that I think are brilliant...

Yeah, that's why I didn't hate it, but it could have been really good. Disappointing. It did seem to go on and on.

The scientists and others who were working on the UFO case were, to a man (and woman if we include the woman that Dreyfus hooks up with). were no one I would want to spend five minutes with. Even Truffaut, who plays the same kind of character....agog in wonderment.