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A ministry of the ChildCare Action Project: Christian Analysis of American Culture (CAP Ministry) A 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Christian Ministry. www.capalert.com/ Entertainment Media Analysis Report A service to His little ones through you in His name by His Word MAR2010.021  (2009), PG-13 [Hard R-13*] (2hr 34min) The #1 Christian entertainment media analysis service on the Internet. We give you OBJECTIVE tools NO ONE ELSE CAN to help YOU make an informed decision for yourself whether a film is fit for your family. Over 1200 analyses for parents, grandparents, pastors, youth leaders and more. |
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(While the Scriptural references are certainly not subjective, my commentary may be and sometimes is somewhat subjective.)
 Cast/Crew Details Courtesy Internet Movie Database Production (US): Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Dune Entertainment, Giant Studios, Ingenious Film Partners, Lightstorm Entertainment • Distribution (US): 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment • Director(s): James Cameron • Producer(s): Brooke Breton, James Cameron, Laeta Kalogridis, Jon Landau, Josh McLaglen, Janace Tashjian, Peter M. Tobyansen, Colin Wilson • Writing Credits: James Cameron • Cinematography/Camera: Mauro Fiore • Music: James Horner • Film Editing: James Cameron, John Refoua, Stephen E. Rivkin • Casting: Margery Simkin • Production Design: Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg • Supervisor Art Direction: Todd Cherniawsky, Kevin Ishioka, Kim Sinclair • Viewed on 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment DVD  This film analysis is sponsored by the generosity of E&HP. Again I must apologize for taking so long to get this report to you. I viewed the DVD on May 4 and now it is May 21, 2010. I see no relief from long delays (hopefully not as long as this time) until we can find nonprofit funding to operate this ministry fulltime and dedicated. Avatar is quite possibly the best of the computer animated films of the more than 1300 films I have seen. It is definitely the most visually dazzling mixture of animated artistic ingenuity and creativity of awesome beauty I have ever seen. Further, it is obvious a great deal of research, attention to detail and thought went into the production of this artistic masterpiece -- it is definitely not check-your-brain-at-the-door eye candy. Too bad the filmmakers had to display nudity in so much of it. Animated or not, nudity is nudity. And that it is "sci-fi creature" nudity does not excuse the clearly human features of it. The "creature" nudity is so thick that this film, which is definitely not eye-candy intellectually speaking, is most certainly "sanitized" sexual eye-candy. There is no doubt about what the typical 13 year old kids will be watching ... and it won't be the story but wil wonder how much more will be shown in the next scene. I will get to summarizing the story, briefly, later. In this case, revealing the content of this film is more important than the story. Avatar is another perfect example of the ratings creep proven by both Harvard University researchers and this ministry (a full four years before Harvard I might add). Avatar is beyond any shadow of a doubt equivalent to many R-rated programs on so many levels (at least four of six). The R-rated films in our comparative baseline database of film analyses earned final scores of 54 and below out of 100. Avatar earned a final score of 41 using the same analysis model, the same investigation standards and the same equations used to analyze the R-rated features in the baseline database. R-rated features in the baseline database -- ≤54: Avatar -- 41. And that is not taking into account the Influence Density (ID) figure. R-rated features in the baseline database earned ID scores from 0.78 to 2.04, the higher the figure the more severe the density of counterproductive influence. Avatar earned an ID of 3.25. You do the math. Most of the film ... sometimes sensuously, sometimes intimately ... presents the alien Na'vi characters with bare posteriors, sides and much of the abdomen below the waist: both male and female. At least once a male groin was seen with no more than what appeared to be a rolled up rope of fabric as a "g-string." The only clothing the human-bodied Na'vi wore frontal and below the waste was a narrow rag hanging down from a belt. Some display is of upper frontal female nudity thinly "clothed" with shreds of tape "clothing" if any. This includes adolescent female nudity. About the only thing not shown was pubic hair. All of the nudity was intentional. The characters could just as easily been shown with enough clothing, as were Jake (Sam Worthington) in the beginning and Grace (Sigourney Weaver) as avatars, to eliminate the less-than-modest displays without loss of a single iota of cinematic power. But n-o-o-o! Gotta get that sexual stuff that challenges wholesome sexual humility in there somehow. Gotta feed that sexual rebellion. According to the MPAA Avatar is, of course, fit for your 13 year old kids. And since almost all the nudity was of aliens and computer-generated ("cartoon"), it was all acceptable, of course. In the name of art. Of course. Doesn't matter ... apparently to the MPAA and filmmakers anyway ... what was told to us by the One who spent three days in Hell so you and I would not have to spend one moment there. But it will matter -- eventually -- eternally -- to everyone who ever draws a breath. God warns us through Jesus Himself that anyone who teaches and/or causes our little ones to sin would be better off with a millstone tied about his/her neck then cast into the sea. [Luke 17:2] Figuratively, of course, but the point is made. Clearly. Unarguably. By the way, "little ones" in Luke 17:2 is mikros which includes less by birth; younger. All children are "less by birth" than their parents. All children are younger than their parents. So, "little ones" includes at-home teens, the most easily negatively influenced, morally malleable age stratum on the planet. By the way #2. "Less" in "less by birth" does not mean lesser in importance or value. "Less by birth" means less in stature or size and development. And "sin" in "...teaches and/or causes our little ones to sin..." is by His standards. Not yours. Not mine. If you do not like the Rules, talk to the One who wrote them. He can and will give you a much better answer than I ever could. Fortunately, mom/dad, the MPAA is not the boss of what your kids see and hear in and as entertainment. You are. There is no law, tort or ordinance whatsoever, moral or ethical or legal which requires you to let your kids watch any item of entertainment. Neither does any State, city, township or any other form of collective government have any authority that requires you to let your kids watch any movie. And, most importantly, there is no Scripture that requires you to let your kids watch any form of entertainment. Face it, kids. Your parents have total authority over what you watch. Whether they exercise that authority is up to them. Whether you obey your parents is up to you. But understand that refusal to obey the God-ordered authority of your parents carries consequences whether you visibly or immediately experience the consequences or not. Filmmakers are expert at and depend on invoking in you the "I don't care what they do to me" attitude to get your posteriors in the seats and accordingly your cinematic dollars in their pockets. And you are their puppets. Most of you apparently do not even realize that. Paraplegic ex-Marine Jake Sully has the same genomes as his now dead scientist brother, Dr. Tom Sully who worked for the Resources Development Administration (RDA) mining company on Pandora, a lush and green moon of the Jupiter-like planet, Polyphemus, 4.3 light years from Earth. The RDA wants to take advantage of Jake's genetic match with his brother and make Jake an avatar cloned by a combination of human DNA and the DNA of the indigenous population, the blue-skinned Na'vi. Jake's job: to infiltrate the Na'vi and become one of them and trusted by them so the RDA could learn secrets to obtaining unobtanium, the $20,000,000 per kilogram rare mineral native to Pandora. Jake's cut in the deal: to have enough money to pay for an operation that would restore his legs. On Pandora chief of security Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) explains to the horde of recruits with Jake that his job is to keep them alive. But he won't. Not all of them. Unable to breath Pandoran air, scientists mentally link themselves to their avatar of the Na'vi and embark on missions of sample-gathering and other related activity. Jake is being groomed as a spy. On his first sample-gathering mission Jake gets separated from his unit. Soon appears Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) who rescues Jake form the indigenous beasts trying to kill him and soon is decreed by her parents to be Jake's teacher as he clandestinely spies on the Na'vi for intelligence to facilitate RDA theft of unobtanium. I am not going to try to summarize this film beyond what I already have ... I am that disappointed in the extent of sexual content of this otherwise masterpiece of computer generated artistry. Remember that sin is not art and art is not sin. But when art uses sin art becomes sin. Yes, I am rather bitter about what I've seen much of modern entertainment do to kids over the years. It has brought me to and near to tears more than once. Knowing what most older preteens and younger teens will be watching in this cinematic sexual cyanide -- and why -- is almost as painful to me. Wanton Violence/Crime (W) - Zero out of 100 As with nudity this film is thick with violence. Brutal violence. Graphic animal attacks; massive military assaults; death by impalement, gunshot and all manner of individualized death in battle. One of the Pandoran beasts is seen running in slo-mo while on fire and screaming. Planning genocide, long battle sequences with many individualized killings. Graphic action violence. More. More enough to earn an area score of zero out of 100 which easily makes the violence content of this film equivalent to that in many R-rated films. Viewing violence, especially for entertainment pleasure, can and does embolden the viewer, especially youth, into aggressive behavior. Period. God knew this a very long time ago and warned us of it in Prov. 16:29 and many other places throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. Even man has finally come around to agreeing with God, quite probably unintentionally and unknowingly [see the notes in Prov. 16:29 below]. Impudence/Hate (I) - Zero out of 100 Also earning an area score of zero is content applicable to impudence and/or hate. In particular, profanity in this film. Thirty-nine times someone utters some form of the three/four letter word vocabulary as if doing so adds power to what is said [Col. 3:8, 2 Tim. 2:16, Prov. 8:13]. Willingness to exterminate a race for monetary gain [Hab. 2:9], insults and ridicule drain the last few drops in the Impudence/Hate tank. Sexual Immorality (S) - Zero out of 100 This investigation area also found enough content to earn an area score of zero. More than 230 times one or more of the Na'vi were seen in some state of nakedness. Avatar, in essence, is a "kiddie skin flick." I have already belabored the sexual content of this film and will not continue it here. Just understand that God speaks of the display of nudity as dark, restricted, undesirable, shameful, etc. 47 times in the KJV from Genesis to Revelation. As an example of His disdain for the display of nudity, God even warned priests to not climb the steps of His altar lest the priests expose the crowds below to their nakedness. [Ex. 20:26] If the display of nudity is not okay with God, what makes it okay in film? And, no, just because some men put pictures of nudity in some bibles and on the ceiling of a church does not excuse the display of nudity. God did not put those paintings of nudity in the Bible or on the ceiling of any church. Men did. Drugs/Alcohol (D) - 94 out of 100 Wow! There were only three instances of Drugs/Alcohol in the entire 154 minutes of the film. And those were only of smoking tobacco. This film is G-equivalent in Drugs/Alcohol content. Offense to God (O) - 50 out of 100 The complexity of offensive content increases as the spiritual content unfolds. The best way to describe the content regarding the lifestyles of the Na'vi is gaiaism: the worship of nature as God. One might develop some other impression about the worship style of the Na'vi ... until Grace, who is on her death bed and "connected" to the female tree Eywa through thousands of microtentacles, says "I am with her" at her dying breath. Not with God and not with Jesus but with ... Eywa, or gaia. This is just one of many examples of worshiping a false god of a network of plants, animals and the planet. [Mark 13:22, Jer. 13:25, Amos 2:4] A most serious danger therein is that the impressionable, especially youth who have yet to develop a solid grasp of the Gospel and Scriptures, will entertain ... will be led astray by such "teachings" in and as entertainment. God warns that the one who sins causes many to sin [Rom. 5:19] Jesus Himself further warns that the one who teaches and/or causes our youth to sin would be better off if a millstone were tied about his/her neck then cast into the sea [Luke 17:2]. Murder/Suicide (M) - 100 out of 100 While the deaths due to attempted genocide of the Na'vi could certainly be thought of as murders, the killings were all a matter of warfare. The CAP analysis model does not consider acts of war and police actions resulting in death and attempts to commit murder as murder but are considered defensive and self-defensive killings and are thus incorporated into the Wanton Violence/Crime investigation area. By these procedures there were no murders or suicides noted in Avatar. SCRIPTURAL APPLICATION(S) If needed to focus or fortify, applicable text is underlined or bracketed [ ] or bold. If you wish to have full context available, the Blue Letter Bible is a convenient source. If you use the Blue Letter Bible, a new window will open. Close it to return here or use "Window" in your browser's menu bar to alternate between the CAP page and the Blue Letter Bible page. CHAPTER/VERSE ***Selected Scriptures of Armour against the influence of the entertainment industry*** As always, it is best to refer to the Findings/Scoring section -- the heart of the CAP analysis model -- for the most complete assessment possible of this movie. |
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 Wanton Violence/Crime (W) - Zero out of 100 Impudence/Hate (I) - Zero out of 100 Sexual Immorality (S) - Zero out of 100 Drugs/Alcohol (D) - 93 out of 100 Offense to God (O) - 46 out of 100 Murder/Suicide (M) - 100 out of 100 |
| There are some in the entertainment industry who maintain that 1) violent programming is harmless because no studies exist that prove a connection between violent entertainment and aggressive behavior in children, and 2) young people know that television, movies, and video games are simply fantasy. Unfortunately, they are wrong on both accounts." And "Viewing violence may lead to real life violence." I applaud these associations for fortifying 1 Cor. 15:33. Read the rest of the story. From our years of study, I contend that other aberrant behaviors, attitudes, and expressions can be inserted in place of "violence" in that statement. Our Director - Child Psychology Support, a licensed psychologist and certified school psychologist concurs. For example, "Viewing arrogance against fair authority may lead to your kids defying you in real life." Or "Viewing sex may lead to sex in real life." Likewise and especially with impudence, hate and foul language. I further contend that any positive behavior can be inserted in place of "violence" with the same chance or likelihood of being a behavior template for the observer; of being incorporated into the behavior mechanics and/or coping skills of the observer. In choosing your entertainment, please consider carefully the "rest of the story" and our findings. |
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