An interesting point has been made -- will Avatar hold up in the home viewing environment?
I'd say yes.
Look, there are movies which I rewatch because they're visually stimulating. Metropolis is a classic example, even if it's a movie I love for so many other reasons: I can never ever tire of rewatching it because it's so visually engaging.
I'm not a big fan of Blade Runner, but I like chilling out in its striking cyberpunk dystopia also. I can truthfully say the same of Avatar - it's a fun movie, it's a quickly paced movie, and it's one whose environment is something I enjoy getting lost in. This is classic sci-fi pulp planetary romance visualized perfectly and effortlessly. I want to see it again and again, to be sure.
Whether or not anyone else would still pull Avatar out ten years from now is another question, but I would. District 9, I don't know. Not because it isn't a better film, but it is less of an eye-candy film. And being a shallow man I like my eye candy.
District 9's own cross to bear - that the prawns are a racist depiction of black people - is entirely misinterpreted.
The Nigerians are, however, very unsubtle. They have all the finesse and depth of Avatar's villains, but also a racial slant those villains lacked - whine what one will about the evil Americans of Avatar, but there are also good Americans (i.e. the heroes) in that movie. There are no good Nigerians in District 9.
It can't be stated enough that the aliens in D9 are not metaphors for black people or Apartheid. D9 is *alternate history*. Understanding the subtext of this is crucial.
Yes. The subtext is that since this is an alternate history, apartheid is applied to aliens rather than blacks - but even still there is a discrimination against blacks, as you might notice in the racial priorities of the company van der Merwe works for, which is largely white at the top.
To say it isn't about apartheid, however, is sort of at cross purposes with the film.
