Vatican not too impressed with Avatar. Big on effects small on substance

Vatican not too impressed with Avatar. Big on effects small on substance

Vatican not too fond of Avatar. Nature should be respected not worshiped.

Review Opinion
By HammerGod - Jan 12, 2010 02:01 PM EST
Filed Under: Sci-Fi
Source: Movies.yahoo.com

Most significantly, much of the Vatican criticism was directed at the movie's central theme of man vs. nature.

L'Osservatore said the film "gets bogged down by a spiritualism linked to the worship of nature." Similarly, Vatican Radio said it "cleverly winks at all those pseudo-doctrines that turn ecology into the religion of the millennium."

"Nature is no longer a creation to defend, but a divinity to worship," the radio said.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said that while the movie reviews are just that — film criticism, not theological pronouncements — they do reflect Pope Benedict XVI's views on the dangers of turning nature into a "new divinity."

Benedict has often spoken about the need to protect the environment, earning the nickname of "green pope." But he also has balanced that call with a warning against turning environmentalism into neo-paganism.

Although the Man vs Nature theme is one of the main plot points I did not feel it was overly preachy. I think the main thing he was trying to say was to respect our planet and all life is to be valued.

Maybe I am wrong. What are your thoughts?

HIT MAN Star Glen Powell Spotted On Set Of Edgar Wright's THE RUNNING MAN; Movie's Logo Revealed
Related:

HIT MAN Star Glen Powell Spotted On Set Of Edgar Wright's THE RUNNING MAN; Movie's Logo Revealed
SQUID GAME Season 2 Trailer Sees Lee Jung-jae Embark On A Bloody New Mission As Player 456
Recommended For You:

SQUID GAME Season 2 Trailer Sees Lee Jung-jae Embark On A Bloody New Mission As Player 456

DISCLAIMER: As a user generated site and platform, ComicBookMovie.com is protected under the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) and "Safe Harbor" provisions.

This post was submitted by a user who has agreed to our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. ComicBookMovie.com will disable users who knowingly commit plagiarism, piracy, trademark or copyright infringement. Please CONTACT US for expeditious removal of copyrighted/trademarked content. CLICK HERE to learn more about our copyright and trademark policies.

Note that ComicBookMovie.com, and/or the user who contributed this post, may earn commissions or revenue through clicks or purchases made through any third-party links contained within the content above.

Do you have what it takes to write for us?
Want to contribute?
HammerGod
HammerGod - 1/12/2010, 2:37 PM
Just found this review and thought I would share it.
StrangerX
StrangerX - 1/12/2010, 5:29 PM
We should all learn to respect nature. At the end of the day it is main reason we seek shelter at night.
MarkCassidy
MarkCassidy - 1/12/2010, 10:09 PM
Funny stuff. Its so wrong to worship nature, which is undeniably all around us, it feeds us, cloths us, the sun allows life, the trees allow air..But [frick] all that, we should be worshiping a character from a book written a few thousand years ago, while the Vatican turns a blind eye while the priests of this religion continually rape our children. Mmm, if I was choosing one or the other, I'm leaning towards the Avatards.
Shaman
Shaman - 1/13/2010, 7:09 AM
God am i not surprised in the least. OF COURSE the vatican would misinterpret what the Na'Vi worshipped!!! They worship a guy from a book(like Ror said) which specifically said to NOT worship ANY establishment. But they don't recognise his words cause it would mean the end of their income. As for the Na'Vi, their deiti was not "the trees" or "nature". Jesus would have understood.
Betty
Betty - 1/13/2010, 10:05 AM
lol!
HammerGod
HammerGod - 1/13/2010, 5:15 PM
@Shaman I could not agree with you more. You know the Cathlic church is the biggest private land owner in the world.
superdog
superdog - 1/13/2010, 6:49 PM
the catholic church has its problems, but so do the radical environnmental people and eco terrorist who DO worship nature and put it above people. people should always come first, thats what jesus taught, and thats what the church has forgotten and many of the environmentalist as well. as for the movie, not sure if i would say it was overly preachy in the nature angel, but i can see where some could interpret it that way. this "one" with nature crap is for the birds. you can respect it, but humans will always be above it and use it for our needs and advancement. deal with it. hamburgers are good.
MarkCassidy
MarkCassidy - 1/13/2010, 7:27 PM
Depends on how you think about things though doesn't it? Human beings ARE "nature". We are mammals that inhabit this planet with lots of other mammals, animals, plants etc. We just happen to have the biggest brains. Basically, we are talking monkeys. Some feel that because we are at the top of the food chain that we have the right to dominate all other life like some type of dark lord Sauron! Don't get me wrong, I'm not about to give up my life and go live in a tree, nor am I a vegetarian or an environmentalist. I do however respect that this planet deserves better than we give it. And should have a more conscientious master animal at the reigns. And as for the radical Eco Terrorists etc, well, radial or extremist anything is very rarely a good thing because they tend to lose sight of what they are fighting for in the first place and before long they are just fighting. Still, I have a feeling that if eco warriors began raping kids and trying to cover it up, there may be a tad more done about it than there was the Catholic Church.
TheMyth
TheMyth - 1/14/2010, 2:45 AM
lol, we are called mammals, but it hardly seems the case. We are a whole different kind of mammal, like Monotremes, we have many mammalian characteristics, but we have other aspects that are certainly not mammalian. I agree with RorMachine. Nature is certainly worth adoration and reverence. After all, Christianity was founded upon the worship of the sun in Egypt, merely the same adoration that was once paid to the sun is instead paid to the son, who is called Christ, which isn't actually a name, but a word, a Hebrew word that means 'anointed one'. Bah! Stop posting religious articles guys and I'll not comment on religion. I start rambling and before you know it a dozen fuzzy heads have popped and people are all offended.
loganoneil
loganoneil - 1/14/2010, 11:31 AM
Superdog - Just because we are on top of the food chain doesn't mean we are ABOVE it! I believe 'The Matrix' got the human being classification right, we are a virus. History shows that we do move in, take over and utilize all resources until there's nothing left and then move on to greener pastures . The "Use it for our needs and advancement. deal with it - hamburgers are good" mentality is arrogant and narcissistic. Remember, in the long run NATURE ALWAYS WINS. Two words - GLOBAL WARMING. Hope you know how to dog-paddle....

"Glub... glub... glub..." said the Titanic to the iceberg.
Stumblin
Stumblin - 1/14/2010, 1:46 PM
Funny thing about global warming is that it's going to happen with or without us. We just sped it up a bit.

TheMyth is correct too, all Christianity was based on paganism and other polytheistic/monotheistic religions. I see religion as a way to structure your life in order to make the best of it, some people like a few of you said lose sight of the actual meaning and purpose.

With that said, I'm agnostic, but as the great George Carlin said, "I was raised a Catholic until I reached the age of reason." The same goes for me.
superdog
superdog - 1/14/2010, 2:47 PM
logan @ thanks for calling me arrogant and narcasitic for expressing my opinion. you could have made an informed argument like ror but instead you went the name calling route. so here is my response.....go fck a tree you retarded hippie!!!!!

ror@ the catholic church sucks, which is why i am not catholic. the religion is different from the church. but yes, i have respect for nature, i do not hunt, burn down forest, or rape animals....HOWEVER.....if its between me keeping my lifestyle and the death of some stupid fish or owl....guesse what im choosing. call me names, but being at the top of the food chain does mean you get to dominate all other life. thats the definition of being at the top of the food chain. thats what all animals do. you want to compare us to animals fine, pretty sure the lion doesnt give two shits about the gazelle its eating, the forest its shitting in, or whether they arent nice to the other lions. if were animals with nature, why should we act different than the other animals with nature? if we are something more than animals due to our cognotive abilities then we win the evolutionary battle and we get what we get.

oh and logan, global warming is BULLSHIT!!!!! i live in florida and its been 30 degress for 2 weeks. the whole concept is a myth, get your mouth off al gores dick and do some research.
MarkCassidy
MarkCassidy - 1/14/2010, 5:30 PM
Because, other animals respect the balance. We do not. Like Logan says, we are more akin to a virus. A virus with shoes as Bill Hicks would call us.

"if its between me keeping my lifestyle and the death of some stupid fish or owl."

Thats fine, I'm sure many would agree, myself included if it actually came down to it perhaps. But what if it came down to the death of ALL the stupid fish or owls? Because that will affect the balance..and ultimately, whether you believe it or not, it will affect your life. I love my tv, my ipod, my computer, all my creature comforts. But i will never worship them. And i can quite happily live without them, and have doen eat various stages of my life. As much as these things are great and fun and entertaining, they mean [frick] all in the grand scheme of things. But again, thats just my perspective. If your happy as you are I'm not going to tell you your wrong..just don't start raping any animals!;)
loganoneil
loganoneil - 1/14/2010, 7:52 PM
Ror - BRAVO! WELL SAID!

"I live in Florida and it's been cold, so screw what all the global climatology science says about our planet... "

Lemmie guess, you also believe that the Earth is only 6,000 years old and that Adam and Eve rode dinosaurs in the Garden of Eden, right?

And you wonder why I made the 'arrogant and narcissistic' comment... (shall I add 'ignorant' to the growing list?)
superdog
superdog - 1/15/2010, 7:30 AM
no, i dont believe the earth is 6,000 years old that adam and eve rode dinosaurs. dont know why you would make such a short sided and retarded leap. its science that says global warming is bullshit, just like science says dinosaurs existed and the earth is billions of years old. if you choose to watch an inconvenient truth and base all of your beliefs on that and not do full research on the matter thats your problem, not mine. funny thing though, since the earth is so old it has warmed and frozen hundreds of thousands of times LONG before the model T was invented. pretty sure we didnt cause those temperature changes. the fact that you believe WE are causing something that the earth has done so many times on its own makes YOU the arrogant one.

ror@ couldnt agree more. i love all my stuff but could live without it. and i certainly never would advocate all species being destroyed. however, species go extinct eveyday and have been since the dawn of time.....we didnt kill them all :) maybe more than we should. but as you say, if we are part of nature then our existence in it must also be part of the balance. and i dont consider myself a virus....although some of my ex girlfriends will probably disagree :)

oh and logan one more thing. fck off!!!! you can add whatever name to the list you want. i still dont understand how you cant have an intelligent debate like ror and i are having about the subject, and just insist on calling people names and putting down thier opinions..........and you probably consider yourself the open minded one. typical liberal hipocrasy assface ;(
loganoneil
loganoneil - 1/15/2010, 10:49 AM
Dog - Most (if not all) the climatologists on the PLANET (you know, the SCIENTISTS who's speciality it is to actually study Earth's CLIMATE) agree that global warming IS NOT A MYTH - IT'S ACTUALLY REAL and ACTUALLY HAPPENING! I'm citing info coming out of the United Nations here. Just because you say 'science says global warming is bullshit' doesn't make it so - where's YOUR proof? What are YOUR sources (SPECIFICALLY cite them - if you can)? Now remember, 'Fox News' don't count (Can Fox News really be called 'News'?). "Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my @ss!" Isn't it time for you to go watch Glenn Beck?

And for the record, I can't STAND Al Gore - I think he's an opportunistic SOB who's just jumping on the 'Save-the-Planet' bandwagon just for more face-time! It's bad enough his campaign back in the 80's to censor music with the PMRC (of whom his wife 'Tipper' was a memeber) failed, now he's trying to make-over his image as an 'environmentalist' to get brownie points! Suck it Al! Next thing you know, he's going to try and claim he 'invented' global warming (kinda' like he tried to claim he 'invented' the internet!) - BULLSH!T!
loganoneil
loganoneil - 1/15/2010, 11:10 AM
Dog - I just had a chance to step back and read all that I've written so far... my apologies. This is getting WAY out of hand. You are right, I was a out of line - sorry dude. As you might have guessed, I tend to get a bit heated about politics and the environment. This is just another 'agree-to-disagree' point. Call a truce? No sense in letting this get in the way of the comics.
Shaman
Shaman - 1/18/2010, 9:07 AM
Global Warming- It is NOT a myth and neither is Global Cooling which ALWAYS follows Global Warming. It is part of this planet's water cycle. ANY geologist worth his salt that actually researched the Earth's history can confirm it. YES the earth is warming BUT ONLY TO COOL ITSELF AFTERWARDS. So you are both right.

Worshiping nature- THEY DID NOT WORSHIP "NATURE" IN AVATAR. NO ONE DOES!!! Being "at one" WITH Nature is NOT worshiping it!!! The same goes for being "at one" with another human being (making love), you DO NOT "worship" them. There is a whole ocean of difference between worship and love. Love is too quantum for liniary thinkers to grasp. Jesus understood, so did the buddhists, hindus, celts, mayans, incas, sumerians, native americans and many others. Only the white man goes "they must worship nature, the sun, the sky, etc. like we worship our own TRUE god". That is a missinterpretation and a very primitive one, that is still missunderstood to this day. When the white man studies a different society, they automatically establish what that society "appears" to be worshipping ONLY because the white man THINKS every society "worships" something. Because the white man "worships" a God, he THINKS it normal for every society to "worship" as well. He is blind sided by his own pre-concieved perception. The inferiors "worship" while the equals are "at one". The white man will never be "at one" with their God if they persist to "worship". Jesus tried time and time again to teach it but alas it fell on primitive ears. Being a "God Fearing Man" should NEVER be percieved as being a "good thing". Fear is merely a financial stability tool that religions(establishments) use.
superdog
superdog - 1/19/2010, 12:38 PM
shaman@ "its like being "at one" with another human being, you dont worship them"....umm if i was "at one" with angelina jolie i would worship her every day of the fcking week.....so your wrong :)
loganoneil
loganoneil - 1/19/2010, 4:25 PM
Dog - I believe what Shaman is trying to say is being "at one" with nature/life is to live in harmony with it. As a practicing Buddhist, it's something I strive for every day (though OBVIOUSLY not on this thread - sorry again). In every ecosystem a balance must be found, or it will eventually collapse in on itself. It's not about 'hugging trees' or becoming an eco-terrorist (aka Ra's al Ghul from the Batman comics), but finding a way to live that benefits ALL living creatures (and not just oneself).

Shaman - I beg to differ on one point - there are people who DO actually 'worship' nature - they're called 'Gaianists'. I'm not talking about Wiccan-wannabes who dance naked in the moonlight while rubbing crystals, I'm talking about the folks who actually worship 'Mother Nature' (for lack of a better term) as a spiritual entity/embodiment.
Shaman
Shaman - 1/20/2010, 1:59 PM
Superdog- HA!!! Good one ;P

loganoneil- That was very close to what i meant. Just a step further towards quantumness. In a quantum view, being "at one" translates better to "being a part of" rather than "co-existing in peace with". And i had never heard of "Gaianists". I learn something everyday. They are missing the point but what ever floats their boat LOL. Gaia does indeed exist but like Jesus, she is not meant to be revered. The pegans (even the real ones) have a great relationship with nature and sometimes, dancing naked while rubbing crystals is their own "special" way of being at one with nature. But like you said, they don't worship it. The catholic church never could understand them and never will.
loganoneil
loganoneil - 1/20/2010, 7:56 PM
Shaman - Oh I feel what you mean, but I was referring to the emo-poser wannabes who 'dance naked in the moonlight while rubbing crystals' 'cause it's cool, not because they have a profound understanding of their natural surrondings (which is a shame, because they're TOTALLY missing the point). It's bad enough I pissed off Dog, I don't want to be misunderstood and offend any true Wiccans / Pagans out there with my statement.
Shaman
Shaman - 1/21/2010, 1:24 PM
HAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!! Fair enough, i get it now LOL Good one!!! ;))
superdog
superdog - 1/22/2010, 6:27 PM
ummmm whats wrong with dancing naked and rubbing stuff on you in the moonlight? sounds like a great weekend to me :)
loganoneil
loganoneil - 1/23/2010, 7:00 PM
Dog - Don't start.... (LMAO!)
MovieMisfit
MovieMisfit - 2/9/2010, 9:27 PM
The one thing I agree with the Vatican on... Avatar is "Big on effects, small on substance" and originality.

Related Headlines
Latest Headlines

Hot Headlines Hot Headlines

Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Anime & Manga

Gaming

Horror

Cartoons & Animated Features

Action Movies & TV

Pro Wrestling & MMA News
View Recorder