The Avatar effect: Movie-goers feel depressed and even suicidal at not being able to visit utopian alien planet

We can all identify with the escapism a trip to the movies offers from our daily lives - particularly during the bleak weather. But fans of James Cameron's 3D sci-fi epic Avatar are seemingly finding it harder than usual to separate fact from fiction. Internet forums have been flooded with posts by movie-goers plagued with depression and even suicidal thoughts about not being able to visit the film's utopian alien world Pandora.

Enlarge Lifelike: Avatar is watched in 3D and appears extremely lifelike with a range of stunning visual effects

Enlarge Cinema-goers armed with their 3-D glasses settle back to watch the film. This year is expected to be a breakthrough year for 3-D TVs helped by the success of Avatar

DEALING WITH THE AVATAR BLUES
On the official Avatar website, David Scott Jaggers (from Texas) posted

'I can totally relate [to people feeling depressed about having to leave the world of Pandora]. I think most us can here.

'For me, getting to talk to you guys online allows me to feel closer to the movie, or maybe closer to you guys because we can share our feeling and thoughts and friendships.
So many things from the movie, like for example the idea of brotherhood we can bring to this very real world of ours.'

But on the www.halflife2.net forum others begged to differ
XCELLERATE wrote: 'People just want whatever they don't have. If we had three moons people might see a movie with just one moon and go, 'wow I like that a lot more, it so much simpler'.

TARKUS added: 'These people think they're 'cool' by thinking 'differently' from others.
'They choose an intangible objective (such as living in the avatar's world) so that they can live with the comfort of knowing that they will never get it, because it's actually scary to live without things like internet, and packed meat, and toilets.

'They're all losers and posers if you ask me'


According to CNN, North American fan site 'Avatar Forums' has received 1,000 posts under a thread entitled 'Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible'.
Forum administrator Philippe Baghdassarian said: 'I wasn't depressed myself. In fact the movie made me happy.

'But I can understand why it made people depressed. The movie was so beautiful and it showed something we don't have here on Earth. I think people saw we could be living in a completely different world and that caused them to be depressed.'
The blockbuster movie - which has already taken more than $1billion at the box office - tells the story of a disabled marine sent on a mission to a planet called Pandora, home to a race of giant blue aliens.
Humans are intent on exploiting the planet for its resources but clash with the native Na'vi, who inhabit their world in perfect harmony with nature.

This fantasy world, with its weird and wonderful plant and animal life, is brought to life using stunning special effects.
The Consumer Electronics Show, which ended in Las Vegas on Sunday, saw the advent of 3D televisions making most of the news.
Many commentators believe that 2010 is the breakthrough year for the technology helped by 3D movies such as Avatar.

The stunning beauty of the film as well as the view of corporations seems to have hit a nerve with audiences.
One forum user wrote: 'When I woke up this morning after watching 'Avatar' for the first time yesterday, the world seemed grey. It just seems so meaningless. I still don't really see any reason to keep doing things at all. I live in a dying world.'

Enlarge Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg wears 3D glasses during a presentation at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. He announced that Dreamworks,Technicolor and Samsung have formed a partnership to offer 3D in-home entertainment


Enlarge The stunning special effects of the film have contributed to its success with film-goers declaring that they feel depressed at not being able to visit the fictional world

Enlarge The character Neytiri, voiced by Zoe Saldana, with whom the Marine sent to her planet falls in love with

James Cameron who directed the film which has already taken more than $1billion at the box office


Another user, 'okoi', writes: 'After I watched Avatar at the first time, I truly felt depressed as I "wake" up in this world again.
'So after a few days, I went to cinema and watched it again for the second time to relieve the depression and hopeless feeling. Now I listen to the soundtrack and share my views in this forum. It really helps.'

User Mike wrote on another fan site 'Naviblue' that he considered suicide after watching the film.
Mike wrote: 'Ever since I went to see "Avatar" I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na'vi made me want to be one of them. I can't stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it.
'I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar
to Pandora.'

The incredible visual realism of the film could mean viewers become particularly attached.
Dr. Stephan Quentzel, psychiatrist and Medical Director for the Louis Armstrong Centre for Music and Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Centre in New York told CNN: 'Virtual life is not real life and it never will be, but this is the pinnacle of what we can build in a virtual presentation so far.

'It has taken the best of our technology to create this virtual world and real life will never be as utopian as it seems onscreen. It makes real life seem more imperfect.'

AND THE FAN WHO WANTS TO TAKE HIS ENTHUSIASM A STEP FURTHER ...

Hello all. Would anyone of you be interested in forming an actual Na'vi Tribe?
I would like for it to actually be a physical organisation with live people, and a Tribal Council. For it to start, you have to be physically located in the Gulf Coast region of the United States.

You will need to be in Pensacola, Florida to become a citizen of the tribe. Here is the detail: You must remember that we are trying to set up an actual tribe. This is not an Avatar Fan Club (even though you can start one after our tribe is established)!
The goal of the tribe is to form a new ethnicity that anyone can be a part of, irrespective of politics, corruption and other issues. It is not a role playing group.
After all, the many Native American tribes and even countries such as Kosovo had to start somewhere.

But not everyone viewing the film has been hit by the 'Avatar Blues', as a small but vocal group have alleged it contains racist themes - the white hero once again saving the primitive natives.
Since the film opened three weeks ago, hundreds of blog posts, newspaper articles, tweets and YouTube videos have said things such as the film is 'a fantasy about race told from the point of view of white people' and that it reinforces 'the white Messiah fable'."
The film's writer and director, James Cameron, says the real theme is about respecting others' differences.

Adding to the racial dynamic is that the main Na'vi characters are played by actors of colour, led by a Dominican, Zoe Saldana, as the princess.

The film also is an obvious metaphor for how European settlers in America wiped out the Indians.
David Brooks, a columnist writing in the New York Times said: 'Avatar is a racial fantasy par excellence ... It rests on the stereotype that white people are rationalist and technocratic while colonial victims are spiritual and athletic.

'It rests on the assumption that non-white need the White Messiah to lead their crusades. It rests on the assumption that illiteracy is a path to grace.'

Robinne Lee, an actress in such recent films as 'Seven Pounds' said that 'Avatar' was 'beautiful' and that she understood the economic logic of casting a white lead if most of the audience is white.
But she said the film, which so far has the second-highest worldwide box-office gross ever, still reminded her of Hollywood's Pocahontas story - 'the Indian woman leads the white man into the wilderness, and he learns the way of the people and becomes the saviour'.

A LANGUAGE IS BORN
In a similar vein to Klingon (Star Trek) and Elvish (Lord Of The Rings) on the official site, some posters are already trying to speak in the language of the film

Taronyu Unilä (Jeremy, from San Francisco) posted: 'I must now link with my dreams and escape to Pandora. Eywa Ngahu aysmukan sí aysmuke!'
To which 'Nawm Taronyu' replied:
Ewya Ngahu, Tsmukan Tsmuke

'It's really upsetting in many ways,' said Ms Lee, who is black with Jamaican and Chinese ancestry. 'It would be nice if we could save ourselves.'

Although the "Avatar" debate springs from Hollywood's historical difficulties with race, Will Smith recently saved the planet in I Am Legend," and Denzel Washington appears ready to do the same in the forthcoming Book of Eli.

'Can't people just enjoy movies any more?' a person named Michelle posted on the website for Essence, the magazine for black women.

Black film professor and author Donald Bogle said he can understand why people would be troubled by 'Avatar', but stopped short of calling the movie racist.

'It's a film with still a certain kind of distortion,' he said. 'It's a movie that hasn't yet freed itself of old Hollywood traditions, old formulas.'

Taken from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...en-planet.html