Rent and watch these dark films that warn about our scary time.

Gonna talk movies, this time - especially those with dire, chilling warnings about this very moment in time. But first...

...I believe - without any solid basis - that we will someday thank brave and diligent public servants for this relatively peaceful late-April weekend.  Thank you, our diligent protectors.*

Meanwhile, we just held here an event honoring one of humanity's greatest visionary minds, the epically creative (and legendarily-nice) master of science fiction (much 'grander' than most recipients of that encomium) Vernor Vinge. We'll post pictures and some video from the event, soon. But here is my earlier tribute to my friend... who beat me out of several past Hugo Awards, with his wondrously good stuff! 

And now back to politics in this fraught year... with a list of very disturbing and prophetic movies you ought to rent and watch, if you want to understand the depths of the danger we are in. While some of them suggest under-appreciated, possible outs.

 == Films that show how and why it will end in Long Knives ==

I have long recommended certain movies for their plausible relevance to our  present day crises. For example, you must watch Costa-Graves’s highly-lauded and super-tense 60s flick about the 1960s Greek military coup, called “Z” – especially for its chilling last 5 minutes. And lately I’ve pushed folks to re-watch the terrific film Network! 

Sure, I poke at the whole “I’m as mad as Hell!” riff and the harm it does in stoking masturbatory and unreasoning indignation, at a time when we need calm negotiation. Still, it is one of the greatest of all flicks. And the last 10 minutes of Network is especially pertinent today, as Donald Trump veers from being oligarchy’s greatest asset to embodying their greatest fear. 

Trump = the greatest fear of oligarchy? The ones who inflicted this malediction upon us fear his return to power? I see signs that the smartest of their caste are awakening to the danger they are in. Dig it. They lose if he loses… and they lose bigger if he wins!

 

Say what? Why? What do the struldbrugs have to fear from a looming victory for their raving shill and tool? Well, in order to answer that question, watch the last 10 minutes of another great flick - Cabaret! When Michael York asks a Prussian aristocrat in 1932: "So you still think you can control them?"

Trump is openly declaring that any Trump-II administration will be utterly different than Trump-I, which he filled with Bushite/Republican establishment appointees... most of whom (e.g. his Secretary of State, his Atty General, his Chief of Staff and at least three dozen other folks he called 'great guys!'*** ... later betrayed him, vociferously and even scatalogically. 

No, those hundred or two appointment positions at the top tier will be stuffed next time with loyalist fanatics from brownshirt central casting - followed by tens of thousands more, when he cancels (as he intends to do, by fiat) the Civil Service Act. This is all according to the Heritage Foundation's 'Project 2025.' All of which is to say that nothing will "control" him. Not oligarch lucre IOUs, not 'conservatism,' nor the Constitution, nor even Putin's puppet strings of blackmail kompromat.  (Keep this in mind, when we get to The Manchurian Candidate!)

Okay now, back to Cabaret and Network. Now combine them! And imagine how a ‘Howard Beale martyrdom’ might solve all of the oligarchs’ problems, by eliminating their no-longer-reliable asset in the 'best' way possible, sweeping into office their chosen next-Bush,**** while also sparking ten thousand McVeighs, leading to the collapse scenario at the end of the 2023 film Leave The World Behind!  Or else the newly released film Civil War - by Alex Garland

 

It won’t come to that of course; they underestimate our professional castes -- those I thanked at the beginning of this missive -- and they always will.  Hence, I do not give those nightmares top probability. 

But offer me ODDS? Like whether Donald Trump will actually make it to the July GOP Convention? Or to October? (One sign will be if he chooses, as running mate, someone from the Bush-Cheney-Romney wing. Ostensibly as a 'unifying gesture.' I expect he's still smart enough (amid his obvious decay) to realize that doing so almost ensures a Howard Beale exit. Give me odds whether he'll instead pick someone the oligarchs fear, even more than they fear him. It's good life insurance.)

Anyway, God bless the FBI and especially the U.S. Secret Service! Do good work, guys & gals.

== Films that get even-creepier on-target? ==

Okay. Here’s another unnerving movie that just came to mind, with another even-more alarmingly pertinent ending. It’s a little complicated, so try to follow me here. 

Watch the last 20 minutes of The Manchurian Candidate. (Not the execrably silly 2004 remake!) Angela Lansbury’s chilling mom-character is in a scheme to take over the USA. Commie brainwashers programmed her son to be sacrificed in a way to make her all-powerful master of America… the “Manchurian Candidate.” (Yeah, the premise of him being the gunman is bizarre; but hang in there.)

Now, Trump of course has been just such a Kremlin asset, though more zealous, if perhaps blackmailed. Zealous? Just look at the grins of triumph when he invited Lavrov & Kisliak as his first guests to the Oval Office – long before any ally - in January 2017.  Blow up the image and really look at the faces!

Such ecstatic glee! After which he proceeded to smooch and 'fall in love' with Kim Jong Un, held unvetted private meetings with Putin, repeated countless Kremlin talking points verbatim, and started disassembling NATO.

 

Sure, he was a Manchurian Candidate & president. And Putin is right now desperately eager for Trump Administration II. Only… maybe Vlad shouldn’t be!

 

In The Manchurian Candidate movie, Lansbury tells her semi-conscious son that she’ll go along with the plot, in order to take power… whereupon she intends to rain fire on all the commie bastards who used her son in this way! Once she no longer needs them, she will escape their control and make them pay. By setting fire to the world. 

Sound a little like Cabaret, now? Only with a double-chilling twist.

What does the ending of The Manchurian Candidate have to do with Donald Trump? Well, he’s already making it clear! As already stated, Trump intends - from Day One - to seize all power. To arrest opponents. To end civil service protections and fill all slots in DC with only fervid loyalists, whatever their qualifications. All of that is already openly declared intent, with backing from Project 2025 of the Heritage Foundation.

 

And when that’s done? While we fret, thinking it’s only about power, Trump will likely tell Putin:

 

 “I no longer care about your blackmail files. They can no longer harm me. And now you and your prissy world princes and aristocrats are going to pay for looking down your noses on me, for threatening and controlling me.”

 

== It's not just in movies that these things happen ==

Other than the end of The Manchurian Candidate, the closest parallel would be Germany in 1934. Look up The Night of the Long Knives -- depicted with horrifying gruesomeness in another flick: The Damned. That's when Hitler (whose birthday stoners stupidly celebrate, every 4/20) purged and killed his rivals for power, both the real National Socialists and any Prussian aristos who still "thought they could control me."

Are these just made-up, concocted fantasies, stringing together Hollywood schlock?  Well, the movies I've just listed are among the most serious and soberly thought-provoking films ever made, offering up potential parallels that Americans - especially - really ought to ponder, right about now! And especially those aforementioned heroic civil servants. (Chime into comments with your own suggestions!)

Anyway projecting possibilities (not prediction!) is what I am paid for. (Even as Vernor's passing leaves me the last "Killer B" standing, sigh.)

Plausible-seeming scenarios. Though yeah, sure… again, the ‘evidence’ I’ve offered today – beyond a myriad headlines – consists of a dozen lurid motion pictures. (In all cases, the final 10 minutes!) I talk about maybe fifty others and the influence they had, in Vivid Tomorrows: Science Fiction and Hollywood.

And yet…

… If DT-II does get re-elected and commences with his openly-declared intentions in January 2025 - prescribed by Project 2025's traitor authors - what is to stop him? 

 

Well, we will, of course. And not only all those civil servants. But also tens of millions of skilled folks and most citizens. This is NOT Germany in 1933!  

But suppose that we don’t… or can’t? 

 

In that case, I have to wonder (As I write this on the fell date of 4/20) if Putin & co have actually thought things through. 

Hey, Vlad! Did you and your fellow anti-enlightenment oligarchs ever hear the story about the marionette with a sharp knife? First it slays the pupeteer's enemies, sure. 

Only then it cuts the strings. And then it turns around.

=====================

*  Thanks, especially, to the undercover guys! Pretending to be vile, malignant, imbecile-traitors must be hard.

*** I seek riffs that confederate/MAGAs cannot use Fox incantations to weasel out-of. One of the best? "Trump has been 'bretrayed(!!) by more appointees whom he formerly called "great guys!!" than ALL past presidents... combined! You can squirm and call them 'traiters' and 'never-Trumpers' and sellouts'... but that still leaves him absolutely proved to be a truly awesomely bad judge of character!"

**** Next Bush? You think Nikki Haley is out of the picture? The whole point of her candidacy was never to defeat DT in primaries, but to establish herself as the 'acceptable' Bushite with name familiarity. We have not seen the last of her.

=====================

Oh and a lagniappe...

Science Fiction vs Reality

Science Fiction fans: Site selection for the World Science Fiction convention has chosen Helsinki, Finland for Worldcon 75, to be held in August of 2017. Next up is MidAmerica Con II, the 74th Worldcon which will be in Kansas City in August, 2016. Mark your calendars!

== Science Fiction vs the real world ==

Alien megastructures? NASA's Kepler space telescope observed dramatic and irregular dimming of the lightcurve for star KIC 8462852 -- larger than expected for a transiting planet (with data analysis aided by citizen scientists of the Planet Hunters). While radio astronomers are listening for signals from the Allen Telescope Array, media latched onto suggestions that an alien-built mega engineering structure, such as a Dyson Sphere, could be responsible. On Space.com, several Sci-Fi authors weigh in with appropriate skepticism. More likely causes may be debris from a wide-scale planetary collision or a massive comet cloud -- or we may be seeing an irregularly shaped and rapidly spinning star, explained in this article about "gravity darkening." 

When Robots Colonize the Cosmos, Will They Be Conscious? This article on Space.com by Robert Lawrence Kuhn, host of the public television show, Closer to Truth, takes a deep look at the nature of consciousness. Kuhn envisions a universe colonized by robots, and suggests that "if robots can never be conscious, then we humans might have some kind of moral imperative to venture forth" ...for the greater good. As I discuss in my Smithsonian talk: Will we meet beings with minds different than ours? Or will we make them?

A terrific interview with my revered peers Nancy Kress, Ramez Naam, Frank Catalano and former astronaut and asteroid pioneer Ed Lu, about: "Why this futurist, sci-fi writer, and former astronaut are optimistic about the future."   

Sci Fi or real life? Six science fictional ideas that are happening now... takes a look at innovations in hoverboards, under-the-skin GPS tracking and body scanners. 

See ten technologies that are precursors to the realization of true AI, including Stephen Wolfram's Mathematica, IBM's Watson and Amazon Machine Learning. Indeed, Artificial Intelligence is increasingly transforming the financial industry, especially stock trading. Here's an interesting look at portrayals of Artificial Intelligence in 25 Science Fiction novels, from Daemon to Excession and Hyperion to The Diamond Age. 

See also this summary of AI in film, from Wall-E  to Her, Tron to The Machine, The Matrix to A Space Odyssey.

The reason for so many dire visions... Rather than predicting the future, the greatest aim of Science Fiction is the self-defeating prophecy.

While nanotechnology in movies is usually used for evil purposes, researchers are developing drug-carrying nanoparticles disguised as blood cells which can slip past the immune system to deliver drugs to targeted parts of the body. 

Johnny Mnemonic? People are getting brain implants to boost their memory -- apparently just a few zaps to stimulate the brain!

See how real-world rockets compare to their Sci Fi counterparts in this chart of top space travel speeds. Sci Fi clearly wins...

What the economies of Star Trek can teach us about the real world: A fun discussion of the economics of the post-scarcity world of Star Trek --- a topic explored in more depth in the upcoming book, Trekonomics by Manu Saadia, to be released in 2016.

Eternal life online? The Old Max Headroom TV show did this, back in the 1980s. Now Eter9 promises digital immortality using a kind of artificial intelligence to scan your online posts. After death, it will continue posting for you... so you can live forever on Facebook.

Self-driving cars are nearly here. Meanwhile, New York is already getting wired with traffic signals and signs that can talk directly to cars.

Terminator star and former California Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says that climate change is NOT science fiction.

== Sci Fi Shorts and movies ==

I like this decryption of The Matrix, proving that Neo was never "The One," after all (even if his name is an anagram for One). This is my kinda meme meddler! 

Under development at Amazon ... Galaxy Quest, the TV series. Did anyone ever tell them that comedy is hard?

What if you could manipulate reality? Take a look at this lovely, hyper-inexpensive sci fi short.  The One-Minute Time Machine.

An amazingly cogent, entertaining and totally on-target dissection of one of the greatest motion pictures of all time – GHOSTBUSTERS – by Moviebob (Bob Chipman).  I only rarely see a critic cover every single point that I would have made about a work of art. But Moviebob gets down to it, completely nailing why this is one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of cinema, and Ghostbusters is more pertinent than ever to our times.

Speaking of which, the cool indie Trek film "Axanar" tells the story of Captain Garth and his crew during the Four Years War, the war with the Klingon Empire that almost tore the Federation apart.  Garth's victory at Axanar solidified the Federation and allowed it to become the entity we know in Kirk's time. It is the year 2245... and the war with the Klingons ends here. 

Star Trek is the one major-media sci fi mythic system that builds our confidence in the future... rather than tearing it down. Think about that and give your support. (Though as I've said repeatedly, the one glaring Trek omission is any mention (except in one episode of ST: The Original Series) of the conquered planets and races, inside Klingon territory.)

A fun trailer for a film about… well… uplifted dogs getting organized?  Worth a watch in its own right. White God, a Hungarian movie, was released in 2014.

True Confessions time?  The movie Battleship should've been fun.... but it was utter nonsense with dismal dialogue and story qualities.  But dang if it wasn’t a hoot in its battle-visuals.  And the whirling flywheel weapon was the coolest innovation in what-if war machinery I’ve seen in a long time.  You should be able to slum occasionally, and enjoy a work for its positive qualities.  Or am I just rationalizing?

Coming in December… SyFy’s adaptation of “Childhood’s End," -- Arthur C. Clarke's classic novel. If it's been a while, give the book a second read before the series!

The movie, 2001, A Space Odyssey provided a compelling vision of the future. Now, a beautiful new book: The Making of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey has just been released -- a lavish portfolio-style hardcover with behind-the-scenes photographs and detailed descriptions of the filming of Arthur Clarke's masterpiece. See it reviewed on Slate.

== SF Miscellanea ==

Which was the worlds first science fiction convention? There was an informal gathering in Philadelphia in 1936. But the first pre-planned and formal event happened in Leeds, England in 1937 and guests included a young Arthur C. Clarke. See a fun article about the early history of Sci Fi fandom.

Thug Notes: A cute series does literary analysis in hood-thug talk. Sure, from one angle it’s kinda offensive.  On the other hand, who am I to judge? It’s a form of expression and done super-cleverly.  This episode analyzes Frank Herbert's Dune.

SF on the big screen...and TV

What is Science Fiction? Here’s my take on the Literature of Change – nicely edited into a vividly animated clip-vid by Trekspertise.

So now Yahoo is creating original sic fi content? "Other Space" is a comedy by Paul Feig …. another garbage scow headed into the galaxy? (Does anyone get that reference?) 

Wow, the SyFy Channel has really veered back into realstuff scifi!  Here is the Childhood's End teaser (based on the classic by Arthur C. Clarke) -- to premiere on SyFy in December.  

Another series....based on Philip K. Dick's award-winning novel, and executive produced by Ridley Scott (Blade Runner), The Man in the High Castle explores what it would be like if the Allied Powers had lost WWII, and Japan and Germany ruled the United States.  Watch the first episode -- free on Amazon.  

We've just started watching Person of Interest, a Sci Fi crime series directed by Jonathan Nolan. A mysterious billionaire designs a computer to predict terrorist events; it also generates social security numbers of people who are to be involved in a murder in the next few days... I hear season three gets even more sf'nal.

Today we watched a play downtown: "The Uncanny Valley," a two actor riff on artificial intelligence that was moving and well-written and provocative  and plausible... much more so than "Ex Machina." Keep your eye open for it.

Vintage Sci Fi: And here's a lovely rumination about the old "X-minus-one" radio show from the 1950's, with stories from Bradbury, Heinlein, Sheckley and Pohl, available in podcast. "At its worst, “X Minus One” is dated drama told well, but its better episodes have matured into half-hour exercises in a peculiar and intoxicating form of temporal eavesdropping. They let us watch, with great ease and clarity, people who are straining much harder to see us. Usually they’re looking just slightly off to the side. Sometimes they’re looking the wrong way entirely. But occasionally, in the show’s most thrillingly prescient moments, it’s as if they were staring straight at us."

== On the Big Screen ==

Watch this gorgeous new short/proof of concept by Irish filmmaker Ruairí Robinson: The Leviathan takes place in the early 22nd century, after humans have colonized multiple worlds, and are now on "the hunt" for a whale-like species that naturally collects the dark matter needed by space drives.  Kewl! How much better is set in the Startide Rising universe, though? And now, spurred by this trailer...Twentieth Century Fox has just optioned The Leviathan, with Neill Blomkamp producing.

Getting back to Alex Garland's Ex Machina...The dialog contained some moments of intellectual heft and there’s genuine acting. Best of all, the film proved that a small team can do inexpensive thought-provoking science fiction. Alas, the macro story arc -- and the bizarrely over-the-top villain were banal caricatures of a yawningly predictable Frankenstein remake, including Mary Shelley’s fundamental lesson: the creator is not punished for hubristically picking up god’s tools, he is punished for being a horrible dad. I am saddened most by works that have so very much going for them, yet fail tragically on maybe just one dismal fundamental. 

Garland's next project is an adaptation of Jeff Vandermeer's novel -- Annihiliation. Way to go, Jeff.

Disney's Tomorrowland stars George Clooney, directed by Brad Bird and Damon Lindelof. This could turn out to be worth watching ... at least it seems vivid.  Even if it also appears to be another damned “chosen one” story. Watch the trailer.

In sharp contrast, we watched “Big Hero Six” at home. Yes… I lag a bit! But it is just intensely good!  With a delight in tech and nerdiness and optimism that we badly need. About characters who aren't "fated" or destined "chosen ones," or mutant demigods... but merely way above average.  Like some kid you might have, some day.  Oh, and hilarious!

== Back in Print ==

Back in print! My first short story collection - The River of Time, winner of the Locus Award for best SF collection, in its year, and containing the Hugo winning tale “The Crystal Spheres” -- has been re-released in both e-book and paperback. And...

Just released: an excellent audio version of The River of Time, beautifully narrated by my friend, actor Stephen Mendel! 

Newly re-issued by IDW, my epic graphic novel – The Life Eaters – with spectacular hand-painted art by the great Scott Hampton. This tale starts off from the premise of “Thor Meets Captain America” (found in The River of Time) -- my runner up for a Hugo in the novella category ... taking you on an adventure that confronts the darkest parts of the human soul, with our dauntless potential for courage and freedom.

Sample the stirring video trailer for The Life Eaters! Movieable?

DC printed very few copies. So this improved re-issue will turn heads! The Life Eaters was nominated for one of the “bande dessinee” prizes in France, where the graphic novel is king.

== Sci Fi: A World of Ideas ==

Uri Aviv runs the Utopia series of science fiction festivals in Israel. (see below)  Here he makes some very interesting connections between SF and the history of the eventful 20th Century: 

“Over the years science fiction has inspired the exploration of space and cyberspace and was first to imagine the robot, cyborg, clone and technological singularity. All of these are "mere byproducts" to the real focus of science fiction -- society -- communities, relationships, individuals -- how we transform, mutate and evolve through science and how we use and abuse technology. Science fiction creators imagine the un-imaginable and explore the impossible, they perform huge scale gedankenexperiments and by doing so they give birth to our future, for giving shape to the impossible today, gives shape to the every-day of tomorrow.”

For more about the the Utopia Festival: ‪http://www.utopiatlv.org

==Other Sci Fi ==

Alas, farewell to good old Terry Pratchett.  He was a delight.  And had fun.  And gave the rest of us so much fun. And stayed vibrant and busy till some character with a scythe and bad diction hauled him off.  To Discworld, I hope!  (See him in one of his more humorous roles - in the photo on this site - creating satires of pompous religious and political leaders who take themselves too seriously....)

Cracked has a pretty good stab at laying down a bill of indictments in "6 Reasons The Jedi Would Be The Villain In Any Sane Movie." Ah, but six becomes FIFTY in my fun take-down of this silly-betrayal of sanity -- STAR WARS ON TRIAL. More detail and more laughs, by far!   Still, Cracked does crib from the best ;-)

Oh and Star Wars on Trial will soon be re-issued, in a new Jedi-Mouse edition!  

Check out Living Tomorrow, a new anthology of science fiction stories exploring futures shaped by environmental and biological science and technology, from ASU’s Center for Science and the Imagination.

This lovely manga about two gal-roomies-dealing-with-life is utterly sweet and fun. A mutual fan also alerted me that one of the strips refers to me and my work. As a must-purchase to be weighed against buying food! Well now, there’s a tradeoff I hope none of you ever face! Still, if you ever do, I hope you’ll choose wisely. ;-)  ‪

Okay…. This is fun:  Kung Fury

The great web artist Patrick Farley has created a new video book trailer for Cecil Castellucci's new science fiction novel, Stone in the Sky. Patrick’s art is terrific and you should all be following his work at Electric Sheep Comix.

Stefan Jones reminds us of this cool-minimal but evocative animation: Rendezvous: The Murf.

== A few memorable words ==

"Fascinating is a word I use for the unexpected, in this case I would think interesting would suffice.” — Spock

"That is the exploration that awaits you! Not mapping stars and studying nebula, but charting the unknown possibilities of existence." — Leonard Nimoy

Perils of Pandora, Part III: Can Avatar be 'fixed?'

Following on my earlier analyses of James Cameron's Avatar, please let me reiterate that I actually quite like the film!  What's not to like about such a feast for the eye that's also packed with terrific action, and that tries so hard for goodness?  Well, as I have shown, it is that last part where Mr. Cameron inadvertently fails, delivering instead a blow to our confidence that we can become better people. That we can make a better civilization,

And here we ponder... 

== Is there a way out? ==

In fact, I believe Avatar's moral flaws could be fixed with only minimal alterations! Maybe five minutes worth of footage, added to a "director's cut," might alleviate many of the problems outlined in my earlier postings Part I: Why Avatar (Tragically) Fails to Make us Better and Part II: How James Cameron can set things right. 

Just five minutes.

Shall I give it a try?

            

Picture the beginning, as a crippled Jake Sully arrives at the human mining colony exploiting riches from Pandora -- riches that Earth desperately needs, in order to restore its former health. But there are tradeoffs, including an unscrupulous company and a suspicious-dangerous native population.

Only now, let's suppose that Earth civilization is not run by imbeciles who are ignoring history. Instead, our descendants run a generally moral society that established rules for decent treatment of the natives, to be enforced by an honorable governor and her staff.

Have I wrecked Avatar? Not really. Bear with me!

            

Let's posit that the Company chafes under the governor's restrictions, constantly conniving and conspiring to get around them. To provoke the Na'vi into a war they cannot win, exactly what happened repeatedly, in the American West.

           

Imagine in the film's first ten minutes, while Jake is literally getting his legs, we see hopeful signs. A meeting is underway, on one of the floating islands, where the good colonial governor is about to sign a treaty with moderates among the Na'vi...

            

Um, now there's a twist. Moderates among the Na’vi?

            

Why, I am talking about those among the natives who are guardedly curious, cautiously friendly, determined to preserve their world(!) but also willing to compromise and let Earthlings have resources they need to save their own distant planet. More like the Cherokee and Iroquois, these are the tribesmen who support Sigourney Weaver's school, though they demand Earth send children to Pandora who might be young and flexible enough to absorb Na'vi lessons, too.

            "No, you may not go anywhere near our trees!" they explain.

            "Give us drones and such to help us enforce this!

            “On the other hand, we sure find your spaceships fascinating.

            "And can we try to see if this avatar machine of yours works both ways? So we can feel what it's like to be human?"

            

All of this could be telescoped into just three minutes of screen time! Things look hopeful... too hopeful! And so the audience knows what to expect.

            

The conference island blows up!

            

The governor and her aides -- except Sigourney -- are dead. So are the Na'vi moderates.

            

The Company guy rubs his hands. Earth won't investigate too hard if he has a mountain-high stack of unobtanium waiting, when the next ship arrives.

            

At which point... the whole rest of the film can ensue almost exactly as-is!

            

Obstinate-immature company stooges versus obstinate-immature remnant Na'vi. And we root for the Na'vi, of course!  Because if we must choose between two packs of obstinate-immature jerks, let’s side with the underdogs who are defending their homes.

            

Only, while the rest of the movie proceeds, it is with this idea planted in the viewers' minds:

            It's a tragedy. We should have taken more precautions, sending more of our best and fewer of our worst. But at least there were real efforts to avoid this, by future humans who might do better next time, learning from this mistake.

            Now let's root for Jake and Neytiri and the obstinate wing of the Na'vi. Because obstinacy is called for now!

            

And none of this says that all of our descendants will be evil, all of the time.

            

Only slightly altering its lessons on tolerance and diversity and ecological responsibility, this would dramatically adjust the guilt trip so that it offers a patina of hopefulness, rather than utter despair for despicable humanity.

            

The moral would be keep trying instead of give up.

  
== A side note on scale ==

One of the most amazingly silly things about most sci fi is the assumption that a planet, is about the same size as -- say -- Cuba.

That's about the range that one might expect a Na'vi riding a dragon might tell the tale about how his tribe beat the snot out of alien invaders.  Heck, let it be Texas! No matter. 

The point is that all the company really has to do is relocate to another part of Pandora, beyond the range of even dragon-riding news-bearers.  That's an inconvenience that could instead be an asset to good storytellers.  But we have to learn to think scale.
         

== A Futile Hope ==

Okay... back to my idea about those three-minutes at the beginning, to make Avatar a realistic and effective lesson, and not a berating ruiner-of-confidence.  So. Do I expect James Cameron to make this tweak?  

Of course not. All I can do is carp from the sidelines that "this coulda made it better"...

            

…and shrug as others attribute it all to jealousy.  Ah well.

            

Is that proposal the only alternative occurring to me, when I ponder this immensely entertaining and thought-provoking film? Of course not. There are scads of ideas, including a post-singularity riff that could explain so much of why Planet Pandora is the way it is, offering several double-twist, ironic surprises about humanity's interaction with the Na'vi.

            

Perhaps -- purely for entertainment -- I'll muse on these for you, another time.

            

None of which matters except for this key point...

            

... which is to plead with you. Look around yourself at the current flood of film dystopias and novels that wallow in apocalypse.

            

Hey, I enjoy a good fall-of-civilization tale and I have written some, myself.  But the current obsession-craze is just tedious. Heck, Avatar positively fizzes with subtlety and optimism, by comparison!  

           

Which makes our conclusion all the more painful. For James Cameron’s grand sci-fi epic could have spread confident determination to seek self-improvement – as individuals and as a civilization -- while delivering entertainment and mind-blowing vision to billions.  It tried hard to do that and came so-close!

            

Alas, instead, Avatar wound up undermining our confidence in humanity's ability to do that very thing. It did not have to turn out this way.

=======================

What follows in Part IV: A Speculative Addendum is not a formal part of my article, but just a writer having fun, playing in another fellow's sand box...

or return to Part I: Perils of Pandora: Why Avatar (tragically) fails to make us better