Is "Avatar: The Way of Water" Good For Kids?
A Closer Look at James Cameron’s “Family-Focused” Epic
Since August of 2017, any mention of the movie Avatar immediately reminded me of the time I almost lost my lunch on the Disney Animal Kingdom’s 3D flying simulator, Avatar Rite of Passage. I still remember how my husband and former pilot enthusiastically assured me Rite of Passage would be a mild ride. “No problem, Toni! You will love it!” Needless to say, I had not done my own research, barely survived the flight, and found myself nauseous and flat on my back in the Valley of Mo'ara under a fake floating mountain for at least 45 minutes trying to recover from my adventure. The Na’vi River Journey (a gentle water ride for roller coaster-averse moms like me) was much more my speed.
Sail forward to December 16, 2022. James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water, the highly anticipated and monumentally expensive sequel to the 2009 film, debuted in theaters to the delight of Pandora fans everywhere. To the delight of the Walt Disney Company - which owns the rights to the film after acquiring 20th Century Fox – the blockbuster is now ranked the 12th highest-grossing film in history, earning over a billion dollars at the international box office as of January 4th and $457 million in the United States alone.
It is hardly surprising that millions of people are spending good money to watch tall blue denizens of Pandora. The success of the original movie, the stunning images in the sequel’s trailer, and Disney’s masterful merchandising and branding enterprise set the sequel up for box office success.
For those of you not yet familiar with the Avatar story, the dependable and brave Jake Sully, an earthling who has chosen to become a permanent member of the Na’vi, marries Ney’tiri, the strong and spirited daughter of the chief of the Na’vi Omaticaya clan. By Avatar 2, Jake has become chief himself, creating a home with his wife Ney’tiri and raising four children as devoted parents. An old enemy (resource-hungry humans led by the tyrannical Colonel Quaritch) returns to Pandora, and the family must flee to a new home and battle the evil humans.
With so many moviegoers seeing the Avatar sequel, it is worth considering how such a popular film is influencing our culture and what it is teaching millions of young people.
Although many critics focus on the financial success and astonishing artistic achievements of Cameron’s epic film, the 3 hour and 12 minute PG-13 rated action film actually delivers strong yet at times disturbing messages to kids regarding violence, family relationships, and how to treat friends, neighbors, and strangers.
What does this creation of James Cameron - the director of the Terminator series, Aliens, and the screenwriter for Rambo: First Blood Part II - teach about violence?
Well, it’s complicated.
On one hand, Cameron presents numerous instances of what many would view as virtuous violence - violent acts committed in self-defense or defense of the weak or innocent. Generally speaking, the entire film concerns itself with Na’vi parents defending themselves and protecting their children from predators. In a few instances, the Na’vi children must defend themselves when their parents are absent.
Netayam, the first-born son of Jake and Ney’tiri, defends his sister, the adopted Kiri, in a “schoolyard” tussle with a gang of several male Metkayina (Sea Na’vi) bullies. Netayam demonstrates an admirable desire to protect his sister out of love. Cameron even chooses to write in a decent degree of parental disapproval and consequences for all of the males involved in the conflict. However, while Jake Sully adequately punishes his son with a grounding, one could argue the Metkayina parents failed to issue a consequence commensurate with bullying behavior.
Despite the film’s various instances of arguably virtuous violence, Cameron also chooses to feature numerous instances of jarring brutality - the type of violence that crosses the proverbial line in my view and causes a parent (including this one) to quickly place a hand in front of even a teenager’s eyes.
The villains torture Spider, a teenage human and close friend of the Sully children. Later in the film, although in the name of general defense, Spider assaults another character with a fire extinguisher blow to the head. In brutality of a different kind, we also see the attempted murder of Lo’ak (the younger rebellious Sully brother) by the sinister Metkayina boys who leave Lo’ak to die in a remote and dangerous area of the sea where he is served up as a monster’s next meal in a Lord of the Flies-like manner.
We also see villains taking children hostage and tying them to a burning sinking ship. Perhaps worst of all, the chief villain and Ney’tiri each take a child hostage threatening to kill each of them in a tense standoff. Ney’tiri actually slices the child’s chest with a large knife as a warning that she is prepared to cut his throat.
While most of the young characters are blue extraterrestrials with tails and cat-like features, they still read as kids - and that is probably what matters when it comes to the emotional impact on young viewers.
Regardless of intent, Cameron’s art and storytelling risk desensitizing the viewer and normalizing egregious violence against children.
That’s hardly what we need in the age of school shootings.
Some may argue it is acceptable or morally beneficial to portray extreme violence in film - including against children – if a villain conducts the violence (think the queen in Snow White for example) as a way of underscoring the nature of evil and its consequences. Nonetheless, seeing such violence at too young an age or too many times can hardly help raise empathetic Americans. To make matters worse, in Avatar II, we see Ney’tiri, a heroine (not a villain), engaging in this behavior. That could leave young viewers with the impression that immoral violence is not the exclusive purview of villains.
Until the next post!
— Antonette