“A paradoxical fixation on nature and war binds two living legends”
“Through a mix of cold and unnatural technological processes, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water manages to be a lovingly crafted showcase of natural splendor. It’s a romantic fantasy of a world untouched by the depravities of modern, capitalistic, and militaristic civilization, one in which there exists the freedom to coexist with nature, and to find family and love”
“At the same time, all the impressive visual-effects energy put toward portraying the natural wonders of Avatar’s setting, Pandora, is also equally committed to rendering vehicles and weapons of war in similar, painstakingly realistic detail. There are fictitious airships only an iteration away from what we have on Earth, hydrofoil whaling vessels that leap powerfully over the waves, crablike diving robots, and mechanized armor that can also serve you a stiff cup of joe. They are all glorious, terrible inventions. They are love letters to futuristic military technology”
“This tension might seem utterly confounding if it were not for another filmmaking auteur with a strikingly similar style: Hayao Miyazaki”
“As is self-evident from his vast catalog of films and television, Miyazaki is a pacifist and a lover of the environment. He also holds an admitted attraction to drawing military machinery”
“Cameron’s committed romanticism toward nature manifests as grand adventures, not unlike the stories that have entranced Miyazaki. In the first Avatar, Jake Sully is only able to abandon his dead-end life as an injured military grunt and gain access to a life in Pandora with the guidance of the Na’vi princess Neytiri”
“As for Miyazaki, his characters often start out in towns, cities, and other bastions of human civilization, and are introduced to the wild secrets of nature through some magical interlocutor”
“It’s as if these stories must forever twist between the poles of rigid, patriarchal social order and the idealized freedom of untrammeled nature”
“Where the two directors share further common ground is in their ability, in spite of everything, to hope. Regardless of — or perhaps because — the rest of us have become cynical and beaten down by our tenuous relationship to the environment, they continue to make breathtaking and earnest work in an effort to make visible and expand our relationship with nature”