Avatar

So after being buried under a pile of snow for a week, I went to the movies this evening and finally saw Avatar. It took a little while for my eyes to adjust to the 3D but once they did the images were really incredible. I loved being carried away into another world and may go see the movie again, just to examine the scenery.

But it also strikes me as ironic -- the movie transports us to another world, yet "there is nothing new under the sun." Human imagination is incredible and beautiful, from curly-que plants to insects with circular overhead wings to hammer-head animals to large blue "humans", and even to macro ideas like day/night and air and religion. But at the end of the day they are still plants, insects, birds, animals, etc. These things were all created by God, and we can't even imagine a world outside of these structures. It's meaningless to us. The other world is beautiful in it's variety and differences to ours, but underneath is actually still the same.
Especially the culture and religion of the "humans" (sorry, I don't remember what they're called) on this other planet is essentially ancient tribal and animist/antheist.
Regardless of the pantheism, I did appreciate the ideas about "joining". The humans have these neurons that can connect to the neurons in other beings, e.g. animals or trees. It's an organic connection, as opposed to the mechanical one of the regular humans from Earth. Examples of the mechanical one: the link into the avatars, the robot machines that a human can be inside of and controlling. I think that organic connection is an element missing in modern life that appeals to the audience. I keep encountering so many stories these days that seem to be successful because they do play on godly principles that people are longing for and don't have: connectedness to other humans beings, true manhood, sacrificial love, etc.