Is "Avatar" too Blue for Oscar gold?

While Cheney and Biden went mano-a-mano on the news shows yesterday, as we all now the real political dialogue is over movies. And forget about Michael Moore's weeny "Capitalism a Love Story" -- the real controversial ideological hornets nest this year is "Avatar."

Who needs Tea Bagger rallies when you can take a shot at a movie that's made $2 billion? And I thought it just sucked because it had stereotypical characters, awful dialogue, and a totally implausible, trite and half-baked plot.

But it is far worse than that. Says John Nolte of the "Big Hollywood" website: "Set in 2154, ‘Avatar' is a thinly disguised, heavy-handed and simplistic sci-fi fantasy/allegory critical of America from our founding straight through to the Iraq War."

Hmm. Did he ever consider that one reason people have made it the most popular movie of all time is because they might agree a little with those sentiments?

Adds the ever reliable John Podhoretz of the "Weekly Standard:" "Avatar is blitheringly stupid; indeed, it's among the dumbest movies I've ever seen [and he's seen his share -- he's listed "Cinderella Man" and "The Phantom Menace" as among his favorite movies]."  And mainly it's dumb because of its "mindless worship of a nature-loving tribe and the tribe's adorable pagan rituals, its hatred of the military and American institutions, and the notion that to be human is just way uncool-at all seriously as a political document."

And then of course, there is its godless, anti-religious paganism, a theme that doesn't surprise Russ Douhat in "The New York Times." "...pantheism," he sighs, " has been Hollywood's religion of choice for a generation now."

And there's a lot more where this comes from. You got to wonder where these guys get the time to spread their lies and half truths about Obama's health care reform policies.

Unlike the Democrats, though, the moviemakers are fighting back. "I'm happy to piss those guys off," Avatar director James Cameron has said, as quoted in the "LA Times."  "I don't agree with their world view."

All well and good. But I can see a weird situation at Oscar time developing  where "The Hurt Locker," which is actually set in the Iraq War, is going to be seen as less politically loaded than a 3-D sci-fi extravaganza featuring ten foot tall blue people. And maybe win the Best Picture prize because of it.