2. Avatar China
You just cant keep a good censor down, so were back in the Peoples Republic again and this time for James Camerons Avatar. Now, unless youve been living under a rock for the past half-century, youll know that China has some real issues in its own backyard concerning re-locating poor families. Namely, the Chinese Politburo is trying to modernise the country, and occasionally violently move on poor farmers who would rather stay put is part of their controversial strategy. Therefore, they are understandably touchy about any form of media depicting the issue. However, its occasionally surprising where they can find such counter-revolutionary material. Case in point, Avatar. Once again, unless youve been living under that same rock youll know the highest-grossing film in movie history concerns itself with the struggle of a 12-foot-tall primitive people against an all-consuming corporation farming their homeworld for an unoriginally-named resource. Theres drama, explosions, fight scenes in the sky and Sam Worthington everything you want in a blockbuster. Yet the Chinese found something else criticism of their housing policies. You can probably see where theyre coming from this film does concern itself with an oppressed people struggling against a better-armed behemoth who want to move them to reservations, but really thats where the comparisons end. Avatars plot is unoriginal, taking its inspiration from well-founded movie tropes about the underdog rising up. There were no biases beyond the pro-environment message, just stock storytelling done well. Frankly, you can make an allegory out of anything if you read into it hard enough, but if you really think a film about a wheelchair-bound Worthington copping off with a gigantic forest warrior has a message of working class uprisings, I think you might have looked too hard.