7. Avatar Syndrome
Having never watched Avatar, I can't comment on whether or not it's any good. But looking at some still images and watching the trailer, I will concede that the art design is excellent. Even if it does look a bit like a CGI cartoon at times. But after the film came out, some fans began to diagnose themselves as depressed and claimed to have had suicidal thoughts. Why? Because Pandora, the planet that the film is set on, was so lush and beautiful. It makes the Earth look dull in comparison and hits home that we can never experience anything as beautiful as Pandora in real life. I don't judge people who emotionally react to films. In fact, I'll freely admit to welling up at Forrest Gump and The Elephant Man, but this is just ridiculous. Pandora never existed. It's all pixels. It was created by an army of computer programmers in a stuffy office somewhere in California. By this logic, people should be depressed by The Empire Strikes Back because we're not able to build Cloud City, or by Lord Of the Rings because we can't all go and live in Rivendell. It's entirely plausible and even likely that some people who genuinely suffer from depression may have come away from Avatar feeling affected by it, but as for all of the people suddenly claiming to be depressed and suicidal solely because of Avatar, I just don't buy it. I personally think that it's an overreaction and/or attention seeking, and that the people suddenly categorising themselves as depressed because of Avatar are doing a considerable disservice to those who genuinely do suffer from depression and may have actually tried to take their own life at some point. And if people really think that Pandora is the pinnacle of beauty, they should stop for a moment and take a look at Africa, the Himalayas, the Amazon, and all of the astounding sights on this planet that actually exist, and not be so quick to diagnose themselves as depressed and suicidal just because of some overblown sci-fi flick.