As Avatar moves closer to breaking Titantic‘s number one place in box office history, controversy has raged in the press and elsewhere about the film, about what James Cameron was trying to say, about the supposed underlying political, social or moral agendas at work in the film and generally about what the film means and why it is so popular.

This interesting group of links come from Howard Suber, UCLA professor and author of The Power of Film.

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THE CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING AVATAR

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/movies/20avatar.html.  This article is a general discussion of what the film’s political, social agenda is or might be.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/willheaven/100020488/james-camerons-avatar-is-a-stylish-film-marred-by-its-racist-subtext/ Here is an attack on the racial (racist) implications of the film.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/12/vatican-slams-avatar-prom_n_419949.html.  Here is how the Vatican has weighed in on the film and surround controversy.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/mental_health/article6992862.eceThere This is a link by a book author on how 3D allegedly leads to suicidal thought and general depression.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/science/19essay.html?sudsredirect=true Another book author weighs in on scientifically accurate the flora and fauna in Avatar is

THE TECHNOLOGY INVOLVED IN MAKING  AVATAR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c4kNLz_4E8&NR=1.  This is a Fox Network program on the making of Avatar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aao0YSITuxc&NR=1.  This is a  Popular Mechanics interview with James Cameron detailing the technology and how Cameron worked on the technical aspects of the film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ1JzYPjcj0&feature=youtube_gdata This is an interesting video on how emotion was captured using Cameron’s new technology