{"id":3891,"date":"2010-01-11T13:56:33","date_gmt":"2010-01-11T13:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2010\/01\/vatican-slams-avatar-as-sentimental-hokum.html"},"modified":"2010-01-11T13:56:33","modified_gmt":"2010-01-11T13:56:33","slug":"vatican-slams-avatar-as-sentimental-hokum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/01\/vatican-slams-avatar-as-sentimental-hokum.html","title":{"rendered":"Vatican slams “Avatar” as “sentimental hokum”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The official Vatican newspaper has declined to give its blessing to the blockbuster of the year (century?).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n
From Variety:<\/a> <\/p>\n

\n\"Avatar-001.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>While “Avatar” is drawing near unanimous praise worldwide, the Vatican is scathingly slamming James Cameron’s 3D sci-fi epic as “sentimental hokum.”<\/p>\n

Following the Italo “Avatar” red carpet preem on Saturday in the Auditorium Conciliazione, a stone’s throw from St. Peters, official Vatican daily L’Osservatore Romano gave it the thumbs down in a review which, among other things, faulted Cameron’s storytelling as “bland.”<\/p>\n

“By concentrating on the creation of Pandora’s fantasy world he tells the story without any deeper exploration,” the Vatican paper said.<\/p>\n

L’Osservatore also lamented that “there is plenty of stupefying, enchanting technology, but few genuine human emotions.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Vatican Radio, which goes out worldwide, has been blasting “Avatar” for “winking at the pseudo-doctrines that have made ecology the religion of the millennium,” which may help explain all the animosity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s more at the Variety link.<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The official Vatican newspaper has declined to give its blessing to the blockbuster of the year (century?).   From Variety: While “Avatar” is drawing near unanimous praise worldwide, the Vatican is scathingly slamming James Cameron’s 3D sci-fi epic as “sentimental hokum.” Following the Italo “Avatar” red carpet preem on Saturday in the Auditorium Conciliazione, a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"yoast_head":"\nVatican slams "Avatar" as "sentimental hokum" - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/01\/vatican-slams-avatar-as-sentimental-hokum.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vatican slams "Avatar" as "sentimental hokum" - 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