First there was this news about how fans of the film, Avatar have inundated dedicated websites with their confused and depressed postings, setting up discussion threads like 'Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible', which already has more than 1,000 posts.
Then there's even more shocking news a man dies after watching Avatar.
Heck, I still want to catch this show!!
THE perfection of an idyllic planet populated by perfect blue aliens at one with nature and each other from the hugely successful movie Avatar, is causing ordinary humans to become depressed, reported entertainment media on Thursday.
The world created by director James Cameron is so perfect that entire support groups have sprung up to help fans cope with the fact that it doesn't exist.
According to an article in The Daily Telegraph, fans of the film have inundated dedicated websites with their confused and depressed postings, setting up discussion threads like 'Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible', which already has more than 1,000 posts.
In another forum a user wrote: 'When I woke up this morning after watching Avatar for the first time yesterday, the world seemed grey. It just seems so meaningless. I still don't really see any reason to keep doing things at all. I live in a dying world.' Other fans are even more affected by the situation, reported The Daily Telegraph, with one posting: 'I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora.'
Another report in The Daily Mail newspaper said that the detailed visual realism could be leading viewers to become particularly attached to the idea of the world.
Dr Stephan Quentzel, psychiatrist and Medical Director for the Louis Armstrong Centre for Music and Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Centre in New York told CNN: 'Virtual life is not real life and it never will be, but this is the pinnacle of what we can build in a virtual presentation so far. It has taken the best of our technology to create this virtual world and real life will never be as utopian as it seems onscreen. It makes real life seem more imperfect.'
From Straits Times, "Avatar is causing depression".
A 42-YEAR-OLD Taiwanese man with a history of high blood pressure has died of a stroke likely triggered by over-excitement from watching the blockbuster Avatar in 3D, a doctor said on Tuesday.
The man, identified only by his surname Kuo, started to feel unwell during the screening earlier this month in the northern city of Hsinchu and was taken to hospital.
Kuo, who suffered from hypertension, was unconscious when he arrived at the Nan Men General Hospital and a scan showed that his brain was haemorrhaging, emergency room doctor Peng Chin-chih said.
'It's likely that the over-excitement from watching the movie triggered his symptoms,' he told AFP.
Kuo died 11 day later from the brain haemorrhage, and the China Times newspaper said it was the first death linked to watching James Cameron's science-fiction epic Avatar.
Film blogging sites have reported complaints of headaches, dizziness, nausea and blurry eyesight from viewers of Avatar and other movies rich in 3D imagery.
From Straits Times, "Man dies after watching Avatar".
