Avatar is as original as the umpteenth retelling of 'A Christmas Carol', if James Cameron were half as good as Charles Dickens. I had no interest in seeing it when it came out. I saw it recently, and I was staring passively at the screen for the whole movie. It has nothing I haven't seen before a million times. Pocahontas. Ferngully. Dancing with Wolves. The "Noble Savage" myth popularized by Rosseau. Uncivilized / inconsiderate military. A MacGuffin the size of a planet, without the stylish setting of Frank Herbert's Dune. Bad guys flatter than a sheet of paper. Etc. etc. etc. It was pretty, but in a trying-too-hard kind of way, a colorful world where everything is extremely fakely beautiful. I give it 0 stars.
Avatar is as original as the umpteenth retelling of 'A Christmas Carol', if James Cameron were half as good as Charles Dickens. I had no interest in seeing it when it came out. I saw it recently, and I was staring passively at the screen for the whole movie. It has nothing I haven't seen before a million times. Pocahontas. Ferngully. Dancing with Wolves. The "Noble Savage" myth popularized by Rosseau. Uncivilized / inconsiderate military. A MacGuffin the size of a planet, without the stylish setting of Frank Herbert's Dune. Bad guys flatter than a sheet of paper. Etc. etc. etc. It was pretty, but in a trying-too-hard kind of way, a colorful world where everything is extremely fakely beautiful. I give it 0 stars.