Okay, I get it. For a lot of Americans it's about the visual spectacle, just the visual spectacle, and only the visual spectacle. Things like writing, directing, and acting really don't matter. Show them some car chases and explosions and they're good. With that said....
I like to go to my local movie theater because:
A) It's never crowded.
B) It doesn't have 3D capability. When I see a movie, it's without gimmicks and I can judge it on writing merit.
I've been watching sci fi since the original Star Trek aired on TV in the late 1960's. Because I'm a decades long sci fi fan, I went to see Avatar. Yawn.
The first 90 minutes of this movie are simply delicious and loaded with tremendous potential, but at the ninety one minute mark, it turns into a long anti American and anti military rant. Shame on James Cameron for ruining what could've been a classic.
It's Raining Hypocrites
The indigenous, nature loving, people of this movie suddenly find themselves in opposition to industrialists, who stand to make some serious bucks from their holy spot. Cameron is making the analogy to native Americans, who took a licking from invading Europeans, but let's tell the truth shall we?
What happened in the American west was a battle between nomads and farmers, it's that simple. In order to apply to our times, let's try an experiment. Leave your place of residence for six months. Make sure you leave the doors wide open and don't pay your bills (rent, mortgage, untilities, etc.). What shape will your place be in in six months? But wait a minute, you're a nomad. You have a God given right to expect that nothing will happen to your residence while you leave it unattended for six months, right?
What about places that Hollywood types gentrified? Did you know that families that lived in Santa Fe New Mexico for four hundred years can no longer afford to live there? They've been forced to leave town because Hollywood types made it unaffordable to live there, unless you have a seven figure annual income. Same thing in Vail and Boulder Colorado, as well as Jackson Hole Wyoming. Is anyone making movies about these people? HELL NO !!
The Cult of the Marine Corps
When I served in the Marines, I was there to protect, serve, and defend my country. There is within the Corps, a cult who consider themselves Marines first, and Americans second. They serve the corps and only the corps. The corps is first and only in their lives and they try to destroy Patriots, because they don't serve the corps, and are therefore, a danger to them.
The Marines in Avatar are from the cult. Thing is, no corporation in the world hires more than one cult type. They usually correct their mistake once they see one cult type. Have you ever worked with a cult type? Work with one, just once, and you'll see what I mean. Cult types end up alone and unloved because no one wants anything to do with them.
Ruining a Classic
Hollywood created an all time classic with the movie Lost Horizon. Avatar could've been this generation's Lost Horizon, if Cameron hadn't started a 60 minute rant against a society whose problems he helped create. Cameron sank into the gutter, and in the process, ripped us off. Since Al Gore easily won Hypocrite of the Year for 2009, I'm nominating Cameron for 2010. Of course, there's 11 more months to go and he's going to have steep competition from the likes of Obama, Pelosi, and Reid.
It is possible to fix Avatar. Some narration at the beginning of the movie, reshoot five minutes to add on at the ninety minute mark, add some narration at the end, and you'll have an all time classic. It's like deleting Jar Jar Binks from George Lucas' movies. I might buy the DVD, if I can find it for under five bucks. Because this movie will be forgettable in a year or two, this should be easy.