Forums → Popular Media → My Problems with Avatar (spoilers)

In my opinion, James Camaron's movie Avatar was an extremely dissapointing movie. If you just wanted some really cool special effects, then that's fine. Visually, it was a somewhat decent movie. In every other aspect, it was excruitatingly painful to watch. I will now rate the different aspects of avatar and give my reasons for doing so.

Creativity: 1/10.
This movie was essentially Pocahontas 3: Now with more Blue! This plot has been done so many times before: Braveheart, The Last Samurai, the Lorax, etc. Its okay to reuse a plot as long as you add something to it. Cameron, however, decided to just use a straightforward "outsider saves the natives" plot without adding any twists.

Logic/plot holes/science: -100/10. This is the biggest section, so I will break it up:
1) Why can't people breathe on Pandora? There is obviously ample oxygen, as evidenced by the flamethrowers. The atmosphere can't be poisoned either. All the soldiers use those impractical full face gas masks with the seal around the chin. But many soldiers also appeared to have beards. How do you get a seal through a beard? Everyone who had a beard should have been poisoned.
2) One of the first lines of the movie was "You're not in Kansas anymore." It was said by the commander guy to the new recruits on pandora. First of all, how cliche. Secondly, this movie is supposed to be set 150 years in the future, by which time the Wizard of Oz will be 200 years old. Are you telling me people will still get this reference?
3) Technology. Or rather, lack thereof. Why, oh why, did the humans need to attack the huge tree with helicopters? Are we supposed to believe that we have intergalctic travel but not, I don't know, NUKES FROM SPACE?? Bam, one push of a button, no more native "threat". Additionally, why couldn't the humans just tunnel under the tree? We have that ability now, so did we forget or something? Speaking of technology, whats with the humans' computers? Why are they still using keyboards and video logs instead of direct mind-computer interaction? Afterall, they had the technology to be able to scan Sully's brain and digitially transfer it into the avatar (matrix anyone?). Additionally, the human's interaction with technology would make a nice contrast to the native's interaction with nature.
3. At the end of the movie, the Colonel puts his gas mask on while still in the robot suit. Logically, the actions needed to put on the gas mask would have caused the robot to hit itself in the face (the colonel was still wearing the controller hands).
4. At the end of the movie, how did the Na'vi win? Its not like the humans are just going to back down. They "won" a battle, not the war. Again: nukes from space. And, as Sully said, they couldn't possibly win a fight outside of that protected area. Which also raises the question, why did the humans attack when the na'vi were hidden? Obviously they could just wait until they starved and had to come out. Or just use NUKES FROM SPACE.
5. How did Sully even become lost in the first place? Why wouldn't they implant a homing beacon under his skin?
6) Pandora is a moon. This means it orbits a planet as that planet orbits a star. This would mean that sometimes Pandora is close to the star (when it is between the planet and the star) and sometimes it is far away (when the planet is between it and the star). The slight tilt of the earth is responsible for the extreme temperature difference between summer and winter, often over 100 degrees difference at the poles. Can you imagine the difference on temperature between a pandora winter and summer? It would probably be over a thousand degrees difference. How can life evolve in that extreme of condidtions? Especially such advanced life.
7) The whole toruk thing. It took sully all of two minutes to capture this flying dragon thing. Are you telling me that no one in their entire civilization could think to attack it from above?
I have more, but that's all of that for now.

Significance: 1/10
This was supposed to be some sort commentary on the war in iraq (references to "Shock and Awe" prove that this was cameron's intention). This is nothing like Iraq. First of all, the na'vi had no need for unobtainium because they were better than that. But the Iraqis want oil just as much as the Americans do. they are just as willing to destroy their landscapes for some black gold as we are. And as far as environmentalism goes... Do we really need another Lorax movie? And it isn't like the movie gives any useful advice. Plugging my hair into a tree isn't going to stop global warming or save the rainforests.

Visuals: 7/10
This was far and away the best part of the movie. Their were several moments when I was just amazed at all of the pretty colors. But sometimes the 3D kind of failed. Like when the camera would go soft focus on something in the foreground. This looks good in 2D, but it 3D it is just awkward.
Wow, this is a long post. And to think I'm still leaving a lot out...