10 Reasons You're Wrong About Avatar
The style IS the substance, OK?
Believe it or not, we're barely a year away from the 10-year anniversary of James Cameron's mammoth epic Avatar hitting cinemas.
Though it scored consistent critical acclaim, won three Oscars and remains the highest-grossing film of all time by a huge margin, in recent years there's been considerable backlash against Avatar as a film that, somehow, isn't as good as we all remember.
And sure, Avatar's far from a perfect film, but what isn't? The tidal wave of hate and derision surrounding the blockbuster in recent years could be readily dismissed as a vocal minority rallying against something simply because it's popular, but that theory feels like a bit of a cop-out.
After all, the oddly passionate disdain for Avatar is well-documented in the general population as much as it is in film enthusiast circles, even if it ultimately feels like many are thinking about the movie - and what it represents - all wrong.
Look no further than the Star Wars prequels to see how much the Internet loves to sneer at a badly-made movie, but Avatar's vitriolic reception is wholly unearned, and here's why...
10. It's More Than "Dances With Wolves In Space"
Both before and after its release, Avatar was mocked as being nothing more than "Dances with Wolves in space", "Pocahontas in space" or even "Ferngully in Space", with many criticising Cameron's script for being overly derivative of "white saviour" movies in particular.
Though few would champion Avatar's plot as wildly original, this is a rather reductive assessment of the movie's narrative.
Yes, it's not particularly unique, but given the staggering complexity of the world Cameron has created, utilising a common, elemental series of tropes is actually a pretty smart way to keep things grounded.
After all, aren't the majority of the most successful movies ultimately just rehashing classic good vs. evil and "chosen one" stories? And does that really matter as long as it's well-executed?
Moreover, while Avatar's spinal story is typical, the surrounding elements are anything but: the sci-fi genre twist, the central trans-human premise and the sheer weight of the world itself.
Many understandably assumed that Avatar would bomb at the box office for being "too weird", but honestly, keeping the core plot simple and easily digestible to a huge international audience is probably why it turned out so successful.
And given the sheer mind-boggling number of moving parts in this movie, an overly complex story could've made it too exhausting for its own good.