10 Deleted Sci-Fi Movie Scenes You Need To See

There’s a lot to take issue with in James Cameron’s megahit Avatar, and the “Dances with Wolves meets E.T.” premise is the first major problem the film has difficulty overcoming upon a re-watch.

It’s hard to empathize with a wooden Sam Worthington as our apparent “hero,” a human interloper attempting to infiltrate the Na’Vi to allow humanity to systemically exploit their homeland for Earth’s greedy benefit.

That said, a handful of deleted scenes originally present in the flick illustrate the dire straits Earth is in by the time Avatar’s near future setting rolls around, an element which would have made the initial push to obtain—sigh—“unobtanium” a lot more understandable.

It’s a shame this detail was dropped as it adds at least a little depth to the film’s villainous humans, and could have made the protagonist’s motivations a lot more defensible.