10 Reasons You're Wrong About Avatar
5. It's More Complex Than You Remember
Nobody's going to suggest that Avatar's characters are particularly deep, nor that the film's central themes are anything less than sledgehammer-subtle, but the film is certainly a little more layered than most care to admit.
Avatar is actually a fairly paradoxical tale at its core, with Cameron's pro-environment, anti-technology message clashing somewhat with the fact that the movie itself was achieved with only the most state-of-the-art hardware and software available.
The neatest solution to this conundrum is that Cameron is rallying for complex technologies to be placed in the hands of "heroes" rather than soulless government stooges, which has obvious parallels to the nature of modern filmmaking blockbuster itself (where $200 million budgets too often end up given to hacks).
And let's face it, the guy who once called himself the King of the World after winning an Oscar is hardly above allegorising himself as a hero.
While many like to dismiss Avatar's screenplay as effectively being scrawled on a napkin by Cameron during a boozy dinner, if you break its constituent elements down, there is a lot to chew on here.
Again, it's not going to bake your noodle, but it's certainly more thoughtful than the film's detractors would have you believe.