20 Most Unfairly Hated Movies Of The 21st Century

2. Avatar (2009)

Watchmen Blue
20th Century Fox

Why It's Hated: Despite being a huge critical and commercial success, Avatar's legacy is to be b****ed about on the Internet until the end of time as an unoriginal, soulless regurgitation of plots and ideas from Ferngully, Pocahontas and Dances with Wolves.

And some people just can't help themselves but dump on the highest-grossing movie of all time.

Why It's Unfair: Avatar doesn't tout the most original plot ever (white man goes "native" to fend off bad humans), but James Cameron does substantially more with the idea than any of the aforementioned movies, creating a vibrant world quite unlike anything else ever put to screen.

The visual effects were so ridiculously ahead of their time and make it one of the few movies to truly defeat the uncanny valley. Plus, the action was characteristically awesome, the performances were (mostly) good, and it all added up to an extremely entertaining blockbuster flick.

Avatar was a concrete reminder that betting against Cameron is a basically terrible idea.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.