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Now here is a movie I have been torn about watching.  I usually like science fiction, but with all the hype over this film, and James Cameron, I wasn't inspired to watch this film, but thought it was something I should check out at some point.

While James Cameron made two films which I thought were very well done and quite enjoyable (The Terminator and Aliens (Alien part 2), since those films I have felt he has been making films that have been vastly overrated.  I never cared for Terminator 2, as I thought it was trite.  In the original Terminator film, everything fit together perfectly, Kyle's story being completely without evidence (So it was impossible for anyone to discern that he was NOT crazy), the Terminator being pretty much unstoppable, but took bits  of damage and got worn down, etc.  In Terminator 2, it was just a story about two robots fighting, much of which didn't make sense.

Also, I have felt some resentment since Titanic over took Star Wars as the highest grossing movie.  Titanic did not create the phenomenon that Star Wars did (both in changing the movie industry, marketing and giving life to a new movie studio), and is vastly overrated, both as a film and for it's place in movie history.

As for the film Avatar itself, I fail to see what the big deal is.  It was.  A bunch of tall blue monkeys, in a black light world.  Also, blue skin is a cheap way to signify an alien race, and has been since it was first appeared in Star Blazers (Uchu Senkan Yamato).

The other problem with the film was that it was extremely predictable.  Of course the protagonist was going to sympathies with the alien race.  What other direction could the story possibly go in?  Basically, this was as South Park aptly described it "Dances with Smurfs".  The alien elements of the film take away from the possible significance of it, and make the film corny.

Also, the whole thing with the joining of the head tails made no sense.  There is no plausible reason that a cross species electrical plug would evolve.  The only thing that would make sense is that it was how they sexually reproduced, but in that case, it would be odd to say the least that they were bonding with animals and trees in that way.

As often happens with James Cameron's films, he doesn't get the real root of the character's dedication and makes up some odd element to justiy their dedication to their cause.  Instead of having the characters , there were odd electical currents running through the roots of the trees.  Like a need for a physical explanation for their bond with nature would make it clearer to the viewer, when it really just make it hokey.

Also, I am getting pretty sick of movies being given accolades for taking over the as the highest grossing film.  As the price of tickets go up, of course the amount of money a film can bring in will increase, Also, the continued increase in the population means there are more potential movie goers.  In the past there have been films that were considered so good that people went to see them repeatedly, some in excess of 10 or 20 times.  The number of tickets sold is a much better barometer of a films popularity (especially when taking the population at the time into consideration.)