Whenever the movie Avatar is mentioned, everyone exclaims, “I love that movie! It was amazing!” At first, I agreed with them. I loved the visuals and the message of the story, but then I saw it a second time. When I re-watched this movie at home without the big screen and sound system, I realized how much of a rehash and how unimpressive this movie really was. I hate this movie because of the story and what the film stood for.

Now before I begin to dismantle this film and illustrate how unbelievably unoriginal this film is, I want to talk about what I enjoy in this film. I enjoyed breath-taking visuals. Now, I'm not a fan of CGI because companies use it instead of actually making the effects such as the Star Wars Special Edition DVDs. However, the visuals in Avatar are amazing and I am glad I got to see them in the theater.

Whit that said, this movie did nothing new. It's message was just about as original as Ferngully, Dances with Wolves, Pocahontas, Last of the Mohicans, and WALL-E. WALL-E, in my opinion, was better looking and more emotionally moving, and it came out a year before Avatar. It was said that Cameron was working on this film for around thirteen years, and the message of this story feels outdated by about thirteen years. In addition to it's outdated message, Avatar also ripped off it's premise of a paraplegic man who controls an alien body on another planet from the novelette Call Me Joe by Poul Anderson. The story is not only unoriginal, but it is also boring, and why is it boring? It is boring because of the bland characters. This movie made me never want to see Sam Worthington act again because 75% of his lines are yelled. Jar- Jar.. I mean Joel Moore was the forgettable “comedy relief,” and Stephen Lang plays the big, bad, military man. Obviously, no symbolism is intended what-so-ever with Mr. Lang.

Another thing I did not care for was the way the message was presented. The film had a message that industrialization (which made this film possible) is bad because it's done for money, and we should protect the environment and it's people. That message is fine if it is done right. I believe Doug Walker, an internet critic, said it best when he said “ I don't mind stories about prejudice or the big man using his power over the smaller man, but go into why. Why are they like that?” I feel the exact same way. We have seen this environmental/prejudice movie countless times before, and this movie does not take risks with that viewpoint. It simply re-packages it with impressive visuals. It also tries to act like it's message is “subtle.” When in fact, I got the feeling while watching it that the director was shouting “Ask me what this symbolism means!” or “This story is saying something so revolutionary and different!” when really it was doing neither.

If you like Avatar, I completely understand. I like Moulin Rouge, and I know that suffers from the same problems Avatar does with it's bland, unoriginal story. However, Avatar, for me, illustrates everything I hate about the film industry today. The unoriginal story, the rehash of outdated messages, the obvious symbolism, the horrid acting, and the budget that was only spent on CGI all attribute to what I deem a bad movie. If you enjoy it, enjoy it, but for me it will always be one of the worst movies ever filmed.