avataR

Just saw the last hour or so of Avatar.  Don't feel the need to see any more of it.  Why is this the #1 top grossing movie of all time?  It's not even good science fiction.  And I don't think you have to be a military strategist to see that in the climactic final battle, the humans were going way out of their way to get their shit fucked up.  I never thought I could say such a thing, but I think I found the Ewoks triumph over the Empire's forces more believable than this bullshit.  

My biggest complaint about this movie is that the stupid native people need a white guy (Jake) to lead them to victory.  And although a vague allusion was made to Jake "knowing the technology" of the humans, none of that knowledge was used by the blue folks.  (I really don't have time to look up the name of the people.  Sorry for the disdain.)  But I have lots of other complaints. Like the bad guys being bwa-ha-ha bad guys.  That never works for me.  People are a little more complex than that, ya know?  And, of course, a big BIG complaint is that this story was ripped off from Poul Anderson's "Call Me Joe" (published in the April 1957 Astounding Science Fiction magazine and in Anderson's 1981 collection The Dark Between the Stars).  Which you can see for yourself if you have a dollar to spare:  http://www.amazon.com/Call-Me-Joe-Poul-Anderson-ebook/dp/B005H7LJJM     It's worth it.  

Here's a little excerpt from an online article entitled, "Did James Cameron Rip Off Poul Anderson's Novella":  

"Like Avatar, Call Me Joe centers on a paraplegic — Ed Anglesey — who telepathically connects with an artificially created life form in order to explore a harsh planet (in this case, Jupiter). Anglesey, like Avatar's Jake Sully, revels in the freedom and strength of his artificial created body, battles predators on the surface of Jupiter, and gradually goes native as he spends more time connected to his artificial body."  READ THE REST HERE