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I mean, frankly, I think it's fair to say, in isolation, that Avatar is just a film that doesn't have deep bold visionary ambitions and just wants to be Alien Dances With Wolves. And while I see problems with that very concept, and certainly with the film's execution, I would say that overall the film is just aggressively Fine. If you like it, good for you!
What I think is in contention, however, is that we can't just consider the film in isolation. We need to consider it in the context of a film that made some of the most money a film has ever made, and in that context we expect something more than Just An Okay Way to Spend A Couple Hours and then basically entirely forget about. There are a number of scenes in Titanic that are absolutely iconic and have stayed in public consciousness for decades- the "I'm the King Of the World!" scene being the most famous example, but there are others when you tried. When Kojima made the Titantic joke in MGS2 by naming his protagonists Jack and Rose, that wasn't some obscure joke that it took a film buff to get, because the film is so engrained in public consciousness that those names are, in the world of film, associated with those two characters clearly enough that it will spring to mind if you're familiar with pop culture.
Alien has plenty of famous quotes and scenes, and Ripley is an iconic character, same for Halloween and Laurey Strode, and in many ways redefined how people think of horror movies. And so on. And none of these films made as much money commercially as Avatar. Making that much money means that there is an inherent expectation that a film will make an impact in cultural consciousness, and Avatar largely just... didn't, outside, say, the niche world of Versus Debates and whatnot. And that is worth noting and critiquing imo.
What I think is in contention, however, is that we can't just consider the film in isolation. We need to consider it in the context of a film that made some of the most money a film has ever made, and in that context we expect something more than Just An Okay Way to Spend A Couple Hours and then basically entirely forget about. There are a number of scenes in Titanic that are absolutely iconic and have stayed in public consciousness for decades- the "I'm the King Of the World!" scene being the most famous example, but there are others when you tried. When Kojima made the Titantic joke in MGS2 by naming his protagonists Jack and Rose, that wasn't some obscure joke that it took a film buff to get, because the film is so engrained in public consciousness that those names are, in the world of film, associated with those two characters clearly enough that it will spring to mind if you're familiar with pop culture.
Alien has plenty of famous quotes and scenes, and Ripley is an iconic character, same for Halloween and Laurey Strode, and in many ways redefined how people think of horror movies. And so on. And none of these films made as much money commercially as Avatar. Making that much money means that there is an inherent expectation that a film will make an impact in cultural consciousness, and Avatar largely just... didn't, outside, say, the niche world of Versus Debates and whatnot. And that is worth noting and critiquing imo.