Blue Weenie

I'm not going to see Avatar. Why? Because I saw it when it was called Dances With Wolves. And I saw it again when it was called The Last Samurai. Oh, and I saw the trailer. White guy is sent to dispatch some non-whites, has a change of heart, goes native, gets the girl, and becomes the hero. Right? Got it.

This guy does a good job of calling James Cameron out on his utter lack of originality, and I will just add that I am now convinced Cameron has the mind of a sixth grader. He knows how to make things look cool, and he knows what will make millions at the box office, but behind the CGI is pretty flimsy, cliched story-telling. I've seen comments on the web - and even some reviews - that praise the film for its "powerful message," which is basically that Anglo-American militarism is bad and environmentalism is good.

Deep.

Maybe it's not Cameron's fault that millions of Lady Ga Ga loving, Cheez-it chomping Americans need a 3-D spectacle and a 1-D script to have a political thought enter their consciousness, but does the guy really deserve an award?