An insult to the thinking moviegoer

Rating: 3/10 (28 May 2010)

I have noticed a lot of critical comments on this movie come from conservatives who dislike its allegedly "liberal" message. Let me say, first off, I am very politically liberal and progressive, consider myself an environmentalist and certainly abhor racism, and I really disliked this movie.
The story is simply idiotic.
Are we supposed to believe that it is commercially viable to send a massive spaceship -- that must literally cost more than the entire world's 2010 GDP to develop, build, and operate -- on a 12-year round-trip mission to Pandora just to bring back "unobtanium"? How does "the corporation" know there will be a market for it when they bring it back? If humanity has developed the technology to efficiently power a huge manned spacecraft over light-years nearly at the speed of light, then something tells me humanity can solve its energy problems (or whatever else it may be) without "unobtanium."
The whole Avatar concept is underdeveloped and compares unfavorably with the similar concepts in the Matrix. Why is it that an "avatar" made of a mixture of human and Navi DNA is still an exact physical duplicate of the Navi? Shouldn't it look like a weird hybrid like the creature in "Splice"? How is it that the avatars cannot think or act for themselves? Aren't they living creatures? Don't they have their own brains? If not, how can they stay alive?
Are we supposed to believe that this alien species on Pandora just happens to be close enough physically to humans that we can find them sexually attractive (as Jake does Neytiri)? The Navi just happen to have two eyes, and a nose, and a mouth with teeth like ours, and ears, and hair, and breasts, and legs, feet with toes, etc. etc. They are physically capable of speaking English, amazingly enough. Despite being aliens from another planet, they are far more similar to humans than our closest ape relatives on earth. And of course they all have washboard tummies and the woman have breasts just covered by their necklaces.
Does the Navi society have to be a mishmash of every stereotype white Americans have about African/aboriginal/Native American culture? Do they have to be shown apologizing to animals they hunt and kill? (Does it really matter to a creature if you apologize to it after killing it?) Do the actors portraying the Navi tribes people have to all be of either African or American Indian descent? Do they have to speak English with either "African" or "Indian" accents and inflections? Does the tribe have to have a male "king" and a female "spiritual leader"? Does Jake's love interest have to be a "princess"? Does he have to be confronted by an angry "warrior" rival for her affections, who he ultimately wins over? Does the tribe really have to worship a big tree? Does the tree really have to be on top of the biggest cache of "unobtanium" on the planet?
Are we really expected to believe that if the military decided to declare all out war on the Navi that it would lose? That spears and animals could defeat humans who had the technology portrayed in this movie?
Avatar is an insult to the thinking moviegoer, even more than Titanic was. Most of these logical flaws could be overlooked if it didn't take itself so seriously. That was the saving grace of the original 1977 Star Wars -- it took itself just seriously enough, but was able to wink at itself too. And it had a lot of wit and humor, which are sorely lacking in Avatar. James Cameron clearly believes that Avatar is the greatest movie ever made. He might not admit it in interviews, but it is painfully obvious he thinks so.
He could hardly be more wrong.