Dated/wrongheaded social commentary, and without any real technological imagination....

Rating: 4/10 (22 August 2014)

I was honestly very disappointed by Avatar, and this reaction is despite my enjoyment of the homage to Philip Jose Farmer and some other very well-executed scifi flourishes. My problem is that, as a social commentary, Avatar One was entirely misguided. I am a huge James Cameron fan, but he is at his best when telling stories, which he does quite well. So blowing up "evil" corporations is the way to save the world? How about looking at how it really is? These days, miners spend decades working out agreements with indigenous peoples, providing job training, repairing environmental damage, etc. Avatar is about 100 years out of date in its social commentary. In my own view of the long-term future, we will have unlimited fusion power, and raw materials will be derived primarily, perhaps entirely, through robotic recycling. So maybe we will leave the era of mining the earth entirely behind us (maybe we'll mine asteroids instead - space travel looks different when energy is virtually free). But Mr. Cameron is not telling us ANYTHING about what could make it better in future. He has no real technological imagination, and Avatar spells that out in spades. There are many brilliant failures in science fiction, and unfortunately, Avatar is yet another of them.