Unoriginal? Perhaps. But This is a Great Film.

Rating: 10/10 (1 September 2015)

Strangely enough, I think, at least from one angle, the movie most similar to this one is American Beauty. Both movies were loved when they were released and hailed as some of the greatest achievements in all of cinema. But as the years passed, the backlash set in ans soon enough, you couldn't throw a stone without hitting someone who didn't like these movies.
Not that this isn't also true for a lot of other movies, including Titanic, Little Miss Sunshine, and, more recently, Frozen, all of which are on this list. But all those movies still have sizable fandoms.Not so for American Beauty, a movie you have to look around to find fans of. And certainly not so for Avatar, a movie in which you have to practically be Indiana Jones to find fans of, at least on the internet. For all the technological innovations it brought upon the industry, it is a movie that not a lot of people seem to like. Basically, it is the answer to the question, "What would LOTR's impact have been on the world if it had been disliked?" When you say that you like this movie, the first thing that a lot of people say is that, "But...don't you see that it's just Fern Gully (a movie that I first learned about by these comparisons), Pocahontas (Eh), and Dances With Wolves (a movie I like better than you and did not find that boring even though I watched the four-hour long version). It's not original." (Malice is not intended, but feel free to read that in the most whiny voice possible.) Yes, it is like those movies. You fools might think that you're the explorer of your generation by realizing that. But let me break it to you: your beloved Star Wars/LOTR/Indiana Jones/ Whatever is a lot like a number of movies too.
As I said in the ESB Review, there are few big budget adventure movies that are quite like other movies from decades back and books from centuries back and plays from millennia back. There are a certain amount of stories and elements that just stick close to peoples' hearts. And so those are repeated again and again. Not that this is a bad thing. I adore LOTR and many other movies that follow this formula. If you want to hate Avatar, fine, I don't care. It's not even my favorite thing with 'Avatar' in its name. But hate it for reasons that are more fully fleshed out than "It ripped off X and Y." By the way, after you read this review, I highly recommend reading Joseph Campbell's' Monomyth if you haven't already. It's the definitive work on what I've just described.
So now that I've thrown darts at some of the reasons why people hate this movie... I suppose that I should now say why I like it. Here we go. It's not the main character, who is as forgettable as any. The rest of the actors are good and are able to elevate a middling script (people don't watch Cameron movies for the writing, though in this, as in his other movies, it's fine) but they are not great. The top honors go to Zoe Saldana, who takes a rather flat role and infuses it with humor and wit and some majesty.
The music is enough to carry the film at parts. James Horner (who died just this year; RIP) puts together one of his most masterful scores. That statement is impressive considering that this a man who scored more great movies than many people have even watched and who composed the Titanic soundtrack, which sold more copies than any other mostly orchestral soundtrack in history. It feels tribal and majestic yet lively and energetic, and is a good fit for the film as well as a good listen on its own right.
But that's not why I love the movie. I love it because of its world. Some would say that you have to separate the technical accomplishments from those of the film. But as an 'atmosphere and tone' guy, I say that's impossible. That would be like asking someone to go to Costa Rica but only to do activities, not to check out the scenery.
Simply preposterous. And the film is impressive sight. I do believe that I've never seen a live-action film that managed to wow me as much as this one did. Anyone who doesn't think this film looks good doesn't believe that the best CGI is not only supposed to mimic reality, but to fundamentally enhance it. I do. This is also why I love the Hobbit movies more than you, though they are not on this list.
Not including this film on this list would be like not including the moon landing on a list of the top 100 moments in the twentieth history. It was such a step forward that to ignore it would be leaving a gaping hole in your layout. And so, while I go back to party under Hometree with the Na'vi and give props to whoever made its language, I will end with two final thoughts.
One: this film should have won in the Oscars over The Hurt Locker. That still hurts, even now.
Two: thank you, haters, for moving onto this film and off one my ten favorite films of all time, Titanic. Just sayin'.