Cowboys and Indians in the 23rd Century!

Rating: 6/10 (18 January 2010)

I love westerns, I love sci-fi, but as a student of history and film, I've seen this before. Yes, the technology is mind-blowing, the film is entertaining to say the least, but the story is a blatant rip-off of the history of the Indian Wars and the Custer saga of the last half of the 19th Century with a little of Dances With Wolves thrown in to make it more palatable.
This time around, rather than gold, humans find an extremely rare and powerful element on the planet Pandora already populated with a native life-form called the Navi. They proceed to try to peacefully move the inhabitants out of the area, all the while preparing for war, if necessary. The avatar program is nothing more than a revamped Indian agent/missionary program trying to educate and relocate. If not blue and ten feet tall, the Navi would be American Indians riding astride their six-legged horses and their dragons or mythical thunderbirds.
The story alludes to previous encounters with the Navi that might parallel the Sand Creek massacre, the destruction of their giant tree village might as well be the battle at Washita, and the final great battle that sees the destruction and death of most of the human forces is certainly their Pandoran Little Big Horn.
The Navi, whose name sounds Indian, fight with bows and arrows, ride into battle on their horses and dragons screaming war whoops and cries that come right from every Indian battle on film, and they share a bond with nature much like the mythical Indian of American lore. The chief of the Navi is even played by Wes Studi with a computerized distinctly American Indian face.
Once the humans have been defeated and sent packing at the end, Pandora is left peaceful and tranquil once again. Really? If history repeats itself, as it so often does, the humans will be back one hundred times stronger, wear the Navi down by shear numbers and decimate them and get what they want anyway. The happy ending of the film is a joke if reality pokes in its ugly head.
Technically it's great film making, but it's a rehash of history and previous movies with nothing new to add to the storytelling.