It’s true, the outcome of the story is ridiculously predictable. The cowboys and Indians theme is so blatant that many walked out complaining “ah, it’s like Pocahontas except they’re aliens.” In fact, there are pictures of summaries of Pocahontas with names of characters from Avatar substituted, creating a near perfect summary for Avatar. But the beauty of Cameron’s work is not as much in his overall story but in the subtle techniques and the cinematography he uses to inspire emotion and deliver his message.

The story is simple. Imagine Pocahontas, except that John Smith is a Marine, Pocahontas is a blue alien, and Disney wasn’t involved.  There you go, you nailed down the story, but it’s not the story that allowed Avatar to surpass Titanic as the highest grossing film of all time.

Live-action films are received based on how smooth the live actors and the CGI are put together. The worst ones are those that look like someone pasted a cartoon character on a separate picture. Coupled with the bad acting, it looks pathetic. Avatar has none of that, it mixes the believable CGI of the Matrix with the touching story of Pocahontas and brings it all to a whole new level. Huge blue-skinned creatures are hard to accept as reality, but put them in a backdrop that is familiar to humans and have them drawn beautifully – they become as real as anything. The wildlife on Pandora has enough similarity with their Earthly counterparts for recognition, but they have enough imagination in them to make them exciting. James Cameron didn’t spend 15 years on nothing, he had to make sure his creatures were scientifically valid and his scenes photorealistic.

Part of the beauty of the film came from its incorporation of many elements from many cultures. One can pick up hints of music and sound from many cultures of indigenous people. It has a little of something from all over the world. You can pick up African drums, Celtic pipes and melodies, even at one point what sounds like Didgeridoo. The Na’vi war cry sounds similar to the Native Americans’, their chants similar to an African ringshout, trances like voodoo, the Plains Na’vi ride Direhorses like the Lakota Plains Indians. Cameron tapped into something part of every human’s heritage. With the current “give back to nature” movement, I would think that people would accept and embrace the highs and lows of Na’vi life, from the rite of manhood to the chanting of group prayer. The Na’vi’s firm belief in the interconnectivity of Nature and in Eywa, their mother goddess really strikes a chord in these cynical times. Perhaps this is the closest some people will ever get to religious fervor.

Despite some criticism of the story, there are certainly some well-devised plots. The animals, not just the characters, were well planned. The Hammerhead Titanothere with its bulletproof hide, which helped it charge the AMP suits in the final scenes, and the Viperwolves, were created with incredible agility, as shown when they fight Jake, which helps them take down ground troops with the Titanotheres. Also, Cameron, the true storyteller, does not have the Na’vi simply say that everything is connected in nature, a line far too cliché to be effective. He gives the Na’vi ponytails that can form tsaheylu, a bond with dragon or horse. The connection is so extensive that the Na’vi can connect to their ancestors and all of Eywa for their prayers. It’s as if you had a direct link to heaven, your deceased relatives and your pet fish. Through that, Cameron was able to show his audience something real, a tangible deity for all the cynics of the world. Lastly, Cameron’s Toruk, a super-dragon, was not only a fearsome flying predator but a symbol of great power and respect. He uses it to gather the Na’vi from all over the moon, and eventually unleash Eywa’s fury. It’s like watching your favorite team suddenly rally to victory. You get a sort of ecstasy from seeing such a victory. But this is on such an epic scale that the feeling is exponentially increased, taking into account the fact that a higher being was called upon by one person. It’s almost like watching Moses part the Red Sea.

So haters, what was really so mediocre about the movie? Have you all been hardened by this century that you can’t appreciate another culture even if it is imaginary? There isn’t that much you can do with a story about one species meeting another on another planet. Considering how cliché the story is, I think James Cameron deserves even more praise for being able to make it as exciting and vivid as it is.