Avatar

Google brought it to my attention that today is World Environment Day. Thank you for that Google, because I would like to talk about an environmental movie that I hate but everyone else loves. I'm of course referring to the 2009 James Cameron movie that is the highest-grossing movie ever made, "Avatar." After talking about this a few times, I feel that today I will give in and talk about why I don't like this movie.

First off, there are some things that I do actually like about this movie. I liked how the scenery looked because it looks like nice scenery. If you have ever seen illustrations, it's not innovative, but it was nice to see this in a big-budget movie.

Since I refused to go see this in the theaters when my cousin invited me (because I thought it was the adaptation of my favorite cartoon "Avatar: The Last Airbender," but it wasn't, and don't worry, we'll get to that cinematic abomination later), I don't know how the 3D looked, so I'll let Doug Walker say what he thought of the 3D: "I did like the 3D. I thought it was pretty cool. But, again, How to Train Your Dragon came out maybe a month later, few months later. Totally blew it away. I mean, unbelievable 3D. Best I've ever seen. So, doesn't have that going for it."

Obviously what I really hate about the movie is the story. The good thing is that people who like this movie admit the story's not good. Well that's a relief, at least there's something we can agree on.

Look, I understand guilty pleasures, I know you want to jump into this environment, but the technology isn't anything that spectacular. Sometimes the images looked like it was really there, but you can guarantee that you're looking at CGI-imagery, because that's what they are. They look nice, but they move like computers, the texture looks like computers, it's still computers. Doug Walker even admitted, "I never felt like "Hey, I can reach out and touch these people." Only once or twice."

In all honesty, they're blue cats. How can you make that look real? That's a challenge in it of itself, and to make that look real, they must have done a decent job, but for everyone to be building it up like that wasn't really worth it.

Like I stated already, the story is what got to me because I've heard this story before multiple times. I've seen Walt Disney's "Pocahontas," but apparently this type of environmental story has also been told in "Ferngully: The Last Rainforest" and "Dances with Wolves." Look, it was old when they were telling the story. For this movie to come out and be the highest grossing movie is telling everyone that they want more of this story and want to hear it repeatedly. We can tell this story like the back of our hands and people who watch it can agree the story's not very good. By making this the highest grossing movie is saying that the audience wants more of this story because it's new to them.

What I hate is that they're already planning sequels to this movie which has got to be the same story told again.

Online readers: I don't mind stories about prejudice or the dominant person using his power over the lower class, but I want to know "why." Why are they doing that? What is their motive? Money, just wanting more power, domination? Look, we know the story. What is the moral? "Don't judge." We understand that because that's something our parents have told us since we were babies. We know this story from first page to last. Unless you give us something new instead of replacing the Native Americans with blue cats, it's not going to be engaging.

I would like to see a story that tells us why these prejudices exist, like maybe it might be greed. Why do we think that to get the valuable item (like gold or oil, obviously) is more important than human life? That I think would be something worth telling because it would be new. This movie didn't do that but tell us a story we've seen so many times. You can predict it from beginning to end, which is annoying, but granted, the movie did look nice.

Anyone who says that they love "Avatar" for the look of it, I can understand and respect that, because that's what I actually like about the movie. I wouldn't want to see this movie again because I was annoyed by the story, but I wouldn't mind seeing any of the visuals and the look of this movie, whether it be in clips or images. So, just to recap: this is not a movie that I hate entirely, as there are things about it that I like.

Happy World Environment Day everyone. Now everyone knows why I don't like "Avatar," so if you were wondering at certain moments when I mentioned it, now you know.

Stay tuned this Friday for the next installment of "Dirty Harry Month."