Why Do People Hate Avatar? | Video Essay

Love how the people who complain that Avatar’s story is unoriginal will still go and see the same superhero movies with the same plot

Its perfectly fine to hate it but most of the hate it gets feels so forced and jump on the bandwagon kinda mentality.

Never hated it. Just very forgettable to me. I heard how great it was and decided to give it a watch back when it first came out, then promptly never thought about it. Until about 3 years later, when a girlfriend mentioned a sequel to which I said "Why?" And "Hasn't it been a while since the first one? Who would want to see a sequel?" Then this year I heard about the sequel and said "Huh, I guess my ex was right."

i think avatar had a solid story despite it not being entirely original. but a solid story + the spectacular visuals and world building makes it a phenomenal film to me.

I hated it because I was forced to watch it over and over because my dad was obsessed with it, and I just remember it being so long and boring (as a kid). I recently watched it again when it was rereleased in theaters and I liked it a lot. I didn’t even realize it was widely hated till I saw this video.

I was actually in the military when the first movie came out. I went to see it in theaters and, yeah, it sounds crazy, but I could totally understand why Jake would feel more welcome and comfortable around the other military characters. That bit in the beginning about a good ol' fashioned safety briefing was something that totally made sense to me. There really is something comforting about the familiarity of routine.

"Unobtanium" has been a physicist & engineer inside joke since the 1950's. It's use in this film was both clever and warranted. The scientific community, for how often we get stereotyped as white lab coat robots, do actually have a sense of humor from time to time. Look up the term's history.

Great essay. I like Avatar a lot, not because of the story lines, but because of the craftsmanship and the world that’s been created. Looking forward to nr.3 and wonder how Kari’s character will evolve.

I think a large portion of that hate comes from just how overhyped it was. When something gets endlessly talked about and shoved in people's faces, that can breed contempt and even resentment, and people grow hungry for quite literally anything else.

I saw it in IMAX three times purely for the visuals. Something about it put me in the world to the point that I physically felt like I was flying.

As an artist and creator of imaginary worlds myself, Avatar hit straight up my alley. It swept me off my feet in awe of the immense, flourishing avalanche of creative spirit that hit my eye and my heart. I would obsessively pay extra attention to the fauna of Pandora and imagine what their evolutionary tree of life might look like, and what it is that keeps the world together and makes it feel like one consistent place in nature. And I just think that they did a phenomenal job building the world. I really enjoyed Grace's character, even though she was a bit flat and goofy, but her deep fascination for the planet and its neural network and how her character offers the viewers an alternative view of Na'vi spirituality and how it is based on real and existing mechanisms that are unique to the planet, and how she says "I need to take samples" while on the edge of dying just made her incredibly sympathetic, because I can relate. Pandora is a dangerous paradise with wonders beyond imagination, nature just doing its thing, never asking whether humans like it or not. I fell in love with the artistic spirit and imaginary nature of Pandora and how all things are deeply, even spiritually connected in that place, and I'll forever love the creature designs that they made for it. Always made me feel like the people who worked on it where living my dream.

I grow up in Nigeria with a lot of passed down rich African cultures. One of which is the elders telling stories with the kids gathered around under the night sky. Some details of these stories can change from region to region. But at the end of each story, elder telling the story ask everyone what they think the moral of the story is. These stories can be told in form of jokes even but they often have a lesson hidden behind the plot. I am sure other cultures around the world have something similar. Could be why it was popular outside USA. Some movies are only there to entertain but I believe there is something deeper hidden in this one. You said it yourself the plants are so detailed. So dig deeper, Avatar has so many things to say.

When I saw the film as a kid, it really captured and stoked my already overactive imagination. I was fascinated by the strange and sometimes terrifying world of Pandora. I really felt the conflict Jake had to deal with between the humans and the Na'vi. I felt the emotion when the Quaritch callously destroys the Hometree and bulldozes the Tree of Souls. I was on the edge of my seat at the end, hoping that Jake would be successfully transferred to the Avatar permanently. I had never seen Ferngully or Dances with Wolves (and I still haven't) so I did not give a ** about the story being 'derivative' or 'unoriginal'. That's the sort of thing professional critics whine about. Normal moviegoers just want to get swept up by a good movies like I was. Unlike too many of the films released today, I really feel like this one had a soul, that the filmmakers actually cared about what they were doing.

This is ironic. When the original movie was actually showing, all I heard were good things. This is how I know the "hate" trend is not real. At the time, I had no awareness of the movie until everyone told me how amazing it was, and I finally went to see it in week 3. I was blown away and spread the word to my friends. I saw it in IMAX for a second time a week later and it remains the only movie I've seen more than once in theaters. Years go by and now all you hear is the hate on the internet. But in the real world, people who don't frequently comment on social media still mostly have fond memories of the first film. I was talking to coworkers about the sequel and we're going to see it in IMAX opening weekend.

I think it comes down to this: In all of the properties that spawn "Expanded Universes", there is the story that's being told by the movie, but there's a second layer of stories happening in the background, or just offscreen. This glimpse of more stories waiting to be told excites the imagination, and leaves people with an invitation to participate, if only in their own imaginations. Avatar doesn't have that. The story of Jake Sully IS the story of Pandora. You can't really tell another story about the Omatikaya, because there's nothing to share other than what we've already seen through Jake's eyes. That leaves other storytellers with no room to participate. No side novels. No Tabletop RPGs. No card game. Even the themes of the movie make it feel like entering into that world as a fan is possibly appropriation. I think that, over time, this "look-but-don't-touch" feeling has soured people on Avatar.

I realize the movie had issues but I absolutely loved it. Its hard to explain but it just kind of burrowed into my brain ever since I watched it

I walked into the theater without viewing any knowledge of it and was blown away. Saw it 3 times in IMAX. Soo immersive , fascinating

Hamlet was actually based off the original Norse story about a Scandinavian king that gets killed by his brother. Robbert Eggers wanted to tell the story Shakespeare based Hamlet off of.

I still remember when my parents picked me up to watch the film. The reason they gave me was its 3D, it looks awsome and you love sci fi so lets watch it. I was 13 back then and absolutely stunned by the visuals. As were my parents btw :D

I'm honestly just hoping that The Way of Water doesn't bury Puss in Boots: The Last Wish at the box office because that is a legitimate animated masterpiece.