How James Cameron wasted my time

James Cameron could be putting his formidable talents to use making films which startle us with their originality.

Instead he pours all his energies into tedious predictable dogma.

Never mind that "Save the Earth" is a worthy goal. We've seen that movie, over and over, each reflecting its era, from "The Plow That Broke the Plains" (1936) to "On the Beach" (1959) to "Silent Running" (1972), "Soylent Greene" (1973), and "Logan's Run" (1976), through "Erin Brockovich" (2000), "An Inconvenient Truth" (2006), and "Beasts of the Southern Wild" (2012), to "A Perfect Planet" (2021).

What does "Avatar" do that, say, "Snowpiercer" (2013) doesn't do? Other than leave a cloying scent of glycerin tears in my nostrils?

And don't get me started on Avatar's "Pocahontas in Space" metaphor. Save that rant for another essay.

Epilogue: Perhaps I should watch "Titanic" (1997). At the time of its release, turning up one's nose at such things was fashionable among my crowd. Or at least, turning up one's nose at young Leonardo DiCaprio was fashionable. But since then I have come to appreciate DiCaprio's talent (he was excellent in "Don't Look Up" (2021)).

Fiction cross-reference

• Gnomon algorithm
• Gnomon Chronicles

External links

• Comment @ Facebook (13 January 2023)