There were some very poignant comments to my review of Avatar by another blogger. I usually don’t comment on comments, but I could not help it. Here are the blogger’s comments in italics and my responses:

Not only is the pacing of the movie slow but insanely boring and what with the predictable plot.

I agree, the plot was predictable. But I was not bored for a second. Hmmm.

How lucky the scientist for whom the avatar was built had a twin brother.

It was necessary for the plot. They needed a renegade avatar driver, otherwise the story would have been entirely different.

Jake Sully lands at that site with no training whatsoever and is suddenly running around in his avatar.

Maybe the avatar controls are intuitive, kind of like driving a Prius?

There is no explanation of how Pandora was discovered.

Ok. There is no explanation on how Vulcan was discovered either. Why would that be necessary for the  story?

There is no explanation of how the avatar technology works. We know that the DNA has to match to get into the avatar, but how is transportation of nervous system and mechanical functions transferred from the human to the Navi. A switch is pushed so many times to “wake up” the human, but what does the switch power.

Avatar technology is fictional. It can’t be explained, just like warp drives in the starship Enterprise are fictional, and the beam-me-up-Scotty machines.

Why are the avatar machines kept on a mobile van?

So they can be moved around.

There is no explanation why only a handful of Navi speak English.

Yes, that bothered me too. But it’s not that only a handful of them spoke English. Only a handful of Americans in Iraq speak Arabic. What bothered me is that the Na’vi spoke English at all. But I chalked it off to plot necessity. It would have been difficult to make a movie all in a made-up language.

When Jake goes in the forest for the first time is it any wonder that he’ll be lost and he’ll be left behind by the team.

Yes. That seems strange.

The first time Neytiri meets Jake she repents killing the creatures that attack Jake. But later Jake kills an animal showing off his shooting skills, [SIC] shes is like “That’s a clean kill”. What happened to all the compassion towards animal kingdom previously shown?

Yes. I noticed that too. It’s like American Indians that get to kill a buffalo only when they are hungry and need the meat and blankets.

Why do the Omaticaya accept an outsider for no specific reason and why must he learn the ways of the Omaticaya? James you lost me here completely.

Because they are curious. Why did the Indians in Dances with Wolves invite a soldier into their tribe? Because he was persistent.

What the hell is unabotinum or whatever the shit that precious stone was called. What a [SIC] coincide it happens [SIC] to located right under the Omaticaya home.

That was needed for the plot. So be it. It’s a made-up mineral.

Only Jake sully the [SIC] might “warrior” who is a “cripple” and has no avatar training previously is able to tame the big creature, whatever the fuck it was called.

Heroes get to do that. Just like Rambo, who can single-handedly kill armies.

There is no mention of other clans until the final moments when all of them suddenly united thanks to Jake Sully and that big creature he tames, whatever the fuck it was called.

There was no reason before. There are humans all over the Earth, but they are not necessarily discussed if a story takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The mating scene between Jake and Neytiri is gross. Navis are aliens but they just fuck like humans, wow so creative, they know how to“french kiss” so viewers can feel comfortable and at home, also shed a tear or two and realize that they are in “love”. Fucking nonsense

Yes, the humanization of the aliens got in my way too. Again, I think they needed this for the movie, since real aliens would have been too alien for human audiences to identify with. Got to have some sex in it. But I only remember the kiss, I don’t remember intercourse. Did I miss something?

What’s with the cheesy dialogs like “This is not Kansas but Pandora. Every living creature out there is going to get you blah blah,”, “Shock and Awe”, the company, mercenaries etc. Plain bullshit.

Kansas is a play on Alice in Wonderland. Movies try to be clever. And it was a hostile planet, wasn’t it?

The final battle scene is just mindless and total BS.

Great special effects. I loved it.

The creature that attacks Jake in the beginning suddenly come to their rescue just when the shit hits the fan. James care for an explanation?

This was the Gaia effect – or, rather, the Eywa effect. The planet has a consciousness and all the creatures are part of one living organism. That was part of the whole “green” message of the movie. Look up Gaia and it all makes sense.

Finally thanks to Jake! The natives using just arrows defeat the American military force armed with precision bombs and superior AI shit and human robots!!!!

The underdog had to win! There was no choice.