Ya'know, a main criticism of this movie, if not THE main criticism, is that the story is bad, or boring. It's been out for almost a decade now, and that argument still doesn't make sense to me. It's a recycled story sure, but how does that make it bad? Boring I get, though I don't agree, but bad? Was it bad in the countless other "man joins natives and fights against his own kind" stories told before? Or is it just bad in this one?

At it's core it's a very well known, popular story that's always resonated with people no matter how many times it's reworked, so for it to suddenly be a poor story just doesn't register with me as a sensical criticism (unless you hate the stories in films like Pocahontas, Dances with Wolves, Ferngully, etc, then I guess it makes sense).

Idk why I continuously harp on this particular movie's naysayers so much. I think it's awesome but I'm not like a massive fan or anything. I guess I just get tired of seeing it treated like one of the worst movies ever made when (and this is completely subjective, I'm not trying to talk down to anybody) it's almost undeniably a very compitently made film. It gets to the point where, as crazy as it sounds, I feel like the movie is a little UNDER rated. It's not, because duh, but when a perfectly solid movie is treated with such hostility by the millions of people that made it $2.7 Billion in the first place, I just don't know.

Maybe when Avatar 2 comes out it'll be revisited and appreciated more. Either way, I still enjoy the hell out of it!

Oh, and this was my first time watching the extended cut of this, and even though I think the movievis too long as it is, the added scenes, especially the alternate opening, honestly does add to the overall narrative and helps develop the characters more.