Well, shit. Dude got banned before I had a chance to respond to his post.
Here's my problem with Cameron's films. Take a look at these character archetypes and then think about how many movies they're appeared in:
The plucky scientist
The affable everyman lead
The bad-ass blue collar chick
The "Company Man"
The crazed military officer
The turncoat
The somewhat insane but later redeemed sidekick
After Cameron has mixed and matched those archetypes, he then grabs the template of another story such as Pocahontas and decides whether the aliens are aggressive (Aliens), friendly (The Abyss), or neutral (Avatar).
They're the same fucking movies over and over again, only with a few pieces mixed around. Outside of visuals, Avatar brings absolutely nothing new to the table. It doesn't even mix and match elements well, it just slaps them together in a predictable way. Half an hour into the film, I already knew what was going to happen in the remaining two hours. No matter how you dice it, that is bad storytelling.
FYI, I'm not bashing Aliens and The Abyss. When viewed on their own, they're quite good and/or fun movies. But they show a trend in Cameron's writing that is incredibly formulaic.
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