I love the character customization and I like the cast of characters. I came around on the battle system even though it HEAVILY favors physical attackers. Catching Pokemon is fun.

The number of catchable Pokemon is kinda disappointing but I like it so far.

One of my favorite bug types ever since Gen 2!

People keep comparing it to Dances With Wolves because they either havent seen Dances With Wolves or haven't seen Avatar and assume both movies are just "outsider learns culture of indigenous peoples" and nothing else.

Your point is that it doesn't survive in the cultural zeitgeist and my counter to that is I don't care because cultural impact isn't an indication of quality.

But the movies, by any reasonable metric, are hugely successful which, in studio productions, is kinda everything.

Epstein didn't make Avatar though so that's clearly the only reason why he sucks.

No it isn't! You're literally ignoring the WILDLY different characters and plot progression and motivations and everything because you think "foreign man learns about indigenous culture" is the only thing Avatar has

To say Avatar is lazy because it has a character embrace a new culture is like calling Star Wars lazy because it uses the monomyth. Avatar and Dances With Wolves are not that similar beyond the broadest stroke of "outsider learns the culture of an indigenous people".

He earned their respect because he bonded with the toruk and became Toruk Makto, after he had been shunned because of his actions getting Hometree destroyed. John Dunbar is not working against the Sioux. Neytiri and Stands With A Fist are entirely different.

I missed the part in Dances With Wolves where an entire race of people shared memories in a cloud computer tree spirit. You're looking at the tree and not the forest. Jake Sully and John Dunbar are quite different and the movies have very different plot points. Nothing in Avatar is lazy my guy.

If you think Avatar is lazy because the first movie has a character mention a fictional metal that is a wink and nod to a term used in science and engineering and sci-fi stories then I dunno man maybe it says more about you that you ignore everything else that makes it decidedly not lazy

Twice now people have assumed Avatar is for no one other than James Cameron and twice now the movies have gone on to massive success and at some point you have to wonder why people are so against an original franchise made by passionate people, one of whom has made some of the best sci-fi movies.

Avatar isn't even the first story in fiction to use unobtanium, it's a term that has been used in engineering long before it was used, once, in the first Avatar movie.

The Avatar movies are good and people saying they're 'forgettable' are not invited to the cookout.