kenhe Review of Avatar

Avatar (2009)

This movie may be just a ripoff of a science fiction novella by Poul Anderson

[1/10 · 29 January 2010]

Many years ago a rather obscure science fiction writer, Poul Anderson, wrote a seminal science fiction novella entitled "Call Me Joe." In this novella, the main character is a bitterly unhappy paraplegic who is given the job of mentally synthesizing with an artificially created being in order to settle and develop a planet rich in resources but otherwise dangerous, poisonous, and violent. At the end of the novella, Mr. Anderson posits that science has now found a place and a job for otherwise unusable cripples which gives them new bodies and new lives, and thus a valuable place in society. While Avatar takes this particular concept to a different place from a slightly different angle, the basic idea of paraplegics or other types of cripples being given a new lease on life by synthesizing their mental capabilities with those of another creature, whether Mr. Cameron admits it or not, is Poul Anderson's, and for Mr. Cameron not to acknowledge his debt to this outstanding writer is immoral. I would expect as a minimum that Mr. Cameron would let his admirers know that while he is a great director, he took his idea from an even greater and more creative source.