# The (lack of) cultural impact of Avatar **URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lack-of-cultural-impact-of-avatar/810261 **Category:** Cafe Society **Created:** [March 8, 2018, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lack-of-cultural-impact-of-avatar/810261 "2018-03-08T21:18:51Z") **Posts on this page:** 1 **Showing post:** 11
### Author: ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers) #### Post date: [March 8, 2018, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lack-of-cultural-impact-of-avatar/810261/11 "2018-03-08T22:32:52Z")
Back in 2010, I noted: > [@Avatar: Now that you've actually seen it. No spoilers in OP](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-now-that-youve-actually-seen-it-no-spoilers-in-op/521626/699): > > I was prepared to put this movie in the same category as other groundbreaking effects movies with weak plots, like _Tron, The Last Starfighter, Final Fantasy, Sky Captain…_, but it looks _Avatar_ has made more money then all of them combined, several times over. I’m not sure why - it’s not a better movie then any of the above. And is indeed a weak movie with a cliché storyline - eminently forgettable. Movies like it and the others represent advances in the technology of filmmaking but not in the art of storytelling. _Star Wars_ remains notable for being a tech breakthrough in its day _and_ having a resonant storyline with memorable characters. By now, there are large gaps I’ve forgotten about the prequels, even though I’ve seen them far more recently. I guess _Phantom Menace_ stuck with me more than the others in part because I was on a boring military exercise when a bootleg copy starting getting passed around and for lack of anything better to do, I watched the pod race a bunch of times. I’m a tad ashamed to say I eventually bought the DVD, but in fairness it was for the included “making of” documentaries - I never bothered rewatching the movie itself. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lack-of-cultural-impact-of-avatar/810261)._