Unfortunately, I think you are incorrect about Cameron paying some homage to narrative logic, unless you mean “homage” in the way we use it at work, where it means imitating stuff that was once great. Cameron has created an imitation of a narrative here.

I still don’t get why everyone’s okay with that. The man made a movie where almost nothing worked on a story level. And that’s fine–we have dozens of movies that come out every year where nothing works on a story level, but we don’t hold them up for Best Picture. Avatar should win every visual award there is, fine, but Best Picture?! Best Director?! That’s like saying, “well, you can either have a good story, or you can make it look cool,” a theory that many movies, among them Lord of the Rings and Star Trek, have thoroughly disproven. We’ve let James Cameron off the hook in this weird self-congratulatory way that makes my blood boil.

Also, I was on the subway, reading someone’s TIME over their shoulder, and there were two charts, one with the top-grossing movies of all time (Titanic #1, Avatar #2) and then a chart below with the top-grossing movies of all time ADJUSTED FOR INFLATION: Gone with the Wind #1, Titanic #6 and Avatar #26. So maybe, maybe we’re not all as crazy blinded by the fact that a movie that looks good and sounds phony is fine but not great as I think we are.

Bitter rant OVER