Hurt Locker is a hyper-realistic drama with very naturalistic dialogue, using verité techniques to give a sense of immediacy and realism. Character lies at the center of such dramas. Humans are placed in impossible/horrifying situations and the result is riveting drama.

Avatar is a sci-fi magnum opus, with grand sweepiing themes. The characters are drawn much more broadly and exist to serve the overall plot. Dialogue is unnatural and often grandiose or artificial-sounding. Character, especially naturalistically portrayed, is not useful in such a film. Can you imagine Indiana Jones, or Spiderman, or the Terminator, portrayed as a real human being? Who wants to know about Indiana’s personal problems? He’s an action hero, for God’s sake.

The grittiness and naturalism of Hurt Locker would not work at all if transposed to Avatar, and the opposite is also true. The battle scenes in Hurt Locker are realistic and resemble documentary footage. The battle scenes in Avatar are cartoonish and resemble, well, sci-fi movie battle scenes. The blood is movie blood and you don’t empatize with the characters in the same way.

The reason Avatar seems full of derivative themes, is that these are mythic themes. This is why we see them over and over, from Pocahontas to Dances with Wolves. Their origin stretches back into legend and myth, and they are resonant because these are the themes that dominate human history, good and bad. Jake Sully is John Smith is John Dunbar. By the way, notice the ordinariness of the names? Jake, John? He is Everyman, thrust into a situation where he believes at first he holds the cards, and then finds that the wisdom of an aboriginal culture is actually deeper than his own. The Teacher becomes the Student. The romance he falls into is, well, Love. And its power.

Sigourney Weaver is Science, telling Colonel Quaritch (Mars) and Parker Selfridge (Destructive Capitalism) what they don’t want to hear, that Pandora (Nature) is unique and that to destroy it would be criminal.

It is no wonder that the right wing is enraged about Avatar – reference is made several times to the “ruined earth”, militarism is portrayed as being at the service of colonialism and greed, environment is actually worshipped, the Earth is pictured as being ruled by giant heartless corporations – some might say this pictures the world we live in now, exaggerated for artistic purpose. This is the power of such a film. Hurt Locker, with its realism, its portrayal of complex characters and refusal to deal in black and white, would never stir such emotions on such a grand scale. It’s a different animal.

This is Cameron’s genius – he takes on huge, operatic, Shakesperian themes like Love, War, Greed, Colonialism, and makes movies. This is not easy, no matter the budget. That’s why Cameron is a rare bird. It takes balls to take on these gigantic ideas and not look stupid when all is said and done. I’d say such movies are actually rarer than fine dramas like Hurt Locker. My dad always told me, “a minor key is more expressive, but writing in a major key is much more difficult”.

I could go on, but – my point is, saying that Hurt Locker represents Substance, and Avatar, Flash, is merely revealing your personal preference. Using the tools one uses to analyze Hurt Locker to pick apart Avatar is meaningless. Hurt Locker is an intense personal drama. It looks at its players with a microscope to reveal texture and complexity rarely seen. Avatar is the world seen, instead, through a telescope, with a wide lens. It is grandiose and unrealistic. So is opera and symphonic music.

When tens of millions walk out of theaters, worldwide, across cultures and nationalities, thinking of the environment and man’s inhumanity to man and colonialism and interventionalism and, yes, the power of love, this is a pretty rare achievement. And if it’s entertaining, that’s just icing on the cake. This is Cameron’s achievement. And don’t think it’s easy or common. Give the same budget to 20 directors, tell them to paint such a picture, and they’d you’d probably get 20 stinkers – unless one was Cameron. The history of motion pictures is full of examples. I would submit also that his previous movies speak for themselves – they will all be remembered as landmark films. It took the French to realize that John Ford westerns were actually mythic, immortal, and well-told stories, because U.S. critics were too good for them – noses in the air. My nose is not in the air.