The 50 Day Movie Challenge asks one question every day, to be answered by a few paragraphs and a clip, if possible. Click here for the full list of questions.

Today’s prompt: What’s a movie that you think is critically or commercially overrated?

This seems to be a fairly similar question to “What’s a movie that critics and fans loved that you hated,” but so be it. I’ll choose this time a film that I didn’t hate, but one that I definitely think was BOTH critically and commercially overrated, and that’s James Cameron’s Avatar. After many, many, many posts and comment threads about it back when it came out, I’m sure people (who read those threads) think I hate it, but I don’t. I just don’t think it’s all that. It’s got some really nice technology providing smoke and mirrors for an overly-earnest story that is derivative and an emotionally-shallow experience that’s fleeting.

I usually try not be part of backlashes, but that’s pretty much what happened for me with Avatar; that said, I still think it’s overrated. At the time I said I’d revisit it a year later. I haven’t, and I’m pretty apathetic about ever spending time with it again.