It doesn't take much interpretation to understand the critiques of Avatar are inherently more articulate and thought out than the generic "it was great 3D and made a lot of money" blather from the Avatar "fans." Example of the former (from a 2009 assessment): ""An early red flag I had about Avatar occurred when watching James Cameron on “60 Minutes” a few weeks ago. Morley Safer was asking Cameron about the design of the Na’vi and he was noting their tails. “Why tails?” he asked James. A pretty softball kind of question, but his immediate reply alarmed me. James Cameron sort of half-smiled and said with boyish glee “Well, tails are cool!” And that kind of “Well (fill in the blank) is cool!" mindset seems to be the only thing that was driving him during the entire process of making Avatar and it just doesn’t cut it for the subject matter he wishes to explore. It seems like all of his best ideas started and stopped at “Well, that’s cool!” The only point that really matters is the large, large universe out there that completely disagrees with that sort of throw-away revsionist opinion. Despite the fact Disney has tried to muzzle awareness of and interest in the movie, the market in copies ripped from the high res Japanese laser disc Disney released in the 80s is thriving.
Love is overdoing it, they like the ride less because of any perceived cogent theme and more because it's a very elaborate version of what you can get at any Six Flags and has thrill ride type drop at the end. Or stated differently, since it's Disney, yeah, they expect it to have some sort of theming, even if they're not clear on exactly what it represents. I agree most (not all, most) have no idea or only a general idea of the film it is based on. However, if you have paid attention to reviews of it, you will notice they segment by age: anyone in their late 50s or older definitely knows what Splash Mountain is based on, because they are old enough to have been a kid when the movie was still in theatrical re-release. Oh, please....don't give us the “we are the world” collective angle. The climax of Avatar features "bad guys" who are simplistically evil being slaughtered by "good guys" - that see fit to kill them all at the drop of a hat. All presented in one of the most outrageous displays of gleeful cinematic savagery ever put up on the big screen. Which deflates your "connect to nature" spin. One would think a movie with such an obviously pacifist ideology wouldn’t be so proud to bask in the thrilling glorification of war-like violence. But Cameron couldn't restrain himself.