Hello my fellow random response generators! It is I, Josh Stoodley, with more silly thoughts on the silliest occupation in the universe: fandoms!
So, this thought came to me when I was watching Dune (2021). Now, I have a confession to make: I do not like Dune. I don’t. It’s creepy and weird, with all of the nonsense of pre-Star Wars science fiction. About the only good thing I can say about it is that while it is incredibly racist towards Middle Eastern and North African peoples, it is in a positive way instead of the overwhelmingly negative one we see today.
Anyway, while I watched the movie, amused by the cyclical nature of art (Dune the novel inspired Star Wars which inspired Dune the movie…), I realized Avatar (2009) is just a bad Dune ripoff!
Let’s count the ways, shall we?
- There is a distant planet with some mineral needed to keep humanity functioning
- It takes place in humanity’s future (pet peeve of mine, by the way)
- A young and dumb man is sent to the planet to get more of the mineral (Paul, at least, is marginally smarter than Jake)
- Young and Dumb is betrayed!
- Young and Dumb falls in with local tribe, meets Girl
- Young and Dumb bangs Girl
- Young and Dumb becomes leader of local tribe and leads them on a grand, pointless, bloody crusade
Granted, these kinds of stories are old. John Carter of Mars is a good example (the movie adaptation is good by the way), but it just tickled my funny bone about how shamelessly Cameron ripped off Herbert.
Next week, a post on the philosophies behind The Standard Tech Case Files, Brockhold and Legends of Infernia!
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