news-record.com

Well, first off, I would have to say that I agree with a lot of what the Vatican wrote about the movie. I was moved by the story and boggled by the visual effects, but it was basically a re-telling of a very old story about clashes between societies.

That being said, I can't help wondering when the frickin' Vatican decided to go to theater school and take up film reviews? Did they decide that the fundamentalists who review movies to see whether films have clean moral values need some competition? Haven't they got some wars or other to condemn somewhere, poor people to feed, etc???

That's OK.
I find very little of what's done in the name of the Vatican entertaining.
Avatar may be a stinker (I don't know; I haven't seen it.), but so far no one's been killed or persecuted for not believing in it.
I'm just sayin'.

One possible explanation of why the Vatican would take an interest in the film is that it has an alien race with a god that actually does things -- transfers souls between bodies, communicates with the animals, getting them to fight the human invaders. I could see where they would feel threatened. :-)