This post contains spoilers for "Avatar: The Way of Water."
The "Avatar" movies have had a huge impact, cultural and otherwise. When James Cameron's original "Avatar" came out in 2009, it made 3D cool again in a way that it hadn't been for decades and really pushed the envelope for motion-capture and digital effects. Cameron's sci-fi epic was so immersive that it even left some moviegoers feeling depressed that they didn't actually live on Pandora.
Sure, the story in "Avatar" is derivative...