I read a review that suggested that the movie was racist because of that. It took a human to lead the "Indians"...sort of a paternalistic taking care of the lessers sort of thing. Not having seen the movie I don't have an appropriate perspective to comment on that but I thought it was an interesting take on it.
I don't go to movies much anymore...probably one or two per year these days. I remember when I went to Happy Feet I was so ticked that I'd been tricked into paying to watch propaganda I nearly marched my kids out of the movie and demanded our money back.
Yeah, I don't get that gimmick, either. Maybe it's to soften the jabs the film makes so folks can say, "Yeah, but..." It is weird that way and I think it's a weak device, but it's not the first film to do that.
I didn’t see it as racist at all. They didn’t portray the natives as backward, just different. The human had to lead because he was familiar with the military equipment, but the natives came off as intelligent, just in their own way. The only really bad guys were a corporate exec and a marine. The good guys were also human, a marine and a couple of scientists. It was just a struggle between good and evil, and it was human against human. I imagine that there are so many paralells to so many things, people will be reading into it for years. It’s worth a look, definately see it on the big screen, it’s quite an experience.