Avatar has taken more than $1 billion dollars in its four weeks at the box office. Filmgoers across the Globe are in awe of the film, which place on the planet Pandora in 2154, light years away from Earth, where humans have established an environmentally-destructive mining colony. Despite all that, James Cameron’s 3-D sci-fi adventure has failed to impress the Roman Catholic Church.

The Vatican brands the film bland, cliche, and overly-sentimental in reviews issued this week.

Avatar, which will be released in Italy later this week has received scathing reviews from Vatican Radio, as well as the Holy See’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.

“It has a great deal of enchanting, stunning technology, but few genuine or human emotions,” L’Osservatore Romano wrote of the epic, which has received generally favorable reviews since opening in the United States and Britain. “Its significance is in its visual impact rather than in the story, and in its messages, despite the fact that they are hardly new.”

“Cameron, concentrating on the creation of the fantasy world of Pandora, chooses a bland approach. He tells the story without any profound exploration,” L’Osservatore Romano added.

Avatar was also on the receiving end of harsh criticism from Vatican Radio, who predict that the film’s faults will negatively impact its place in cinema history.

We Are Marshall.We Are Marshall is a 2006 American drama film directed by McG about the aftermath of the 1970 plane crash that killed nearly all of the Marshall University Thundering Herd football team; the rebuilding of the program; and the healing that the community undergoes. It stars Matthew McConaughey as head coach Jack Lengyel, Matthew Fox as assistant coach William “Red” Dawson, David Strathairn as University President Donald Dedmon and Robert Patrick as ill-fated Marshall head coach Rick Tolley. Georgia governor George “Sonny” Perdue has a cameo role as an East Carolina University football coach. The movie is rated PG.

The movie was scored by Christophe Beck and written by Jamie Linden.Dr. Keith Spears was the Marshall University consultant.

The story told in “We Are Marshall” sounds a little like the invention of a screenwriter. An airplane carrying a university football team crashes, killing nearly all of the players, most of the coaching staff and several prominent fans. The university and the close-knit surrounding community are devastated but decide to persevere. A new head coach assembles a team of freshman and athletes who have never played football. This motley crew goes on to win its first home game with a record-breaking number of fans in attendance.

[...]