By Nick Squires in Rome
The plot of Avatar is described as descending into sentimentality
The futuristic 3-D adventure, directed by James Cameron, has received scathing reviews from Vatican Radio as well as the Holy See's official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.
The epic movie, which will be released in Italy this week, has received generally favourable reviews in the United States and Britain, amazing critics and cinemagoers with its technical mastery and blend of real-life actors and animation.
It takes place in 2154 on the planet Pandora, light years away from Earth, where humans have established an environmentally-destructive mining colony.
But the record budget had failed to impress the Catholic Church hierarchy in Rome.
"It has a great deal of enchanting, stunning technology, but few genuine or human emotions," wrote L'Osservatore Romano.
"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."
The plot descends into sentimentality, the Vatican newspaper said, and "a rather facile anti-imperialist and antimilitarist parable which doesn't have the same bite as other more serious films."
It concluded, though, that the "spectacle" of the film was worth the price of a cinema ticket.
There were harsh words too from Vatican Radio, which accused the film of "being a wink towards the pseudo-doctrines which have made ecology the religion of the millennium." Avatar's faults meant that it would not go down in the annals of cinema history, Vatican Radio said.
L'Osservatore Romano has tried to strike a less staid, more contemporary tone in recent years, commenting on popular culture as well as covering issues relating to the Church.
It has passed judgment on the Harry Potter films as well as Dan Brown's 'The Da Vinci Code' and 'Angels and Demons'.
Last month the newspaper congratulated The Simpsons on its 20th anniversary, praising its often irreverent take on religion and saying it was based on "realistic and intelligent writing".
Without Homer Simpson and the other yellow-skinned characters of the long-running cartoon series, "many today wouldn't know how to laugh," said an article titled "Aristotle's Virtues and Homer's Doughnut".
Homer's religious confusion and ignorance were "a mirror of the indifference and the need that modern man feels toward faith," the paper said.
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