And so?
many many movies and books and game-stories are based around the same stories.
Take LotR, star wars, matrix, harry potter, dune etc. They're all based on teh "chosen one" story where a young hobbit/jedi/hacker/wizard/atreides has to grow up to his task and become the hero who saves the world.
And thats just a single example.
What makes it good is that it re-tells the story better than ever, cause honestly, blue cat people who rides freaking air-dinos and fight mechas are just a tiny bit cooler than indians who fight the old school lame shoot-once-and-reload military. Also, unlike pochahontas it didn't have songs forced in like tentacles in a japanese school-girl (goes for almost every non-pixar disney movie)
Unlike Pochahontas, Dances with Wolves (one of these must be ripping off the otehr as well btw) etc. it also showed a new world, a fantasticly animated world with great fucking athmosphere, the setting itself is enough to see the movie if you ask me.
The only thing that makes this different from anything else is that it's been pointed out a lot, so now everyone does it cause they have to, cause everyone else says it (just like "halo suxxorz" or every other lame console war argument)
So people has agreed on hating it for that, whether they enjoyed it or not, not caring whether lots and lots of other movies are basicly the same story, almost every single slasher for instance, add Alien in this category too, cause it's pretty much the same even though i like the movie.
PS for the OP go see moviebobs review of avatar, the very first part applies to you, even though he says dancing with wolves and not pocahontas.
