Film critic Kathia Woods has been mocked for claiming on Twitter that James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water contains elements of "cultural appropriation."
"At some point we gotta talk about the cultural appropriation of Avatar and white actors are cos playing as poc. It’s just a mess and so not necessary & no amount of visual effects/CGI is gonna erase that. Bad Lace fronts/Dry synthetic braids. Jesus fix it," Woods wrote.
After a wave of public ridicule, Woods made her Twitter account private.
"James Cameron didn't even try to find native blue people to play these roles smh," American reporter Andrew Kerr laughed.
"Only nine-foot tall blue aliens can play nine-foot tall blue aliens in movies, apparently," said radio host Dan O’Donnell.
Many users also pointed out that there are people of color (Laz Alonso) among the Avatar cast and Maori (Cliff Curtis).
Avatar's sequel continues the story of Jake Sully, the protagonist of the first film, who is reborn as a Na'vi hybrid on Pandora, one of the many moons of a fictional Saturn-sized gas giant. He tries to live a peaceful life among his new brethren, but corporations from Earth refuse to give up in their attempts to seize Pandora's valuable resources.