Devils advocate time!
To be fair, yes, there have been movies which try to glorify smoking. It was a bad thing, worthy of complaints. But groups like this did there job. They stopped people from using movies as an advertising tool. And that was good. It likely prevented a lot of people from dying a slow, agonizing death by Cancer. And a certain amount of vigilance is needed to make sure that movies don't turn into propaganda tools again. The problem is that there is suddenly a sizable movement to keep smoking out of movie, and next to no actual enemies to fight. So all they have left to do is invent enemies, and blow things out of proportion. Movements don't just die out overnight, being in a group is nice. So they nitpick Avatar, a movie that if you looking for problems, you could easily find one. You just have to be thinking with Dogma instead of reason, which every last damn one of us does at some point or another. It's a mistake, clearly. But they mean well, and they have a reasonable motivation, they just need to stop and think before they speak.
Also, go easy on Cameron. He isn't actually criticizing gaming. It's not criticizing alcohol if you say that alcoholism is bad. Your just saying that a reasonable pastime should not be taken to an unreasonable, unhealthy, and dangerous extreme. No complaints here. There is no hobby that you should lose yourself in so completely that you neglect your personal well being. Personally, I thought it was nice that smoking cigarettes was portrayed as a minor, but relevant, character flaw in a rounded, flawed, but ultimately admirable character. It's a far better way to decrease smoking then beating the just say no mentality into your head with a sledgehammer.
In honor of this, I'm smoking a Cigar later. I absolutely can't stand cigarettes, but I do smoke a cigar about once every month or 2. Looks like it will be twice for this month.
