Director Terry Gilliam sure didn’t pull any punches when discussing his thoughts on James Cameron’s sci-fi epic Avatar with the A.V. Club.

The man behind such epic, often nightmarish, fantasies as Time Bandits, Brazil, and Twelve Monkeys told the entertainment news site that while he appreciated Cameron’s technical wizardry, the film itself had sucked donkey balls … or something like that.

Gilliam said:

Technically, it’s extraordinary work. And that’s where it sort of ends. We’ve seen the story before. We’ve seen so much of what’s been done there before, but I think he’s obviously moved the technology way ahead, to a point that who’s going to get the benefit from it is the real question. I think his system that he’s developed is obviously extraordinary, but you need these vast sums of money to create something like that.

The thing that always amazes me about Cameron is how he uses the camera. I’ve always been amazed by that, ever since I first saw his films. And he continues to do it. It’s a dynamic that’s quite extraordinary, but as far as the ideas and everything else, nothing surprised me.

What he’s done is so difficult. And that deserves praise for something. I don’t know if it’s necessary, is my problem. I occasionally would pull the glasses off and say, “Did the depth mean that much to me?” And it didn’t. But it’s very lush work.

It’s a good thing Cameron doesn’t have human feelings, otherwise such criticism would surely sting. Gilliam’s latest film is The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus which, ironically, also sucks donkey balls.