For Russians, 'Avatar' Seems a Little Familiar.

For those of you keeping score at home, the list of people, groups and nations that do not like ''Avatar'' include social and political conservatives, anticolonialists, antismoking advocates, the Vatican and China. To that list you can now add Russian filmgoers, who say the James Cameron movie too closely resembles a literary science-fiction series by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. The Guardian reported that the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda ran an article on Monday comparing ''Avatar'' to the Strugatskys' ''Noon Universe'' books: both take place in the 22nd century on Pandora, and the alien species in ''Avatar'' is called the Na'vi, while ''Noon Universe'' chronicles a race called the Nave. In the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, Dmitry Bykov wrote that some elements of ''Avatar'' were ''unequivocally reminiscent'' of the ''Noon Universe'' novels, and told The Guardian that ''the film is harmful for western civilization.'' But The Guardian reported that the surviving Strugatsky brother, Boris, had not yet seen ''Avatar,'' and that he played down any reports that he was accusing Mr. Cameron of plagiarism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]