MUMBAI: The Vatican, through its newspaper and radio station, has criticized James Cameron‘s Avatar for flirting with the idea that worship of nature can replace religion -- a notion the pope has warned against. It calls the film a simplistic and sappy tale, despite its awe-inspiring special effects.

"Not much behind the images" was how the Vatican newspaper, L‘Osservatore Romano, summed it up in a headline.

As the second highest-grossing film ever, Avatar is challenging the record set by Cameron‘s earlier film Titanic. Generally, the film has been critically acclaimed and is touted as a leading Oscar contender.

Bolivia‘s first indigenous president, Evo Morales, has praised the James Cameron film for what he calls its message of saving the environment from exploitation.

But the film has also drawn a number of critical voices. Some American conservative bloggers have decried its anti-militaristic message; a small group of people have said the movie contains racist themes.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said that while the movie reviews are just that -- film criticism, not theological pronouncements -- they do reflect Pope Benedict XVI‘s views on the dangers of turning nature into a "new divinity."

In a recent World Day of Peace message, the pontiff warned against any notions that equate human beings with other living things in the name of a "supposedly egalitarian vision."

He said such notions "open the way to a new pantheism tinged with neo-paganism, which would see the source of man‘s salvation in nature alone, understood in purely naturalistic terms."