Man, it sure was funny to see Green Shinobi taking the opposite position on Dances With Wolves than he did with my 12 Monkeys remarks. I'm glad to see my points have taken hold with you, GS.
I need to get a live feed of this thread to my phone.
The point was that there is no objective measurement for these criteria, nor does anyone's opinion carry objective truth. You cannot objectively say "the characterization in this film is poor," or "the melody in this piece of music is subpar."
But after seeing dozens of movies in a particular genre, you can certainly say whether the writer/director made a tangible effort at developing these aspects of the film, or if he considered them to be unimportant and was instead focusing on something else.
James Cameron had less interest in making an artful, excellent, great, Oscar-worthy film than you do. He just wanted to make a fun action/romance/spectacle/message movie for all ages and genders. He succeeded at that and no one here has disputed his ability to do this.