King Kong meets Dances With Wolves

Rating: 7/10 (22 January 2010)

Avatar isn't by any means a great movie, but it is a stunningly beautiful one. The design of the alien creatures and alien landscape is superb, a fully realized world of great beauty.
Take away that stunning beauty and you've got an okay but unexceptional action flick. The story is by-the-numbers, a clichéd noble-savage vs. evil empire script that is well-intentioned but unoriginal. Still, the movie moves quickly, the action is engaging and the experience is ultimately shallow but satisfying.
I'm not sure how I feel about the 3D aspect. Sure, it's the best I've seen in terms of 3D technology (I haven't seen a 3D movie in many years), but I'm not sold on 3D yet. I kind of feel this movie would be just as pretty flat, and that often the 3D effect was a little distracting. But it may just be something I'm not used to.