Amazing

Rating: 9/10 (21 December 2009)

Amazing... not perfect, but amazing.
It's difficult to add to the discussion, especially when you're one of a million-and-a-half moviegoers who saw Avatar and have already commented.
I'm not 'everything James Cameron touches is gold' kind of person, but he usually brings his 'A-game' when he makes a movie. With 'Titanic' he managed to once again do groundbreaking CGI to help tell a story (although I thought the story itself was saccharine-sweet sentimentality), visually it was as big as the ship itself.
With Avatar, the story is definitely much better, although still not as big as the effects. James Cameron is all about details in his movies and it really shows. Every nook and cranny of this film is jam-packed with information, almost to a point where you need to watch it two or three times to take it all in.
We've all heard about the new CGI imagery Cameron helped develop for Avatar. Even if you shake your head in disapproval in regards to the acting or storyline, I imagine most will have at least one scene they tell someone about that captivated them.
I won't necessarily go into the story itself because so many already have, but all-in-all, I found it okay, not over-the-top, but definitely watchable from that perspective. The acting was even and flowed well, plus there were some very funny parts thrown into the seriousness for good measure.
From the marketing of the trailer, I can imagine there will be a lot of kids who want to see Avatar. Is it appropriate? It all depends.
There is a LOT of violence and people (and aliens) getting killed (albeit, nothing too graphic). There is a good deal of intense fight scenes, destruction, etc., etc. The adult language is fairly sparse and there is one adult-themed scene that eludes to sex, but like I said about the bloodshed, nothing graphic. Some theatergoers mentioned CGI female breasts and YES, they are there, but most of the time CGI artfully conceals them. You also have to consider the running time of 2:30 hours. That alone may make parents want to wait for this to come out on video for the simple fact that some kids may get bored since there's not something exciting going on all the time.
Anyway, it's a huge movie in more than one sense. It's also something that calls for the big screen, 3-D approach as well. I do plan on buying it when it does come to DVD, but it will probably lose quite a bit in translation.