Epic Battle = Epic Fail

Rating: 3/10 (27 July 2010)

Avatar is what happens when you have access to cutting edge cinematic technology, and then developing a story line to accommodate the technology. Like theme park 3D movies that utilize gratuitous sight gags to highlight the 3D affects, the entire project of Avatar seems to be an excuse to exercise such technology, with a plagiarized premise heavy on hypocritical anti-American themes.
I will skip going in depth on the aspect of the overdone & cliché theme of "Big Business suck, wealthy people are ignorant a-holes (even though James Cameron had near unlimited resources to produce this movie)," which has been covered ad nauseam. Yes, we already know that this is "Fern Gully with Helicopters, Dances with Wolves with Blue People, etc.etc."
Instead, even if we pretend that this is an original story, you can cry "bull-feces" at every corner. Cameron portrayed the marines as these uncaring, ruthless killers, with the exception of two. As an American patriot who knows many soldiers and sailors, both active and retired, I take offense to said portrayal. But what I find most offensive is Cameron's absolute ignorance of military tactics and strategy.
Okay, we know the Colonel is a hard-nosed, bloodthirsty killer with no conscience. I can accept that. But how is he also a complete moron? Are we to accept that in the future, there are neither education requirements nor strategy training for military officers? A Colonel must at least have a college education, with SOME knowledge of military strategy. But apparently not this Colonel (Stephen Lang).
The entire epic battle should be considered an epic failure.
1. The main objective of the attack was to demolish the Tree of Life by kicking a pallet of bombs out the cargo bay? Really? Is this the 1940? Was the ordinance officer (guy in charge of bombs) recruited as a forklift operator from Home Depot? There are no guided missiles?
2. Said shuttle was shown docking with a space transport at the beginning of the movie. So, if this thing can fly in space, and the Skypeople has the initiative (control of when/how to attack), then why did it not approach the target FROM space? Instead, let's fly the spacecraft low enough so the pterodactyls can bring it down! If I could choose the time and place for a fight, even I'm smart enough to not fight Aquaman in the ocean, Daredevil in pitch darkness, or Magneto in a room full of metal knives.
3. If for some reason the shuttle could not approach from space, then at least fly OVER the floating mountain! They KNOW communication and navigation is disrupted by those mountains, Even if there were no hostile natives posing the possibility of an ambush from the cliffs (should've seen that one coming), I wouldn't want to fly through those mountains.
4. The ground troops are deployed in a firing line, with no advanced scouts? Have we forgotten what happened to Colonel Custard? Even someone whose extent of military knowledge is limited to playing Starcraft knows to send a few units ahead of the main body, to gauge the type and level of resistance expected. And where's the air cover? From the previous battle where the giant treehouse was demolished, we learn that the Na'vis' arrows are useless against the aircrafts if fired from the ground (but for some reason, very affective when fired from the pterodactyls? I Cameroned this observation from a previous review)
5. Finally, the biggest fairy tale is the "happily ever after' ending, where the victorious Na'vi herd the Skypeople onto the shuttles to send them a'packin'. The only thing worse for a corporation than a failed enterprise is the lingering evidence of said enterprise. If the evil corporation is as ruthless as represented by Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi), and they've gone so far as to BEGIN genocide, then it would be in their best interest to FINISH the genocide. No witnesses, no lawsuit, no crime. Any viewer with a brain should ask, as the movie ends, how long before the corporation comes back and carpet-bombs the Na'vi out of existence?