Great movie let down by lack of intermission and bland characters

Rating: 6/10 (2 February 2010)

I just saw Avatar and am still impressed that our society can call a 95% CG film seriously. I remember not too long ago that computer animation was limited to wire frames and cubes.
Avatar was excellent, but just too long. Yes the first hour-and-a-half set up the last epic half of the movie, but there should've been an intermission in between. It's just too long to sit through without a washroom break. Yes some of the settings were unrealistic and cartoony, but that can be let by as this is a fantasy film. However, the characters were hardly interesting. None of them developed much; they may have started out interesting, but they didn't have any sort of epiphany. The supporting characters were just stock, flat, and boring.
Seriously the Colonel was just Mr.Buff Marine. Michelle Rodriguez played the high-flyer stereotype (with aviators!).
Also, why did they call their unobtanium, "Unobtanium"?! When it was first referenced, I expected it to be a joke, until I realized they weren't kidding. I was expecting "And this is our unobtanium, cobalt-thorium-G".
The ending was also quite fairly-tale-esquire, not worthy of the atmosphere set up by the previous 40 minutes. Cameron should have focused less on setting up the forest setting (did we need to devote such a long time to learning to ride the horses, a montage would've worked) and focused more on a cohesive ending after the major battle.
Speaking of major battles, I was disappointed that Mr.Colonel never did get to use his pecs in any sort of fight at the end. His death just reeked of predictability by the time that scene was in progress. Cameron set him up as such an arse that I was looking forward to his death in a completely demoralizing, epic fistfight or arrow to the face. Instead the main villain just died a dignified death that could've happened 20 minutes earlier in the film. Why set up the film for such an event and then just arrow him? It's so anti-climatic.
In fact the whole ending was anti-climatic; yes the good-guys win, but in a fairy-tale way, contrasting with the harsh reality set up earlier.
The movie's use of 3d was excellent though, being well integrated into the film. I remember Spy Kids 3D and how much of an after-thought 3D was. I am glad to see that the technology is being applied by artists in a meaningful way instead of just being something for the animators to play with.
Overall Avatar was a spectacular film let down by poorly-developed characters, a thin plot line, it's length, and a cartoony ending.