The most mainstream movie EVER

Rating: 8/10 (6 August 2011)

The highest grossing movie ever, and what many have called the biggest cinematic achievement ever, Avatar turns out more like your average summer blockbuster just with a bigger budget. Avatar comes from James Cameron, the creator of some much better sci-fi classics like aliens and the first 2 terminator films.
It tells the story of the human invasion on the planet Pandora thats populated by a race called the Na'vi. The humans want the rare material found beneath the giant tree that the Na'vi live on. Sam Worthington plays the lead as one of the marines named Jake who's put into the "avatar" program, where people gain control of a Na'vi body to infiltrate the tree. The films plays as part a giant sci-fi war story and part a love story between Jake and the Na'vi he falls in love with.
Although the story might sound ambitious it ultimately crumbles because of its insanely cheesy dialogue, Clichés of characters, and its focus on huge CGI spectacles than actually telling the story. The cast is also a bit of a mis-match, Worthington plays the lead well, and Sigourney Weaver plays the teams Na'vi expert well but the rest of the cast lets the films down: Michelle Rodriguez plays the most by the book marine ever spouting cringe-worthy lines throughout, Stephen Lang plays a boring bad guy with nothing to him, and Joel David Moore plays Jake's marine friend who's downright bad acting sticks out in almost all his scenes.
Now onto that whole "cinematic achievement" thing. Yes the film has good special effects but they take up too much of the film where Jake is exploring Pandora and the film drops any real sense of story or quality to simply stare at the effects. In terms of action the film has some huge epic battle scenes that act as the films highlights, but at nearly 3 hours long the film feels like it just drags everything out. I will say the effects and general spectacle of the film is impressive but the films goes so far into its CGI world that at times the films simply looks like an animated films with no real world shots at all.
As a films Avatar feels like a true product, where everything through its story has been made as mainstream as possible, but while this works from a commercial standpoint, it makes the film feel a little forgettable. Although you its a films most people will end up watching, I have to say it feels too basic to recommend and there's a lot of better sci-fi films out there.