Might win 2 or 3 Oscars, but that's about it

Rating: 8/10 (22 January 2010)

I sound as if 3 Oscars is nothing big. How many films win 3 Oscars? I'm just admitting that the film is over-hyped yes, but still a phenomenal film. It's just not the type that wins 7, 8, 9 or 11 Oscars. It's actually well deserving of IMDb's 8.6 score and should be around 40th on the top 250.
One of the BIG reasons why the film is so great is because of the visuals, it's true. I saw it on IMAX 3D and was blown away. Cameron actually filmed the movie live in 3D and for 3D, using specific shots. The CGI in this movie is better than anything I've seen on film. I can't say it any more plainly than that. I can say that I haven't seen such detail since Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars before it. The planet in Avatar was very fleshed out, and wasn't just another technological planet with large skyscrapers or another planet with large mountains, waterfalls and dinosaurs. Cameron's art design team is very talented. The Navi were amazing looking creatures, feeling mythological even.
Now of course, the story was exactly what critics deemed as "Dances with Wolves in space" I agree, the only thing original was the Avatar idea which is mind boggling to say the least. I think it's a clever and original idea that makes me wonder how it wasn't thought of before. But all in all, nothing too original, I've seen Mechas in video games and the Matrix. I've seen anti-gravity craft in Star Trek. And I've seen this story before, definitely comparable to Costner's masterpiece Dances with Wolves. But after all these complaints, I still give the movie an 8. The directing was amazing and it's not easy directing actors with CGI, but Cameron mastered it because he had the right tools. 400 million is a lot of money to make a film, and not a dollar went wasted here. Even the orchestra was phenomenal, composed by James Horner who is no Hans Zimmer, but loved his score for this film.
This is one film that MUST be seen in 3D. I don't think there's any other ones out there.