A pioneer, endless possibilities.

Rating: 9/10 (19 December 2009)

This comment is edited as I felt the need to clarify some things in the light of so many biased reviews.
Avatar has been over praised or bashed so I'll lay down some facts:
Story. It's a cliché, predictable, played by cartoons like characters. But is a satire of the modern human society, not a good one, but still a satire. Wants to address thematics like ecology and differences of culture and technology. I could have enjoyed a more serious approach then "big bad guy" vs "poor common guy with a lot of guts", or "unobtanium" or "10 easy steps to understand Pandora, for dumb people" kind of dialogue. Nevertheless, the story is decent enough to sustain the movie for what it is. I have seen on IMDb crappier movies with ratings of around 6, so in no way , unless you are biased by an anti Avatar current, can you give less then 5-6.5 for story.
Visuals. This is the strong point of the movie, and not so much in 2D, where the movie feels silly, but in 3D. The team behind Avatar did an amazing job in creating a believable world , rich and wonderful. I pay my respects to them, despite the fact they were heavily inspired from games and so on. I really enjoyed watching Jake uncover the secrets of Pandora and got bored by final battle. I liked so much that I went to see it twice on IMAX 3D, second time just to enjoy a more suitable central position in theater. 10/10
My conclusion. Thematic wise, it let me indifferent. For me story was good enough to get me there, in Pandora, to enjoy the beautiful scenery. But what we really get from this movie is an open gate to infinite more possibilities in movie creation. I am still waiting for a true SF masterpiece, not restrained by technological limitations to human like environment , imagination going freely to explore possibilities, space, galaxies, philosophies. Few movies got close to that, like Blade Runner, Aliens, Star Wars, Serenity, Star Trek but all have been tied down, in some points, by limitation of technology. This is no longer the case.
For being a front runner, a pioneer, for it's possibilities, for what is to come, but not for story, I am giving it a rightful 9/10.