A CGI Western (Dances with Wolves remake?)

Rating: 7/10 (29 December 2009)

Rarely have I seen a more nauseatingly bad movie than James Cameron's Titanic. It lingers within your stomach like a bad oyster, but longer. On the other hand, Avatar lingers with you like a good movie should, leaving a deep impression on your spirit.
The CGI are used effectively and enjoyably, but most importantly, in a way that enhances the story, and not just for the sake of sensationalism.
However, it is worth asking how good this movie would be without CGI? The script is good but not great, the acting good but not great. So it would probably rate a 6. What you have, in essence, is a Western, a cowboys and Indians type story, but with the Indians as the good guys, much like Dances with Wolves. It is these black and white characterizations that are the weakness of Avatar.
But the CGI, alone, rates a solid 10. The effects in the movie are impeccable. One review claimed the 3D disappeared at points, but I think that was probably due to theater equipment malfunction.
Some guests on NPR tried to accuse the movie of racism, with the blue people as stand ins for Blacks. Huh? That's absurd. Too bad the host had not seen the movie. The bad guys, mainly the general and the corporate flunky, are white. If only they had been portrayed with at least a slightly troubled conscience they would have had more believability.
Fortunately, the movie does have characters whose consciences bother them, so it doesn't turn into a comic book, like Titanic. There is character development in both the humans and those blue people, the Navi. There is also a sufficiently complex plot to save it from the level of Titanic. And then there is Sigourney Weaver, a fine actress, who gives the otherwise schmaltzy movie bite.
From what I have heard of the technical complexity of making this movie, the actors deserve credit for doing such a good job in the face of such artificial conditions. I couldn't have done it. These are not big names, yet they generally did solid work.
One thing this movie has in common with Titanic is the way over the top gushing from many reviewers, too many. Frankly, there must have been a significant amount of paid buzz surrounding Titanic, and I think we are seeing it again with Avatar. This is standard PR operating procedure, going back at least to the Beatles, who had PR people who paid teenage girls to faint whenever they heard them play, to be taken to ambulances also on the PR payroll. (And then there are online reviewers who seem to hate Cameron with a vengeance.)
When Titanic was finally released, I think the press reviewers felt pressured not to pan such an expensive, pre-hyped movie. In retrospect, the reviewers were too kind to that turkey. But this time, I think they are actually a bit too critical, perhaps to make up for Titanic, and perhaps knowing a critical review will do little damage at the box office. While Avatar will never be listed alongside of Casablanca or Citizen Kane for its script, it will be a movie that will be remembered and watched for years to come.
So, bottom line, this is a movie you MUST watch in a movie theater because of the 3D, so go when you can see it in a theater with really good equipment. (Not all showings are in 3D, though. I don't think it is worth bothering seeing in 2D.)