Great visuals, anything else bad.

Rating: 5/10 (20 January 2010)

The 3D visuals in this movie are absolutely breathtaking. It's really incredible compared to CGI scenes 10 or 15 years ago. The difference between real world and CGI is almost non-existing anymore. The overall look of the planet and the aliens was great, the 3D was fantastic. But I'd expect nothing less with all the money behind it.
It's different with anything else in this movie. There is not a single concept of the story, planet design or technology feature that hasn't been there before. There is not a single piece of it that could be classified as original work of art. The story was extremely boring by any standards. Pocahontas on another planet is a fitting description. I cannot believe Cameron when he's telling people that he has been developing this "story" for years. A couple of months would be more fitting. Perhaps the dumbing down part, to appeal to each and every moviegoer took so long. But to me as an intelligent human being it was almost an insult. I was bored as hell during any part of this movie that didn't include any fancy 3D stuff. Leave that out, and no one will want to watch this movie!
The story was also full of plot holes and illogical events. Why did they send our hero on his first mission without any form of briefing about the dangers of this planet? Why can "Pocahontas" climb easily up each and every tree and rock she finds, but fail to lift her lover even a tiny bit off the ground to save him from the advancing machines? Why did the aliens stand in front of their tree and wait to be killed off? Are they plain stupid? Why did the aerial assault on the tree of life involve ground troops? Did the Americans send ground troops to Hiroshima before they dropped the bomb? Why didn't the aliens just watch Return of the Jedi? Then they'd have known that you need a little bit of wit to win against a technological far advanced enemy. I could go on and on about it.
The acting was average at best and the characters were as flat and boring as anyone can ever imagine them. You simply can't fit any more stereotypes in there. The hero was an extremely boring and flat character. They tried to put some depth into him with the viedeologs, but failed miserably. I fail to remember any significant lines he might have had. The military guy (Colonel or whatever) at least had his funny moments as he was so over-the-top. But the corporate guy was as dull as anyone can be. Come on, putting a golf ball in an office while making decisions is so extremely overused, I can't even put words to it! I really like Giovanni Ribisi as an actor, but that was perhaps his stupidest role ever. But I'm sure he made quite a bit of money, so he can do some independent stuff in the future.
The film didn't care to explain any interesting features of the technology, planet or vegetation at all, even though the main character works in the science team, where people might have a clue. (Oh, we're going to the flying mountains. Cool. Why do they fly? I don't care, they look cool.) Why did evolution choose to make each and every bit of the flora glow when you step on it? That predators have better night vision or that it looks cool in night scenes? Why was there one single tree about 100 times the size of the other trees? Are there more?
The music was extremely boring and sounded like a mash-up of any ethno/world music/action/adventure soundtrack ever released (especially 1492 Conquest of Paradise and Vangelis and strangely Enya come to mind).
All in all, it was a great 3D cinema experience, you will definitely be entertained by the great CGI, but you will most likely also be bored by the story and anything else!
I would not recommend anyone to watch it in 2D, ever! It's half the fun and absolutely not worth it.