Overrated, but overall a good film.

Rating: 6/10 (28 June 2010)

I was lucky enough to see Avatar with my friends on opening day. I wasn't expecting much, but I was hoping for a good film since James Cameron has directed two of favorite films (The Terminator and Terminator 2). When the movie finished, I was disappointed to say the least. James Cameron proved with the Terminator 2 and the Abyss that he could direct a movie that has good special effects and a good story, but Avatar is all about the Special Effects. The story is clichéd, Dances with Wolves in space pretty much sums up the whole movie. I knew almost instantly that the Colonel was going to end up being the bad guy. It's a shame that James Cameron didn't worry much about the story when writing the script, especially since he claimed that it was going to be the movie that reinvented movies. Three things saved this movie for me though, the acting, the special effects, and the last battle scene. The acting is great, some of the best acting I have seen in the past year. The special effects speak for themselves. Not once did I think that I was looking at CGI aliens, they look that good. James Cameron knows enough about Directing to show the good parts in the battle, instead of it just being a whole bunch of close up shots. In my opinion, had the movie been a little more focused on the war, it would have been a lot better. One minor thing that bothered me were the zoom in shots. It seemed like the cinematographer was using a hand-held camcorder, and they do this effect several times. It isn't one of the greatest films of all time, it should at best be placed 250 on the Top 250 list, but it isn't "bad". If you ever have about three hours to kill, spend it watching Avatar if you haven't seen it yet. If you have already seen it, I really don't see the point in watching it again.