One-Dimensional

Rating: 6/10 (19 January 2014)

Avatar is a quality cartoon, with rich, well-rendered fauna, prettily radiant flora and spectacular complex landscapes: an excellent movie for children. What it isn't though, is a particularly satisfying experience for grown-ups. The dialogue is trite, the characters hopelessly one-dimensional and the plot derivatively simple-minded.
Whilst the smurf-like aliens have a luxurious, fleshy feel, they do not make convincing lifeforms. If you were unexpectedly to come upon one during a walk in the forest you would in no way believe that it was a living, breathing animal but that someone had left a sculpture or a plastic model there by accident. They compare poorly in this respect with the aliens in District 9, for example, who would be entirely realistic creatures to find rooting through your garbage.
Between the pantomime villainy of Stephen Lang and Sam Worthington's torpid, wooden delivery this was a hard movie to sit through, and not one I'm interested in revisiting.
6/10