Good film but?????

Rating: 8/10 (17 January 2010)

The overwhelming positive response to Avatar that has moved it to number 37 on the IMDb data base has been huge. The film is also set up to potentially becoming the biggest box office success in movie history surpassing even James Cameron's Titanic. Cudos to James Cameron (a Canadian folks).
But folks let's put things in perspective. Is it as good as Titanic? No. Is it as good as Star Wars especially the early ones like Return of the Jedi and the Empire Strikes back? We don't think so.
This is not to put down Avatar. The 3D effects are really really good. I was dubious at first but this was a wonderful experience in that respect. But where this film fails is that the story is predictable (ok so was Titanic - I mean every one knew the ship would sink)the characters largely stereotypes especially Stephan Lang playing Colonel Miles. When it came to the battle scenes parts of it was just cheesy especially some of the lines i.e. Come to daddy". I burst out laughing as I did a few other times during that episode rolling my eyes at the same time.
The Navi were real good and Neytiri was certainly attractive but the love story while good did not live up to Jack and Rose in Titanic. Wes Studi as the father was interesting.
What this was quite simply was a simple tale of the Europeans arrival in North America in 1492 only this time the Europeans lost. Maybe they should have in 1492 as well but this time no disease wiped them out. At least not yet.
No this was a enjoyable film made into a really good experience with the 3D effects. But there are other films of similar type that are better - much better. So folks calm down. Good it is. Great it isn't.