Middle of the road

Rating: 5/10 (20 December 2009)

I have to give Avatar a rating in the middle of the scale because the sheer beauty and visual experience of the movie was astounding. The attention to detail of the alien world was flawless and it certainly was an exhilarating experience to feel like you were in a completely different world.
But, like many have pointed out, the story was simply too weak to overcome the outstanding look and feel of the movie. It is getting a bit tiring to constantly be told how ruthless and uneducated stupid America is. We never learn anything and just rape and pillage every land we ever discover. Capitalism is painted in such a poor light, yet we're watching a movie that required some $500 million in capital outlay to make. Surely, if we lived the way many in Hollywood suggest we should live, these blockbuster movies couldn't even be made. The stereotypes in the movie are just distracting and so over the top that it makes us look pretty bad to have gone all the way to another planet without changing our viewpoint any since the 1800's. Gosh, Americans really are a stupid bunch of people! Well, except the few that "get it" and change sides.
But the linear quality of the plot is even more distracting. Everything, I mean every single thing that happens is completely predictable. There are no twists and turns in the plot, so you know exactly what is coming next. I'm no screen writer, but I can think of several things that might have made the plot better. How about if the military destroyed the "portal" into the Avatar body (wonder why they didn't think of that?). How cool would that have been. It would have made for a much tougher adventure to get the real humans to the natives. Maybe we could have gotten to know the characters then.
Oh well, it was a spectacle, if nothing else. Entertaining, but certainly not a world changer by any stretch of the imagination.