Is hype really enough?

Rating: 7/10 (23 December 2009)

Hello all,
i gave only 7 stars and i will try to explain why. My review will be divided into three parts (visual, audio and story/character) with conclusion at the end. This review contains SPOILERS! If you don't like any spoilers at all, stop reading this and read it after you see the movie. Maybe you will agree with me.
1) Visual part - 10 stars. It's outstanding. It has the best CGI (at least for now). But it feels like it's not complete. You are in a jungle on a foreign planet. Yet you can see only max 10 different species including our blue friends. Maybe it's just me...
2) Audio part - 7 stars. This is a fine example of "neutral" sound in a movie. It's not outstanding (like in new Star Wars with its "Duel of the Fates", "Phantom Menace" or Lord of the Rings, if we are talking about "new movies"), but it doesn't "disturb the pace" of movie.
3) Story, characters etc. - 3 stars. Excellent example of what i call "Hollywood kitsch". Story is simple. Two different species. One wants something that "has" the other and wants it so bad that will do anything for it. Story is fine but what is really bad is how they present it in movie. There so many inconsistencies in the movie. For example it's dangerous to interrupt the link between human and avatar, yet they do it twice without consequences; humans have the ability to travel in space, yet they can't use planet bombarding etc. And about characters? Why is it that the only time i see some acting is when Sigourney Weaver or Giovanni Ribisi are on the screen (for example that quarrel between them). Sam Worthington plays some kind of cute ex-military guy, but fails miserably. His avatar should be a hero, but Cameron fails to show us why...
4) Conclusion. Hype! That is the word. Give enough money for advertising and you can sell anything. My first and only answer for this is: a) first hire some good script writers b) think about story and how to present it c) after that, make a movie with or without best CGI (in the end, it really doesn't matter)
Cameron and his work now shows something i really don't like. His work is starting to be based only on tricks, it's like he completely forgets about other things that makes movie a Movie. I want my old Cameron back! With his Terminators and Aliens.
Btw. Same thing is now in games. You have the best visual thingy with leaves flying around you and sunshine that makes a beautiful shadow over tree, but AI can't do a ..., bad scripts/codes everywhere, story sucks, console/PC port fails etc.