Lucas gets crucified and Cameron gets a free pass for this?

Rating: 5/10 (17 January 2010)

Avatar is a look-at-the-pretty-scenery movie, it tries to distract you with pretty scenery and amazing CG creatures, while in the meantime you might not even notice the movie's political message that will likely take you out of the experience if you happen to get bored from the CG half- way through and actually start paying attention to what the characters are implying.
Let's brake down to what I dislike, considering it's 80% RT count with so many five-star reviews, I have to ask did everyone set the bar lower for the term "best movies of the year".
In order for a movie to even begin to qualify as the best movie of 2009,you need a strong story, you need memorable characters and you need good twists.
Avatar has none of the above.
Starting with it's main hero, Jake Sully, played by an obviously bored Sam Worthington, whose animated Avatar actually has more charisma than his real life counterpart.
Sigourney Weaver's character is fun, but pointless, Michelle Rodriguez does not play a bad girl, except for the latter part of the film where she stands up to Quarricth and has one of the most brainless death scenes I've ever seen.
Shame we never get to see Zõe Saldanha, as she is quite attractive, but her Na'vi character is that first quite smart(she does have one great dramatic scene) but her character later loses her charisma.
Quarritch is a forgettable villain and well as the head of the RDA who is a jerk and greedy for no apparent reason other than the script demands him to be so.
The Na'vi are for the most part a mix of the most clichéd aspects of the noble warrior, a common myth that has no ounce of truth to it anywhere but in popular culture.
And let's talk about the plot, for a plot this derivative and look while I understand that there have been homages and more shameless rip-off than Avatar and that it's really not a big deal, but for Cameron to hype his script as 14 years in the making, he's not being honest.
The movie offers very little surprises and for it's derivative nature it plays it very safe. TDK, as an example again, takes the superhero clichés behind the tool-shed and shoots it right between the eyes. Avatar does nothing of the sort.
Instead, it plays on more modern themes, such as environmentalism, hence almost spoofing Ferngully: The Last Rainforest and also seems to say something about the military and not in the most flattering way, as Quarritch arrives on the scene to get the Na'vi to leave and with his army tries blows up the Na'vi's home in a scene that pretty much mimmicks the September the 11th attacks. Except that in the context of the film, it's greedy white military/mercenaries that commit such an atrocity against foreign natives in order to steal their wealth.
And that's when you see the movie's true heart of darkness, when it parallels the mindset of "blood for oil". It's scary, I know...
Avatar is basically a gross revisionism and reinterpretation of political zeitgeist of the past 8 years.
I was both shocked and rolling my eyes during that climactic scene. But with villains this basic and one note, how could you not feel for the Na'vi?
At that point, all the Na'vi, including Neyfitri are angry because at Jakesully(that how they call him), because he betrayed and they have every right to be so. But what does our hero do? Do something that no Na'vi, considering the context of the film even thought, but Jake Sully who has been a Na'vi for roughly 3 months, by catching a mythical bird that like I said before, no Na'vi ever remembered and presto, Nefitiry already forgives him and he becomes a leader to them, just like that.
It gets even more idiotic that the same Na'vi who pray to their trees when the inevitable showdown looms and Ewya does nothing except when Jake Sully uses his naturally grown USB port and asks for Eywa to help.
And so the final showdown between Quarritch, his men and the united Na'vi tribes begin. As things look bleak for the Na'vi, who instead of just marching right into the line of fire, since they are a warrior tribe, Ewya decides to intervene, making animals and general wildlife fight the invaders, all thanks to Jake Sully, of course, Eywa could have been much nicer to it's people if she had decided to act before most of the Na'vi had already been shot. What a beatch, if you ask me.
Avatar is just not as good as many critics will have you believe.