A balanced perspective

Rating: 3/10 (22 December 2009)

Here's my problem with Avatar: I like believable dialogue and originality.
First off - don't expect Avatar to be anything you haven't seen before. I've had "Colors of Wind" stuck in my head since viewing it last night because it seemed like all the plot points were stolen from Disney's Pocahontas. Simply turning the Indians blue and putting them on a different planet doesn't make it an original concept.
Secondly, the dialogue is so riddled with clichés that it was distracting for the first 1.5 hours until the awesome visual effects were able to outweigh the storyline. Calling the Na'vi "Savages" and the humans "Sky-people" only served to underline the script's banality.
This is not even to mention the one dimensional characters like Colonel Quaritch who is so hell-bent on destroying the planet Pandora that he'd sacrifice thousands of soldiers? Not to mention his entire verbal catalog seems taken from Bush platitudes: "Shock and Awe", "Pre-emptive strike", "Fight terror with terror." This movie kept me engaged and was definitely a step above the average action-adventure blockbuster. However, don't be fooled into thinking it's anything more than that.