Dances with smerfs

Rating: 5/10 (6 January 2015)

As you probably already know, 'Avatar' has ground breaking special effects and breathe taking animations. But once you look past the stunning visuals, it lacks originality at its core. It rehashes the plot of previous 'living among the natives' movies and places it in a science fiction setting similar to 'Star Wars.' It heavily borrows from movies like 'The Last of the Mohicans,' 'The New World' and most notably 'Dances with Wolves.' Just like in 'Dances,' the protagonist (Worthington) is sent on a mission to 'the frontier' and gets caught in the conflict between his army and the natives he has made friends with. This simple, familiar story worked magnificently in 'Dances' but only partially works in 'Avatar.' 'Dances' was filled with lush detail, deep characters, excitement, humor and emotional depth. 'Avatar' only completely fulfills the excitement part. The dialogue in 'Avatar' is excruciatingly clichéd and we don't get to know or connect with many of the characters. In 'Avatar' there aren't any great native characters like 'Kicking Bird' or 'Wind in His Hair' (from 'Dances') who we can relate to or even know well enough to care about and remember for a long time. I would say that Lt. Dunbar's (Kevin Costner's) horse Cisco (in "Dances") is more developed than any character in Avatar. It seems that James Cameron got too carried away with all of the great special effects and forgot to write a meaty story. With 162 minutes, you would think this film would have better character development. But still, the story isn't at all bad. It is lean and even weak in some parts, but still has plenty exciting scenes and at least tries to offer some (un-nuanced) social commentary. While I feel that 'Avatar' is highly overrated, it is still a great visual experience, manages to entertain, and leave you with something to think about, even though we've seen the same story before and seen it done much better.