A bloated cliché with grade school quality dialogue

Rating: 1/10 (28 November 2010)

My fiancé and I bought this while on vacation for something to watch in our hotel room, figuring after all the rave reviews that it would be a solid choice. By the end, the two of us were slack-jawed - not by the effects, which, granted, were very visually attractive, but by how a movie so formulaic, so full of ridiculous clichéd one-dimensional characters and simplistic dialogue, could be the talk of the world. James Cameron has an amazing eye for aesthetics, but he seriously need to find someone with a gift for writing scripts, specifically engaging dialogue. Everything about the plot, from Sigourney Weaver essentially reprising a watered down version of her role in Gorillas in the Mist to an evil army commander who reminded me of a sad caricature of every 'ignorant, war hungry army guy' ever made, the characters just... don't matter. It's saddening that this movie is sliding by on its visuals to such a high rating. If you want to watch the exact same story, only with more moving dialogue and far less bloat, rent Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest. Cameron pretty much ripped off the entire plot from it, anyway. I dread the sequels...