Average, in every respect but one

Rating: 6/10 (30 December 2009)

Entirely computer rendered movies are some of my favorites over the last 10 years. The Incredibles, Up, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Wall-E, (the list is long!). But Avatar doesn't deserve to be on this list. In fact, given the money spent, it is a failure worth 2/10. However ignoring the budget for a second, it is a 6. A summer block buster popcorn movie that somehow is pretending to be a classic.
it is bad? it is so well reviewed!
well, first, the 3d. The glasses reduce the brightness, and for someone with good vision it just isn't pleasant to sit for 3 hours with a black fuzzy rim bracketing the screen and a plastic weight on your nose. The 3D effect, when executed, _demands_ you look at whatever is in focus lest you get a headache trying the impossible -- to focus the fuzz outside that spot. This is annoying. When 3d is mostly suppressed you'd really rather be watching a regular big screen movie.
Second problem. Multiple ones. Forget for a moment the computer graphics. What you are left with is - a cliché ridden script - the least cohesive imagining of future science I've seen for ages. Stuff that varies from barely better than stuff the Pentagon shows off now, to god-like technology. All set in 2154. - stereotypical characters - a very dull leading man. He sounds a bit like Russell crowe, but there ends that comparison. - an extremely predictable plot. Not just predictable. You've sat through this story before, and parts of it you've seen several times.
The worst is the script. On the rare occasion the characters reveal some inner emotion or conflict through subtle action or facial expression, they immediately blurt out their motivation. I guess for the sake of us dim wits in the audience. Meanwhile the full orchestral score swells and swirls almost without a breather from the first second to the last, unnecessarily ramming down our ear canals whatever emotion we are being ordered to feel.
A good movie you think about not just the next morning, but the next week. The next month. Avatar only left me annoyed. I couldn't care less about the characters, I was left with zero curiosity for where an Avatar 2 might take them.
I'm squarely in the demographic for this movie, supposedly. Bit of a geek. Like sci-fi. Interested in technology and prepared to pay to see good CGI and Avatar totally failed me. Reading some of the rabid comments left for the few professional reviewers brave enough to be actually critical makes me wonder if the studio has launched a viral "think positive" campaign to support this movie. Either that, or the lowest common denominator uncritical cud chewing PR swallowing movie going public is a lot more interested & active on blogs and message boards than I had imagined! If the latter then I'll be spending a lot less money on Hollywood over the next decade than I did over the last!