Visually stunning but ultimately empty

Rating: 7/10 (2 January 2010)

Avatar is like that girl you've always wanted to date in high school. Beautiful, head of the cheer leading squad and everybody's darling. Once you've gone out with her though, you'll realize she has little to offer besides looks. Sure, that might make you stay for a while, but she won't be the love of your life. Years later, you will hardly remember her.
Avatar is surely an experience to be made. The first ever movie not shown in an IMAX which really made you feel as if you were in it and not just watching a big screen. The world of Pandora, though almost entirely CGI, is an amazing creation that will pull you in like few movies have done before.
The movie's story and characters though, and that is where Avatar stops being amazing, are unimaginative to say the least. It is almost impossible to spoil anything story wise for Avatar: If you've ever seen a movie or read a book, you will know exactly what's going to happen next. There is not a single unexpected twist or at least an interesting way of re-telling an old story in the whole 162 minutes of this movie. While this alone would not be grounds enough to dismiss the content aspect of Avatar, the characters unfortunately aren't much better. Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington do a good job as the two lead roles, but the rest of the cast, though many of them are quite talented, is forced to play cliché characters saying lines that often make you cringe. Stephan Lang as the Colonel, Sigourney Weaver as the Doctor and Giovanni Ribisi as the Corporate Guy are alternating between over the top and painfully wooden in a way that you won't feel any connection to them at all.
There are a few other, minor aspects that rob Avatar of some of its quality. While you probably shouldn't question how realistic a SciFi movie is, there are more than a few problems of plausibility even within the rules the movie establishes for its world. And it could have been much shorter as many scenes were obviously just put in to show off 3D elements - successfully, but still dragging out the movie towards the three hour mark.
The most important question is probably what people will remember of Avatar, and they will remember an awesome 3D movie. When watched in 2D or when 3D becomes the standard, Avatar will have to stand out through its story and characters - and it will do so with shortcomings in both.
A great 3D movie: Yes. A good movie: Yes. One of the best movies ever: Not a chance.
7/10