Avatar.....

Rating: 5/10 (16 January 2011)

James Cameron is a superstar in the realm of Hollywood directors. He's written and/or directed in some of the best movies ever made: The Terminator (and 2), Aliens, and Titanic. With Avatar included, he is the writer/director of the top two grossing films of all time. In the winter of 2009, he released his next epic, Avatar, and it was honestly the most frustrating, annoying, manipulative, one-dimensional, and overrated film I have ever seen.
I'm just going to say it right off the bat, Avatar is not a bad movie, but it's also far from good. I will also say this, if you check your brain at the door and/or you are under the age of 20, then you will really enjoy this film, maybe even enough to say it deserved to be nominated for best picture, which it shouldn't have.
First off the story. Yeah everybody mentions this, but it's just too hard to ignore. The fact of the matter is that James Cameron stole elements from many different sources: Pocahontas, Dances With Wolves, Ferngully, TITANIC, ALIENS, and the list goes on to about 258 more sources. The reason I capitalized Titanic and Aliens is because they were both his own movies. Given that the plot is nearly identical to many other movies, the viewer knows exactly what's going to happen at every single turn. This element really slows down the movie an is a huge disappointment because I found my self pulling out my cell phone to check the time and not hesitating to go to the bathroom throughout the two hour forty-two minute runtime. I had no regrets leaving because I could perfectly predict the parts that I would miss. The movie's predictable plot made for a complete dissolution of all tension that the movie could have had because you know that the heroes are going to get out of it. Even though James Cameron is a master of film-making, he can't seem to create a political message beyond the understanding of babies. It's as if he took a pan representing that "YOU SHOULD BECOME A HIPPIE GREEN-FREAK" and hit your head filled with thoughts of "COMPLETELY IGNORING AND ABUSING THE ENVIRONMENT" well over 500 times. The plot is predictable, unoriginal, lengthy, painstakingly simplistic, and ultimately very boring.
The second and final thing I will mention is the characters. The characters are so one- dimensional, uninteresting, and predictable characters that it hurt just watching them. If you've seen any James Cameron film, or any of the above mentioned films, then these characters will ultimately bore you to death. Cameron took the easy way out with characters and made them all complete stereotypes. Going back to my previous statement about Cameron being the writer/director of both Titanic and Avatar, that says a lot about his ability to make a movie. It doesn't say that he knows how to make a great movie because Avatar is no Citizen Kane. It says how he knows how to appeal to the audience and to pull on the audience's emotions, in turn making an effective film. First off, the indigenous people of Pandora were too civilized and perfect for a "savage" and wild race. Also, the military in this movie just seemed too stereotypical for a military set 150 years in the future, especially given that the general is a complete racist asshole. Given that the way many people are becoming concerning the environment in modern time, you'd think that every single person in this movie would be a pot-smoking hippie, especially the military, which is only made possible by the government. Every characters development arc is just too predictable and simple. Some characters don't even have an arc, like Mr. Racist General and Mr. Greedy Executive.
The one thing this movie has going for it is effects, and that's not even without it's flaws. The world Pandora looks spectacular and it's obvious that the $400 million budget was only spent on the effects. The transitions and animations of all the characters are flawless. The actions scenes are amazing are a joy to watch, even if the switch for your brain is on. The main problem I had with the effects is how unrealistic it was. Sure, Pandora is like 4 million light years away, but all the creatures, plants, and other environmental aspects just look too beautiful for the wild race which inhabits the planet. No doubt the beautiful eye-candy is a treat to see, but it suffers from the same problem that everything else does, it's too perfect.
That's all the big things about this movie. After it's all said and done, I'd say the biggest problem with this movie is that it is very forgettable. Honestly I have no idea of any of the characters names except for Jake Sully. The movie's worth a viewing for some cool action and visuals, but it no way deserved a nomination for best picture.
If you want a complete in-depth review, check out this guy's humiliation of Avatar. He does a much better job than me.
http://redlettermedia.com/avatar.html