Good Movie, But Not The Great Triumph That You Hear About

Rating: 8/10 (4 January 2010)

With all the hype, "Avatar" had a lot to live up to. I thought it was a really great film, but it did not live up to all the hype for me. It would be one thing if it was the first 3D movie experience, but I saw "A Christmas Carol" just two months earlier and knew what to expect on that front.
The look of "Avatar" is very cool. The landscapes are all wonderful to look at and with the all the glow-in-the-dark surroundings paired with the 3D environment it really made me feel as though I was in an attraction at Disney World rather than in a movie theater.
The concept was pretty cool as well. I liked the fact that Jake lived these dual lives. It seems like careful planning would have to be taken when that sort of thing is to be achieved and it was done quite seamlessly here.
As for the story goes, I thought it was okay. It reminded me a lot of "The Last Samurai", only not done as well. The way that the enemy of the natives is taken in and then grows to love and belong to the civilization that he was once out to destroy. "The Last Samurai" ends much better than this though. Here it is very predictable that the good guys will win, Jake gets to become one of them and gets the girl, and the humans are shipped home while nature prevails.
A small nitpick that I have with this film is the year that it takes place in. 2154? So 144 years in the future the human race will develop all this new technology, discover an new planet in a new solar system, travel to it, and begin living and colonizing there? James Cameron really has a lot of faith in science and technology flourishing quickly.