A nice coat of paint and flash on an old concept.

Rating: 9/10 (25 July 2010)

I avoided this movie for a long period of time. Because critics were raving about the amazing special effects and 3-d, I was convinced that this "Western Expansion Vrs. The Native American" movie was already done with "Dances with Wolves". What made the movie great was the "unexpected" that Cameron is already famous for. Who would have expected a time traveling cyborg with a German accent would have been so amazing? Or that a 3 hour movie about the worlds most famous sunk vessel could have been so intriguing?
You may have heard about the "Avatar Blues", where people become clinically depressed after seeing the movie because the ultra-realism and beauty of the Avatar world can't be reached here. I had a similar feeling with "Never ending story" when I was a child. Others get the feeling for Harry Potter or these barrages of Vampire flicks. Cameron was careful to make the Natives look like pretty Blue Elves from a Narnia, Lord of the Rings, or other fantasy novel. The environment is beautiful. The message is amazing... like it has been in so many other movies. Some individuals criticize character development and I disagree. There is only one human who is fit for change, and he does so. The rest are already on a path that is transparent at the beginning.
Here is where Cameron's genius shines; as the movie progresses, many people who are liberal or those that are conservative but are oblivious to the barely camouflaged message, will find themselves thinking "why destroy something so beautiful?" And hopefully they will realize the parallel to our nature.... these beings, these characters are iconic archetypes of our own existence. Others questioned the absurdity of the name of the sought resource (unobtanium) or why it is being mined. I think they missed the irony. What ever is being mined at the cost of sentient life is inconsequential.... because the cost is absurd. I ignored the hullabaloo. I actually went in convinced it was going to suck. I ended up loving it, perhaps more than other Cameron movies. It made me feel like I was a 12 year old again. Bows and arrows and dragons versus machine guns and robots. I understand why some girls or men who are no longer in touch with their inner child would find this movie displeasing. The message is transparent and I am sure it will be missed or ignored by many.