Little Big Man meets Small Soldiers meets Matrix Pocahontas meets who the s*** knows what else. An unoriginal, disappointing, could-have-been-better overproduced mess.

Rating: 5/10 (9 January 2010)

Now, to be entirely fair to the film and to myself, I did in fact enjoy the visuals and the CGI; in that, I completely agree, money well spent...well, mostly well spent...at least in the world of Hollywood films. However, the story's complete lack of originality, for me, at the very least, overshadowed the visual spectacle.
Allow me to begin by saying that this movie could've, in fact, been a decent production, had Cameron chosen to trim the final 70 minutes of action. Yes it's overlong, and yes, one does get tired of the lamely fabricated narrative and clichéd moments which shape it, however, the main problem lies elsewhere. The reason I say this movie could've, potentially, been quite good is that, at around the 85 or 90 minute mark, thereabouts, had Cameron elected to conclude the film, its improvement would've been titanic (HAHA, get it? Titanic! ha. but seriously).The reason for my believing this is simply that, as anyone who watched the film would recall, after the big bad humans shoot down the enormous and majestic "Hometree", the screen briefly fades to black, as the Na'vi gaze out onto the basically post-apocalyptic, barren landscape, ravaged by man and stripped of its beauty, which was once their home. THERE. It should've ended right there. Yes, it would've been depressing, yes, many people would not have liked it as much as they did, and yes, its success might have been a lot more moderate, however, it would've been astronomically better for it. WHY? Because it would have said something! Something about mankind, about the human creature, about the ugliest aspects of its demented, twisted, irreverently egocentric psyche, and its ironic lack of actual "humanity"; its wilful and ruthless destruction of a nature and beauty, for the sake of mere profit and material richness, a parallel phenomenon to our present situation here on earth, and our mindless destruction of this very same planet which we inhabit. Instead, Cameron chose to overshadow this one ray of hope, to blot it out with the typical course of events which usually constitute this type of storyline (a happy ending!). AH!, but who would ever have thought that a movie like this could say something meaningful or deep? Well, it could have. It would've been flawed, but it would have been by far the superior of the actual cut.
The thing about Avatar is that it seems to be terribly confused. On one hand, it seeks to want to vilify mankind, to criticize its flaws and hand to the audience some matter for reflection (a task masterfully undertaken by an earlier film this very year, District 9) on the actual nature of man and human behaviour. On the other hand, it seems to want to be some sort of lame audience-pleasing, good-defeats-evil, love-conquers-all, pointless-sci-fi-opera thing, which it actually turns out to be, thence choking out the last breath of life which could've possibly redeemed the picture's shortcomings in character development and acting, etc.
Explanation: Fear of failure. Cameron gives and always has given the masses what they want to see, often in silly excess; in a nutshell, he is a crowd-pleaser, and doesn't strive to be much more than that, as he potentially could.
Now, let us take a look at other great sci-fi classics which are concrete proof that a strong, meaningful, coherent message is impossible with an all-happy, all-resolved, everything's-fine-now conclusion. Terry Gilliam's "Brazil", one of my absolute favourite movies. However, who could forget the atrocious Scheinberg edit, the love-conquers-all ending. The strong message on government-control, the inherent corruption of the capitalist system and the decay of modern society which the film initially conveyed was completely lost! Same thing for Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" and the terrible studio version with the voice-over and happy-go-lucky conclusion, a basic butchering of the original work and its central dilemma: Who are the real villains? Who is actually more humane, the replicants or the humans? Luckily for both films, a director's cut was for each of them released (and a subsequent final cut for "Runner"). Another example, released but a few years back, is the awesome "Children of Men" by the great Alfonso Cuarón. While its ending isn't entirely as dark or ominous as the films previously mentioned, the fate of mankind and the future which awaits the world men remains murky and uncertain, leaving matter for reflection on the actual symbolic meaning of the infertility crisis, and its relevance to the contemporary social and political situation in the world.
While Avatar would have, in all probability, not have ranked alongside these classics of sci-fi, I truly believe that it would've been, at the very least, a refreshing break from the typical, clichéd Hollywood story, and might have actually merited to be considered among the most decent films this year. Shamefully, it isn't; ranking, in my opinion, as the emptiest work of Hollywood overproduction this year.