Visually superb, shame about the storyline...

Rating: 8/10 (3 January 2010)

Fantastic effects, you couldn't leave the cinema without feeling that you had had value for your money.
If I rated the movie on effects alone then I would award 10/10 but surely a truly excellent film needs more? 15 years in its conception/execution? Couldn't a bit more money be spent on a script? Also we have a cast of very clichéd protagonists - although the device used to create and insert the Sully character was entirely satisfactory.
We start with a situation where the mainly greedy and rapacious mining company is in a position to take what it wants from the indigenous people. In amongst that scenario we learn that they would buy or trade for the resources rather than take them by force, but if push comes to shove then..... Subsequently, with the help of Sully, the tables are turned on the mining company and the indigenous folk are able to achieve a position of strength and expel them. Back to their 'dying planet' we hear in almost the final voice-over. You can't really blame them I suppose. However, what are we left with as a message from the film? The guys with the biggest gun, or biggest dragon, calls the tune? Is there nobody up for a compromise position? Could Sully not better explain about what the miners need - to save their dying planet? Could he not have explained better about how some parts of the forest were so sacred that mining there was not feasible without causing an all out conflict? After travelling 5 years (or whatever) through space could the miners not move a bit further around the planet to do their digging, at least exploit the less contentious sites first while building up a greater relationship and understanding of the native peoples. Ho hum.
May be my account is also a bit vapid, but the film as it stands is a cypher despite enormous possibilities given the obvious links with current environmental issues and ideological conflicts. It would have been timely to be a bit more adventurous, to attempt to say something, indeed, to say anything. While the miners are very venal and materialistic the aboriginal people are not without their own short comings. A male can take a woman after completing the initiation rites, not too keen on that. She has to agree though, uh huh. Didn't sound like a lot of democracy going on in general. The scenes with everyone swaying to the rhythm of the planet look OK, but I can't help wondering what happens to those Na'vi who would just rather not attend..... Is it OK for a Na'vi to choose to not sway? Perhaps do some alternative secular activity instead? I wonder. Consequently, we are presented with a coming together of two cultures with different value systems and goals. Neither is without flaws. How these cultures reach some common ground could have been explored in a much more provocative way. Lots of people are very unhappy about drilling for oil in Alaska, lots of other folk want to do it. I don't know how that situation will be resolved but I am sure we can't count on the polar bears to settle it for us. One way or another human beings will have to reach some form of accommodation. In the movie the role of the avatars in bringing about a sharing of perspective between Na'vi and humans could have been so much more fulfilling. How about a Na'vi coming back the other way?
I wouldn't want to eliminate the action sequences from the movie - these were stunning - but would it have hurt to have this part as a precursor to a more satisfactory conclusion than the 'I have a big gun, now I have a bigger gun' ending.
Ultimately, I find the ending deeply flawed. As I watched the humans shepherded back on their spaceships to be sent home I couldn't help thinking that their next step must be "I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure".
How big a dragon would Sully need to cope with that?