Technical Class but threadbare and tiresome.

Rating: 5/10 (10 January 2010)

Avatar is a special-effects laden adventure with a tiresome story. It is only the technical nous which gives Avatar a certain gravitas that one has to acknowledge. The 3D for all its efforts is not pioneering and the media fanfare seems to be misplaced.
Having watch Avatar the 3D effects are underwhelming. I have not seen any 3D films in recent years and was expecting technical wizardry, and effects which would revolutionise the cinematic experience. Instead although the effects are good and better than the standard fare it was a tremendous letdown. At times the images become blurry and in other intense action scenes rather messy. As the 3D effects did not meet the high expectations the story had to come more to the fore but its formulaic plot and threadbare story do little to propel or inject excitement.
The biggest problem is the persistence to provide so much of Pandora and the Naavi way of life. It languishes in Pandora for so long that you begin to crave some human reality not the pomposity of how wonderful the world looks. The Naavi are not given enough screen-time for us to have a natural empathy for them, instead the film focuses on spirituality and the beauty of Pandora. The second-act is unashamedly stereotypical and preachy about the natural world. The second-half needed to inject fresh impetus after is initial technical offering but it plants itself in very run of the mill territory.
Avatar is overly long and overly dramatic. Unfortunately, its blanket of special effects stand alone in providing the entertainment factor as the structure of the story is weighed down in a very familiar formulaic manner.