a trite anti-capitalist story set in the future

Rating: 5/10 (13 February 2010)

The 3-D version of this movie begins with a combination of digital and live-action effects that are quite distracting. About 30 minutes into the movie, the combination of live-action and digital images diminishes, allowing the viewer to realize how detail-oriented the animators were in creating the digital images. If this movie were judged purely on animated effects, I would get it a very high mark.
However, there is a little thing called a plot that seems to be wanting. The plot sounds just like something that a 12-year-old would write after learning about the Age of Exploration and the colonial era. It's the story of capitalist pursuits versus indigenous people and the military personnel who encounters them. Oh, and there is a character played by Sigourney Weaver who is some sort of "scientist." Her exact position is never clear, but apparently she's some sort of botanist who's also an expert on the very highly technical process of creating and manipulating an avatar, while she also plays the role of a cultural anthropologist. Suspension of disbelief? Yes, you need a very strong one to buy this character (especially in the light of how everything today is moving toward specialization), especially the extremely immature military characters.
In the end, I was impressed by the computer animation, but disappointed by the plot, dialogue, and the characters involved. The visual effects are its saving grace, but I would not sit through the length of this movie (which seemed to never end) again.