Trite concept, bad writing, good action

Rating: 6/10 (26 July 2010)

This movie relies too much on the new 3D technology. I understand that it is an historical film for movie making in that sense, however, I found the 3D visuals had tension with the poorly rendered Navi bodies which looked like Night Elves from World of Warcraft with tiger stripes on them. It is amazing how people are fooled by the hype when the hammer-headed rhinos and the flying creatures were the most stunning part of this feature.
The concept isn't bad per se, however it has been thoroughly explored through great films like, "Dances With Wolves." Initially rejected outsider through perseverance gradually becomes like the previously resistant Natives and earns acceptance into their society as the individual is chosen by and bonds with a creature the Natives respect and deem sacred.
I found every time the Navi would physically interact with humans the humans were either static or unconscious. This was very disappointing to me, and I feel that Cameron should have gotten a video game company to help him out on that (Many of the best operate in California).
The dialogue was pretentious and some characters were just blatantly bad as far as having any depth to them. I found myself the entire time asking myself why certain characters were helping these characters. There was no apparent breaking point or any kind of build up for certain characters. And what I mean by pretentious dialogue is that there are many parts that clearly seem like a phrase Cameron just uses on a regular basis, "They're spitting down on us without the decency to call it rain," or something like that, and I thought, "... really?" Those aren't the words of a scientist, those are the words of a self-involved prick. I do not mean to say Cameron is a "self-involved prick," because I don't know him. I just mean that kind of writing is very pretentious and breaks the order of a dialogue between characters within the story.
Aside from that, the action was good and the 3D technology is admirable, and the movie is whether I like it or not, an historical film. Since the action was entertaining I give it the 5 (which is the perfect average movie score for myself personally), and I give it the extra star because of the value of having developed the 3D technology. Only one extra star because I thought the collaboration of new and existing technologies was very short sighted.