promising at the beginning but failing with every next minute after the first half

Rating: 5/10 (22 December 2009)

I wasn't building any expectations when going to this movie. Interest in CG and a good relaxation movie was my aim. So if looking at it from the beginning it sort of picked up and grew over of what I expected. There were many "breadcrumbs" you could pick up, the will to escape from the old spoiled civilization (most noticeably displayed as a disabled protagonist) into a culture of larger knowledge, with everybody in harmony with themselves and harmony with the surrounding biological system. Sort of sentiment for this kind of existence.
You could draw parallels with style of foreign affairs of Bush going into Arabic countries. A strong and convincing parallel. And it's a shame in a way that Cameron didn't have the possibilities to create this movie when he had the idea (some 9 years ago). Many more subplots can be picked up.
You don't really pay attention that it's missing some fantasy here, Navis looking a lot like some African tribe, or a man becomes a man when doing something "brave" and many more familiar traits of human kind. You don't pay attention to it too much because those are the good guys, so you should be able to identify yourself with them.
So when the movie started building up tension with the conflict between Skymen and Navi's it started to become interesting - how does Cameron intend to solve it.
But unfortunately it started going down the hill at this point and became just a dull war movie with all the small layers going into background leaving one big message across the screen - you can fight violence only with bigger violence. Pessimistic it is for an entertainment movie. And sad that it' s gone so deep into our cultures that we don't really notice it.
So 5/10 for CG and a rather promising start