Outstanding entertainment!

Rating: 9/10 (20 December 2009)

James Cameron's Avatar is spectacular, as one might expect in a half-billion dollar film. One of the few films in recent years that I've wanted to view a second time. The 3-D process is used to excellent effect and the characters are mostly well portrayed. Somewhat pessimistic about human social development in the future. My only regret is that the story really wants for something original. It's a combination of elements of the following previous productions.
1) Dances with Wolves. A member of a conquering race is seduced by the cultural sophistication of an abused, exploited and supposedly inferior people.
2) Devil in the Dark. Miners inadvertently destroy the eggs of the mother Horta on Janus VI, Eve of her species.
3) Lost in Space. Suspended animation required due to the less than C speed of spacecraft, hence lengthy flights and limited stores. Also see Space Seed.
4) Return to Tomorrow. Transferrence of consciousness from one person to another by technological means. Also Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, in which T'Lar accomplished this at death by mystical methods.
5) When Women had Tails. Well, all the blue people have tails in this one.
6) The Keebler Elves. They all lived in a big hollow tree, too.
7) Marvin the Martian. Unobtainium sounds somewhat like Eludium, as in the Eludium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator. See also Pergium.
Excellent entertainment but a rather predictable climax, with the de rigeur face-to-face confrontation between hero and villain. I rank it about #14 of all films I've seen, right behind Easy Rider (which cost about 800 times less).
jHh