Long but a decent movie

Rating: 7/10 (24 January 2010)

Rated lower due to length:
Spoilers Ahead! You may want to bow out now!
Clocking in at just under 3 hours, "Avatar" seems to miss the one salient point known by Preachers everywhere: "The brain can absorb, ONLY what the seat can endure!" The movie, despite its length, is a good watch, though the 3D at times, seemed more a novelty, then an enhancement to the story. More on this later.
The plot however, seemed to be a derivative. It was somewhere between "Dances with Wolves" meets "The Matrix" and "The Terminator" with a sappy love story thrown in for good measure.
Not particularly original, but when have the offerings from Hollywood been original? (Yes that's a rhetorical question!) I was surprised to be honest, that the CGI (Computer Generated Images) were that good! I really couldn't tell where the GGI (animation) begin, and what was real. I figured the CGI would carry the story. In fact it enhanced it.
What didn't enhance it however, was the 3D. Besides making you wear the clunky glasses, it did give me a headache. I expected this, remembering the horrid 3D images from the 60's.
All in all, a good story, decently told, despite the derivative plot and political underpinings. Butt at 3 hours, I am NOT likely to see this again.
Wayno