Good but not that great

Rating: 7/10 (17 January 2010)

I agree, the effects are amazing and will certainly set new benchmark, same as "Terminator 2" and "The Matrix" did. The gray human ships/settlement vs colorful Pandora world is another nice touch, contrasting old, sick, technology obsessed world with new, pure one where all creatures live in harmony.
However once you look past that the story becomes somewhat illogical. the first thing I noticed is that this is "Dances with the Wolves" with a happy ending. Outsider sent to native lands, becoming one with them and taking their side in the end.
Next thing is that the ending isn't logical. sure, Na'vi won the battle, but looking objectively this is just a rerun of Zulu wars. Warriors are able to achieve one victory by combining their man(and women)power against small, isolated outpost and winning with weight of numbers, good tactics against superior weaponry. But as history shows, outsiders may suffer a setback and occasional defeat they can simply bring in reinforcements from their homeland, adapt to the environment and win with superior weaponry. Win couple of such battles, create a serious dent in natives man(and women)power and they simply cease to be big threat and become a nuisance, easily dealt with.
as Pandora is seen as critical place for Earth's economy such place will not be abandoned just because one battle was lost. so after Na'vi win humans simply return some time later, armed to the teeth and nuke Pandora then strip mine it. Hell, with genetic engineering as advanced humans could simply develop virus that would kill Na'vi but be harmless to humans, release it, wait for them to die then continue mining uninterrupted.
Overall I enjoyed the movie (despite irritating experience of wearing 3D glasses over my regular glasses) and am not sorry to see it. but I wouldn't consider it a great movie. Unfortunately people focus on the effects not the story. While the story undertones are clear (need to protect the environment, anti-militaristic message and so on) the plot soon falls into cliché. How many movies exist where a person from outside group is sent to native lands then adopts their ways and takes their side against his former group, either winning or loosing? "The Last Samurai" comes to mind as well.
Worth watching but if you want to see something more than just stunning special effects then nothing to be that excited about