Hard to take seriously despite interesting imagery

Rating: 3/10 (4 January 2010)

All I have to say is no amount of creative digital imagery can make up for the lack of overall good writing and/or acting in this film.
For a film with serious messages, it was hard to take seriously with the cartoonish special effects. Giant smurfs with a vendetta against humanity taken straight from the Greenpeace movement don't particularly help with that particular political agenda.
While I admired the good digital scenery effects, I think the characters needed a lot more production work before the film's final release. None of that could have made up for how ridiculous the character of Colonel Miles Quaritch was played out, or the emotionally unmoving aspects of the relationship between Jake Sully and Neytiri. In the end, I found myself rooting for the military as they chopped down the "home tree" and laughing as the giant smurfs sat around another tree, singing to invoke Jake Sully into his smurf body.
The entire plot was extremely predictable. Interesting idea for a film, but an epic failure in following through with the concept for this audience member. The critics must have been paid a lot to let this one past their critical radar.