Mediocre Pocahontas plot + 3D = 8.8?

Rating: 7/10 (31 December 2009)

I rated Pocahontas 7. Wonderful songs, beautiful artwork and captivating voice actors with clear environmental message.
Avatar is just a simple pretty movie for kids. Its PG. And perhaps that is why it lacks philosophical subtext, true romance or any plot twists. The movie is not "bad". Like 'Finding Nemo' or 'Fern Gully', the high contrast vivid colours of Pandora are pretty to look at. The levitating rocks of Pandora ensure no scene is scoffed at by the viewer as "implausible".
Yet, like many older viewers, I find it lacking.
1. No plot twists of any kind. No subplots even. Jake arrives. Jake learns to be Navi while not revealing what will happen to last minute. Jake betrays military commander to help save Navi. The End.
2. The military white guys lose to the "natives".Its frustrating that despite giving him 3 months, and many "warning shots", the white military is portrayed as the bad guys.
3. Firepower? The military's futuristic "advanced" technology defeated by bow and arrow? No radar? No smart guns? How about some actual armour? --spoiler-- The ending is sort anti-climactic. Jake as the Avatar leads neighbouring tribes to their quick and pointless deaths - yet this is portrayed as a happy ending. Avatar suggests that "soft military" presence and diplomacy are flawed. Only aggressive attacks work.
4. What is the point of the Avatars? The Navi immediately know Jake is not real Navi. Either way the Navi don't trust outsiders. Why the deception? Wouldn't human contact be simpler. Would also perhaps allow at least 1 hr for negotiations instead of 3 months of vine swinging.
5. Navi never know WHY they are being attacked. Jake never explains and neither does Grace. Only that "they are coming". Hundreds of years into the future no technology to dig under HomeTree? How about other deposits? I just find it difficult to imagine mankind beginning right away with deforestation on Pandora after leaving a desolate Earth devoid of plant life.