What a lost opportunity

Rating: 2/10 (5 January 2010)

I've been hearing so much about Avatar, how a great experience for the senses it was... although everyone seemed to agree on something: the story line was simply bad.
I still was looking forward to experience the film.
And... I'm so disappointed!
For me the worst problem of the film is that even though it uses the Gaia theory (understanding Earth/Nature/Beings as a single organism) as the main container/message, both in the story line and in the technique is not reflected enough, leaving at the end of the film a feeling of incoherence and hypocrisy. The story line is based on the typical American hero story. Even worse in this film, as it claims a dumb American is needed to save the world. Why are we sold the idea of a Nature as a whole organism when let's face it, It can't seem to do much without a Hero?
And about the 3D... why to use a new glossy technology if there is no purpose to the story? Technology for technology sake is never enough. I would have imagined that the idea to use 3D was to convey the idea of Gaia. We are all connected, even the audience. But why are we not feeling the Nature all the time? Being inside it, hearing it...!(the sound for me was not rich enough). In my opinion, the most telling moment was the fact that we didn't feel physically attacked when the Nature was attacked. As spectator I should be feeling the action from the point of view of Nature as well as the point of view of the attacker and the hero! How can we understand the whole idea of the film if we don't physically feel it?
So, OK, it's a beautiful film, but it seems the story and how it is portrayed hasn't been thought through very deeply. And it's such a shame to put so much efforts and resources for such a superficial story.
Even if you ignore the lack of coherence between the story telling and its supposed message, for all the film's marketing as a 3D experience it is anything but. The characters are so two-dimensional! No troubles, no doubts. Only 'fantasy' super-slim perfect heroes.
And I have to admit it, I've spent part of the film thinking how much it reminded me to Distric 9 (although in my opinion that one was much better). Before the aliens where the bad ones, things have to be very bad now that films have given't up on humans!