Great eye candy, too bad about the plot

Rating: 7/10 (29 December 2009)

The movie was beautiful! Utterly breathtaking.
The plot was a fine familiar old story set in a new context.
!!!Spoiler alert
I was with the story all the way up to the battle. That battle, the way it was fought and won undermined if not obviated a key theme in the story; that ignorance is a weakness.
The natives of the planet had this profound connection with the planet and definitively meager weapons. Yet when composing a strategy to go up against the heavily militarized opponent they chose a very direct head to head/charge of the light brigade approach, and were subsequently slaughtered. Granted they were victorious but only by the providence of of a god.
I thought the film would have been a lot more compelling if the lead character had composed a strategy that took into account the natives unique capacities and his unique knowledge of the humans' approach and weaponry. Had he done so he would have demonstrated the power of knowledge. the natives' victory would have occurred with significantly less loss on both sides. Seems to me that that outcome would be more in keeping with the manner of this new being he had become and the world he was trying to preserve.
For instance, the weaponry of the human force was hobbled by the weird magnetic fields of that area, but the natives were wired into this huge world brain that senses everything. Did the natives use that to their advantage by leading the enemy onto itself, no.
I once heard that the defining characteristic of science fiction is that the science, the unique technology, etc plays a role in the plot. This had the potential to be that but instead it was just the same old fairy tale about a civilized man being reborn when he goes native. *yawn*
Nice graphics though. You should peal off .05% of that CG budget and hire a few writers next time. Or perhaps it was just written to a perceived audience. The one that somehow needs to reconcile a tale about conservation, tolerance and respect with the manner of a society that will employ military force to exploit and even destroy resources, cultures, and even species all for sake if short term profit.