Lots of fluff, no substance

Rating: 4/10 (31 December 2010)

I came into watching this film after it was shown in theaters. I didn't want the hoopla to convince me to get caught up in the Avatar Adoration (though it didn't hold its stay with Inception, so maybe I just overrated its power).
After watching this film, I now understand why filmmakers add 3D to their work. They add it because they've got nothing else to put in. Although the settings and creatures were interesting and/or beautiful, it was there to distract you from the story which was pure tripe on a bike. As a quick example, I cheated and checked out how long the movie was before pressing play. 2:20-ish, a long movie by modern standards (not mine, if it's good). So I knew that it would be vital for 0:40-1:20 to contain a lot of action-packed or conversational scenes. In a film ranging from 2:20-2:45, this is the point where the audience will get bored of eye candy and exposition and will need a little variety.
At 40 minutes, Neytiri tells Jake that he is like a baby, and needs to be trained. What's going on at 1:20, you ask? He's been trained. Essentially, I wasted 40 minutes of my life watching nothing but a happy-go-lucky inter-species (you know it's true, it was inter-species) romance. For any other film, I would have given this treatment of the audience low marks. And I'm going to do it to the writer of this "plot." This is flat-out ridiculous. What does the author think I am, some technophile who can't enjoy a movie without oodles of special effects? Excuse the analogy if you find it offensive, but I see Avatar as borderline pornographic, in a metaphorical sense. Modern porn lacks a story because that's not what people are watching it to see, they just want to see inappropriate things going on while they watch the screen. Apparently, modern movie makers think nobody wants a good story, excellent composition, or interesting characters, they just want lots of CGI. Ironically, Star Wars provides excellent examples on both ends of the spectrum—Episode II had over 500 CGI shots, for instance—just watch all six for some perspective on that.
***MAJOR SPOILER IN THE PARAGRAPH BELOW***
Now, we see Avatar, a CGI-fest with a complete lack of story, like Star Wars Episode III. Poor character development. I've seen better in teen-written fan fiction of Disney cartoons. No, I'm not exaggerating. Horrific development. If you have insomnia, this movie's plot development is a perfect cure. Furthermore, you can have pleasant dreams about a colorful alien world, because it's the last thing you see before passing out. And you'll probably not even wake up for the part where they blow up the tree.
All this said, I will give Avatar a last reprieve—the envisioning of the alien world was indeed attractive. Cameron knew how to appeal to his audience, and he would not back down until he got the reaction he wanted.