Okay... torn between great cinema and a great movie

Rating: 6/10 (20 December 2009)

This is no doubt a great piece of cinema. The visuals are gorgeous and the effects are incredible and on a whole, this is by far worth the admission price.
That being said, the plot is thin and the characters are thinner. The foreshadowing is often shoved in your face and there is little exploration into what could have been wonderfully unique characters. Essentially, the plot is the Last Samurai on a distant planet. The characters are stuck somewhere between honoring Native American culture and insulting it.
If this were just some run of the mill Hollywood flick, those things would be easy to overlook--or at least forgivable. In a movie that was over a decade in the making, costing more than almost any other film, and introducing such glorious cinema, it's just a real shame that everything to do with the script was so carelessly put together.
Again, see it. If these things don't bother you, you are very lucky and will end up having one of the best cinematic experiences of your life. If they do bother you, you'll nonetheless love the ride. But don't believe the reviews that don't see past the imagery. There's more to film than that.