Avatar the prequel

Rating: 5/10 (4 March 2012)

This is not an awful movie; however it is an action movie and as such, the demands of the visuals take precedence over all else. If you like action movies, great; but if you were hoping for more, you'll be disappointed.
The primary fault is that the movie poses its essential question --- how does a "primitive" society cope with modernity --- but has nothing useful to say about solving the problem. The solutions proposed: ghost dance, more perfect adherence to the ways of the ancestors, hierarchy-worship, a servile acceptance that some are born to fight and others are born peasants, and the fetishization of a "glorious" death, are all immature and unhelpful.
The movie is self-conscious enough (of course being set in the past, and knowing how it all turned out helps) to know that its "answers" are not actually useful, but is also completely uninterested in this --- what matters is that we have an excuse for explosions and sword fights. The first hour led me to hope for more, but really, there is nothing more. I recommend abandoning watching after about an hour fifteen, when the movie still seems marginally original.