I didn't watch it for an original plot, I watched it for... Well, I dunno what I watched it for, but it wasn't as terrible as all you whiners are saying. It was entertaining, I'm not going to try to dissect the science and the intricacies of the plot just so I can be angry and not agree with everyone else.

Watched it yesterday in 3D. In short, I think it is a triumph of style over substance.

The general idea of this movie is an exact copy of The Last Samurai, which in turn is an exact copy of Dances With Wolves, which is probably an exact copy of some other movie I don't know about. Do I accuse Avatar on this basis? - No. For me, it fails in a different department. I didn't like how the story was portrayed. Not that it was bad - it was quite good - but it was nothing original. I expected originality from such an advanced movie. To illustrate what I mean, I will compare it to another recent movie: District 9 (D9 for short). D9 also has a cliche idea it its core: being rejected based on prejudice and bias, etc etc. That idea has been convayed a thousand times before, just like Avatar's idea. But what D9 achieved is originality in story-telling: first it was more of a documentary, then it becomes a drama/thriller and finally, an action movie.

To expand my point about Avatar's lack of originality, I will continue comparing it to D9; let us move to the character department. In both D9 and Ava, you have a sci-fi/fairy-tale setup for the action. Yet, Ava is too afraid to make the leading character anything original; it's the same action hero we've seen a thousand - no - a million times before. In D9, however, the hero is a kind-hearted, a bit of a douche, spiritually weak man whose weakness makes him follow the bandwaggon of hating the prawns just because they're different and kid of 'oppose' society (when in fact, they're like that simply because society rejected them and doomed them to a life in the slums). I find Wikus much more interesting as a character than Jake, simply because it is something you don't see as often.

Acting was nothing good. Especially the princess. In D9, Sharlto Copley was very convincing; and he's not a big star with loads of experience, too. I applaud him.

Moving onto the script. I will not go into debates about the possibility of floating mountains and super-conductors. Most of the explanation is solid. The dialogue, however, was awful. D9 was better (not 'good', but not bad). You can make a blockbuster without cheeeeeesssssy lines. Why didn't Cameron do it? I think he was jsut too afraid to spoil his own fairy-tale of a movie. Also: why couldn't they drop the explosives from a higher orbit again?

If you're making a two and a half hour movie, you better fill it up with real content, otherwise it will get too boring for those of us who think that Transporter was bad. Did I care about the characters? - A bit. In D9, I really cared about the characters. Was Avatar entertaining? Yes. Did it reach its full potential - not even by a thousand miles.

Whats funny is how everything that flied had a propeller.

First of all, bombers can fly at altitudes no animal can reach. I'm sure in the future, it is even less of a problem. Get your bomb low enough not to burn in the atmosphere but high enough to avoid any enemy flyers. I won't go into a debate about military practicality, I will only say this: it was, is and probably will always be cheaper and more practical to get one bomber to fly over enemy territory and drop a few bombs than risking loads of support helicopters and a low-altitude bomber going into enemy territory. Then again, one could speculate that their military was incompetent at at least one point and decided that there is no need to bring in heavy equipment.

Whatever, this conversation is useless anyway.

It was a corporation, not a government. If they had to make a shuttle into a bomber and drop the bombs out of a hatch pushed by men, I'd say getting into higher altitudes and dropping from there was beyond their reach.

That explains it. I wasn't paying too much attention to the movie.

For all it's worth, Avatar was a fun movie to watch. I was absolutely blown back by the amount of animation done in the movie, particularly the finale, which, had some quality in it that amazed me.

I actually thought the movie was quite funny myself, I wouldn't go through all the effort of wasting gas and sending gunships, I'd just drop a tactical nuke right next to the tree and watch the shockwave blow that damn thing apart. I also thought it was hilarious how the blue guy that jumped inside the dropship started killing them all, He was thinking "Yeah I'm so badass I'm winning" then he turns around and gets shot to death before falling off. I also thought it was amazing how they have these futuristic goliath-like things with bigass guns and cannons yet they can't kill simple wildlife. Come on, thats like saying a 150mm Cannon couldn't blow apart a 200-year-old wooden building. Also, in the beginning, Who stayed awake for five years to wake those idiots up out of cryo? Where did the people come from? The only thing I'd have to say was smart about this movie is the theory about not looking up with the bird. Other than that it was pretty retarded.

Malvanis, the apparent lack of any understanding in your critique is astounding.

Do you think a girl would enjoy this movie?

Yes. Has a lot of girlyness to it.

@CAFG, Its hard to understand a lot of things when you sit in the second row of theater seats while watching the movie. When I stood up I couldn't see for about twenty minutes, and was horribly dizzy. And that doesn't happen to me, ever.

I saw this because of you guys talking about it. I'm not sure how much the 3d was needed, I'd say it added slightly to the experience, but I don't think I would have truly missed it with it gone. The story was a bit poorly done, but I really didn't mind. The animations and effects were superb and awesome, the finale was probably my favourite part, there was so much epic stuffed in there. I'm also wondering, they said the Navi' were hard to kill because of their natural carbon fiber, but most of them fell pretty fast to bullets, why?

I hope it only wins 1 oscar.

Pocahontas.

I just saw Avatar. Good plot, nothing completely originally or surprising, but well done. I think the 3D and the detail in the world and environment was the best part. I would have liked to see Michelle Rodriguez's character live though.

I liked the movie . Saw it with my cousins... freaking movies were packed though ;(.
3-D IMAX hurt my head like a mother...
Overall though.. one of the best movies I've seen since 2008 xD.

1) Movie was racist.
2) Special effects were outstanding.
3) 3d shit gives me headaches. It was also $3.50 more. I really hope 3d will take a dive so I never have to watch a movie like that again. The worst part is when the purposefully put in things to show off the 3d.
4) You can't do this in Science Fiction, but nothing in the movie made technical or logical sense. I can't fault the movie for that, since every movie does it. However, I was asking "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?" throughout the entire movie.
5) Story wasn't that great, as it has been done before. District 9 indeed had a better story, it just wasn't displayed well, making avatar much more enjoyable.
6) Everyone is a sucker for action and suspense, which is what made Cellular such a good movie.

3/5, just like most other movies. It's pretty much impossible for me to give a 5/5. Those are reserved for die hard, beauty and the beast, the empire strikes back, the matrix, etc...

I don't think there's much you could have done to change the movie to make it better, since you really need an original plot to make a good movie, and that's getting harder and harder every year.

@ malvanis, your entire critique falls under 4. You can't judge a movie by the illogical and impossible technical portions if the movie is set in science fiction, or utilizes magic.

was gonna say that my girlfriend pointed it out.


1) LOL. I didn't think about it before, but you're right.
2) The movie was only good for the special effects. Other than that, the movie is average, or less.
3) Agreed again. I saw it normal and in 3D. This movie really isn't that much better in 3D. If you still decide to go see it, look at the other people 1/2 way thru the movie. They look like they are getting brainwashed.
4) Agreed. I was especially questioning the final battol! There were 2K aliens, and about 1/2 of them were fliers. The humans had like 100 ships, a big ship, and a bomber. That's a 10:1 ratio. And 3 of em died by the prince, the girl, and the avatar right at the start. Did it never occur to them to just take a big rock and drop it on the propeller? And the high orbit thing. Also, when the mech suit damages the box where the avatar's controllers are, the other avatar user (the other guy) was no where to be found.