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I'm afraid Cameron might be slipping...he must have caught the same bug George Lucas did with the whole over reliance on on CGI. :( It looks like a CGI sci-fi adaptation of the Smurfs to me, but I'd much rather go see that than that steaming pile 2012...at least Avatar will have a plot.
 
Well it was an interesting movie. I saw it in 3D and I think that the 3D may be too much. I will go see it again in 2D. I liked the movie. There is a lot to take in.

It is a long movie, but it did not drag. It seemed well balanced. I think I would have appreciated it more if I was 10, it is hard as an cynical adult to lose myself in the movie. I wish I had not seen previews of the movie (I know a hard thing to balance). I felt that I always pretty much knew what was going to happen next.

The graphics are very good. I did not feel like I was watching a computer display, but felt that the picture was very believable. Again I will have to watch in 2D to see if the distractions go away. Why can directors not resist doing obvious 3D things to show the audience they are in a 3D theater? I do not need things sticking far out of the screen to point it out. When they were not making it obvious it was a nice effect. I wonder if I will like 2D better or not.

I liked the movie, it was the previews that took away from the movie.
 
I'm on the fence with this one. Common thread in a lot of reviews is poor story line and characters.
 
I'm on the fence with this one. Common thread in a lot of reviews is poor story line and characters.

The story line is very predictable. It is a formula plot. What attracted me is how far the computer generated graphics had developed. They actually did not distract me from the movie as screaming fake CGI. It is a technological feat. But, I do not expect the movie to win any awards outside the technical area, and perhaps in the soundtrack. The acting was average and the plot was average.

I think it will appeal to a young audience where they don't know the plot lines. It is not a young kids movie but I would think early teens would like it most. Lots of concepts to stir the imagination. It is a mix of fantasy and SciFi.
 
Went and saw this tonight with my son. Got to say I really enjoyed it, one of the better movies that I've seen lately.

The new 3D special effects really brought me into the movie more then throwing things out at you. I was glad the director didn't repeat the whole 3D "OMG something just came screaming at me!" special effect.

The best 3D moment actually brought out my fear of heights, something I haven't experienced in real life in some years. That really got the heart pumping.

While I agree the movie moved in a very predictable direction, I felt that it was acceptable because I really wanted to see how it happened and why.

The biggest thing that grabbed me about the movie, was that in some strange way, it made sense. Things that were unreal and fantasy, were made believable with a good base and story behind it.

My feeling overall is that this was a very good movie and will get an A grade from me on my yahoo ratings. :)
 
I took my kids to see the 3-D version tonight. I agree that it was overly long. The plot was pure formula and you could see every development an hour before it happened. Every time they introduced some new gimmick, my son would lean over and tell me how it would be used later on. He was always correct.

The plot really broke down into two different movies. The first 2/3 of the movie was "A Man Called Horse" in "The Emerald Forest". The last third borrowed heavily from "Return of the Jedi", and not in a particularly good way.

The CGI was good, and the movie was visually pleasing, at least in the first part. The 3-D effects were overdone in the first part. This is one of my complaints about 3-D movies in that they can't resist poking stuff at the viewer's eyes to show how clever they are. They calmed down later on, and the 3-D actually enhanced the later scenes without overpowering them. I hope they were aware enough to make different choices in the 2-D version and eliminate the 3-D "clever" overlays.

Did I enjoy it? Mostly yes, as I accepted it for what it was. However, I was waiting eagerly for it to end 30 minutes earlier. The last 30 minutes were extremely predictable and I just wanted them to get on with it and let me go home.

Overall C-
 
I saw the 2D version last night. A very nice cartoon! :)
The movie was pretty-much what I expected: a showcase of CGI, beautiful imagery, but a rather straightforward plot.
The story reminded me a simplified version of Dune, but didn't come even close in sophistication.
The alien girl was smoking hot! I'll give them that. As hot as they could possibly make her for a PG-13 movie.
But the acting (human non-CGI characters) was very disappointing. The movie may have been shot in 3D, but the acting was flat, I would say 1D!
I expected more drama and more complex characters from this director.

Overall a nice movie to watch. Just don't expect to see another Titanic.
I think I'll watch it again: I want to see the 3D version.
 
I saw it again in 3D with my nephew (age 11). I was mildly entertained, it is captivating the level of sophistication in the 3D CGI, but the movie seemed to plod along even more than the first time.

At the end of the movie one of his comments that it did not seem that the movie had much 3D since things did not come out of the screen very often like the other movies he has seen in 3D.
 
Watched it and enjoyed it very much, the quality of the CGI blows away other recent movies and I found the characters facial expressions to be pretty much spot on realistic. Yes the plot was a predictable one and that bothered me but the avatar concept was a nice twist and the concept of transference of the humanoid soul and personality through the tree of souls was almost as intriguing as the bonding through the single appendages of humanoids and many other life forms.
 
I don't like CGI ,at least the movies in the past with CGI. But this movie changed my mind. We saw it a couple of days ago in 3-D and it was excellent. I started to forget that these Blue monkey people weren't real and I really got into the story. I also didn't feel like I had a headache after watching it , like I do most 3-D movies. Cameron had to develop or create the 3-D cameras to make this movies. I really liked it and the story was good as well. My 9 year old son and nephew both loved it.
 
I went to see this in 3D with my golf/Movie/Sci-Fi buddy. One of the complaints I have with the current Real-3D system is the low frame rate between left and right images. I'm not sure if the theater uses DLP projectors or not, but it appears to have the same shortcoming as system used by IMAX. Any fast-paced action "shears" the images and I feel the 3D effect rips apart.

After a while I stopped analyzing the technique and allowed myself to be pulled into the beauty of Pandora. And while the story was rather formula, I think this movie will change the way movies are made from now on. To be able to maneuver a physical camera around the set that shows the virtual world and actors as they will appear in the movie allows the director to explore new shots.

Now, with the way the movie ended. I'm sorry, but knowing how desperate Earth is (so we are told at the end), all they need to do is come back in twelve years, blanket Pandora with a bio-engineered virus, and wipe out all life on Pandora since all it does is get in the way of the miners.
 
I went to see this in 3D with my golf/Movie/Sci-Fi buddy. One of the complaints I have with the current Real-3D system is the low frame rate between left and right images. I'm not sure if the theater uses DLP projectors or not, but it appears to have the same shortcoming as system used by IMAX. Any fast-paced action "shears" the images and I feel the 3D effect rips apart.

After a while I stopped analyzing the technique and allowed myself to be pulled into the beauty of Pandora. And while the story was rather formula, I think this movie will change the way movies are made from now on. To be able to maneuver a physical camera around the set that shows the virtual world and actors as they will appear in the movie allows the director to explore new shots.

Now, with the way the movie ended. I'm sorry, but knowing how desperate Earth is (so we are told at the end), all they need to do is come back in twelve years, blanket Pandora with a bio-engineered virus, and wipe out all life on Pandora since all it does is get in the way of the miners.

yeah, but the problem with that idea was the people on earth didn't know they where trying to start a war. I'm pretty sure once they get back to earth the story will get revealed about what happened the whole forceful takeover idea will die.
 
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