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[Taco-Calamitous]

So, it's been about a week and a half since this movie came out... and no one's started a topic on it yet? I thought people were excited for this movie? Could it be that they felt let down...?

I did not feel let down. I went into the movie with fairly middling to low expectations, actually, and came out with mixed feelings. For the Positive:

-The visual effects were pretty amazing. And I didn't even see it in 3D. My brother insists that the experience is much better in 3D. I'm not sure I understand the fuss, but then again, I've never seen a movie in 3d. But yeah; pretty colors and stuff.

-Decent characters for the most part. Jake Sully (the main character) I didn't really care for through much of the movie, for similar reasons as the scientists and that girl Na'vi; he was kind of a dumb ass. The lead Na'Vi, Sigourney Weaver's character, and Stephen Lang's character (the villain) were all pretty cool, however. And the corporate guy almost felt out of place; he felt more fitting for a comedy, he was so one-dimensional. So actually, that point is kind of mixed... although...

-The story made me care about the characters. I didn't want the Na'Vi to die. I was genuinely saddened at the thought that they were all going to be slaughtered at the end.

-Also, the fact that the human world wasn't forgotten after Sully enters the Na'Vi world is a pretty big selling point for me. They could've just glossed over and forgotten about most the events that took place while Sully was not "operating" (I guess you'd say) his avatar body, and interacting with the other humans/recording his research entries/whatever. The movie could have easily just said "Oh look, shiny!" and completely left the human characters to the way side, but it did not. I found that that immersed me more into the movie, showing what Sully went through on a day to day basis. "Slice of life," almost.

-Furthermore, the climactic battle was pretty epic. It was like the humans of "Aliens" vs. friggen' the Night Elves in Warcraft 3, or something (nerdy, I know.)

Now, for the negative:

-The "humans are evil!" crap. Chester A. Bum sums it up nicely here. "There's no green there. They killed their mother, and they're going to do the same thing here!" Or whatever it was Sully said... that just made me groan. I'm all for saving the environment, but I'm not for demonizing my own friggen' race in the process. Sure, there are those among us who don't give a damn about the environment, but we also have plenty who do care to counteract that (and the fact that movies like these exist is proof of that.)

-Even beyond the "humans are evil" crap, the message is kind of heavy-handed in its delivery. "Look at the beauty of the world. Look at the wonder of these plants. And the evil corporations and the military are going to destroy it all!"

-A lot of the characters are rather one-dimensional.

-And the plot was rather reminiscent of past movies.

The pros did outweigh the cons for me, but I won't say that this is "Like, OMG, the greatest movie of the decade!" Maybe not even of the year. In actuality, I'm kind of surprised how well this movie is doing, given all the anthropomorphic cats running around; that kind of stuff usually puts people off. It's also apparently the third best reviewed movie of the year (my brother tells me; he's friggen' crazy about it.)

EDIT: And I was just thinking; I have a rather positive post about the Wolverine movie from earlier this year in this same forum... that's gotta knock my credibility a bit! (To be clear, I don't think the Wolverine movie touches this movie. it was good for what it was.) Anyhoo...

Wuv, Yer Mom