This is a visually very pleasing movie. But there's remarkably little substance to it.
The main good thing I can say about the movie is that for something that's mostly CGI and motion capture, it's surprisingly realistic looking; it doesn't look cartoonish, which is of course a good thing.
Unfortunately there are a few bad things about the movie: First and foremost, nearly the whole thing is a world-building exercise, which does look wonderful, but it gets a bit tiresome after a while. The plot is just a huge contrivance to provide a vehicle for the world-building; there really is no plot, except for the ridiculous, forced one. It does get entertaining and engaging, but still, the audience is rooting for the good guys in a situation which shouldn't exist because at its heart it's a preposterous contrivance.
Talking of contrivances, there's the issue of Kiri. Kiri is an unnecessary character whose traits could have been written into Tuk's character. Kiri is yet another contrivance whose only purpose is to shoehorn Sigourney Weaver into the movie. It's also slightly bizarre that she's playing her own daughter - sure motion capture and CGI can give the visuals of an adolescent, but she's still being voiced by a 70-something year old. Odd, to say the least.
Another thing I noted about Kiri - there's a touch of the uncanny valley about her which I don't get from any of the other characters. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe she was a late addition or had some late alterations and her face was rushed? Or maybe it's just the nose; Kiri's nose is smaller than the other Na'vi or Avatar characters, making her face more human, which maybe contributes to the uncanny valley feeling because she's not a convincing human, but we don't expect the Na'vi to be human, so there's no jarring effect with them. I don't know, I just know something is quite "off" with Kiri's face.
I felt that towards the end of the movie, things got a bit clumsy, like the randomly thrown-in rescue of the villain, presumably only to ensure a continued antagonist in the next sequel, and then the overly schmaltzy epilogue which added nothing to the story.
The only other criticism which springs to mind is the contracted timeline with significant chunks of time missing, without it being made immediately clear that's what was happening, making it hard to gain any appreciation of the timescales involved.
Having said all of that, I did enjoy the movie, I did root for the protagonists, I did dislike the (ridiculous) villain, and even got a bit emotional at the bits I was supposed to get emotional over. It's a fantastic looking movie which I'll be buying on Blu-ray when it's released. I was just disappointed that it wasn't as good as it should have been - after more than a decade, was this really the best script anyone could conceive?
The main good thing I can say about the movie is that for something that's mostly CGI and motion capture, it's surprisingly realistic looking; it doesn't look cartoonish, which is of course a good thing.
Unfortunately there are a few bad things about the movie: First and foremost, nearly the whole thing is a world-building exercise, which does look wonderful, but it gets a bit tiresome after a while. The plot is just a huge contrivance to provide a vehicle for the world-building; there really is no plot, except for the ridiculous, forced one. It does get entertaining and engaging, but still, the audience is rooting for the good guys in a situation which shouldn't exist because at its heart it's a preposterous contrivance.
Talking of contrivances, there's the issue of Kiri. Kiri is an unnecessary character whose traits could have been written into Tuk's character. Kiri is yet another contrivance whose only purpose is to shoehorn Sigourney Weaver into the movie. It's also slightly bizarre that she's playing her own daughter - sure motion capture and CGI can give the visuals of an adolescent, but she's still being voiced by a 70-something year old. Odd, to say the least.
Another thing I noted about Kiri - there's a touch of the uncanny valley about her which I don't get from any of the other characters. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe she was a late addition or had some late alterations and her face was rushed? Or maybe it's just the nose; Kiri's nose is smaller than the other Na'vi or Avatar characters, making her face more human, which maybe contributes to the uncanny valley feeling because she's not a convincing human, but we don't expect the Na'vi to be human, so there's no jarring effect with them. I don't know, I just know something is quite "off" with Kiri's face.
I felt that towards the end of the movie, things got a bit clumsy, like the randomly thrown-in rescue of the villain, presumably only to ensure a continued antagonist in the next sequel, and then the overly schmaltzy epilogue which added nothing to the story.
The only other criticism which springs to mind is the contracted timeline with significant chunks of time missing, without it being made immediately clear that's what was happening, making it hard to gain any appreciation of the timescales involved.
Having said all of that, I did enjoy the movie, I did root for the protagonists, I did dislike the (ridiculous) villain, and even got a bit emotional at the bits I was supposed to get emotional over. It's a fantastic looking movie which I'll be buying on Blu-ray when it's released. I was just disappointed that it wasn't as good as it should have been - after more than a decade, was this really the best script anyone could conceive?