James Cameron's "Avatar" Review

I wanted to start off this post with a small thing that I have to say about this movie. I really enjoyed it, but it wasn't original. See below for my full review. It does contain a bit of spoilers as the outcome and stuff, but nothing too bad.

The tickets for this movie was a gift from some friends so when my wife and I went to see it, she more excited to see it than me, it was free which is always good. The movie started off very typical of James Cameron stuff, about thirty minutes of it explaining the world, the tech in the world and a little bit of the character development. Slowly we start to get an understanding of this character, his motives are clear from the beginning as he says that he "wants his legs back." So the first person to offer him this got his support. It happened so fast that I knew it would change before the end of the movie. I think it was probably the Plot Point of Act 1. For the entire second act it was a very standard Native American Story. I saw somewhere the plot was summed up by the Disney movie "Pocahontas," which it is very close to it. Except for the scifi elements it would be that exactly. I don't think this is a bad thing as it allows the story to falls to the side as its predictable, but allows us to really focus on the characters and how they are developing, which is what I found most interesting. Basically, by the end of Act 2, it was going strong and I felt that the final act was going to kick some butt. It didn't disappoint at all and varies here from the ending you were expecting as the Natives actually win the war as opposed to other movies where the invading people usually do, but being that we are sympathizing with them throughout the movie was to be expected.

Overall I found the story to be a bit predictable, which did detract from the movie a bit. The characters were well thought out and I felt very developed so much that I cared for them all.

The special effects, even not in 3-D like I was told to see it in, but didn't have the extra cash, were extraordinary and they are what drew me into the world that Cameron created.

I would give this movie a solid 9 out of 10 the only thing knocking it down was the predictable plot line. Because I'm a writer, this is worthy of a one point knock off as I feel that plots should be more of a surprise even if it has been done numerous times.

So that's what I thought of the current Mega-Blockbuster making the rounds. If you have any comments or want to discuss this please feel free to in the comment section. I always enjoy a vibrant film argument.