Avatar - Yes I finally saw it!

So yes, 3 months behind everyone else we got to see it.  I was hoping for IMAX but I could never book a good seat and then it was replaced by Alice in Wonderland.  So we opted for 3D on an ordinary-sized screen.  I had hopes and doubts for the 3D experience.  A few people had told me it wasn't like your usual 3D film.  Instead of things coming at you it gave you a sense of depth.  Well they were half right.  It seemed to avoid the shock factor of things flying at you.  It was still distracting at times though.  You lose the ability to choose what you focus on.  Something your brain would normally phase out becomes your object of focus.  When that's a piece of a plant drifting past the main action it;s disorientating.  So while the effect of 3D was much better than usual it only reinforced that I prefer my films in two dimensions only.

The plot was rather predictable.  An old tale that has been churned out time and time again.  It wasn't a bad telling of the tale but one I didn't need to see again.  The real downside for me was the characters.  They were lazily written stereotypes.  No-one went against what you expected of them in any way.  I didn't feel attached to any of the characters.  I just didn't care about them.  especially Worthington's character, he was just irritating. 10 minutes after they'd landed on Pandora you could tell how the story would end and who would do what to bring about that end.  The only thing was Cameron dragged the story out far longer than I had in my mind.  This film was way too long.

The awe of the effects kept me interested a little bit but not enough.  Yes the technical achievements were amazing.  But I'm not a fan of effects.  Surely to put such a huge effort and so much money into effects and so little into the plot is madness.  If the plot had been given half as much time as the CGI this film could have won everyone over.

For all it's predictability this film was never believable.

Spoilers below, rollover to highlight

Arrows beating technology beyond our own?  Come on!  The marine being moved from his own body to that of the avatar?  Give me a break!  I'm sorry this just didn't gel for me.  Neither did the 'network' of plants either.  Maybe I'm just dead inside...

End of spoilers

3 out of 5 pawprints.  This is one I doubt I'll ever see again.  I can see it's good points but they're not what I look for in my films.