Big movie trailer advert break during the superbowl due on the 6th I've heard.

I thought Avatar was boring, yes the graphics were amazing, yes the 3D aspect was cool (my first 3D film that was actually 3D for me, all the other 'so called 3D' films were just a red / green blur.) but it was waay to long.

For me, it was one of the increasing list of movies whose entire story was contained in the trailers. I watched it because it came on HBO, and I was wanted to get another look at some of the effects. The result of my viewing was a resounding 'meh.' Maybe the ticket sales were driven by good use of 3D, but I've never been particularly impressed by 3D so I didn't go out of my way to see that version. I don't mean to put down fans of Avatar - for me, it's just another movie that didn't live up to the hype.

The 3d in avatar did nothing to contribute to the story. The really flashy animation was cool, but was used primarily as stand-ins for actors and therefore nullified any contribution to the story it could have had. All the work that Cameron put into world building resulted in 'Smurf Native Americans who ride dragons' and otherwise didn't contribute to the story either.

The story was 'westerner arrives and saves indigenous people by being better that their own culture then they are' which is a tired trope that has been reused over, over, and over. The characters were stock and without nuance. Take away the flashy distraction animation and you have a story that is simple, obvious, and banal.

So YAY, he spend a shit-ton of money to visualize a world (that is uninteresting), animate it (technically accomplished but with no innovation) and act out a Pocahontas script! Cameron is a genius; let's all line up to suck his balls.

Other things he has done are cool. T2 is awesome. Aliens is cool. Titanic was good. But just because he did good stuff in the past doesn't mean everything the man does is brilliant. And seriously, the world flipped out over this movie! It made billions! Did nobody notice that the story sucked? Was everyone distracted by the sexy smurfs riding dragons that completely? I really don't get it and it has shaken my faith in humanity.

I hadn't heard that zorg. Thanks.

I didn't have a problem with avatar, but thats because I never expected it to be anything but a run of the mill action flick. Aside from the 3D, a first for me, I didn't even think the visuals were spectacular. Certainly not revolutionary like they were hyped.

I certainly am not disputing your review of the story.

But really just how many fun movies stand up as really great films?

When I watch a movie I'm only looking for it to be fun and interesting enough that I don't spend the whole film picked at whats wrong with it. Sometime the stories thats interesting and some times its the visuals. Avatar had cool enough visuals to be interesting the 1 time I've seen it. Indeed being 3D was its real selling point to me. And thats the only reason I went to the theater to see it. I could easily have waited to see the film itself at home, like every other movie on my list.


Aside from LOTR I'd be hard pressed to come up with any fantasy or scifi movie I'd say was an all around great film.

At the risk of taking a lot of flak, none of those would make my great list. I like a lot of them, but I'd rate them no more than good.

Good Fantasy & SciFi (In my opinion and beyond what has been mentioned already)

Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome - pure poetry
Moon - colonist in existential crisis
The Prophecy - Christopher Walken as Gabriel
Centurion - female villain stays clothed through the whole movie!
District 9 - the hero really isn't
Reign of Fire - Van Zant is my hero!
Ghost in the Shell - TV show included. It is way too smart for a cartoon.