Avatar rekalled...

James Cameron's AVATAR, his sci-fi adventure many years is the making, is finally upon us. Dubbed the "game changer" by those involved and some of the early reviews by those in the industry this film had much to live up to and early an early negative backlash to the early shots and marketing. This film was pretty much exactly what I expected, a good action film with nice special effects but laughable at moments. Avatar is not a subtle film or original in story structure, I was not blown away or surprised at any moment like some wanted me to believe. I enjoyed the performances of most of the actors; Sam Worthington does an adequate job handling the action lead, Sigoureny Weaver adds a hard nosed humor and is probably the most believable character in the film and Zoe Saldana is the best of the motion captured characters. Stephan Lang was the most wooden and one-dimensional characters in the film and unintentionally funny with some of his dialog, not a strong or compelling villain. While the special effects, action and actors are strong points of the film the story is just weak which for a film with so much riding on it inexcusable. The points James Cameron tries to hammer home aren't subtle and while I agree with what he is saying it felt so spoon fed and trite that it comes off as corny and preachy. As for the 3-D, another gimmick I don't need, it just doesn't WOW me. I can't say I was let down by this film since my expectations were low but I won't say I was impressed. Just another film that should have been more.