That is the most any of us can hope for imo. EVERYTHING has been done already, so there can't be a film that is completely original. Expecting a film with a storyline that has never been done before is rediculous and asking for too much. Stories change only superficially, only the setting truly does.

The film was very enjoyable, but I don't think that it will age well. Technology is always getting better and in a few years, Avatar will visually be nothing special. Also, there was almost no explanation as to whythat rock was so precious. Something to do with the energy crisis on Earth, but that was it. My other criticism of the film is that the energy diety that the aliens worshipped was a rip-off from Starwars. It was a mystical energy field created by all living things. Sounds extremely similiar to the Force.

I just got back from seeing it. It is a little "Dances with Wolves" and a little "Pocahontas"....in space. I liked it, but I didn't like the ending. You know, it's times like this these forums need spoiler tags. I'd really like to talk about how it ended. Oh well, needless to say, I didn't like the ending.....too..abrupt. Those who saw it should know what I'm talking about.

I liked it alot.  Really enjoyed the tech.  Wasn't overly preachy with its people on earth f'd the environment message.  It was there, but wasn't over the top. 

Yeah. It IS like "Dances with Wolves" The time just flies. I have to say if you get the chance to see it in 3D on the big screen then DO IT!! I thought it might be a preachy movie but it's not. It does get the point across though that we can choose to be a part of this big mindless consuming machine or we can choose another way.

That's kind of ironic considering that we're all fans of a game that models the colonization, expansion, conquering and seizing of resources.

<Some Spoilers Ahead>

Finally got around to seeing the bloody thing, and I must say I'm impressed. Not the absolute best movie I've ever seen (D9) but definately up there:

• +++: The female scientist (Beth, I think her name was) was such an increadibly excellent character!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jack (Josh? Jake?) may have been the hero, but she definately stole the show!!!! Smart, logical, and not afraid to show the thugs their place!!!! I could go on like this for pages, but I really must continue with the review, so I'll just give her three pluses and leave it at that.
• ++: Those warped souls who actually read my other posts and reviews have probably realized already that the thugs (particularly Colonel Scarhead) were a big hit with me. It's high time people saw the other side of those GI Joe-style militaristic action flicks!!! "Fight terror with terror"
• ++: In that same vein, it's SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO nice to see scientists as the good guys for a change, as opposed to the Scrawny-Evil-Nut-With-The-Monacle-Who-Tries-To-Blow-Up-The-Free-World-And-Gets-His-Butt-Kicked-By-The-Heavily-Muscled-High-School-Dropout-In-Spandex-With-The-Female-Sidekick-With-Unnaturally-Lage.... am I ranting again? Sorry.
• ++: I'm usually a substance-over-style guy, but I really, really have to tip my hat to the visual-effects team. Just increadible!!
• ++: Despite its plot-wonking-out qualities, the idea of an apparently sentient neural network of trees connected to an entire planetary (or lunar) ecology really tickled the sci-fier in me. Interesting take on the whole Gaia thing.
• +: Really cool technology and really, really cool alien world! Love the mecha and the sucker plants the best, respectively.
• +: Another remarkebly nitless production. Not totally nitless, of course, but let me get through the (-)s before I dive in.
• -: Got some pretty technophobic vibes through the end part of the movie. Not terribly many, but enough to send a little shiver up my spinal wiring.
• -: The whole biosphere-in-revolt thing at the end struck me as a bit of a deus ex machina(or arbora, as the case might be) contrivance.
• -/2: "Unobtanium"? Really?

And now, of course, my usual nitpicking. It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it.......

1. I'm willing to bet that Alpha Centauri has planets around it, given what astronomers know of matter accreation and gravitational processes. But a rich, thriving ecology is most likely hard to come by, and having one on the planet (or habitible moon, which I imagine is actually possible around a gas giant big enough) right next door to us seems something of a stroke of luck. Not to metoin SENTIENT life, and life that RESEMBLES US!! Those odds are, if you'll pardon the expression, astronomical.
2. Wikipedia tells me that Alpha Centauri is a binary star system. It miiiiiiiight not be correct about the number, but I definately remember there being multiple stars in there. And Pandora is a MOON orbiting a (reflective?) gas giant! If so, it would have really WIERD day-night cycles, but everything in the movie suggests a regular, Earth-like circadian system.
3. Nobody seems to care overmuch about the floating chunks of rock on Pandora, or the blue ovoid crystals in the pterodactyloid-choosing-scene that seem to provide the lift. Now, I highly doubt that the humans have access to practical antigravity devices, because the vehicles all have wheels and airfoils of some variety. If so, that would make the rocks an INCREADIBLY valube scientific and technological asset. And yet this money-grubbing corporation in charge of everything doesn't even care. {Or are the crystals actually unobtanium, and that's what it's used for? The rock in the control tower was the only other thing that floats, after all.......}
4. I find it unlikely that the tree neural network was able to process the Doc's alien nervous system, but it's not like Google can get me any references about real botanically-based worldwide synaptic networks.
5. Those silly military designers! They put what looks (and breaks) just like ordinary glass in the windows of all the aircraft except for the gunship, which has a sensible, bulletproof form of glass that protects the pilots from everything the Na'avi can throw at them (excluding a few hand grenades down the intake port). If they'd just done that to all the ships, they might have won the fight!
6. I must say I'm at a bit of a loss to explain the atmospheric conditions on Pandora. Humans can't breathe the air for more than a few seconds, and whenever our air comes into contact with theirs, there is a wierd pressure-differential-like distortion for a fraction of a second. At first, I thought that the air was just thin and/or low in oxygen (thus the Na'avi's large ears, chests, and noses) but sounds carry normally, the choppers fly normally, and Jake(Jack? Josh?)'s torch burns just as it would on Earth. Then I theorized that there must be "Something Invisible" in the air that is poisonous to humans and reacts with "Something Else" in Earth air to projuce the distortion. But the masks wouldn't filter that out right away as they appear to, and no-one seems alarmed then Scarface opens a door and lets "Something Invisible" into the base's air. I've just about run out of options, so I guess it's a nit.
7. Why is there no surveillence for the prisoners to keep them from, I dunno, escaping? The Company doesn't seem like the types to respect people's Miranda rights.....

Aliens had no lasers. Frankenstein had no lasers. The Time Machine had no lasers. The Island of Doctor Mareau had no lasers. These are all sci-fi.

I felt that the creatures in Avatar looked extremely fake and unconvincing. They were too smooth and shiny and textureless. The creatures from Aliens looked far more realistic and that film relied on men in suits. Where film-makers go wrong is that they try too hard to make CGI look real when the way something moves and the noise it makes contributes alot to the realisticness of something and this is neglected. Peter Jackson's King Kong was a man in a suit touched up with CGI and this had better results.

They did some fun stuff with the floating mountains... I think they did the math... and if those montains contained large ammounts of a room-temperature superconducting material (their unobtanium... sheesh...)... and there was a large enough magnetic field (that magnetic thingy i forget the name of... the reason thier sensors and stuff dont work)... the mountains would indeed float... but... the magnetic field would have to be so powerfull it would rip the hemoglobin out of our red blood cells. which would be bad. so... not quite... but imho. close enough.

Any different air masses create "wierd pressure-differential-like distortion"... just watch the area above your charcoal grill... and thats just hot and cold air.   I am not sure what the atmospheric properties are either... but it must have close to 21% oxegen (any more and fire would be almost explosive... any less fire would not burn.)... all it take to make that atmosphere totally poisonous to hummies would be a 8-10% carbon dioxide level... while traces of other gasses would make it posionous... high levels of CO2 is the only thing i can think of that could have the kind of effect that the atmosphere had... and be as easy to fix as fresh air.

Avatar could have been the next great epic film (following the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and Star Wars). It was an entertaining experience, but far from a masterpiece.

Oh well.

EDIT: I wanted to add that Avatar is a "must see in the theater" experience. Thanks to convincing 3D technology and brilliant effects, it is somewhat of a thrill ride, which may justify the price of admission for many, regardless of the overall quality of the film.

I bothered to do a bit of research... and Cameron's 200+ page book goes rediculously indepth into this shizz... i only did the amazon look-in-side thing... but this is what i found about about the air from that book and alot of other credible sources.

1. All the gunships, AMPs (the mechs), buildings, and so forth are pressurized to .3 psi above that of the outside.  This is to prevent, the outside air from leaking in (instead the inside air would leak out)... and in the case of a large breach... you would get your wind blowing from the human air to the moon air.

2. the gravity of pandora is .8 of earths... and the atmosphere is 1.2 that of earths. dont ask me to do the math on that to see if thats possible... cause its not happening. 

3. All the military equipment is retooled versions from 21st century earth military equipment.... where due to the constant emp attacks everything had to be shielded from EMPs... (and UAVs had to be phased out) Pandora is so rediculously magnetic... that this EMP shielding is REQUIRED... by a lot. Also... it means that all these things worked at 1g and 1atm... which means they work even better at .8g and 1.2 atm.

4. The atmosphere has a higher level of oxygen than earths 21%... but not by much...  but the C02 concentration is 18%...  (some chemistry nerds could probably do the math and figure out how much more oxygen is needed to allow earth-like fire thanks to the increase in the products (CO2) concentration in those lovely balancing equations and such) and most the rest is Nitrogen, but it has some amount of Xenon, Ammonia, Methane, and Hydrogen Cyanide... but the page cuts off but i am sure most of these are trace only.

But seriously... for a sci-fi film they did a SHIZZTON of work on this... enough to stand up to the average forum nit-picker. (geezz... the Venture Star (the big starship)... they seriously did the math... and they designed that thing so completely, you plug in a 100 years of extrapolation in robotics and nano-technology... a room temperature superconductor (unobtanium... which... appearently the original script says that it was a "joke/slang" name that just kinda caught on), and those Antimatter/fusion engines (which dont look too far fetched if you read up on em) and your there.

Fascentaing research, guys. I guess this just shows I'm still just an aspiring engineer........ I've always been compelled to pronounce and spell unobtanium unubtanium (you-noob-taan-ee-umm) because it sounds like the names they give theoretical transuranics... maybe that's where it actually came from..........

ROFL!

Avatar is going to cause a cult following like Lord of the Rings!