I think the film told its story very well. In terms of structure (which is the essence of storytelling), it was one of tightest and most well-designed scripts I’ve ever seen.
OTOH, I actually liked the story itself - it had a strong mid-1960s SF feel to it, like early Silverberg or Zelazny.
I don’t get it…he could achieve the same results by filming at any SF mudflats, a few hours after low tide.
What’s to be seen?
Of course, if he wants to blow a few million, he can afford it.
Cameron the man is one of my favorite people in the whole entire world. He is just plain awesome because of all that stuff.
But Avatar still stunk to high heavens (though it was very very pretty, even on my 27" TV).
I thought he stole the plot from Ferngully:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loziPLSjJRY;)
Avatar 2: The Miners Strike Back - The Na’vi are rounded up and put on reservations as the earthlings begin to mine away at the planet.
Avatar 3: The Return of Eywa - The Na’vi get their ultimate revenge when granted a gaming license and they build hundreds of casino’s and claim back their riches from the wealthy earthlings.
Avatar as a story was dreck. I liked it better the first time, when it was called Dances with Wolves. It was a boilerplate SF theme: Evil corporation rapes planet, peace-loving natives turn out able to defend themselves, good humans realize they’re on the side of evil and help the natives. That’s not just an SF trope, it’s a literary trope. And it was done without much in the way of character development or anything else interesting.
But I think that misses the point of the movie. There’s something to be said for a movie that takes a conventional story and uses it as a scaffold for building up a spectacle - a fully realized alien world in 3D that would give moviegoers something really new to see. And on that level, it succeeded in spades. I thought the movie was jaw-dropping to watch. I’d give it a big thumbs up - but only if you can see if on the big screen in 3D. Watching Avatar on a small 2D set totally misses the point and the entertainment value of the movie - all you’re left with is a B-grade science fiction movie with a shallow plot.
But it’s pretty rare these days that a movie can make you experience something you’ve never really seen before, and Avatar did that for me. For that, it’s worth its best-picture nomination.