LOL well I did just get back from seeing it in 3d and it was one of those movies that ended up being more or less what I expected, plot-wise, visual-wise, etc. In other words, I enjoyed myself, but wasn't blown away or anything.
A few observations:
1) Sigourney Weaver is still my favorite actress. She rocks in everything, and I was pleased to see she had a bigger part in this than I thought. Though, where did her avatar find such big dorky shirts?
2) Sam Worthington needs to pick an accent and stick with it.
3) I was pleased to see that James Cameron got over the "creepy" eye factor with humanoid computer animation that Robert Zemeckis can't seem to get right -- namely, he did so by giving the Na'vi non-human eyes. It works. The Na'vi are very expressive CGI creatures. That being said...
4) ... it still looks like I'm watching a video game (especially in the non close-up flying shots), albeit with very high resolution textures. I'm not buying the "this is a giant leap forward in motion picture technology" stuff. With the exception of the close-ups of the Na'vi being slightly more expressive, the CGI seems more incrementally better than "oh-my-god" better.
5) I like how half the animal and plant life on Pandora either glows, spins, or glows AND spins. If there wasn't a danger of being eaten, I would totally relapse on acid there.
6) The plot definitely got more fun as time went on and it started getting away from the "Pocahontas... IN SPACE!" stuff (I swear, at one point I started humming "Colors of the Wind"). I won't give away a major plot point here, but after there was a rather large explosion, the action factor went into overdrive and I stopped looking at my watch. Oddly enough, even though it was all just pixels fighting, it didn't devolve into the mindless crap of Transformers. I mean, there WAS mostly a point to the whole thing.
7) The dialogue is really pretty terrible. Giovanni Ribisi gets some of the worst lines. (And does some of the lousiest acting, which just ups the "really?" factor) But then again, the dialogue in most Cameron movies isn't too great, right?
8) I mentioned how much Sigourney Weaver rocks, right?
So that's my review. You'll be entertained, you'll think the pretty video game graphics are gorgeous, you'll want to make out with Sam Worthington and/or Sigourney Weaver and/or both at once, but it doesn't break too far from the expected plotline.
7 Jolly Blue Giants out of 10
