With the hype machine behind Avatar, there's been a lot of backlash.  I, for one, have been waiting for a while to see this movie finally come to fruition.  I got to partake in this experience of a film last night, and I can undoubtedly say "yes, Avatar was pretty fucking sweet".  What you are about to read is less of a review and more of an open discussion topic.
 
Many people don't feel that James Cameron's name on a movie really means much, and I guess that makes sense if you don't follow the careers of directors much.  He's never really had much of a "face" in film, and maybe it's because he hasn't made a shitload of movies.  It could also be because Cameron refuses to stick to one genre, but instead bends the genres he works within.  With Aliens, he was able to take the sci-fi genre to a new level of "gritty" that Ridley Scott started, then pump it with balls-to-the-wall and intelligent action.  Every choice made in that movie was made for a reason, and it showed.  With his first two Terminator films, he created an iconic character that is one of the only characters to grace both the AFI Greatest Heroes and AFI Greatest Villains lists.  He also brought the sci-fi to OUR world, and with Terminator 2, he helped to mainstream the use of CGI in films. 
 
Wait...didn't Jurassic Park mainstream CGI?  Yes, but James Cameron has always been known as the guy who breaks the technology into the mainstream...and without Terminator 2, Jurassic Park would've been seen as a dreamer's endeavor at the time.  In the end, both movies still feature some of the best uses of CGI to date. 
 
So now we have Avatar, the movie with 9-foot-tall cat people and a relatively unknown actor in the lead.  The movie is primarily CGI, which is bringing back the bad taste in our mouths from the Star Wars prequelogy.  The mesh of space military meets high fantasy is drawing plenty of comparisons to Halo meets The Burning Crusade's Outland.  The story is drawing comparisons of Pocahontas and Ferngully...and add in a dash of "liberal tree-hugger crap".  Then there is the 3D work on the film, which is the huge draw since it took James Cameron so long to finally have the technology to make the movie he wanted. 
 
In the end, that's the way I look at this film - it's a predictable story that we all know way too well placed inside some amazing special effects that are going to push the movie industry into a new age.  I'm okay with that.  Personally, I'm GLAD with those choices.  I wouldn't want some Dune-like sci-fi politi-drama of complication being the big 3D push.  Sure, it would be great to see a complicated story like that, but at the same time, we're not used to 3D being pushed into the mainstream yet.  Avatar is the perfect movie to do that.  You have a story you are familiar with:  dood joins a program, has to learn the native ways, become one of them, ends up hating the people who have put him there because those people want to destroy what he loves, he joins the natives and fights against them.  You KNOW this story.  It IS cliche.  Deal with it.  Some of the greatest movies of all time feature cliche stories, and they are "cliche" for a reason - because they fucking work! 
 
Cameron does it well.  Even looking back at Aliens, that movie's story was basic and simple...and it is still one of the best movies ever made (don't believe me, go find a negative review instead...keep searching...yeah, it's tough, ain't it?).  People bitching about a simple story is about the same as people bitching about having sex with their wife - it's the same chick you've been fucking for years, but you still like it regardless. 
 
Let's get it straight, though - you aren't going to this movie for the story or the characters.  You are using the story and the characters...and what you may perceive as "their weakness in the movie"...as a reason to NOT see the movie...as a reason to bash it for no reason.  I personally felt the acting was perfectly balanced, as well as the characters.  They all served their purpose well.  Was the dialogue amazing?  No, but it was natural, which I appreciated.  I liked that Cameron took the opportunity to make me feel comfortable in this 3D world...and it worked...incredibly well. 
 
The visuals are fantastic, people.  It's something you have to do - you have to go to the theatre and see this movie.  Don't wait for it to his Blu-ray and DVD.  See it in the theatre, because it's mind-boggling how detailed the 3D is in this film.  The 2D trailers on TV do NOT do it justice.  I'll be seeing the movie in 2D later this week to see if I still feel the same about the flick.
 
Let the discussion begin.  Did you like it?  Did you not like it?  What was the issue?  Will you be seeing it?  As Snide said on his Twitter, do you feel this is actually a good movie or is it just a technical milestone?  I feel it is both, and I think we need an open and healthy discussion SOMEWHERE in the world to talk about this...and where better than a website that focuses on a form of technology that is constantly pushing boundaries?