Avatar is one-dimensional

It is a one dimensional, overlong film with its clichéd, predictable plot and half baked characters. You don’t necessarily need fancy special effects to engage the audience, what you need is an engaging screenplay and well written characters and that is what Avatar lacks badly. But the imagery is often breathtaking, the ferocious battles brilliantly staged and technically it pushes the medium forward, though not necessarily in a direction that everyone, myself included, will approve of. And let's hope 3D doesn't become the norm rather than the exception.

The following is a review by a friend of mine from Flixster called William Sleet. He saved my the trouble of writing any further on this film because his words summed up my thoughts.

James Cameron is NOT a great film-maker, he's a master manipulator and very good at giving a lazy, impatient and a thoroughly greedy audience what they want. Avatar gives you everything you want on a plate (minus substance or a soul or anything approaching cinematics) and even manages, literally of course, to plonk it in our laps! Of course, as eager fans are still waxing lyrical about the pyrotechnics on display, I know there are many who have been sitting with mouths agape to catch the over-ripe stodge flying at them and will wonder if I actually saw the same film. But, as far as I'm concerned, they are only under Cameron's insidious spell and, as time diminishes this spell, many of them will realise they were tricked once again. Funny thing is though, as with Titanic, they'll deny ever falling for such a shameless charlatan (as they do time and again with Roland Emmerich, Michael Bay and George Lucas). Please, can anyone actually say, with their hand on their heart, that they think any of Cameron's films are great years down the line of having seen it (anyone serious about cinema that is). How many are still watching 'Aliens', 'Titanic', 'True Lies' or any of 'The Terminator' films??

No-one watches them anymore because the gimmicks that they were sold on are now old-hat. The simplistic story-lines have become dated. Even Cameron knows this - why else does he take an eternity (force-feeding the stupid masses with the pre-publicity) polishing and perfecting his film with the latest technologies and fashionable elements before he releases it?

And I HATE 3D. I hate that it has nothing whatsoever to do with cinema and has everything to do with instant gratification and I hate it because it really is the Emperor's New Clothes - all it seems to do is disguise the fact that, without the in-your-face technology, the film itself really is either not very good or just distinctly average. Even if a film is actually quite good, it simply becomes an unwanted distraction (certainly the case with 'Coraline'). Add to this the fact that it is still a technology in progress, foisted on us too early by greedy soulless men in suits, impatient to line their pockets. I hate it because it's ripping the soul out of cinema and people seem to be buying into it!

Am I the only one who does not enjoy going cross-eyed for nearly three hours!? Anyway, the film itself was actually ok - just. The story has been told a hundred times before but was entertaining enough if a little too simplistic (which will lend itself quite smoothly to the inevitable game releases). I have to say that Sam Worthington is very watchable and there is no denying the lovingly created beautiful world of Pandora's landscapes and jungles. But the set-pieces, as suspenseful and thrilling as they are, were marred by the fact that 3D just can't keep up with motion or movement and blurs everything (even as I type I can still feel its after-affects behind my poor abused eyes). So combined with Avatar's insubstantial and derivative story, makes things, despite what we are being led to believe by the fanboys, ultimately quite forgettable.

I am sure in years to come, most people who cannot stop singing its praises today would be too embarrassed to admit it, just like today they are embarrassed to admit they loved Titanic back in 1997.