Is it the game-changer? The movie that’s going to change the face of cinema as we know it?
No. Not in the slightest.
It’s a fun flick, to be sure, it’s a spectacle. But it doesn’t live up to the hype. I love the future tech. I love the epic battle scenes. It’s a production designers dream job. But ultimately it’s the same hippy-dippy anti-capitalist, tree-hugging, navel-gazing, anti-military screeds we’ve been seeing from Hollywood since Dubya won his second term.
I have not seen the film in IMAX, so I can only imagine that it might be a greater spectacle in the format. The 3D effects are indeed impressive, the design of the world of Pandora is beautiful. But like so many vanity projects (George Lucas, I’m looking at you!) it lacks any sort of depth or emotion in story, and ultimately resorts to browbeating instead of storytelling, and broad-brush characterization the likes of which we haven’t seen since Snidely Whiplash tied ladies to the railroad tracks.
C+.
