Avatar is possibly the most beautiful CGI movie ever!

[heruamon]

Khuutra said:

I kind of liked the Colonel exactly because he was such a stereotype, but he was an inversion of the hero stereotype in action movies: unstoppable bad-ass, walks calmly away from the exploding wreckage of his own vehicle, manages to kill the giant leopard monster, that whole scene with him holding his breath while they were escaping (same scene you mentioned). There was no depth - none at all - but he was almost hysterically awesome as an action movie character. I think that's kind of what he was there for - to provide periodic doses of testosterone to hold the jughead demographic over until shit started exploding.

I think we generally agree on him - I just enjoyed him because of his one-dimensionality, because it's a dimension I enjoy so much.

I remember quite a few people cringing and looking away when the assault on the Hometree started, and even Evil Corporate Guy seemed to question things. The Colonel was the only one who was just flat-out reprehensibly evil.

I wanted to be bored or even offended by the whole "evil military industrial complex" angle, but then me and my wife talked about it on the walk home and we came to the conclusion that, as a story about colonialism, it's actually true to life - every single colonial society has done that sort of thing to aboriginal peoples, with about as much remorse

I think you're spot on about the colonial approach throughout history...the movie was spot on in that regard.  As to the one-dimensional Colonel, I've encountered a few in my life who can aren't too far from him...but the point is that Cameron could have/should have made both of them with a little more depth.  These guys were on a totally alien world, and all they could think about were their mundane existent...  Warfare for the Colonel and Money for the Administrator.