Avatar is possibly the most beautiful CGI movie ever!

[rocketpig]

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 get that colonialism has done that so many times throughout history, which is exactly WHY it bored me. Add some intrigue to it... I've seen that story more times than I care to count.

Ribisi cringing at the horror in front of him as the tree fell just doesn't do it for me. He was a smart guy in charge of thousands of people on an alien world. He knew what was coming yet there appeared to be little hesitation before the tree fell. That little moment actually cheapened the character IMO. It portrayed him as some sort of moron.

As I said earlier, if Ribisi had been a little more developed, the Colonel would have amused me more. But SOMETHING had to give within the "enemy" organization, yet there wasn't much there. A bunch of blood-thirsty morons without thought to the repercussions doesn't sell me on a movie. It's too easy and it makes me think the director didn't want to put the effort into explaining why people would be so short-sighted about something. Even a plot element that put Earth in immediate danger and the only way to save it was to destroy Hometree would have added some interesting conflict within the characters. ANYTHING. That's all I wanted. I hate it when fim-makers cheap out on the villains and that's how I felt about Avatar.

It may sound like I'm relentlessly bashing the movie but I actually enjoyed most of it. I just wish Cameron would have gone that extra mile to make the story as believable as the visuals.