I'm not going to post a full movie review here but would like to mention that "Avatar" in some ways exceeded my expectations (many of the visual effects were truly stunning) but overall did not exactly blow me away. And that's ok I guess. I like movies with a message and movies that really make you think. This one ended up being predominantly entertainment and marvelling at the wonders of CGI rather than being moved emotionally terribly much.
Maybe it's because of the limits of the medium itself (not too many movies actually managed to have a lasting impact on me) or the way the storyline was developed (not a whole lot of surprises there), or maybe I'm just too hardened to be moved easily these days.
It's interesting to see how unapologetically spiritual the intended message was (beyond mere environmentalism and anticolonialism), of course packaged mainly in a more pantheistic "mother earth" type of spirituality. What I took away as positive was actually something very different:
As amazing as Cameron's artificial world is, it didn't even come close to the wonders of the real thing here. And yes, sincere prayers to a God who is very much personal, are heard and answered! We all need more than just a little help!
