There's nothing like a Thursday evening showing if you want to have the place nearly to yourself.
See my better-late-than-never thoughts on...
The Good
* The Film looks amazing, full of rich vistas, CGI Characters, a blending of real and CGI Actors and amazing water effects. You can see the money spent.
* The Story does build nicely on the first one, upping the stakes and making the story hinge upon the events of the last Film (which who remembers well at this point?)
* It's all so epic in scope (at least visually), while keeping a very personal Story going.
* The Film has a good (if blunt) message about Ecology and the pointless nature of Revenge.
* They set up a third Film quite nicely, which is a given at this point.
* James Cameron gets to redeem himself for Piranha 2: The Spawning by including Flying Fish in this one. Good for him.
The Bad
* The Film goes from obvious Indigenous People imagery (they literally attack the Imperials and their trains!) to obvious Maori Imagery (even casting Cliff Curtis). It's not done in poor taste- it's just super on the nose.
* The whole 'Cut to a Year Later' bit is a real cheat, taking a whole Film's worth of story and throwing it away. He's going to sell this back to Disney as a Prequel Show, isn't he?
* The middle chunk of the Film is very *familiar* as Jake and Family have to learn all new skills as N'avi like Jake did in the last Film. Avoid this in the third Film please.
* Correct me if I'm wrong, but Jake's kids were conceived by his 100% N'avi body, so why do they have human traits? Seriously, am I just completely wrong here?
* The Plot has one issue- too many Plots. It can't ever be sure what to focus on, so people drop in and out of the Film for *long* stretches of time. It's not a massive issue, but it is an issue, nonetheless.
* Hiring Jermain Clement and having him do an American accent.
In summary, it is a great looking, but a bit disjointed of a Film. Cut this into a multi-Episode Limited Series and it works amazingly well.
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