Some thoughts on Avatar

Yes, after all I am one of the people who added to the visitor-count for that movie.

The hype seems weird, but over all it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, after some things I'd heard.

Some spoilers following, in case you're even more slow finding your way to the cinema.

The whole "blue cat Native Americans" was kinda painful, yes. And the story was obviously stock material, so it's not interesting, but an excuse to hang visuals and the occasional nice line of dialogue on.

There was a weird opinion an article about Avatar in yesterday's paper, saying it was sexist (against women) because the men looked better than the women. Just putting that out there, I neither agree with the opinion about aesthetics nor understand the reasoning behind the conclusion.
Regarding the general topic: What stood out to me was that they killed off half of the female cast (not counting extras), and, particularly, that the two that survived were the hero's love interest and "mother-in-law" (who also was needed for a ceremony with the hero at the centre at the end). Looking at the movie alone, no problem, but it touches a raw nerve caused by way too stories showing a "women are only important because of their relation to men" attitude.

On the plus side, we got four female characters who were not just decoration or something. (Still not passing the Bechdel test, unless I missed something, but a step in the right direction.)

What's more, there were women in the background as marines, or working in the avatar lab. That's a huge step up from The Fifth Element, another colourful scifi film, which I need to rant about some time.

One aspect of the story that leaves a bad taste in my mouth is how Jake Sully's development, particularly the whole Toruk-rider thing. Him playing a key role in the defense of Pandora due to his knowledge about how humans and their equipment operate would make perfect sense, but the whole "(white american male) newcomer is a better Noble Savage than those born to it after only three months of practise" seems nonsensical to me.

You get made-up critters and plants, as can be expected from a made-up world, and, yes, the visuals were pretty and impressive. Despite the aforementioned grating bits, over all the movie was entertaining; it certainly didn't feel almost three hours long. I also had some fun picking out details, like a dragon painted on the side of an aircraft (funny when the people you're fighting against are riding what looks like flying lizards).

Your average Hollywood movie.