I saw Avatar. In IMAX 3-D, in fact. Visually, it's stunning. What I love about James Cameron's work is how he makes technology part of the process, rather than stopping it. I know the whole film is an effects shot, but they never have that "Wow, look at me, I'm a cool effects shot" feel. It feels organic.
The script, however, is a little less spectacular. In fact, it's average, which is a little disappointing. In Titanic I thought he managed to tell a standard love story in such a way to make it feel epic. In Avatar, he tells a standard "invading European" story and make it feel, well, very standard. Nothing was really a surprise in it.
Ultimately, it's kind of like someone saying "I'm going to sing you Happy Birthday" and then they go ahead and sing one of the best versions you've ever heard. Nothing's a surprise, but you can certainly appreciate it.
Cameron also brings in the term Unobtainium, which is just a little too on the nose for me. I've heard that the term can refer to the ever-moving "last" element of the Periodic Table, and if that's what he had in mind, he should have sacrificed reality for verisimilitude and come up with something else.
Still, I can't resist poking fun at it. In Love and Capes #13, in fact this very page, we'll find out that one of the characters has something made out of Unobtanium. I was going to call it Infinitium, and still could go back to it. I just needed a replacement for Adamantium, which now that Marvel's lawyers are Disney's lawyers, I won't be doing at all. I like the shirt that's on my back just fine.