Saw "Avatar"

The caveat here is that I went on a whim, and had no expectations for the movie and had not read any review of it. The other caveat is that I am not a particularly sophisticated movie-goer (I used to be-- but my kids have destroyed that), and I am pretty much a sucker for a lot of emotional manipulation in movies. So I am not a movie snob at all.

Nonetheless, I thought overall the film was awesome. The visuals were stunning and worth the price of admission alone. I liked the avatar concept and that aspect of the plot-- it was really well done. However, the overall theme of the plot was definitely hackneyed, and the depiction of the natives as a whole was somewhat annoying. But I liked the overall depiction of humans as destroyers-- seemed accurate enough. One other good thing was that there was no obvious "33" in the movie.

There is some real interesting symbolism in the "avatar" idea, and who exactly is the avatar and what avatar represents. Being an avatar is certainly a major part of living in this computerized world. And being immersed in the virtual world of the movie, the viewer is like an avatar as well. I could spend a fair amount of time discussing all this but it is probably not worth it.