Avatar the movie: "environmental platitudes and anti-progress cliches"

A review of Avatar:

THERE'S no argument that, as a showcase for the immersive potential of 3D visual effects technology, James Cameron's long-awaited $300 million sci-fi epic Avatar - his first film since 1997's world-conquering Titanic - is an unqualified triumph.

But as a story designed to engage, enthral and entertain adult audiences for almost three hours, it is a major disappointment strewn with weak characters, environmental platitudes and anti-progress cliches.

Set on the distant, forest-covered moon of Pandora, the story tells of Jake Sully (Australian actor Sam Worthington), a paraplegic former marine recruited by the heavily militarised security division of an interplanetary mining corporation that is having trouble with the natives, an aggressive race known as the Na'vi, who look like giant Smurfs that have spent too long at the gym. . . .

Another review:

Any lingering suspicions that James Cameron has become the Al Gore of Hollywood will be firmly extinguished by his new, monstrously-hyped creation. For a while, it looked like he was giving us a reasonably sweet-natured blockbuster, suggesting that the natural world has, like, the power to heal us all, or something. Then Cameron sends in the helicopter gunships and starts blowing shit up, big time. Way to undermine your own message. . . .