While the artistic/visual aspects of Avatar almost keep one engaged to the end, I found myself checking my watch after 2 hours. The predictable anti-military, pro-environmental Mother Earth messages were far too didactic for me. The plot suffers from largely mundain character development and action sequences after the first half hour, which was one of the better thirty minutes of film out there. Violence pretty much looks like techno creepiness gone wild. "Jake" may have a bright future in films due to his "every guy" appeal, physical appearance and ability to express emotions facially and bodily. The film is overrated and grossly too expensive to see: $17.50 at the 3d theater we attended.