Breaking dawn was an excellent part 1 of 2. I was expecting when my wife asked me to go see this at the midnight showing to be left hanging in some state of suspense. Instead we were pleasantly surprised by the clean wrap-up of most of the story lines presented in part 1. This made for a much better single movie IMO. I must say I do not care for the dual two year split releases, I would pay twice the ticket price for a double-feature or extended run-time movie. I want the story to be told properly but the epic gimmick split is old Hollywood.
The movie is rightfully dark as are these sections of the books / original story. The idea that moviegoers will want to sit and watch 2 hours of different camping scenes in the same manner in the elongated, drawn out fashion, as readers have to with the books. If you need to keep up with the story you must watch the movie, but drink an energy drink or you will be snoozing during this flick.
Avatar is a tough movie to review for a few reasons. A. The movie makes alot of parallels. B. The movie's cg and special effects departments were right on. C. The writers lacked imagination in the most basic ways. Avatar is a must see movie for the simple fact that closing your mind and watching James Cameron's directing of millions and millions and millions of dollars worth of peoples hard work, is nothing if not awesome. The very large downside is the HUGE parallels that are made (between indians and Na’Vi) every seemingly 3 - 5 minutes. In one scene the colonel over base operations for the human race calls the Na'vi "Hostiles". The Na'Vi's only weaponry are bow and arrows, they ride horses bareback the list is very long. PART 2 BELOW