392 views today 
02:35 EST
Sitting in the stadium-seating theater this evening, wearing my 3-D glasses, my son Jake and I anxiously waited for the opening scene of Avatar. 
We heard the reviews and we knew the graphics and special effects were going to be awesome!
James Cameron made us feel like the big screen was a portal into another world, like we were sitting right next to a large door that opened up and we became a part of a new world, right there in front of us. I’ve never seen graphics quite like that before. The 3-D presentation was just brilliant.
*** Spoiler ***
The hero of the film was a Marine Corporal. The villain was a Marine Colonel. The corporation had hired the Marine Colonel to head up security. After all, if you need a bad ass individual to do a very hard job, why not hire the best, a Marine! Well, the colonel went berserk; one bad seed for sure. If you watch the movie without reading into it and trying to extract a political message, you’ll enjoy it, as I did. Sure, I can piss & moan and say Hollywood portrayed the Marines to be mercenaries with complete disregard for the alien people, etc. I didn’t see it that way. The hero was also a Marine who righted the situation. OOORAH Jarhead!
Kudos to James Cameron & Co. for a very good movie. Great entertainment. I highly recommend the movie.
Well, unfortunately, my takeaway was that the movie painted the Marines in a very dark light. It wasn’t just the evil Colonel, it was his superiors and Marine colleagues also. Yes, the hero of the movie was a former Marine. But he is forced to fight against the evil marauding Marines.
I was rooting for the Col in all honesty 😉
>For being an anti-military director, James Cameron does a good job portraying them in his movies. I actually liked the Colonel, especially the little speech he gives his men when Jake Sully first arrives. Anyone who thinks Cameron demonized the Marines, one must only listen to Sully's narration at the beginning of the movie; he actually states that the Marines were there for the pay, making them little more than mercenaries. It's nice to see a Marine who enjoyed the movie. Maybe the Navy will be in Avatar II . . . Hooyah!
>I agree that the movie was great and I do recommend it to anyone. However I have another blogger buddy I send pacakges to who took acception to it. See this one from 1stSgt Michael Burk.
http://castrapraetoria1.blogspot.com/2010/02/why-americas-1stsgt-doesnt-like-avatar.html
It's just another view point, but well said.