It's not often just the 2 of us go see a movie. In fact the last time it happened may have just been when we went to see Aliens when I was a kid- another movie written and directed by James Cameron. That's pertinent and I'll explain later. 
First off, the movie was pretty much exactly what I've heard other people saying about it: routine story, nice effects.
I gotta say, they really put the 'special' in 'special effects'. Everything has a very tangible feel in the movie and I'm guessing it's almost all CG so it was highly accomplished. 
The 3D was very believable and had a lot of depth to it. Too bad the characters didn't!! 
The characters were written completely without depth, and the actors didn't do a thing to remedy that... except for Sigourney Weaver who was excellent. It was a role she could do in her sleep but a real breath of fresh air in a movie populated by cardboard characters. 
The bad guy was actually played well in so far as he seemed bad, but still... he was so shallow that by the end I was literally wishing he was a 2D cartoon character instead because it would have been kind of cool and way more interesting. Oh I should say the actress behind the female Na'vi played her part very well, too.I've heard a lot about people getting mentally lost in Pandora (the planet the story takes place on) and I can see why... it's built up very well and again very believable, from the flora and fauna to the Na'vi- it's easy to get sucked in by their folding ears and waving tails. They look like a bunch of cats!
And the modeling and motion capture are dynamite... really fun to watch. You can really feel their expressions. They're huge next to the humans, and in the few scenes that they directly interact it's really neat to see the size difference because again, it has a very tangible and believable feel to it.Thematically, I dunno...
there were some neat ideas but it's all re-hash and there's a sort of peace-and-love outer shell but violent center to it all. 
Being vegan has really shifted how I think about things and sometimes I'd love to see new solutions to old problems played out in movies. I got this sort of greenwashed vibe from it which was a little creepy, 
but again, these are 2D characters and 2D problems, and it kept the movie flowing so I'll shut up about that. There was one really neat thing though, the Na'vi explain that energy is constantly in flux and each living thing merely borrows it for a while and then passes it on. Nothing new there, but I don't think I've ever heard it explained so plainly so it really stuck with me. There's definitely a lot of good things going on in this movie, from the behemoth technology and monsters to the delicate glowing plants.
I got a sense of child-like wonder as you get when you watch a really good nature show. 
It's a good movie that I wish was a great movie but makes too many uninspired choices to be able get there. But anyways, even with the bland characters and boring acting and routine story it had good pacing and kept me interested the whole time. It was all very sufficient to support all the cool stuff happening on the screen and overall it was 'a fun time at the movies'. 
I was having a GREAT time watching the aforementioned 'Aliens' correlations- well first off they had Sigourney Weaver being kind of tough but caring, the weaselly corporate guy, the tough get-it-done latina, the jar-head and a power-loader mech-ish thing. Oh yeah and lots of aliens. I'll give Pandora 4 out of 5 hugging cats
(there's a bit of cat-person love in the movie )
