James Cameron lends his immense clout to this production about a team of spelunkers with all sorts of internal drama, but the journey fraught with painfully dull dialogue and thematic issues that are simply too on-the-nose. Grade: D-plus.  

While conservative political pundits pile on 'Avatar,' one can't help wondering whether the right has finally tired of attacking President Obama and his administration. But they're wrong: The public clearly prefers to see a movie where the revolutionaries throw out the SOBs in power than one where the SOBs in power brutally crush the rebels. It's also why so many of us despise the New York Yankees.  

As Michael Bay has proved over and over again, writing bigger and bigger checks doesn't automatically make a director a better judge of a script. The story that matters — the only story that should matter — is what's on the screen. James Cameron puts a hell of a lot on the screen in 'Avatar,' but he still has to contend with something he can't finance his way out of: his own limitations as a writer. Grade: C plus.