the 'Hype' strikes

I consider myself a critic, I know that flixster on Facebook and being Lifestyles editor for a high school newspaper doesn't count for much, but I can criticize a movie pretty well. Avatar has been called a "game changer" (a term I think James Cameron may have come up with himself) and as much as I would like to resist it, it really is. i remember hearing about Avatar on AICN years ago, seriously, and I was looking forward to the movie, not for it's visuals, they weren't what was hyped, but because it was to be a scifi magnum opus of sorts. Come 2008, Avatar is a hyped as having the best visuals ever made, and on that front, I can give into the hype, in the plot realm, not so much. a rehashed story, poor acting, and all around unoriginality give us a boring, long, albeit beautiful, half assed environmental message. 7 weeks at #1 prove that people would sit through 3 hours of dances with wolves in space if it is cool looking. For now, that's all I'm gonna say, because no one cares, and as the 2010 Academy Awards prove, artistic integrity in film is steadily declining and a new age of gimmick cinema is dawning.