Does anyone feel that the story was a bit too obvious?

[Sothis]

I think I experienced Avatar for the first time in the best way possible, in that I walked into the theater with zero expectations for how the movie would turn out. I hadn't read any of the hype or counter-hype; I hadn't seen any sneak previews, I hadn't even seen the trailer (yup, I'm very talented at living under a rock when it comes to pop culture). The only reason I knew it existed and went to see it was because a friend e-mailed me raving about how good it was, with no plot details and very little elaboration on *why* it was good (except for: "you want to reach out and touch the plants").

As a result, there was actually a lot that I didn't see coming until just a few minutes or seconds before it happened. (That, and I tend to stay "in the moment" when I'm watching something, unless I'm really bored.)

Of course, some general things were really easy to predict. When we see Neytiri for the first time, I did break immersion for a second to think "Oh, look, the first native Jake meets is a chick... how long until they bang?"

On the other hand, after the destruction of hometree, with jake's voiceover about always having to wake up, and the music winding down, and the screen fading to black... I was genuinely terrified for a split second that the movie might end on a downer note, so I was very relieved when it cut to the breakout scene, indicating that the movie wasn't over. (If I'd seen the trailer, I would've known that the movie couldn't be over yet, but I hadn't.)

Jake becoming Toruk Makto was something that I did predict, but only moments before it happened... I distinctly remember thinking something like "OHH WAIT... is he about to go ride the giant dragon-thing? Is he? IS HE?? ...he IS! F*ck yes, that's awesome!" There were several similar instances where I predicted something just in time to get really excited/ hopeful about it, but not sooner.

However, I was in total suspense after the fight with Quaritch when Jake was trying to get to an Exopack and failing. Especially with the way the music goes all quiet... I was genuinely afraid for a moment that the movie was about to pull a Titanic and have him die. Even now, I still feel like that scene could've gone either way and still made narrative sense.

So overall, I found the "predictability" of the plot to be just right, though I realize it would've been a LOT more predictable if I'd seen the trailer and such.