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Visually very impressive, in a way that makes the film an enjoyable experience, even if the narrative sticks very closely to formula: a variation on the tale of Pocahontas, sifted through the collectively-held imagery of the Vietnam War and large-scale open-cut mining, and ending with a variation on the climactic battle scene from STAR WARS (1977). One wonders if having such a completely forgettable musical score (by James Horner) was intentional: it almost seems like it must have been, because there’s hardly a bar of melody that can be recalled moments after having watched it.

This pretends to be a science fiction movie, mainly as a means of luring men into the theatre, but it really only has the thinnest veneer of being such. Rather, it is an allegorical fantasy that expresses, relies upon and exploits the desire of contemporary audiences to find a world in which they no longer feel disconnected, disoriented and insignificant. Despite its undeniable flaws, the ill will this massive production seems to generate in some quarters (among “the clever”) also somehow comes across as a case of bad conscience, in part because of the allergic reaction of Americans to any hint of an ecological message, but also, I think, because of a kind of prejudice held by reviewers and cinephiles against stories that seem to have too great a “feminine” aspect. “All energy is only borrowed, and one day you have to give it back”: a nice line about entropy and negentropy.