Phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal.

Rating: 9/10 (8 September 2011)

James Cameron sure has a way of telling us that he's still got it. Well known for great films like Aliens and the first two Terminator movies, James put his filmmaking skills to the ultimate test and what we got was a true masterpiece. He created a film that basically combined various movie genres like war movie, creature feature, underdog story, and romance into one stable and magnificent film. Let's take a look and the cinematic wonder that is Avatar.
The hero of this story is paralyzed soldier Jake Sully (Sam Worthington). He's brought to the planet Pandora, beautiful but dangerous world inhabited by strange creatures and a race of tall, blue humanoids with feline-like features called Na'vi. Jake is summoned to take part on a special project created by Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) known as the Avatar project, where he can transfer his mind through a machine into a specially grown Na'vi body so he and the scientist can interact and convince the local Na'vi population to move to another location because their home is on top of a deposit full of a precious rocky material. As expected, Jake grows to care for the aliens and falls in love with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), the chief's daughter, and soon his loyalties will be tested as a great battle will come over the horizon.
This who film is a stroke of genius, even if the plot is somewhat predictable. Such a story does have plenty of sad moments like when the Na'vi lose their home and certain characters die, but it's nice to see the good guys and creatures kicking butt and many scenes involving the wildlife of Pandora are spectacular. Sigourney Weaver is still pretty attractive and the romance between Jake and Neytiri is rather interesting and well developed. The villains are hateable right from the start (in a good way) like Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and I enjoy seeing them suffer and die in the final fight. As for the animals, they are amazing like these hammerhead rhino creatures or the Turok, a huge pterodactyl-like creature that reminds me of Rodan.
Bottom line, Avatar is worth every penny and I look forward to any sequel coming up. Go visit the world of Pandora and enjoy.