Where the wild things are - James Cameron's "Avatar"

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2009)

I'm going to be frank: James Cameron's 2009 sci-fi epic "Avatar," his first feature film since 1997's "Titanic," is hands-down the best movie I've seen so far this year. I mean that. Prior to that, it was "District 9." I'm going to be even more frank: I've been pretty disappointed by the movies this year; I thought the aforementioned "District 9" was utterly brilliant, "Drag Me to Hell" is also worthy of some great mention, and so was "Terminator Salvation." So the question is: Was "Avatar" worth the 12-year wait?
In a nutshell: hell yes!
Let's do a run-down of the usual James Cameron trademarks:

Simple, but captivating and engrossing sci-fi story - check

Simple, but well-crafted dialogue - check

Groundbreaking special effects - check

Lots of appearances of the color blue - check

Strong female characters - check

Effective left-leaning social commentary - check

Liberal doses of humor - check

Evocative musical score - check

An utterly well-crafted and damn-brilliant sci-fi film with some (some is italicized) footing in reality - check, check, and triple-check!!!

The film is set in the year 2154 (note that it takes place 25 years before Cameron's own 1986 film "Aliens") on the distant alien moon Pandora. Pandora has since been colonized by humans, who are there looking to profit from its enormous supply of precious minerals. This has put humans at odds with the indigenous population, towering blue-skinned sentient humanoids called Na'vi, and other beautiful albeit terrifying forms of extraterrestrial life-forms. The Na'vi aren't your typical extraterrestrial primitives: they are more than a physical match for the heavily armed military forces of Earth, and they aren't going to roll over and let their home be ravaged by greedy capitalists (sounds familiar, doesn't it?).
The military does have a plan: they're going to send one of their own, a paraplegic space Marine named Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), to live amongst the Na'vi, AS A Na'vi. It turns out that the Earth scientists, led by Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver, of "Aliens"), have developed the technology that has allowed them to clone perfect replicas of Na'vi beings that are inhabited by the consciousness of humans. They call these replicas "avatars." (In Hindu mythology, an avatar is a reincarnated deity, but can also mean a temporary representation of a person, object, or concept in a virtual world; the film deals largely with the second definition.)
Being an avatar gives Sully an optimistic new outlook on his life and career, as well as a newfound sense of freedom from the confines of being a wheelchair-bound war veteran. Predictably, he is reluctantly welcomed into the Na'vi way-of-life by Neyteri (Zoe Saldana) and is thus absorbed into their culture. He comes to see for himself that they are not the primitive, violent savages that they were made out to be by his handlers, and eventually develops a love for Neyteri, her people and her world, putting his mission and loyalties to the human race at risk. And it soon becomes clear that he may very well be the only thing keeping these peaceful creatures from being exterminated by Earth's gung-ho military forces.
Let me just say this movie is a phenomenon, and a continual pleasure to watch on the screen. I wasn't expecting the epic magnificence of "Titanic," but I was expecting something on the scale of "The Terminator" (1984) - my favorite Cameron film, my favorite sci-fi film, and my #3 favorite film of all time - and "Aliens." (Cameron has been wise in expecting "Avatar" to not outdo "Titanic.") "Avatar" has been Cameron's pet project since 1995, but he felt that the special effects technology of the time was not developed well enough. And we know where he went next.
Cameron has always had a way with special effects in his movies: he's careful to not drown the humans, their performances, and our emotional attachments to them in endless special effects sequences. (And there are plenty of epic battle sequences to get your mouth watery, so don't worry about Cameron skimping on suspenseful action scenes.) Even though the film is done largely using highly advanced motion-capture animation techniques, the performances from Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana especially are virtually flawless, and they are able to give their computer-generated alien counterparts believable ranges of emotion that allow great sympathy toward them and their cause.
I have to say that since James Cameron is my favorite director, he has done it again: he has made a movie that defies expectations and the imagination, and is yet another worthy entry into an otherwise impeccable catalog of big-budget, groundbreaking special effects-laden spectacles. I will be very displeased with the Academy Awards if "Avatar" does not win all of the special effects categories, because it deserves them - all of them. "Avatar" is filled with stunning performances, special effects and imagery so that if I'm not mistaken in my honest opinion, this is the best movie of the year.
10/10