Way beyond expectations

Rating: 10/10 (11 January 2010)

The build up over the past year for this movie was enormous and, hearing the basic storyline and then the comments after some saw the movie about its lack of originality but stupendous imagery, I went in with mediocre expectations at best.
It got me. The imagery was indeed amazing, the plot simple yet so effectively done there were times I was holding back tears and times I was outraged at what was happening on-screen. The characters are stereotypes for the most part, but in an epic film trying to make a statement, sometimes archetypes work best. It keeps your head from getting too cluttered with side-plots and nebulous developments. This movie's message is clear and well told.
After all the hype and putting off being trapped in a seat for 3 hours, am I glad I finally saw it. No question: for me, it'll hit my top 10 movies of all time. It's that good. I actually still haven't seen Titanic (but you won't spoil the ending for me if you tell me the boat sinks), but James Cameron certainly managed an amazing film here in terms of world-building, message-bringing, and even getting some true emotion out of the watchers, which is really rare in mainstream films. Good stuff, Mr. Cameron.