A truly groundbreaking film! And this from a anti-fantasy fan...

Rating: 9/10 (28 December 2009)

OK, I shall not bore you with with what's wrong with the film... a few have hinted, and I agree, the story is just OK. A bit like a child's story. Good guys, bad guys and they all lived happily ever after. But, in a way, that was a necessity. This film is so visually stimulating that a hard-to-follow, deep thought or message movie might have distracted from that.
And when I say visually stimulating, I mean something we have never seen before. YOU MUST SEE IT IN 3D! I have seen other 3D films and have been amused but not blown away. They tend to feel "dark" like you're looking through sunglasses at night. And this film will feel that way if you sit too far back. Personally, I like seating about 3/4 of the way back in a theater. This is too far back for this film! Get close... ideally you should position yourself that your forward view allows the entire width of the viewing screen comes to the edges of your 3D glasses. This, I feel, is important to the experience. At first, we sat back a ways. But even before the film started, I decided to move up. This was a great idea. The film became much brighter and the 3D was ideal.
The film is breathtaking. The depth, the intricacies, the detail are all beyond par. You can see why is took so long and cost so much. Nothing was "short-cut". Cameron has set the bar high for all films to follow. He has developed and perfected a technological breakthrough in cinematic experience. Never before has CGI looked so real. Never before have action scenes involving CGI been so seamless.
The story (possible spoilers) flows very well. I feared that I would be required to "rack my brain" trying to follow the rules of a fantasy world. Such was not the case. Although we were taken to an alien world, everything made perfect sense. Motives of the characters were easy to determine and the understanding of this alien world was automatic. And because the film brings so much to the viewer in terms if that visual stimulation, you fall easily immersed in the environment that Cameron has introduced.
This is what I have always imagined our future would be like. I thought that some day, long after I was gone, that man (and women) would put on some kind of helmet and a computer would connect with our senses, much like the characters in this movie connected with their Avatars. We've even been shown this likely technology before in movies like "Strange Days" and "". And although we humans are not yet "hard-wired" in... this is the beginning of that type of experience. Throw on some headphones to rid your world of outside interference, and watch a film this rich and full and you will almost become part of the story.
Cameron is a genius. He knows what we want to see. He, like Spielberg, understands that audiences, for the most part, are looking to escape the confines of our dreary existence, if only for a short while, and find peace and joy and happiness in another world. Avatar takes you to that world. Cameron drops us in.
I can't say enough about how unique this experience is. Even if you hate the story. Even if you are uncomfortable for the near 3-hour ride. Even if you hate fantasy. You will enjoy yourself in this escape. I find it impossible to believe that anyone would find this film unenjoyable. Some may pick it apart for the lack of story. Some, like me, will still not like fantasy in general. But everyone will enjoy this film.
And this will be the beginning of an entirely new kind of filmaking. The technology he has developed in building this "Titanic" will change the course of movie making. Heck, I'd bet that even if this movie grossed $0, Cameron will become a billionaire from the software rights alone. Never before has CGI gone this far. Never before has it even been able to keep up with the speed of the eye. But this movie is different. This movie is so deep visually that the mind can hardly keep pace. Repeated viewings are going to be the norm on this one. It becomes almost necessary to grasp the film in it's entirety. I'm going again. I need to catch my breath first. But I'm going again. You should too, at least once!