Avatar is a visual escapade, with its conceptions breaking boundaries. Cameron's ecological, anti-imperialist project is an assured blockbuster.

Rating: 8/10 (8 January 2010)

Avatar (2009)
Top 5 - 2009
The comparisons to 'Star Wars' and the thematic parallels to 'Dances With Wolves' the Oscar winning masterpiece set in the plains of America, (where a Lieutenant in the Civil War era, befriends the native American people and rebels against the savage operations of the Army) are well founded. In 'Avatar' it is 2154, the Earth has been ravaged and exploited for its resources, so we take our military might to the planet of Pandora to extract resources at any cost necessary in order to profit back at Earth. The film centres around Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) a paraplegic ex-marine, whose mind is transplanted into a 9 foot Avatar of a Na'vi, in order to blend in the environment of Pandora and with the natives and obtain information for the huge American corporation about a worthy mineral called 'unobtainium' (no marks for originality there) which can be sold for millions/kg back on Earth. However Jake discovers the wonderful balance of the ecosystem in Pandora, the respect of the natives for nature and the energy transfer systems which enhance the natives' lives as they interact and respect their environs. Jake as Lieutenant Dunbar in 'Dances With Wolves' rebels. He sees too precious a thing to destroy.
The ecological message of 'Avatar' which relates to our current ravaging of our planet which is tipping the balances of nature and the aggressive imperialism of the USA, reflected by two current wars is reflected in the outlook of the film. The film, as noted by many critics is standard in its screenplay layout, character deployment and predictability, however Cameron still manages to pack an intense and thoroughly entertaining experience for over 160 minutes. The film even works emotionally at times, which some may find surprising. Any flaws in certain areas of the film are recovered by its breathtaking visual quality, which for once elevates the film instead of spoiling it. Amidst a blitz of annual brainless blockbusters, most notably Transformers 2 (which was outrageously bad), Avatar has its place somewhere along the Star Wars Saga and Jurassic Park in its first rate blockbuster quality. Cameron is a master of blockbusters.
With the Academy widening the Best Picture nominations to 10 this year, Avatar is certain to secure a nomination, along with Director, Visual Effects, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Original Score, Original Song and very possibly other categories. This year has been on average a poor year for film (despite glories at the Box Office) and it would not surprise me if 'Avatar' swept across all categories. After all the Academy has traditionally had a soft spot for massive scale, epic productions (from Gone With the Wind and Ben Hur to Gladiator), so I would not be too surprised if Avatar wins Best Picture. It would be a great thing for a science fiction film to get major critical recognition by the way of awards, because many sci-fi masterpieces have been unjustly ignored, most notably 2001: A Space Odyssey which should have swept the 1968 Oscars.
Cameron now has the 2 top box office juggernauts (unadjusted for inflation) and I think we might see a couple more Avatar films. The problem is, how do you top this one? How can you make it better without spoiling it? Well, I'll leave that to James Cameron.
8/10