Brilliant in 3-D

Rating: 10/10 (6 January 2010)

Avatar is an excellent movie by any standard, but in 3-D it truly stands as the new gold standard in fantasy and/or sci-fi entertainment. Multiple elements make this a great movie: good story line with moral depth, interesting characters that we can care about (and the real brilliance here, of course, is that the avatar characters are as interesting, if not more so, than the "real life" characters), fabulous rich cinematography, seamless CG and special effects, and of course venturing into a brilliantly colored, multi-dimensional and mesmerizing world we've never seen before. In a packed theater, the end of this film came with enthusiastic applause from almost everyone in attendance -- interestingly, the last time I experienced a really identical experience was Titanic. Go figure! What more can be asked of a movie? Only the future will answer this question.