Not "The Best Movie Ever", but one of the great movie-going experiences.

Rating: 10/10 (29 December 2010)

It's the holiday season again, and I just got the 3-disc "Extended Edition" of James Cameron's AVATAR as a Christmas present. I've just read that the set holds three versions of the film, the other two just adding certain scenes for the sake of the fans. You might call me a fan of the film (although I don't think it's worth building a religion on, ala STAR WARS), so this is a great DVD loaded with special features (more than the standard version) and it also includes the "extended" and "unreleased" version of the film that may not really be something you can't miss if you've already seen AVATAR or have it on the standard DVD already, but at least it makes my stay in Pandora just a little longer.
AVATAR has its flaws, definitely. Even in its scale, there are certain elements that might still bother me, even after the nth time I've seen the film. But in the end, in spite of its occasionally cheesy dialogue and simple story, AVATAR is best judged as a whole movie-going experience. I loved it when I saw it on the big screen on 3D, but it grew on me even more the 2nd or 3rd or 4th time I saw it on DVD. It's like we are all avatars in a world James Cameron has created. It's a gorgeous experience; a new leap in movie-making technology built around the service of what is basically an old-fashioned storytelling. I'd choose the term "old-fashioned" over "trite" when describing AVATAR. The oft criticism that the story resembles those of DANCES WITH WOLVES and FERNGULLY don't come nearly as condescending to me. I love that the movie builds its entirely new world in the basis of an old-fashioned adventure story. Cameron take what makes these stories work (the characters we care about, the epic spectacle we crave) and throw them in with the latest in technological advancements.
It may have just been a case of an unrestrained ego that Cameron called his AVATAR a "game-changer" or "new wave in filmmaking", but it's certainly a new way we can look at movies. The 3D technology here is not just another throwaway gimmick with a few scenes that pop out of the screen at our expense; Cameron uses it to serve the story. The impressive 3D used in AVATAR immerses us into the experience, right down to the beauty of the fictional Pandora universe to the very heart of the battle near the end. It's amazing how far the technology for making movies has come (but judging from the current and crappy use of 3D again nowadays, some lesser filmmaker have yet to use it wisely). The dynamo technology used for AVATAR may just be in the service of a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster, but in time (hopefully) other directors will use the technology to make something that would change movie-making for the better (no more of this "shaky cam" nonsense please!).
I have lived in a generation where shaky and headache-inducing movies like TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN get passed as entertainment, so it's fun to see a technically-impressive and yet old-fashioned and entertaining blockbuster like AVATAR, which restores my faith in what Hollywood blockbusters can do when they're done right.