A movie with a message as clear and brilliant as its special effects.

Rating: 9/10 (18 December 2009)

What not to say about James Cameron? Director of two of the greatest sequels ever made, "Aliens" and "Terminator 2".....a pioneer in the special effects department that has help set the norm for future film making. And when he was pressed about how his movies have to only maintain special effects for him to make an entertaining movie, he goes out and makes "True Lies"...probably one of the most entertaining action movies ever made. And say what you will about "Titanic", but that movie is EPIC whether you like it or not. But for a director of this caliber to sit back and work on just one movie for the past 7 years, your expectations have to be high. Well i must say this.......i was not alive when the original "Star Wars" was released, but i can somewhat grasp how audiences felt when they first saw it. Now i can actually compare the feeling. The first thing i must talk about is the special effects. The word 'astounding' is a major understatement. The effects in this movie are enough to melt out your eyeballs. Where there is no major sequence that has you saying, "Oh my god, that looks so real", even though its as close as you can get.........where this movie really excels is in the detail. You can go and see this movie a second time, and take notice to the things going on in the background that you never saw the first time around. And not only is is there a lot going on, each little thing is done to perfection. But the thing that was perfected more than anything was the digital photography of the Avatar's faces. I thought that Robert Zemeckis had achieved a pinnacle with "A Christmas Carol".......but this movie has pushed that bar as high as it can possibly go. Case in point.......you know how you see those digital movies, and the characters faces look a little stoned faced, not a lot of moment.......and their mouth and teeth don't seem to match their face........um, this movie has it locked down. It was so realistic, i cannot even explain. Those close up shots of the Avatars faces are the most priceless scenes in the movie......because after a while, your mind really does convince you that these things are in fact real. So am i comparing this movie to the original Star Wars........you damn right i am. And i think everyone knows how big of a statement that is. I cannot stress how detailed this movie is. Now the special effects are top notch, but you need a decent enough story to go along with it........well, the story is not 100% original. It somewhat relates to the whole "Dances with Wolves" theme, but it takes a somewhat more a different spin. By that i mean the symbolism. Mainly towards the Native Americans. The overall message of this movie is as clear and brilliant as the special effects. I don't want to go into detail and explain it, because finding it out and seeing it for yourself for the first time is all apart of the process. But the story is grand, and it does a fantastic job and transferring you back and forth from both the Human world, and the Avatar world. And after a while, you feel as the character does, and grow more attached to the Avatar world, more than the real world......which im sure was Camerons original intention. But heres the main thing with this movie. The story may not be super entertaining to you at first........but once you give it time to settle in, you really begin to dwell on its subtext, and in that moment you slowly begin to love it more and more. It really is the next step in the evolution of Sci-Fi. The detail of the story, the characters, the planet, and oh my god the creatures..... its a little too much to handle at first, but once you settle in its warm waters, you don't want to get out. Also, im glad that it never took full advantage of the 3-D. By that i mean, they didn't purposely throw in sequences that had a gun pointing directly at the camera to make the audience go "WOAH!". It did it to make you feel like you were actually there. And once again, it over achieved in that department as well. Bottom Line......im going to quote Roger Ebert here...."Its nice to see that someone in Hollywood knows how to spend 250 million dollars wisely." James Cameron has not disappointed at all. You can clearly see that he took his precious little time in perfecting every aspect of this movie......well, maybe except the dialogue, it could have used just a little more work, but it was still entertaining non the less. Is this movie worth all the hype? Uh.......you better believe it is. I mean come on people, this is what blockbusters are suppose to be like..........not like "G.I Joe" or "Transformers 2".......some half cooked script with good special effects. This movie has set a new standard on so many levels. The year 2009 has been dominated with pioneering Sci-Fi movies......and i cannot think of a better way to end it, than with this one. Hands down one of the best movies of this year.