Avatar

Release Date: December 18th, 2009

Click Here for the Avatar Trailer.

In the year 2154, after the people of earth have wasted nearly all of their natural resources, new means of energy must be found. Deep in the world of Pandora, a new mineral, unobtanium, that sells for $20 million a kilo is found and is immediately sought out by the RDA mining company headed by Parker Selfridge(Giovanni Ribisi). The only problem is that the native race of Pandora, the Na'Vi, has their village built upon the richest deposit of the mineral on the planet and they don't plan on going anywhere. Diplomacy seems lost until a young marine named Jake Sully(Sam Worthington) is entered into the Avatar program in place of his dead twin brother Tom. An Avatar is a cross breed between human DNA and Na'Vi DNA and can be controlled by the consciousness of the human.

Sam is considered an inadequate replacement for his brother by Dr. Grace Augustine(Sigourney Weaver), a biologist and head of the Avatar program, who reassigns Jake as a body guard while her and Norm Spellman(Joel David Moore), another scientist, take scientific samples of Pandora in their Avatar forms. On their first outing Jake gets separated from the group and is rescued by Neytiri(Zoe Saldana), princess of the Omaticaya clan of Na'Vi and the same clan whose home rests on the desired deposit of unobtanium. Neytiri decides to take Jake back to her village where he is spared by Eytucan(Wes Studi), chieftain of the Omaticaya and father of Neytiri. Neytiri's mother Mo'at(C.C.H. Pounder), who is also the tribes spiritual leader, tells Neytiri that she must train Jake in the ways of the Na'Vi so that he may try and understand their way of life.

When Jake awakens from his Avatar body, his commanding officer Colonel Miles Quaritch(Stephen Lang) tells him that he needs to gain the trust of the Na'Vi so he can get them to move from their home so the RDA can mine the unobtanium. But as Jake learns from Neytiri more and more, he slowly begins to realize that the Na'Vi are not the savages that he has been led to believe. But when Jake's deadline to get the Na'Vi out arrives, he must choose whether he sides with the humans or the Na'Vi in the battle that is undoubtedly going to happen.

Brewing in the mind of James Cameron for over 10 years, Avatar has finally made its way onto film. Cameron has stated on numerous accounts that the reason for the delay in the film is that he did not believe the technology was ready for his envisioning of the film. After seeing this film, I can tell you first hand that the technology is definitely up to par now.

If you come to see Avatar expecting to solely see an all out action movie, you will be disappointed. If you come seeking a straight up drama, you will be disappointed. If you come thinking you are going to solely see a sci-fi epic reminiscent of Star Wars or Star Trek you will be disappointed. However, should you come into Avatar expecting to see a film with portions of each of these film types blended into one beautifully drawn out film then you will find what you are looking for.

Avatar has got to be the most visually stunning movie I have ever seen. Using motion capture technology, Cameron was able to film each individual actor acting out exactly what you see their animated character do on screen. Because of this technology, it is almost impossible to tell that the creatures you are seeing on screen are not, in fact, real living beings. Never have I seen such a beautiful piece of cinema as I did in Avatar. The rich and luscious world of Pandora was brought to live with incredible creatures and magnificent colors that were so beautiful it made you want to live there.

what stunned me the most was the enormous amount of creativity it took for Cameron to create this film. Cameron created an entire race of people, an entire language, hierarchy, planet, ecosystem and creatures among other things all with their own individuality and unique characteristics. I was blown away by the amount of detail Cameron implemented into his film. Every little detail, every little nuance was added to this film which is one of the reasons, I believe, makes it so entertaining.

Cameron also added an all-star cast to finish out his masterpiece with top name actors and actresses like Sigourney Weaver, Giovanni Ribisi. Stephen Lang, Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington. This marks Weaver's first major film release in a while and she came back with a bang as Dr. grace Augustine. I thought she did a really good job as the scientist used to having things done her way. I was really impressed on how her character interacted with the Na'Vi and thought that Weaver did an excellent job of bridging the gap between the no-nonsense scientist she appeared to be in the beginning and the caring, Na'Vi sympathizer she came out to be deeper in the film. Sam Worthington, who made a name for himself in the recent Terminator: Salvation did an incredible job with his character as well. His chemistry between co-star Zoe Saldana(Star Trek) was very believable and I thought the two of them worked really well together on screen. It made for a very nice transition when they went from Saldana'a character hating Worthington's at first to the two of them eventually falling in love.

Overall, Avatar is a stunning piece of cinematic beauty. No other movie compares to the rich beauty and life that Cameron created on Pandora and no other film has made animated characters feel more alive than the ones in Avatar seemed. If you have the opportunity to see it in 3D or Imax Digital 3D then I strongly recommend it. It will blow you away seeing the beautiful world created by Cameron actually close enough to touch.

I give Avatar 10 Nine foot tall human/alien hybrids out of 10.