Avatar

Director James Cameron has proven himself to be a fantastic director with past films like the first two "Terminator" films, "Aliens", and of course the ever so popular "Titanic" and it is clear that he would be worthy of taking on a project as complex as "Avatar". Well once again, Cameron has dazzled us with a brilliant piece of film making with his new action/drama that is "Avatar."
"Avatar" takes place in the year 2154 when humans are mining on the beautiful moon of Pandora for a mineral called unobtainuim that is incredibly valuable . The only problem with the humans mining there is that an alien race known as the Na'vi inhabit the moon and are considered very dangerous. Jake Sully(Sam Worthington), an ex-marine who is paralyzed from the waist down, volunteers to work on this moon and operate an avatar, an alien body mixed with both alien and human DNA, so that he can infiltrate the village and learn their ways(and to find out how to destroy their village.) However, when Jake meets a female Na'vi named Neytiri(Zoe Saldana) and enters their village, he starts to feel emotion for these aliens and begins on a journey of adventure, love, danger, and betrayal.
The most dazzling, truly wondrous element in this film is of course the CGI. Almost everything in this film is CGI from the aliens themselves, to the plants, to the animals. There is such a variety of animals in "Avatar" and each has it's own unique features, look, and all of them are of course strictly CGI. All of the plants move so gracefully side to side and move around when something touches them and it adds more wonder to this magical place. Pandora itself is presented beautifully with the floating mountains with waterfalls falling off the edges and the fog floating around them. I also think it's fascinating how they can create light that shines off all the plants and reflects around the scene to make it seem more real and mark my words EVERYTHING looks absolutely one hundred percent real. Everything moves swiftly and everything doesn't seem fake at all. This is without a doubt a new era of CGI that will hopefully begin to work its ways into more areas of cinema.
Now the story isn't exactly an original masterpiece and it is basically a futuristic version of "Dances with Wolves" with a few changes having to do with the climax. This is the only thing that took away from "Avatar" being a true movie masterpiece. However, themes placed in the story help the film from seeming unoriginal. In "Avatar" the aliens seem to be connected with everything on Pandora in a mystical connection that the humans can't grasp. Somehow the aliens connect with nature and it's creatures. This is actually sometimes literal because the aliens hair connects to the heads/hairs of the animals so that they can become one with each other. This adds to the fact that James Cameron is trying to show us that Pandora is a perfect world where everything connects and lives in harmony with each other. For Jake Sully, it is a world where, inside his avatar, he is free from the imperfections of life. It's a world where he can walk again and feel almost perfect which is a concept many can connect with and/or want.
The romance is captured perfectly in "Avatar" as it shows us the transformation of both of the main characters. Jake doesn't know what to expect from the alien tribe and is shown kindness by Neytiri who shows him their ways and teaches him how to act like a Na'vi. Throughout the film, Jake's love for the Na'vi's world and culture and for Neytiri herself grows and in the end, he is willing to fight and die for the aliens because he realizes that the humans are doing wrong to the world. Neytiri on the other hand doesn't care for Jake at all when she first meets him but decides to give him a chance to be a part of her village when her she feels like her goddess Eywa(who binds all things on the moon together) sends her a message. She too grows to feel for an eventually love Jake and in a way shows kindness to other humans because of the kindness shown to her by Jake.
Besides the slightly unoriginal plot, everything else is done close to perfection. The acting is great, the dialogue is great, and most of all...I think the music is fantastic. Music is one thing that I look for in films because for me it adds a great deal of heart to the film. This film has great music that flows with the film and adds even more to the masterpiece.
"Avatar" is a new piece of movie making that we've never seen before. It will surly dazzle all viewers who step into the theater(especially if you see it in 3-D or IMAX 3-D). James Cameron has shown us that he is still one of the top directors in the world and I can't wait till I get to see this film win some awards early next year. 4 stars out of 4.
Avatar has a running time of 161 minutes and is rated PG-13 for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language, and some smoking.