James Cameron's Avatar: The Review

This is one of those movies that you wouldn't expect to be such a giant hit, but here we are. People who I know both offline and online who don't even like sci-fi movies, and who stay away from them like it's the plague, loved the movie. I remember even my father who doesn't regularly watch science fiction, or even much television for that matter, praised the movie.

So eventually with all of the praising even by people who thoroughly dislike science fiction, I decided to go ahead and see for myself. The story takes place in the year 2154 on Pandora, a lush, Earth-like moon of the planet Polyphemus, where you follow the main character, Jake (Sam Worthington) who is crippled from a previous battle. He gets an opportunity to take the place of his recently deceased twin brother for the Avatar Program. Once he arrives on Pandora he meets Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) and Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore). I won't go into too much detail beyond that because that portion is right at the beginning of the movie and I would hate to spoil it for people, but needless to say is that the movie greatly resembles Star Wars and Dances with Wolves. If those two movies were to have a baby, it would be named Avatar.

The animation, or perhaps Spielberg put it better when he stated.. "I like to think of it as digital makeup, not augmented animation" is top notch! I can see why this movie took so long to develop, and I can see why it had such a huge budget - which was over $237 million dollars, only a little shy of a quarter of a billion dollars. The movie has already made $2.7 billion, and is only in the early stages of the DVD release. It could very well reach over $3 billion before the end of the year.

It's rare that a movie gets an entire cast that works great together, from beginning to finish. James Cameron did a superb job with finding the right people for the roles. You have Stephen Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch, Michelle Rodriguez as Trudy Chacón, Giovanni Ribisi as Parker Selfridge, and Dileep Rao as Dr. Max Patel. You can't forget the actors and actresses playing the parts of the Na'vi, such as Zoe Saldana as Neytiri, C. C. H. Pounder as Mo'at, Laz Alonso as Tsu'tey, and Wes Studi as Eytucan.

The movie runs at 162 minutes which is just perfect. You see, you need the time to get to know the characters, otherwise the storyline will feel a bit thin. The more you watch the characters the better you get to know them, and when the poo hits the fan in the movie, you actually care a bit. The story is a bit predictable, which is unfortunate, and still fortunate at the same time. It's unfortunate because there really are no big surprises in the movie that make you gasp, yet at the same time since your expecting something to happen, which you know it will as you eagerly wait for it, it will be a moment where you cover your mouth in sadness, or stand up in a fit of joy.

I highly recommend watching this movie if you haven't already, and as well as show this to friends, even if they are not interested in science fiction. The storyline is superb and it's well acted. Watching this was an unexpected surprise, and I'm glad I did.

You can also view more screenshots of Neytiri and Jake.

• The Making of James Cameron's Avatar
• Neytiri Screenshots & Images
• Jake Sully Screenshots & Images
• Avatar Toys & Collectibles