Every director has a Sci-Fi on their to-do list of film genre's.   James Cameron wasn't satisfied with Terminator.  In fact he has a others, but Avatar may be his best film making achievement yet when it comes to pushing the envelope on what is possible in film.   In fact technology took years to evolve and make his vision of Avatar possible.  He scrapped the idea of filming Avatar on the heels of Titanic specifically to allow the film industry to mature and make his vision possible. 

What is that you ask?  We've all seen the integration of live actors interacting with celluloid painted characters like in 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit? or even as far back as 1945's Gene Kelly dancing with cartoon character Jerry of Tom and Jerry in Anchors Away.   Of course there is the poorly executed interaction between CGI (computer generated imagery) generated Gungan's and live actors in the recent Star Wars films shot in the early 2000's.  That CGI work was designed developed and implemented by ILM (Industrial Light & Magic). Eventually better CGI came about in films like Lord of the Rings where WETA far and away out-performed ILM in seamless human & CGI interaction.   In Avatar, WETA has been teamed up with ILM.  Thankfully ILM's shoddy work in Star Wars does not take place in Avatar.  That's important as hell because Avatar's  entire story hinges on you accepting the world of Pandora as a real environment.  Sadly if the film has any flaws it's some of the environmental experiences that remind you this is a film.  The most glaring example is that when the humanoid characters step on or touch plant life, the plants respond with a burst of light, from fingers touching foliage to feet walking on branches.  Despite it's flaws Avatar holds up nicely in most every aspect. 

Avatar is far and beyond anything ever seen on screen to date.  The integration of live actors and CGI (computer generated imagery) is flawless and never in question in terms of suspending disbelief.   Seeing the film in IMAX 3D is a must and completes the immersive experience.  What is more is the 3D used in Avatar doesn't employ the hokey objects flying off screen at you tactics used by predecessors, instead it's used for depth of field.   The reality is the principal characters portrayed in CGI by Sam Worthington (Jake Sully) and Zoe Saldana (Neytiri - at left) are not merely voiced but they did in fact act out their roles in the film process. 

Now that you've got the lowdown on the hype, what of the story?  Plausible, but like all science fiction action films, many things are stretched.  From the over the top pro-eco environmentalist message which goes as far as to employ the harmony of Zen-like principals to the insulting cliche' treatment of Marines making them out to being no more than    more »