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 a reality. 


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 jug-heads.   In this story, humans are reduced to the bad-guys where the NA’Vi are the good-guys. 

Kids will miss this message, but to adults it's glaring  ...The NA’Vi  despite being 10 feet tall leave no carbon footprint in their sustainable living practices, they are even apologetic when they kill an animal for food.  It can get annoying if you think about it too much.  No one likes to be preached to when they go to the theater to escape reality and be entertained.  Still, without all this not so subtle eco-harmony the interactive harmony the element of networking the species and plant-life might not be believable as the story unfolds.  I'd like to say I'll get to that, but for all I'm detailing I'm actually not rolling out spoilers.  See the film and you'll understand.

The name of the film is your major hint on what the story revolves around.  Most everyone has played a video game where you the human operator are able to construct a virtual self.  In some games you 'drive' that character, in others an avatar is merely a visual representation of you.  You can tailor it to look exactly like you or a more desirable you.  Either way, that construct is called an avatar.  In Avatar the concept is taken to a whole new level.   In the future an avatar is taken beyond the virtual world and can function in real world environments where your consciousness resides in another soulless but living body.

It's the year 2154.  The film opens with ex-Marine Jake Sully the twin brother of scientist Tom Sully being offered a job solely because of their genome match.  In Jake's narration he reveals his brother had been killed only days before he was to depart for his job. Jake is now light years away from Earth and about to arrive on Pandora.   It turns out Tom trained for 3 years to be an avatar operator on Pandora.  Due to the exorbitant investment by the company, Jake can save the company the loss of that avatar by serving in a minimalistic role of security escort.  The avatars are fully functional constructs made to look like their indigenous humanoid counterparts called NA’Vi.  The avatars share both human and NA’Vi DNA but look and function only as a NA’Vi.  The exact reason why so much effort is placed on creating these avatars is reasoned away by two factors; the NA’Vi are reclusive and won't interact with humans and because the atmosphere on Pandora is poisonous to humans. 

Jake quickly finds his Marine philosophy is in direct conflict with the scientist he is embarking on assisting; and everyone knows it - the scientist he has arrived to help, and the Marines whom insist to him that he needs to feed them intel on what he learns.  

Oh, and Jake has lost the use of his legs.  He's paralyzed from the waist down, apparently from a previous battle on earth.  By fulfilling his contract to the company on Pandora for his brother, Jake can pay the once unaffordable cost of an operation to restore use of his legs.  No sooner does Jake arrive on Pandora do we learn that Marines are contracted to assist as mercenaries; paid employees of the company.  It's not a government run operation.  The Marines are on stand-by until they are needed.  For now they serve to protect employees that are on Pandora to mine the precious mineral unobtainium for Earth's consumption.  However once we learn that the NA’Vi tribe Jake is meant to make peace with are sitting on the largest deposit of unobtainium on the planet, a countdown begins.  He is tasked with convincing them to move or be moved.  Will it be diplomacy or war?  If you've seen the children's animated film also released in 2009 Battle For Terra then all this may sound familiar.  Clearly someone got a hold of Cameron's script and decided to steal his work.  Then again many sci-fi readers have accused James Cameron of stealing the story idea for Avatar from Poul Anderson's 1950's novel My Name Is Joe, where similarly an injured man who has lost use of his extremities finds he can be made whole again on another planet.

You can pigeon hole Avatar into the sci-fi theater goer but that is not fair; its appeal is much wider.  The visual assault never ends so children would have an impossible time being bored even during periods of adult dialogue while the overt feminism aspects will appeal to women.  Geeks to athletes will appreciate the sci-fi action.   Ultimately the story holds up with some very original concepts despite the age old story of people defending their way of life - good guys verses bad guys.   I can't stress enough that despite all the failed 3D movies in the past, Avatar is one that truly hits it stride with 3D.    The majesty and detail are lost without it.  It will be interesting to see if the small screen 3D counterpart on DVD holds up.  The film is a pioneering achievement.  While not a masterpiece of all time, it's worthy of at least one sequel which writer/director James Cameron has already confirmed.  He's indicated the franchise can go as far as a third film now that he has the technology perfected.   No need for four year production times, he just needs the actors to take up where they left off. 

Directed by James Cameron.  Featuring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigorney Weaver, Giovanni Ribisi, Michelle Rodriuez, Joel Moore and Stephen Lang.  Rated PG-13 for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking