AVATAR (2009)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/
Directed by James Cameron

( As always, this is a spoiler free review. )

As of December 2009, with an estimated budget of US $230,000,000, this is the most expensive movie ever made. And it’s all worth it!

I have not felt this way about a movie in a long time. I sat in my seat at the IMAX theater in San Francisco’s Metreon complex slack jawed and wide eyed as the movie began and remained that way for the whole of the film.

This film was a magical wonderland for me. It succeeded in transporting me up and away from everything – suspension of disbelief complete and mind fully sunk into the word Cameron and several heavy hitter F/X houses managed to create for us all to enjoy. And enjoy I did. This movie blew me away on many levels and while I didn’t find it to be a perfect film, it was well worth the price of admission. Easily the best film I have seen in many years.

Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is a Marine with a mission – to help talk some sense into the indigenous people creatures of Pandora with the help of his body avatar. Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) has little to no faith in him, but he manages to make things work. Enter Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) daughter of the tribal leaders, Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) money obsessed corporate puppet and Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) military madman and you have a party.

Have we seen it before? Sure. But never done like this.

40% live action and 60% photo-realistic CGI, high end motion capture technology makes 3D creature come to life on the screen in an amazing way. I watched the film and forgot about the 3D aspect almost immediately. It was fun seeing the real actors reflected in their 3D counterparts as well. Facial features and actions translated beautifully to the 3D “puppets” and the performances were reflected to an almost eerie perfection.

The film project was supposed to come on the heals of Titanic, but the 3D tech just wasn’t up to the standards Cameron wanted. After seeing Gollum in the Rings Trilogy, Cameron thought that the tech was up to the challenge and decided to try it all again. When I think about the scope and work involved in this movie, it blows my mind. The movies creature effects, future tech vehicles, world creation and integration raises the bar for anything we see from here on out.

The story was familiar, but well done. The “Bad” want something from the “Good” and are willing to do anything it takes to get it. The “Good” need to fight for their own survival both physically and culturally. This plot could have been a silly snooze fest, but it wasn’t. It was a fun and interesting venture and was presented well. The “Bad” tend to get a little cartoony at one point and removed me from the film (“Let ‘em find another tree to live in!” :::evil laugh:::) but I managed to get through it and back into the movie relatively unscathed.

All in all, this film will go down as a “masterpiece”– sitting along side the likes of Star Wars and E.T.  With a domestic total of $73,000,000 as of Dec. 20, 2009 a mere few days after it’s release, it’s well on its way to making it’s money back.

AVATAR was an amazing trip for me. It made me feel like a kid again – wide eyed with a renewed sense of wonder and excitement. Amazing.