You're on Pandora

I've purposefully waited to post my thoughts on James Cameron's Avatar. I saw the movie on its opening night, and again 3 days later, both times in IMAX 3D. I'm going to avoid any subtlety. The film was absolutely fantastic. It is one of the best if not the best film of the year (only competition coming from Inglourious Basterds). The reason I waited to post my thoughts on the film was simply to wait and see if things progressed in the manner that I thought they would- the film did not start out with immense popularity, mostly due to what I would speculate to be the skeptical feelings towards the "blue people". However, I went to see Sherlock Holmes weeks later and sure there was a good amount of poeple there, but the line for Avatar was out the door, despite a release 3 weeks earlier. Word is spreading, and it should be.

Lets clear some things up. This film is not animated. The CGI is captured and the entire film was acted out. Instead censors and motion capture were applied to the actors using more advanced technology than had ever been used before, and went so far as to develop a system in which Cameron could use a camera that would show him a rough image of what the scenes would look out while they were being acted out. It is tough to explain in detail but you can click here to watch the behind the scenes, which is extremely intriguing. I would've attached a video but the embedding was disabled.

Cameron creates an entire world, unlike anything I have seen before. The color palette is exquisite. The visual affects are stunning and "creative" is a gross understatement to describe the world of Pandora created by Cameron.

When it comes to the films story, it isn't entirely unique. However, the fresh twists, anti-imperialistic undertones, and the loves story all lace together to form one of the best movies of the decade.

I don't want to sit here and give away the story or over-hype the film, but I highly recommend you see it while it is still in theaters, and if you can in 3D. The 3D is by no means necessary but it is something that should be experienced once. I can garuntee that even if the plot lines aren't quite down your alley, you've never seen anything like Pandora. Don't miss out on that, just because you think the cast look like blue cat-people. I can assure you by the end, you won't notice or care.

For those who want to watch the new extended trailer that actually paints an accurate picture of the films plot, the video below does so rather well.