Avatar

Rating: 9.2/10

Genre: Action Fantasy

Overall value for money and time: 9.9/10

Anyone who misses this movie on the big screens will definitely regret it, unless he/she owns a cinema or has a cinema-like screen in their homes... Let me rap about the cons of the movie before I sing it's endless praises...

Set in a futuristic world where humans have found a scarce resource on the planet of Pandora. However, the ground is inhabited by the native-like "creatures", the Na'vi. A marine is sent undercover to know more about their culture and blend in with them, gain their trust and to persuade them to leave their land so that the humans can "peacefully" take the resuorces and harvest it as their own.

If you haven't caught the trailer, which I highly doubt so since James Cameron is going full throttle on the publicity, then catch the movie fast before everyone else spoils the storyline for you... then again, there's really nothing to spoil. It's as predictable as it can get. You don't need the trailer to unravel the entire storyline for you, from my sypnosis alone, it doesn't take a genius to figure which direction the story would be headed.

A wee bit dialogue-driven from start to middle, since it was to build up on the storyline and evoke our emotions... And in terms of action sequences, it's not that "action packed". The last 30 minutes did hold a good handful of seat gripping action and there was a hint of Lord of the Rings in it.

With that "many" cons, how many pros is needed to balance it out? Well, just one is enough. The cinematography is astounding. State of the art CG - I have no idea what the big hooha is all about the new technology and camera technique/style James Cameron waited 14 years + to materialize... - but from a layman's point of view, simply put: Gorgeous, Beautiful, Heavenly-like CG.

This movie excels in what Blockbuster movies should be: Epic-like, majestic, and total awesomeness. It also has something most Blockbusters don't, which makes this movie a true gem of cinema history - it is able to warp you into the world of Pandora. You see it, you can almost smell it, feel it, and throughout the 2hr 40mins long movie, the director brings you into his made-believe world, his "utopia-like" world with made-belief creatures and plants (holding some features of the animals and plants we see in our world).

I feel it, even more now as I speak of the movie. I want to enter that "world" again, the world of true beauty. Though there are some welcoming additions to the plot, which I will not reveal since I recommend this movie to anyone and everyone out there, and some "deeper" more abstract meaning to the concept and plot of the movie, the one thing which I believe every viewer will bring home with them, is a peace of "heaven" which only one of the greatest directors of all time is able to deliver.

I've read trivia about how the success of this movie will lead to two more sequels of Avatar and I'm exceptionally looking forward to them after a truly great movie experience even though it was at a disappointing cinema. Bad sound system- soft and muffled, which pulls the engagement level down a notch. Even so, it was a great movie experience thanks to the cinematography and CG.

Finally, one of the many things I like about the movie is that there's a new "catch-line" for it. I'm very sure it's going to hang around for the next couple of decades just like Titanic did... Ever wondered what differentiated Titanic from movies like Casino Royale or Godfather? (Not that any of them was bad) Once "Titanic" is brought up, there's a high possibility everyone knows about it and have watched it before... Well, a new era is here; a new highly talked-about movie which will win the heart of millions even billions is finally here... The era for Avatar has descended...

"I see you..."