Avatar - WOW!!!

Take a little Braveheart, add some Dances with Wolves, sprinkle in bit of Pocahontas, some Ferngully, a little dash of Gorillas in the Mist, and finish it off with the most insane crazy visual effects and watch with some 3-D goggles for 2 hours and 40 mins and Voila! You have Avatar, one of the best movies I've ever seen. I mean day-ummm!! This movie is absolutely mind blowing! James Cameron has really out done himself which I think is his goal every time he sets out to make a movie. It's only been 12 years since his last motion picture. You guys may remember a small, little known movie called Titanic! Yeah, that is the highest grossing pic of all time and it looks like Avatar will be the 2nd highest. However, in my humble opinion, Avatar blows Titanic out of the water (no pun intended).

Avatar is the first movie of its kind and will change the way movies are made forever. I know the short segments in the previews kind of make it look like its any other CGI-laden, animated, motion capture movie. But its not. Trust me. They used a completely revolutionary technology in which the actors are filmed doing their thing, but the image that is shown on the other end of the camera is a 9 foot tall, blue humanoid creature that looks just like the actor. Its amazing! Its better than motion capture and prosthetics combined. So cool. And not only are the characters amazing to look at, so is the world that James Cameron has created. The colors are hyper brilliant, the creatures and plants in the world of Pandora are beautiful, and most of all the story is incredible.

I hope that all of you know what I'm actually raving about, but for those of you who were born yesterday or don't have any interaction with anything except the wall in front of your face, Avatar is one of the biggest films ever made, and its out in theaters right now. Its directed by James Cameron. He's the guys who made the first and second Terminators, Aliens, The Abyss, and the aforementioned Titanic. So basically he makes bad ass films. It stars Sam Worthington who starred in Terminator Salvation and is looking like he's the next Hollywood bad ass and Zoe Saldana who was in the new Star Trek and has 4 movies coming out this year. She's also hot, but all you see is her as a 9 foot tall blue creature the whole movie. It also has a supporting cast of Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, and Giovanni Ribisi, to name a few.

Here's what the movie is all about. When his scientist twin brother is killed and because having the same DNA is a requirement, paraplegic Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) decides to take his place on a mission on the distant world of Pandora. There he learns that his mission will be aiding a greedy corporation in driving off the native humanoid "Na'vi" (the 9 foot tall blue creatures) in order to mine for the precious material buried beneath their homelands. In exchange for the spinal surgery that will "give him his legs back." Jake uses an an "avatar" identity which is a lab-created Na'vi which he can control with his mind while lying in machine that looks like a tanning bed. He agrees to gather intel for the cooperating military unit spearheaded by gung-ho Colonel Quaritch (played by some badass looking dude that I've never seen), while simultaneously attempting to infiltrate the Na'vi people to try and find a peaceful way to mine the material under their feet. Jake begins to bond with the native tribe and quickly falls in love with the beautiful alien Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). Things come to a head when Jake realizes that what the corporation and the military unit are trying to do is evil. Jake is forced to make a choice to continue to help the greedy humans or take a stand and fight back with the alien race that he has infiltrated.

As I said earlier, this is one of the best movies I've ever seen. So I am recommending this movie to every single person out there. Yes, it's long, but you don't feel like it is, it moves fast and you are totally captivated the whole time. Yes, its about 60% CGI, but its so real looking that you forget you are watching "fake" creatures. Yes, its super Sci Fi/Fantasy, but the story is great and the visuals alone are enough to captivate you. I've talked to many people who don't like Sci Fi and who say "I don't like unbelievable movies" or "I just can't get into watching a bunch of blue people run around." Well, I have this to say to you sceptics. Watch this movie anyway. I guarantee you that you will at the very least be spell bound by the visuals and I promise you you will start to get into the story, and you will walk out of the movie theater amazed.

On a side note, when you go see this in the theaters, opt for the 3D version. It's sick! You may feel a little dizzy for the first 5 or 10 minutes but you get used to it and it makes the movie watching experience that much better.