I was looking forward to this film for some time, being a fan of Cameron’s films, but have to say was very put off by the trailer, which did not look very good at all, but I still wanted to see it, especially in 3D. We went to see it at the Cineramadome at the Arclight in Hollywood, and were quite pleasantly surprised. The film is long, but it is enjoyable, even if it the story is a bit of Dances with Wolves, crossed with Aliens with a dash of Final Fantasy the Spirits Within (the whole living Gaia thing), and the 3D is amazing (though the shaky camera of the film made Kelly very motion sick, but my mom and I loved it). In fact I would like nothing more than to go see it again, but Kelly can’t go, and isn’t going to want me to go on my own. And the computer graphics looked much better on the big screen in 3D, with the aliens looking quite lifelike, and the world looking pretty convincing. I greatly enjoyed it, with the only thing that really through me out being that lead actor Sam Worthington kept slipping in and out of his Australian Accent, which he did not do in Terminator Salvation. This is not a deep film, but it is a very enjoyable popcorn film that is very worth seeing in 3D (and the active 3D made it look better than anything I have seen in quite some time). It is also interesting that this could very well be the same world as Aliens, with the space Marines and their gear, and the evil company, which could easily have been the Weyland Yutani Coporation. Saw it a second time in IMAX Digital 3D and I have to say it looked even better. It would seem the curved screen of the Cineramadome did not help the 3D at all. This film looks amazing, and the 3D is mindblowing! I loved it, and can’t wait to own the Blu-ray and see more on how they did it! Saw it a third time at the Sherman Oaks Arclight, and it had Dolby 3D glasses, which were better than the cheap ones because you could move your head, though were a bit too reflective of light on your face, still better than the really cheap pair! Damn I really do love this movie. It is just as good or better each time I see it. Sure it has some cheesy dialogue, but Cameron usually does, and it really does not hurt the film.

It is the year 2154, and a Space Marine Corporal named Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) who suffered a spinal injury and can’t use his legs is on his way to the planet Pandora, being put under for 6 years to make the trip. He is going to replace his brother had trained for years for the mission, but was killed, and Sam could replace him because of his genetics, even without any training. The Planet Pandora is a jungle planet run by the Company, where humans want to strip mine for the mineral unobtanium (the stupidest name I have ever heard), and the planet is run by Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi), and security is headed by ex-space marine Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang). The planet Pandora is already inhabited. Along with a rich flora and fauna, there is a native race named the Na’vi, which are huge, 9 feet tall with blue skin, carbon fiber bones, and a propensity to use huge arrows and knives. They worship nature and their god lives in the trees and is named Eywa. The Company wants to move the tribe away from their huge sacred tree so they can get the large deposit of unobtanium underneath it. The Company employs a team of scientists led by Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) who run the Avatar Program, where a human/Na’vi is grown, and their minds are projected into the creature so they can go and talk to the natives, and affect a diplomatic solution. Jake’s brother was going to be part of it, so Jake now is, but he is co-opted by the Colonel to spy for them and get information to help use if the Na’vi do not agree to deal. Grace knows of this, but tolerates it, because she knows that it is the company that sponsors her science. Jake very quickly takes to his Na’vi body, loving the ability to use his legs again (his sick legs effect looks amazing). On one of their first outings into the jungle, they are flown out by Trudy Chacon (Michelle Rodriguez) and go along with Jake’s brother’s friend Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore) another Avatar driver and Grace in her Avatar form. Jake has a run in with a huge local creature, but he stands his ground, and is OK, until a more viscous predator, a Thanator attacks, forcing him to run and jump down a waterfall, and become separated. The other’s try to find him, but they according to the Colonels orders there are no night ops, so Jake is left alone in a hostile jungle to fend for himself. Jake does not do to well, and is surrounded by a pack of dog like things, and is going to be killed by a Na’vi female named Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña who played Uhura in the new Star Trek film), but when the seeds of the Na’vi’s sacred tree land on her arrow, she instead saves him. And she is going to leave him, but again the pure creatures land all over him, and so she takes them back to her clan, the Omaticaya. Jake meets the aggressive Tsu’Tey (Laz Alonso) who is betrothed to Neytiri and will become the Cheiftan of the tribe, the Chieftan, Neytiri’s father, Eytucan (Wes Studi) and the spirital leader, Neytiri’s mother Mo’at (C.C.H. Pounder). Mo’at sees something in Jake, and since he is a warrior, unlike the scientists, they decide to bring him into the tribe, and teach him all of their ways, and Neytiri is forced to be his teacher.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

As Jake’s Avatar goes to sleep each night, he awakens back in his chamber, and when Grace sees him giving tactical info to the Colonel, she decides to move the science team to a remote location in the floating mountains, where conventional radar and tech do not work right, making flying hard.

Jake is a slow learner, but has a good teacher, and he begins to learn the way of the tribe, learning to ride their versions of horses, which they control by connecting some feelers that come out of what looks like their hair. This is also how they control the flying creatures that each warrior must master to become a warrior and be accepted into the tribe.

Jake knows he is supposed to be working on getting the Na’vi to move or figuring out their weaknesses, but he begins to like his life in his Avatar more than in his paralyzed body. He finally falls in love with Neytiri.

Jake becomes a warrior and picks his own flying ride, showing he is a true warrior, and he and Neytiri fly together, almost being killed by a nastier predator, the Toruk.

Jake is called to talk to the Colonel, who informs him that he has done all he needs to, given him all the info he needs, and he will be sent back the next day, and get his legs back, but Jake wants to go back to the tribe, as he will become a member of the tribe the next day. Jake goes back and becomes one with the tribe, and Neytiri tells him he can chose a woman, and he choses her and they mate, which for the Na’vi is for life.

The next morning, while Jake is still back as a human, the bulldozers arrive, and Neytiri can’t awaken Jake, but when she does, he smashes the camera of a bulldozer, but is seen, and the Colonel knows he is a traitor. He confronts them and uses Jake’s own video which has him saying that the Na’vi will never leave, and the mission is useless.

Jake and the scientists are taken back to base, but they Grace manages to convince Selfriedge to let them try one more time as the Colonel is going to destroy the Omaticaya’s home tree. They go in and try to convince the people to leave, and he reveals his mission, and Neytiri accuses him of betraying them and her, and he and Grace are tied up.

The Military arrives and quickly destroy the home tree, and kill Eytucan, and the tribe must leave for it’s holiest place, the Tree of Souls, in the center of the floating mountains, though the Colonel plans on following and destroying their holiest place, and them along with it. He also awakens Jake and Grace. The tribe take Grace, but leave Jake’s body behind.

The team is imprisoned, but Trudy helps them escape, but Grace is badly wounded by shots from the Colonel as they leave. They move their Avatar projection machines deeper into the woods, and Jake realizes their is only one way for him to get back into the tribe.

He has learned that at times a Na’vi warrior had bonded with huge air predator, and was able to unite the tribes, so he uses his air creature and manages to take over the Toruk, and heads to the tribe, convincing Tsu-Tey to help him unite the other tribes against the humans. He also re-united with his love Neytiri, and her mother attempts to move grace permanently into her Na’vi body, but the wounds are too great, and she is only transfered to be with their god, the network of plants on the planet that they worship, and which is conscious on it’s own. They bring in the horse tribes and other airborne tribes to fight.

The colonel has loaded the shuttle with explosives and plans on dropping them onto the Tree of Souls as a daisy cutter, and brings in a huge force in the air and on the ground with Amplified Mobility Platform suits on the ground.

The Na’vi fight back, with huge casualties. Trudy is killed, as is Norm’s avatar, and Tsu’Tey trying to destroy the shuttle, though Jake manages to do it. And the creatures of the planet come to help, as Jake asked the intelligence to help get the humans, and make them leave.

He then goes against the Colonel, and the two end up fighting on the ground after his command platform is destroyed, him in an AMP and Jake in his Avatar, but they are near the chamber with Jake’s real body, and the Colonel manages to break the glass, and Jake can’t get to an air supply. Neytiri kills the colonel and finds Jake’s real body, saving him.

The humans are driven from the planet, and Jake goes and is transferred into his Na’vi body permanently, and the film ends as he opens his eyes.

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Not only a feast for the eyes, but a really enjoyable film all the way around. I would see it in 3D a third time. Hell it makes me want a 3D TV! I like it that much! What a great and enjoyable film. Cameron has really done it again.