In case anyone has not heard, there is this movie out called Avatar. One of the most expensive movies ever made, it is directed by James Cameron, the man behind such blockbusters as The Terminator, Alien and Titanic (the top grossing movie of all time). Oh, and one other thing, it is one of the most visually stunning movies ever made.

The basic plot of Avatar should be somewhat familiar to anyone who has studied their American history. A New World is discovered, rich in resources. The local population is quite different from the explorers. The explorers want the natural resources and start stripping the New World. The locals don’t much care for this, and chaos ensues.

There are a few minor divergences from American history, though. This “New World” is literally a new world, a completely new planet called Pandora. The locals are about ten feet tall and blue. Also, mind-controlled, biological robots are quite commonplace.

Into the war raging between human “aliens” and the indigenous population steps Jake Sully, a paraplegic Marine recruited to operate one of these robots, called “avatars,” which are made to resemble to the local population, the Na’vi. The movie follows Jake’s adventures on Pandora. The story, while mirroring the struggle of Native Americans against foreigners, has enough plot twists to keep it interesting.
The real crowning jewel of Avatar, however, is the cinematography. The basic premise of this movie makes it fairly difficult to film in the conventional sense, and live action scenes are quite scant.

That being the case, Avatar relies heavily upon computer-generated sequences. To be honest, this concerned me walking into the film. James Cameron is quick to put these fears to rest, however. Quite simply put, his vision is genious, and it shines through from the very beginning. Avatar is beautiful. Period.

The graphics, far from feeling heavy-handed, are engaging and seem quite natural. At times it is easy to forget that you are watching a scene where everything on the screen has been created by a computer. In fact, the movie was so breathtakingly gorgeous I experienced a very rare phenomenon at the movies: throughout the film, there were audible gasps and exclamations from the audience. What was truly astounding about this was that it was not contained to one or two scenes, but happened repeatedly. The “oohs” and “ahhs” from the audience stood tribute throughout the movie to the awe-inspiring brilliance of Avatar.

When it comes to finding flaws with Avatar, the run time is about all I can come up with. At close to three hours, it is a bit lengthy. The sheer awe factor of the movie keeps you engaged throughout, and physical discomfort from a particularly old theater seat was my only reminder of the passing time.

Despite the long run time, Avatar is a movie which simply must be seen in theaters. I highly recommend killing a few hours indoors on a windy day treating your eyes to a visually spectacular cinematic accomplishment. I give Avatar three out of three crowns.