As of the writing of this post, James Cameron’s Avatar has made more than 1.3 billion dollars worldwide, challenging Cameron’s greatest film, Titanic for world domination. Although it cost over $300 million to make, and got off to somewhat of a shaky start, Avatar has in the last few weeks become a subject of hot debate, acclaim and criticism. This post however, has little to say about what others think of the movie, but is rather concerned with the author’s opinion and impressions of what some claim is the most visually stunning movie of all time. With over 3000 computer generated effects scenes, Avatar introduces a world that Cameron and his army of creative minions conjured from scratch, putting him in what Cameron himself called “CG hell” in 2008.

After two viewings of the three hour story, I must admit to having mixed feelings on the film. From an entirely visual standpoint, the photo-realistic quality of the actors and nearly seamless integration of computer generated graphics and lifelike settings left me in a state of stunned admiration. The natives of the new world, the Na’vi, are both long and quite physically attractive in an blue, alien way. Unfortunately, in spite of their accurate facial expressions and stunningly realistic movements, this “alien race” seems–notwithstanding their blue skin and fierce athleticism–to be more of reflection of the oppressed native Americans than an entirely new and alien species. Unfortunately the storyline follows in the same vein, and the most expensive movie of all time spends most of its three hours retelling the tale of Pocahontas in a futuristic, space-like setting.

Uncanny likenesses to certain repressed people groups aside, Avatar succeeds in creating a new, realistic and believable reality. Thanks to Cameron’s vision (and money), viewers can immerse themselves in a world where nature, strength, will and love win out over the destructiveness and complications of our modern day technology, greed and rampant materialism. Pandora is a simpler world where purity is the norm and sin not only has no grasp, but is almost inconceivable to the fierce natives. Through it Cameron offers us a glimpse of the Eden that was lost to us so long ago, a place where select and chosen humans might shed their weak, powerless bodies and join a race of pure and perfect beings, living in harmony with their god, “Eywa.” It offers a solution and a cure for the hopelessness of the “human condition.”

But will we see more of this lush and futuristic planet of Pandora? According to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Media web site, Cameron is planning on turning the computer-generated visual gourmet into a trilogy. We can but hope that the story doesn’t falter or fall entirely flat as it does with so many sequels. Perhaps with all of his new technology already developed, Cameron will devote more energy to writing unique and gripping storylines for what I hope will be true masterpieces.

Bottom line: with stunning visual effects, a tolerable storyline, and considerably intense spiritual undertones, Avatar is definitely worth seeing once or three times.

First and foremost, the original trailer thanks to Machinima. There’s no voiceover track on this video, but it gives a great impression of the visuals with super duper high-definition goodness.

Providing an explanation explanation of Avatar and commentary on the characters, technological development and production of the film. I’m pretty sure this video is in violation of Twentieth Century Fox’s copyright, but it’s still kinda awesome, and watching Zoë Saldana‘s acting @ 2:56 gives me the chills straight up.

This is a crossover between the Pocahontas and Avatar movie trailers pointing out the similarities between the two movies. Although it’s undeniable that they’re basically the same story, the fact that Cameron admitted to being influenced by Pocahontas when writing Avatar somehow makes me feel like it’s not really that big of a deal.