James Cameron's Avatar, or "It's not WHAT happens, it's HOW it happens." ;)

Upon reading reviews for this movie, I've essentially seen it be called "Dances With Smurfs," which is pretty much a direct quote from an episode of South Park.  I've also seen it accused of ripping of the animated classic Ferngully:  The Last Rainforest.  And in some senses, they are right.  But the fact of the matter is when it all comes down to it, James Cameron's "Avatar" is no more "Dances With Smurfs" as The Last Samurai is "Dances With Samurai."  And it's pretty much no more of a Ferngully ripoff as such Hayao Miyazaki films as the ones with all of their pro-environmental messages, which as "preachy" as they may be is something I certainly have never had a problem with.  And essentially, given the track record of both comparisons, really is far from being a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination.

What it comes down to in the end is the fact that you can call it "unoriginal" or "cliche" all you want, but essentially that's just one very minor flaw amongst plenty of other things that makes Avatar one of the most stunningly marvelous fantasy world epics, especially those of which aren't already based on an original source material, that I've seen in a good long while.  The one that most everyone will point at with a first glance is just how stunningly jaw dropping the visuals of this move are.  James Cameron makes such masterful use of his newly invented 3D stop motion CGI techniques to such a magnificent level.  Not only are they so masterfully well done in the first place, but the actual innovative visuals come together to create such a beautiful and lush world full of all sorts of things, places and people that are indeed quite innovative and inventive.  I'm already guaranteed to eventually see this movie again, but no doubt that when I do I absolutely MUST see it in 3D, because I can only imagine just how much more of an experience it must be in that sense that it already was just seeing it the way I did.

But I also think that for how innovative the world and it's visuals were, it had such an impact in how it told the story as well.  Given how hard it is to tell an entirely original story in this day and age, I'm personally one who can forgive a formulaic story should it tell it in it's own inventive way.  And Avatar succeeded at going far and beyond in that particular area.  There were so many added aspects to this story via the absolutely marvelous world in which it takes place in that actually led to some very interesting and compelling sequences of events.  The fact that they are on such an Alien world for one, but also the aspects of the Na'vi being an entirely different alien species rather than just a different culture for another, as well as the whole idea behind the "Avatar Project," in which human beings can link their very conscious with the actual physical form one of the Na'vi.  It was such an interesting, and at the same time compelling experience watching our main character, Jake Sully, begin to move away from what was reality in his own world and become a part of the world of the Na'vi, that becoming more real for him and essentially becoming one of them himself.  If you think about the more psychological aspects such as this one that played more of a part in this plotline, especially the ones dealing with the setting of the world of Pandora itself (like for example, the tree being the deity of the Na'vi and them being able to have an understanding of the energy flow Pandora, which the idea of the energy flow it and of itself was quite the interesting scientific aspect of the story), then in the end if you think about it, whatever "unoriginal" or "formulaic" or "cliche" aspects the plot had about it really doesn't matter in the end.  Because in the end it was more about the way it was presented in the first place, and as you know very well is an all time famous saying of mine, "It's not about WHAT happens, but HOW it happens."

Though in some senses I can sort of understand how having too high of expectations going into this movie could end up leaving you in disappointment.  Because quite frankly, it does have enough about it that doesn't quite live up to what most have said about it in the sense of it being the next great cultural phenomenon in movie making other than probably the special effects and visuals.  But what we do get in spite of that is a magical, magnificently wondrous sci-fi/fantasy epic that leaves you in such amazement and awe you can't help but go and see it time and time again.  If you haven't seen it yet, I would very highly recommend that you do.  And I'll even go see it with you if you'd like. 8-)

Rating: 3.5 out of 4, 9/10