AVATAR ****

Let's get one thing straight right from the start, I don't do Sci-fi. I haven't seen a Star Wars and couldn't tell you what makes it any different then Star Trek. However, I DO love epic's, I DO love 3D and I DO love that James Cameron is back in all his Titanic glory!

Avatar is everything I hoped it would be an more. We are introduced to the world of Jake Scully a former marine who is bound to a wheelchair. He is recruited to travel light years away to Pandora, a land that holds a mineral that could solve the Earth's energy crisis. Now, why Jake is chosen and what it takes to get to Pandora is for you to find out when you go see the movie. I can't give all the fun away!

Now the atmosphere of Pandora is toxic, they have created the Avatar Program, in which human "drivers" have their consciousness linked to an avatar, a remotely-controlled biological body that can survive in the lethal air. These avatars are a mix of human DNA with DNA from the natives of Pandora called the Na'vi.

Like I mentioned in my "Welcome" post just before this, I'm not going to focus so much on the story in my reviews but more on everything that went in to make this movie good or bad. I will however at least give you an idea of what you will actually have to sit through. I mean does the story matter as long as I say it's good or not!?

Let me just say, this movie is unlike anything you have seen before. However, pay close attention to how I said SEEN, as in your eyes have never witnessed film making in this form. The story is another whole issue and I'll get to that in a minute. James Cameron hasn't done much since Titanic and u had to start to worry what exactly was happening to his directing career and would he be able to pull another blockbuster off?....he did.

Now about the story, it's interesting and it's got undertones of politics, religion and war. Some will hate it, some will like it but I don't think many will love it. Just like Titanic, the love story of Jack and Rose vs. Avatar's Jake and Neytiri come across as just washed up love. I found myself finding many similarities between the two couples and was wondering if anyone else in the theater felt the same.

The acting is actually quiet believable. Major props go to sci-fi legend Sigourney Weaver. Her addition to the film was a great casting choice and it was nice to see her back in a movie where she fit like a glove. Sam Wirthington was great as Jake and Michelle Rodriquez was great as Trudy a security force pilot.

Avatar has a running time of close to three hours. As we learned with Titanic running time doesn't matter as long as you are entertained and James does it yet again with Avatar. I gave this movie five stars not because it's the greatest story ever told or that it even deserves to win best picture at the Oscars. I'm giving it a great review because it has changed the way an epic blockbuster will be made, the same way Titanic changed movie making in 1997. So if you see Avatar in 3D which I recommend, sit back and enjoy a visually stunning movie because it might be another 12 years before James Cameron is king of the world again.....and I'm willing to wait!