Avatar

James Cameron has a long history of creating innovative and successful motion pictures, most notably Terminator and Titanic, the latter of which was until recently the highest-grossing film ever made, with a worldwide total north of $1.8bn. That crown is now borne by Avatar, which blew Titanic's takings out of the water. It is the first film to ever gross more than $2bn dollars at the box office, and as I write this review in late March (four months after the film's release date) there are still screenings here in Cambridge. I saw Avatar twice in theatres (not something I often do, and even more rarely for a £9 3-D ticket), and the second showing was sold out just like the first.

There is really only one way to describe Avatar, and that is as this generation's Star Wars. Both films are a product of their time and yet retain a timeless air, and both features are ground-breaking visually and technologically. The original Star Wars is still just as much fun today as it was 33 years ago, and the special effects George Lucas developed haven't aged as much as more recent films. In the '70s and '80s, kids everywhere wanted to be Luke Skywalker, fighting bad guys with an X-Wing, a lightsaber and most importantly, the Force. I firmly believe that as of 2010, kids everywhere will want to be Jake Sully.

It is 2154, and Sully (capably portrayed by Sam Worthington, who also appeared in last year's Terminator: Salvation and can now be seen kicking Greek-God butt in the re-make of Clash of the Titans) is a paraplegic ex-marine sent to Pandora, a moon in a distant solar system. Blessed with beautiful flora and fauna, Pandora is otherwise deadly to humans: the air is poisonous and there are things that would like to kill you: not least the Na'vi, the indigenous humanoid population. On Pandora, the RDA corporation is mining unobtanium, a highly precious mineral; Sully is assigned to the security team.

Sully has taken the place of his dead twin brother, who had been assigned to the science mission on Pandora as an avatar driver. These avatars, grown from a mixture of human and Na'vi DNA, are used to explore Pandora more easily; Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) has also improved human-Na'vi relations by setting up an English school for the Na'vi children. However, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) is true to his military roots and sees an opportunity in squeezing Sully for military intelligence, promising him restorative surgery in return.

Dr. Augustine begins to mentor Sully, and as he becomes more tightly integrated into the Na'vi community — and closer to the beautiful Neytiri (Zoë Saldana) — he begins to realise the consequences of his actions.

If you're thinking that this sounds much like Dances with Wolves or Pocahontas mixed with a splash of FernGully, you're well on the way to figuring out how the rest of the film transpires: Sully joins the Na'vi in battle against the humans and is later fully assimilated into the tribe.

This is the bone of contention for the majority of Avatar's detractors: the plot is unoriginal and derivative at best, and predictable and dull and worst. I firmly believe that these people are missing the bigger picture, however.

The plot works. Yes, it is arguably derivative and certainly predictably; but more importantly it is intelligent, it hangs together very well, and the formula is tried and tested. The real innovation of the film is in the making of the feature, and the creative imagination poured into Pandora. Cameron went to enormous lengths to realise his vision for Avatar, and it really pays off, providing the viewer with a thoroughly immersive experience.

Much of Avatar's enormous budget (some rumours estimate it to be over $500m) was spent developing new camera technology: a stereoscopic high-definition camera, a "simulcam" system that allowed Cameron to view in real time the actors in the computer-generated environment; and an augmented reality camera that provides a view of the outcome of the motion capture process in real time. The latter camera technology even allowed Cameron to actively direct the motion-capture scenes as they were filmed (rather than after the event, post-rendering, as is normal), and results in a fluid, life-like rendering.

The 3-d experience, a direct result of the new stereoscopic camera, is the best yet seen in cinemas, and will be the benchmark against which all 3-d films are compared for years to come. The experience is so immersive, you forget you're wearing the uncomfortable glasses that make you look like Brains, which can safely be classed as little more than a pipe dream for much 3-d fare at the moment. Furthermore, the image doesn't suffer the usual fate of appearing darker and washed out through the glasses, thanks to the 100 or so separate versions of the distributables produced, each one specifically tailored for a particular projector type.

The attention to detail is staggering: the Na'vi have their own language. This is a 100% kosher language, developed from scratch by Dr Paul Frommer, a linguistics expert at the University of Southern California (read a fascinating interview with Dr Frommere here). They also have their own culture, that will resonate with the green movement and those familiar with Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis; the root of this is the physical connection the Na'vi have with Pandora. A braided tendril grows from the back of their head, surrounded by hair, which they can bond with other creatures' own tendrils and communicate mind-to-mind. It is more than just communication, however: the two minds appear to fuse temporarily, with the bonded creatures becoming a single sentient being with two bodies. As such, some trees can also be bonded with, as a sort of upload point to the rest of the moon. This gives the Na'vi a much stronger and more intimate connection with their home world than we humans enjoy.

Much of the flora and fauna of Pandora are indescribably beautiful, including the winged predators (the land-based ones, a sort of hammer-head rhinoceros, less so). The horse-like creatures the Na'vi ride around on are just as majestic and beautiful as our own horses, but have six legs, gill-like nostrils on their shoulders, and heads and necks reminiscent of a sea horse. The flora are lush, brightly coloured organisms, and many of them glow almost electrically in the dark of night.

The trip to Pandora is not one you'll forget, and this is the only film that I feel I will be able to say for a good number of years yet has to be seen in 3-d.

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