What a stunner! Turn the clock back 200 years. Not even the photograph has been invented. Here you are minding your business, strolling into your local pub.  After your first beer with friends and family the room is magically transformed into a modern-day 3-D theatre, and you are treated to the visual beauty of James Cameron’s Avator. Grandpa and grandma would probably have a heart attack. They could not fathom that such a lifelike motion picture was possible. Are my eyes fooling me? Is the devil playing a trick on me? No, you are in a time machine, taking you 200 years into the future, and witnessing a major event in the history of motion pictures. Marrying animation with a new 3-D camera technology, James Cameron has taken filmmaking to a whole new level. Unlike Titanic, where Cameron used simple characters, this sci-fi adventure is populated by a wide range of interesting characters. Foremost, of course, are the avatars. Each avatar is a robot-like copy of a person that is controlled by his or her mind. Visually, the film is gorgeous. There are so many novel elements in the film that I wanted to see it a second time right away. Next time I will see it in an IMAX theatre, where the experience will be even greater. A day after watching Avatar, my inner life is still dominated by the effects of this amazing motion picture event.

Postscript Jan 12, 2023. I watched the film again before viewing the sequel.  had forgotten most of the plot. Seeing it again was an adventure. Now that global warming has hit us so vividly, Cameron’s reverence for nature comes out even stronger.