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Avatar, written and directed by James Cameron, starring Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Zoe Saldana

James Cameron’s Avatar has been hyped for years now and heralded as the next big thing in movie making. And with good reason; visually this 3D epic is pretty damn mind-blowing…

Cameron’s first film in 12 years, Avatar is a 3D science fiction film set 125 years in the future on a distant moon called Pandora. A corporation from Earth is trying to mine Pandora for a precious mineral known as “Unobtainium”. But to get to it, they need to get past the indigenous population called the Na’vi, blue-skinned humanoids who are three metres tall and live as one with the forest and its various wild creatures — which include six-legged “viperwolves” and dragon-like “banshees”.

As luck and movie science would have it, human scientists have developed avatars — empty shells in the shape of the Na’vi which have been grown with a mix of human DNA and are able to be piloted remotely by a human. Basically, while the human pilot sleeps inside a pod in the science lab, his/her mind is “driving” one of these Na’vi avatars. And he or she experiences all that happens to the avatar.

Three humans are chosen as avatar pilots: Grace, the lead scientist, played by Sigourney Weaver; Norm Spellman (Joel Moore), who has spent months training for the job; and the lead character Jake Sully, played by Sam Worthington (Terminator Salvation), a paraplegic brought in at the last minute to replace his recently deceased brother.

Jake goes to live with the Na’vi and undergoes their rites of passage, eventually becoming one of them and defending them against an attack by the humans.

Avatar looks great, there’s no doubt about it. The alien jungle creatures are rendered in lush colours of jade, purple, etc. and at times the plant-life is like being surrounded by a giant 1970s optic fibre lamp — the one that changes colour as it slowly rotates. As for the Na’vi — well, think of the animation of Gollum in Lord of the Rings and scale it up to include hundreds of characters rather than one. The Na’vi’s movements, the detailed backgrounds on Pandora and the flora and fauna are all very realistic looking. That said, in closeup the Na’vi faces don’t succeed in portraying emotion to the same degree as their body movements can.

The premise might be out of this world, but the story is a familiar classic. Pick any number of films that have to do with a white colonial warrior learning the ways of an indigenous people — Dances With Wolves, A Man Called Horse or The Last Samurai spring to mind but there are others out there — and that’s where the Avatar story lies. Inevitably, there’s a love story attached as well, and an overall theme to do with upsetting the balance of nature. In that respect, you could say that James Cameron nods to John Boorman’s The Emerald Forest or Deliverance. Or simply that he’s speaking to the real-world problems we’re currently facing with the environment.

It’s a good film with totally awesome special effects and a climactic battle scene. It is, as Peter Jackson and various film critics have said, quite “extraordinary”. But it’s importance lies more in the technology that has been developed for this production along the way, which will enable more fantasy epics like this to be made.

Apart from that, it’s a good old-fashioned sci-fi culture-clash drama that could alternatively be titled Dances with Viperwolves. Chuck on the 3D glasses and get lost in it.

Video: Avatar Trailer (extended, HD)