A is for Avatar

WOW!
We just got back from seeing Avatar, in digital 3D, and it was Amazing!

Shortly after it began, I was entirely lost in the movie. The animation disappeared, and I was simply on another world. It was beautiful.

The story is a hero's journey, so there may be some level of predictability to the arc, but the world was so wonderfully conceived and brought to life, I was immersed.

Jake, our hero, was not meant to be the person assigned to the "avatar" - a body grown specifically to survive and blend in on this new world - a body the hero can control, but from which he returns when his avatar falls asleep. Soon after trying his avatar, though, he gets separated from the rest of the humans, and his real journey begins. He meets a "girl," Neytiri. She doesn't like him. But they spend time together and ... you get the picture. The fact that it sounds like something from many stories does not make it any less interesting or fulfilling. We like him. We like her. And soon enough, there are quests to undertake.

Go to the theater to see this. See it in 3D -- the technology is so advanced now, there was no trace of the old eye strain that accompanied the two-color-glasses techniques of the past. I don't think they even tried any of the obvious "let's show you you're in 3D" shots; you were just there. If it made sense for something to be in your foreground, it was. If not, James Cameron (writer & director) didn't push it.

This is one of the movies of the year. Not just because someone wanted it to be so, but because it is fun, well done, and truly remarkable.