Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver
Director: James Cameron
Certificate: 12A
Rating: 5/5
The release of Avatar, a film that visionary director James Cameron first thought up on the set of True Lies over 14 years ago, has been hailed by some as the re-birth of cinema or as a an immature CGI fest.
So we here at FemaleFirst decided to give you two opinions, just to let you know.
The long and short of it is that while Avatar may not be the industry game changer that the makers have claimed, it shoves the movie world along more than anything in the last few years.
Telling the story of Jake, a disabled ex-marine who’s brought by a mining company to the exotic world of Pandora.
He’s asked to control an Avatar, a hybrid between human and the native alien race the Na’vi in order to help the corporation move the Na’vi away from their home, which just happens to be right on top of a rich mineral supply.
The story carries the film brilliantly, being both refreshingly simple yet brilliantly layered and with great depth.
As the company’s security chief Colonel Quaritch says, “You are not in Kansas any more, you are on Pandora.”
Cameron has created a world in Pandora so captivating and engrossing that you will quickly forget where you are and fall into Jake’s adventures in the jungle.
All this is helped by the stunning effects, for both the environments and, most importantly, the Na’vi themselves.
The prospect of the 10ft tall blue people looking completely natural may seem ludicrous, but they look simply phenomenal, moving and emoting just like the skin and bone performers around them.
It’s very easy to just forget that a lot of the film is made up nearly entirely of digital effects, and revel in the majesty of what’s being put in front of you.
Helped by the great use of 3D for perspective rather than jamming stuff into your face, Avatar is a visual master piece.
No matter how the movie looks though, it’s nothing without the actors.
They hype around Sam Worthington is completely justified, as he gives not just a great performance as Jake, but as his Avatar as well, letting his eyes do the talking for most of the time and always giving the film a performance of surprising subtlety and grace.
But it’s Zoe Saldana that steals the show, despite never appearing on screen in the flesh.
Her portrayal of Neytiri is one of the most captivating in an action movie for some time, simply becoming the Na’vi princess.
Unrecognisable from the girl in Star Trek, although portraying a giant blue alien helps that, she pulls on your heart strings at every opportunity and makes you really care about what’s happening on screen.
The rest of cast are all superb though, with Sigourney Weaver back to her best as grouchy scientist Grace Augustine, Stephen Lang 
bristling with menace as Colonel Quaritch and Michelle Rodriguez finally fulfilling her potential as pilot Trudy, although none of the cast bring nothing but their best.
With a stunning climax that leaves anything done by Michael Bay or Peter Jackson in the dust an reclaims James Cameron’s crown as the king of action set pieces, the film has a brilliant pace throughout, never slowing too much, but always giving you time to absorb the magic.
Avatar further proves the skill of James Cameron as not just a writer and director but as an artistic visionary.
Easily the biggest film of 2009, Avatar has delivered on all the fronts it promised on and will you desperate to re-visit the world of Pandora over and over again.
FemaleFirst Cameron Smith
Tagged in Sam Worthington Avatar