Three years and a budget close to $300 million dollars, thats how long and how much it took James Cameron to direct his latest masterpiece Avatar.

Avatar just isn’t something that Mr. Cameron came up with overnight. No he has had this story idea and script since 1994. However, he felt that the technology back then didn’t meet the needs of what he wanted to do and I honestly think that was the best decision he ever made. As you sit through this movie you just try and think of how it would have looked if it were to have been filmed in the 90’s.

Now before I go on talking about the way this movie looked I want to talk about the story and script. For those of you who don’t know what this movie is about let me give a brief no spoiler summery. Basically Earth/ The US has found a valuable metal on Pandora. The natives of this planet, the Na’vi, aren’t too keen on aliens destroying their planet and have been attacking mining crews. Marines have been deployed to protect the miners and our protagonist, Jack Sully, has been brought there to take his brothers place in the Avatar project. The Avatar project is basically our ability to grow Na’vi and let humans control them thus allowing us to learn, teach, and try to reason with them. However, as you can imagine, both sides have different objectives and war breaks out.

With that out of the way it’s time to talk about the story. Looking back now, there is great potential within the story behind Avatar. You can tell that Cameron knew where he wanted this to go and you can tell that he has sequels planned. However, that thought right there pulled a lot of potential out of this movie. There were parts in this film that could have gone into greater detail about the history of Pandora and how humans came to find out about this planet. Of course, there is the whole ‘I have seen this story before’ and yeah you have, but has James Cameron done it before? Answer to that would be no, he hasn’t.

Even with such a well-crafted story, the dialog within Avatar is probably the only real flaw. The entire movie is composed of pretty basic dialog, but I could really care less about that. I did not pay $8 dollars to hear 7-foot tall cat like humans talk about their feelings and play patty cake. No, I saw this movie for its story and how visually stimulating it is.

As I stated before, try imagining what this film would have looked like if James Cameron filmed it back in ’94. If that were to have happened it probably would have ruined his career and left him directing commercials. But being the perfectionist he is, James Cameron put it on the shelf until the technology he needed was developed. In this case, created specifically for the filming of this movie. That’s right, James Cameron made companies develop the technology needed to bring his idea to life.

Visually this film is breath-taking. The world of Pandora is like nothing you have ever seen (in a movie). This world is GIGANTIC for looking like a moon to another bigger planet. You will be captivated with the plant life of Pandora and how it has a special connection to the Na’vi. I honestly want to know what James Cameron was on when he created this world in his head and why wasn’t it offered when I bought my ticket.

From there, we go into the mixture of real life and CGI, which at certain points in this film are hard to differ from one another. This was the biggest thing talked about and hyped for this film. Everything was filmed as if you were watching the final product just about. Actors playing the Na’vi wore motion-capturing suits that allowed them to be seen as their “Avatar” on the monitors while filming. This allowed James Cameron to better direct them with their expressions and motions. He also used this ability to use multiple cameras to bring you a 360-degree view of what was happening on screen instead of just planned out shots.

As I sit here and try to explain what I witnessed this afternoon the words cannot really explain what I saw on that screen. My mind is still trying to process the world that I was introduced to for 3 hours and wants to go back for more. This is honestly something you have to experience for yourself to gain the full perspective of what I am trying to explain. Now some of you might still be iffy about paying your hard earned money for this and I can understand that, but in my honest opinion it is worth it. You are going to witness the next big step in film-making and see something so beautiful that, like me, you will not want to leave Pandora.

To apply the old Pandora’s Box saying. James Cameron opened Pandora’s box with Avatar and you will not believe what has come from it.

4 out of 5 stars.