Avatar

Genre: Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure, Thriller

Director: James Cameron

Actors: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel David Moore, C.C.H. Pounder, Peter Mensah, Laz Alonso, Wes Studi, Stephen Lang, Matt Gerald

Runtime: 150 min

Budget: $237 million

Year: 2009

Jake Sally (Sam Worthington) is a former marine, confined to a wheelchair. Despite the weakness of the body, Jake is still a warrior in his soul. He gets the task to travel to the planet Pandora, where the corporations extract rare mineral of great importance to overcome the energy crisis the Earth is faced. As Pandora's air is toxic, a special program called ''Avatar'' was created in which human consciousness is connected to avatar, the biological body with a remote control that helps you stay in this destructive atmosphere. Avatars are hybrids created due genetic engineering by combining human DNA and DNA of Na'vi, indigenous people on the planet Pandora. Receiving a second birth in the form of avatar, Jake can walk again. His mission is to destroy Na'vi, which became the main obstacle for the extraction of valuable ores. But beautiful Na'vi Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) saves Jake his life and everything changes. Jake is taken to her clan, and he learns to be one of them performing multiple tasks and passing numerous tests. As soon as Jake's relationships with Neytiri become closer, he learns to respect the world of Na'vi and eventually finds his place in it. Soon the final test is waiting for him, he has to take the lead of the battle where the fate of the whole world will be decided.

No doubt, ''Avatar'' is the year's most ambitious and most expected film. And what do you expect from ''Avatar'' and James Cameron in particular? Perhaps, more of revolutionary film-making, more of grandiose new ideas, more of never-before-seen special effects, more of 150 minutes without relapsing, more of the James Cameron genius... Be sure, you'll get almost everything except grandiose new ideas. So far ''Avatar'' is just a good movie and not the masterpiece James Cameron set out to make. Nobody spends so much money (more than $237 million) or spends so much time (the project was first conceived in 1995) to make just a good film. But anyway it is a great step forward in moviemaking.

The undeniable strong point of ''Avatar'' is visual effects. Actually, this is the only thing really worth watching as in fact it is the typical Hollywood film driven by special effects. But what special effects! The created world of visual wonders will definitely impress anyone. This world of strange animals, plants, predators and flying creatures is breathtaking. Cameron's Floating Mountains are unbelievable. In 3D it's immersive, but even the 2D version will ensure you an engrossing 2 1/2-hour experience.

Performances are good, but this is not the sort of film that dwells on big star value for the actors, although Sigourney Weaver does shine and delivers a very convincing performance, as do the rest of the cast. But as there is so much entertainment and action value on screen the human element does not dominate in the usual way, along as the story itself. The nature of Pandora is so breathtaking that, unfortunately, the narrative seems almost beside the point. By the way, the plot… Doesn't it remind you ''Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest''? It seems, today it's impossible to make a new story, everything directors offer us is a cliche.

Frankly speaking, Cameron's view of rapacious corporations destroying habitats and native people in the name of profit is not so contemporary. Now we're all primitive people, and it's the entire planet supposedly facing extinction. But maybe the obvious image of such corporations will make us sharply see and feel our current situation as a species that has lost its way. As we experience the lives of Pandora's indigenous people our own predicament comes into contrast. We become visible as a species that has become trapped within its own culture and system of domination and control... cut off from what really enlivens us. Thus we see our way of life is pathologically insane. The Pandora native, Neytiri, speaks of their efforts to enlighten their would-be human ''educators'' and in one line says it all, ''We couldn't save them from their insanity''. Let's be sober-mined people as we don't have another planet to flee back to. Perhaps, this is the powerful message for our time that is hidden beneath the surface of ''Avatar''.