AVATAR Review: IMAX 3D scores big

No AVATAR review is complete without a small disclaimer: James Cameron (probably heard of him) is trying to get into your mind, grab your tiny human brain with both hands, and squeeze out any preconceived notions of what you thought was possible in filmmaking.

If you enjoy a good brain squeezing, then AVATAR (especially when seen on IMAX 3D) is your movie, and Mr. Titanic has a hit on his hands.

James and his sugar daddy 20th Century Fox spent quite a few pennies to accomplish this feat. Luckily, AVATAR didn't turn out to be a US$300 million (US$500 million including marketing) environmentally-preachy equivalent of Ferngully or The Day After Tomorrow. I will attest: AVATAR is a visual feast the likes of which we popcorn-eating lemmings around the world had yet to see until this week.

In short: A crippled marine (Sam Worthington) assumes the body of an alien or "avatar," with the help of scientists (Sigorney Weaver) on the planet Pandora, and ends up fighting the evil Corporation (Giovani Ribisi) in order to prevent them from exterminating Pandora's Na'vi natives (Zoe Saldana) with brute force (Stephen Lang.) I won't leak any spoilers -- you can look elsewhere for those.

What I will say is that I don't understand why so many reviewers have criticized AVATAR for reasons secondary to its focus. At Rotten Tomatoes, the cumulative score is currently 84% positive, with those disliking it appearing fairly fevered about what they have called a "typical" or "contrived" story that "features many cliches and stereotypes."

But so what?

Similarities can be found in "Pocahontas," "Dances with Wolves," "Aliens," and others, but in an era when many filmmakers won't summon the originality to attempt a new property, opting instead to cinematize toy lines like G.I. Joe and Transformers, I find it hard to fault Cameron for borrowing elements from other properties.

Jake Sully likes trees.

AVATAR succeeds in persuading the audience to suspend its disbelief that its protagonists aren't mere CGI creations, and instead feel like living, breathing things with real emotion. The motion capture techniques used by Cameron and crew were pioneered and developed especially for this movie. For the first 20 minutes, I tried to identify flaws or moments at which the effects and/or Na'vi felt unconvincing. When I failed to find any, I gave up and got sucked into Pandora's 3D world.

Some netzien hordes likened the Na'vi to "Smurfs in Space" based solely on the movie's YouTube trailers. They are very, very wrong. The Na'vi look amazingly lifelike, and special effects that feature the addition of -- excuse me, the implementation --  of 3D ooze every cent of AVATAR's huge budget.

Though without actors contributing serviceable performances beneath their blue skins, the Na'vi wouldn't be convincing. Sam Worthington as Jake Sully ("Terminator Salvation," the upcoming "Clash of the Titans") and Zoe Saldana as Neytiri ("Star Trek") deliver convincing motion-captured performances as AVATAR's two main Na'vi characters, as does Sigourney Weaver.

It's easy to get lost in the near photo-realistic, oceanic, lush jungles of Pandora, where death, beauty and blue alien love lurk at every turn. Pandora is a world that makes you want to go on safari. A safari inside a very secure and armor-reinforced vehicle. Like maybe one of the mech suits that  the Corporation uses to run around and blow up vegetation. There are floating mountains, too many creatures to name, flora, fauna, a Na'vi named Shawna (not really,) gigantic and glowing trees, and more that I haven't got time to list.

Pandora invites you in and you're happy to run around with the characters exploring it, even when AVATAR slows down in its middle half.

Gunships don't like trees.

AVATAR has advanced 3D filmmaking. Maybe not as much as the ever confident Cameron has boasted for the last few years, but it has pushed the technology and, consequently, the expectations of movie goers. Seeing this on an IMAX in 3D is an almost Zen experience. "Transported" is a another word that comes to mind.

However, there was one small problem with my transportation to Pandora: the IMAX 3D theater in which I saw the movie is brand spanking new, and this was the first showing of anything ever at iSquare UA in Hong Kong. The stated start time was 9 a.m. and we arrived at 8:30 a.m. Good thing we did. Without warning, at 8:40 a.m., the film started to roll, unseated ticket holders be damned.

Not the best way to kick off a theater opening.

Opening-morning gaffes aside, AVATAR in IMAX 3D is awe inspiring. The 3D effects take some getting used to, but before long you forget you're even watching in 3D. There are no blatant, "IN YOUR FACE!" "My Bloody Valentine moments, rather instead a depth of field that draws the viewer into the action and into the jungles of Pandora.

AVATAR is a stunning achievement. My expectations of the big-budget feature film have been raised. I need to see AVATAR again because there was just too much to process in one viewing and I'm eager to wander through Pandora's jungles a second time.

There will (rightly) be comparisons made to other movies. There will be those who can't move past AVATAR's environmental messaging and dismiss it as climatological propaganda, and there will be still others out there who refuse to see it because it has "space smurfs." Though, really, people must remember this is a movie that is intended to entertain, and at the highest level currently available to modern flimmaking, much in the same way "Star Wars," "Jurassic Park" and "The Matrix" did previously.

There are sequences in AVATAR of such jaw-dropping spectacle that my only reaction was to giggle like a little girl, the 40-minute-long final battle scene being its crowning jewel. The last sequence is worth the price of admission alone.

If you're expecting the next "Citizen Kane," you'll be disappointed, but AVATAR succeeds tremendously in being a must-see piece of filmed entertainment. Especially in 3D. Even more so in IMAX 3D. Get your tickets before they sell out for the next month.

AVATAR IMAX 3D is showing in various cities throughout Asia and the world. Check the IMAX website for showtimes and locations. For other Avatar review takes, check out the Avatar page on Rotten Tomatoes.