Avatar

"Everything is backwards now, like out there is the true world and in here is the dream."

Fifteen years after James Cameron had minted an idea; the one of a distant planet where tall, blue creatures live, we finally witnessed it in all its beauty, magnificence and splendor.

Avatar is the story of Jake Sully, a paraplegic former marine who is whisked off to a luscious, Earth like moon called - Pandora to replace his recently deceased twin brother in the Avatar project.

Pandora is a home to the Na'vi; the blue humanoid-feline-like creatures who live in harmony with nature. But that harmony, the strong bond they safeguard might be in danger. The "flaw" of Pandora is an expensive precious mineral that humans want. At any cost. Jake's mission is to ameliorate the relations with the Na'vi; by looking like one of them; like being trapped in a body of the Na'vi but being maneuvered by his mind. The movie's title actually refers to those genetically engineered bodies - avatars; hybrids masterminded by human operators. Jake is one of them.

Pacing through the sheen of Pandora, Jake encounters the world beyond imagination, beyond explanation. The planet hides its dangerous side and Jake soon gets a taste of it. In a wild and vividly captured fight with Pandorian dogs, Jake gets Neytiri's helping hand. A spark awakens between the marine whose mind controls his blue Na'vi body and the Na'vi female.

The world he's yet to explore begins to grow onto him, just like the Omaticaya people Neytiri belongs to. With each passing minute, his life as a Na'vi takes over; in this dreamy world of Pandora he can walk, love; he can be. The mining in search for the precious mineral continues; the land of the Na'vi is in peril and Jake has to make a decision - help his own species destroy the goodness and beauty of Pandora or help the Na'vi save their home.

In this adventurous motion picture with bits or romance and chunks of action, Cameron makes us witness a clash between cultures and civilizations. The story is similar to the classic "Dances With Wolves" in which we follow Kevin Costner being soaked in the culture he was fighting against at first. In Avatar, we take a journey into the unknown; we see places far more developed than our imagination. We see a dreamland that looks like a painting; you can't help but stare. And keep staring with admiration. Floating mountains, fluorescent flowers, the bond with nature; a dream disturbed by us, humans.

Every scene questions your sanity; you question your sight, wondering how could someone come up with that beauty? And that is what engrossed my attention. The plot itself wasn't as original but the graphics, especially if you're watching the movie in 3D technique.

Cameron once stated that he wanted to make "something that has this spoonful of sugar of all the action and the adventure and all that".

Personally, it had all of that together, nicely packed into a 3 hour movie. Not seeing it would be a total shame; you'd lose 3 hours of smiling and awing at the scenes; at the beauty and goodness of the blue creatures. You would miss a valuable life lesson: being the imperious one doesn't give you the right to molest others, it doesn't let you take what belongs to someone else.