Avatar is "once in a decade film" and technologically light years ahead of its contemporaries. And no it is not because of the story but because of the visually striking images that refuse to leave your mind even after you leave the theater.

A crippling energy crisis on earth has forced the humans to look for newer resources. So they land on Pandora, a distant planet which has a mineral called "Unobtainium". But to mine that, the humans have to coax the local population - the blue skinned Nav'i race to evacuate. the area. In order to communicate with these peace loving natives, human scientists have come up with the AVATAR program where researchers can mind control Nav'i lookalikes that have been genetically cloned. What follows is the divided loyalties that the researchers begin to feel after spending time with the innocent "aliens". Time is running out for convincing them and before long the humans are ready to use brutal force to blow them out of their homes.

James Cameron, the man and the mind behind path breaking movies like Terminator and Titanic delivers once again and how. The details on screen are so lifelike that as soon as the story actually moves to the forest, the viewer is transported to the magical land. of Pandora. It is a visual masterpiece that demands your attention like no other(perhaps only rivaled by LOTR). Words are futile in this case and one has to see it to feel it.

On the flip side, people might feel the story is kind of repetitive and have seen it before. The dialogues are pretty banal at places and some of the characters are just stereotyped cut pieces. Sam Worthington who plays the lead has his moments although his Aussie accent keeps on popping up here and there. Other actors do their job tremendously well but all of them just play second fiddle to the iconic scenery on display.

It also has a lot of underlying messages about human greed, the wrongful US invasion of Iraq and enviromental protection. Overall effect is mesmerizing and one more thing people , do not make the grave mistake of watching this movie in 2-D. Watch it only in 3D for the sake of experiencing one of the best ever cinematic projects in the history of film-making.

Rating : 4.5/5