Avatar is a movie that will remind you of many other movies.

The protagonist living with natives and learning their ways, falling in love with one of them and ultimately fighting for them will remind you of Dances With Wolves, Pocahontas, and The Last Samurai. Additionally, the big battle at the end is the Empire versus the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi. With expectant results.

The respect for nature and its wonders will remind you of Ferngully.

The transference of one's consciousness into another existence to lead a double life will remind you of The Matrix.

The hero's speech to rally the tribes against the human threat will remind you of Braveheart.

The big gunships and missiles and awesome explosions and the tough-as-nails badass marine Colonel with gnarley scars and the raging hard cock war porn will remind you of every Michael Bay movie. More specifically, the robots will remind you of Transformers (btw, that Colonel is simply awesome, and has two memorable scenes -- one where he can't breathe, the other where he's on fire -- and in neither scene is he the slightest bit concerned).

Additionally, the robot suits, and military fetish themes catered to decimating and controlling a planet of technologically inferior life (but with proven natural defenses) will remind you of Starship Troopers.

The blue people will remind you of The Smurfs. If they were Thundercats.

Additionally, their ears and tails will remind you of Hyper Police and every other furry cat-people anime.

The "planet is one interconnected organism" motif will remind you of the video game Alpha Centauri. Especially when it attacks the humans.

Additionally, the use of animals and the planet's indigenous life to attack the humans will remind you of Dune.

The "unobtainium" represents the laziest and most unoriginal mcguffin since the skull in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Sigourney Weaver's "scientist befriends and lives with natives to study their ways" character will remind you of Diane Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist.

Sam Worthington's wooden acting will remind you of his role in Terminator: Salvation and probably every other movie he's done (that includes the forthcoming Clash of the Titans).

When good characters die in slow motion to mournful, middle-eastern chanting and mystical indian music, you will think of Gladiator, and also the introduction to Battlestar Galactica.

The amount of blue in this movie will remind you of The Abyss, Terminator 2, Aliens, and every other James Cameron movie. Blue is his thing. He has a blue tint in every movie he does. Especially night scenes. Go look.

The 3+ hour running time will remind you of The Watchmen. The fact that there are so many naked blue people will also remind you of The Watchmen, but for different reasons.


One thing in this movie that will not remind you of anything else, however, is the visual presentation. The CGI in this film is absolutely breathtaking and life-changing, and boldly affirms that the next era in filmmaking is here, by finally conquering the uncanny valley that had plagued special effects for the past 5-8 years. This makes Transformers, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and all the other previous masterpieces of championship effects-laden extravaganzas, look terrible in comparison. It is gorgeous eye-candy in every conceivable way; a visual and cinematic drug, to the point where movie-goers are experiencing withdrawal pains and severe depression after seeing it. Some have even crept to the depths of suicide upon the horrifying realization that Pandora doesn't actually exist (I wouldn't want to live there, though. It looks very dangerous. Like Australia, it is a foreign ecosystem where anything can kill you).

Speaking of Pandora, the planet is really the star of the movie. It's actually a moon, orbiting a gas giant which, as any science fiction fan can tell you, is advantageous to the evolution and development of indigenous life (shields it from asteroid bombardment, as earth's moon and, to a greater extent, Jupiter does). The level of care and consideration placed in the fauna, the cultural instincts of the animals, and how everything is connected via bio-luminescence and, especially with the Na'vi, sensitive umbilical synapses in their hair that can connect telepathically with other living things like fiber optic USB cables. Some of the animals, however, will remind you of displacer beasts if you've ever played Dungeons & Dragons. And the winged steeds will remind you of the aerial mount Taarna rode in Heavy Metal.

There are very few movies that are benchmarks in visuals. Movies that are so iconic in their post-production values that they spawn copycats trying to reproduce their success. In an age where superhero movies by the dozens are running off an assembly line of Cray Supercomputers, it is becoming increasingly difficult to make a film that makes you honestly go "WOW!". In the past, there have only been a handful of movies that have earned that collective exclamation, the most important being Star Wars, Jurassic Park and The Matrix. This is a worthy addition to that pantheon. I cannot express this enough: Avatar is visual porn. It must be seen on the big screen -- preferably IMAX -- to achieve the affected result. Some scenes might even make you cry.

Beyond that, however, there is no reason to see this film. The characters are stock and one-dimensional, the plot paper-thin and predictable, the dialogue cringe-worthy, the love story cliche'd, the ham-fisted political message annoying, and the direction, editing and cinematography adequate. But if this movie -- which had been in production for the better part of the last ten years, with a script that was written nearly 20 years ago, and had spent $500 million over that period developing the technology to finally make it -- is playing it safe artistically only to justify being the prototype for the next stage of evolution in filmmaking, then that's excuse enough I suppose. If for no other reason, this is the movie industry throwing the gauntlet down and creating something so spectacular and expensive that it can not be pirated and downloaded. You need special glasses and a special theatre to achieve the full experience. And if that's the case, then, imagine what can be done when this technology is backed by a decent plot! We are about to see some serious serious shit in the next 10-20 years.

BONUS POST-SCRIPT: There is no bad shakey-cam in this movie! It takes its time with each shot, and James Cameron is patient enough to give you the space, time and room you need to take in everything and appreciate it properly. There are no 0.3 second quick cuts, and the camera pans back during fight scenes so you can see everything. As this film is heavily reliant on visuals over plot, it would make sense that it would like you to actually see what's going on, rather than confuse you with pointless blurry things flying around and continuity-conflicting rapid-fire takes and cuts.

POST-POST-SCRIPT (warning: spoilers): This is the only James Cameron science fiction movie that didn't involve or mention nuclear weapons. On the other hand, all the Na'vi really succeeded in doing was kick the comparatively tiny contingent of Company scientists, officers and equipment off the planet. When Earth learns what has happened, you can be rest assured that they'll be back in ten years with a much larger force, and proceed to nuke the stubborn, insolent blue fuckers from orbit in a highly anticipated but much shorter made-for-television sequel Avatar 2: Judgment Day. At least, that's what oughta happen. It's the only way to be sure.