Best Picture 2009? Avatar

I have seen this year’s Best Picture, and it is Avatar.

Prior to viewing this film, I was scouring this one and that. Could it be this one perhaps? Or maybe this one? I fell into the world of Pandora, and I had no more doubts. This movie is as transporting and visual and stunning as Titanic, and all other contenders can just sit down now.

“Avatar,” in case you haven’t heard, is James Cameron’s $400M movie, filmed and shown in 3D. And it’s a 3D that makes you forget any 3D you’ve ever experienced before. Even the glasses you receive are different, heavy and all encompassing, equipped with computer chips for special viewing (I saw it in the Cineramadome in Los Angeles).

So, the world that our hero is transported to comes at you in stunning color and texture, almost jumping out at you. Beautiful and transforming and ethereal. Like things you have never seen before. It’s amazing.

I thought that Cameron (who wrote and directed the movie) had borrowed a lot of ideas from experimenting in Second Life once or twice. Certainly the concept where you are your whole self in First Life and your full body avatar in Second Life for me came from there. But someone online schooled me that it’s an ancient concept, actually. The sources they cited were Ayeurvedic principles and a book series called Summer Tree trilogy, by Guy Gavriel Kay. Suffice to say, Cameron didn’t come up with the Avatar concept, though he certainly made it acceptable for the mainstream.

Like Titanic, this 3-hour movie is one you’re going to want to revisit. It’s like walking around in a magical world. And unlike Titanic, this one has a good story, with bad guys and good guys and big splashy fights. I loved Avatar in a big way. Loved the story and the new world and the hero, everything.

If you see one movie in a theatre this year, this is the one. And make sure it’s real 3D. It’s well worth it if you have to pay a few extra dollars for it, too. This groundbreaking film is where movies are going. How lucky we are to see it.

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