Avatar is a visual masterpiece, but a rather sloppily thrown together story slows it down a bit.

James Cameron is one of those guys that always makes completely different movies, while doing the exact same things in each movie. The Terminator, Titanic, and Aliens have plots that are almost the exact opposites of each other, but they all mainly relied on special effects. There wasn't a whole lot of story put into the three movies I just mentioned, but the visuals were great. And Avatar isn't a whole lot different. It has some of the most impressive special effects that I've ever seen, it ranks with Star Wars and 2001: A Space Odyseey in that category, but the story is constantely changing between different issues, which threw me off a little bit. The movie centers around a marine who's been put in a wheelchair named Jake Sully. The movie is set in the year 2154 so you can't really question the huge scientific upgrades that've been bestowed on the human race. Sully is stationed on Pandora, a jungle planet populated by 8 foot tall smurfs and exotic creatures that tend to resemble birds, dogs, and rhinos. Sully is signed up for the Avatar program, which ironically is led by Sigourney Weaver. This of course is ironic because she was the star of the earlier James Cameron movie, Aliens. The program mixes the DNA of the human subject with the natives of the planet. When in avatar form, Sully is able to use his legs, and so he tends to enjoy it more. But eventually, he gets attached to the people of Pandora, and begins to lead a life among them more a life among the marines. I won't give away any more of the story because, then really important things are revealed. The movie itself is reallyenjoyable. There's a lot of action and suspense, and when theCGI is going on, you can barely tell. I really though that those were actual 8 foot blue people. Granted, the story does kinda jump from one issue to the next, but it didn't bother me that much. But what about the 3D? It was clearly being shown in 3D, but seeing as the movie is 2 hours and 45 minutes, you don't really notice the 3D after awhile. Overall, Avatar is something that anyone could enjoy.

7.5/10