NOTE: I had written this almost a month ago and meant to post it, but got sidetracked and forgot about it.

I just finished seeing the 3D I-Max version of James Cameron’s latest epic, Avatar. The film started as an idea Cameron had almost 15 years ago, but the technology to make the film he envisioned did not exist then.

Spoilers herein, be warned, although I will try to keep them to a minimum.

In terms of story, it is basically an adaption of the Kevin Costner film Dances With Wolves, but updated to the far future. Instead of wolves, the hero of the tale is forced to contend with flying creatures, not too dissimilar to dragons. Earth is a virtual non-entity in the film. We do not see Earth and only hear brief mention of it. I do not recall a specific date being established for the film, but it is obviously the far future based on the technology and the fact that the film focuses mostly on the human attempts to invade and conquer a primitive alien race living on a world rich with a valuable mineral.

The avatar of the title refers to an artificially grown human/alien organism, that has no consciousness of it’s own, but the human who’s genetic material was used to create the avatar can control it via a device that places the controller in a sort of stasis. The hero of the tale is a marine who was crippled during some Earth-based conflict, but his twin brother was a scientist involved with the project who had an avatar. After his brother is killed, the corporation funding the project decides to bring him on board as a potential operator of the avatar.

The purpose of the avatars is to allow the scientists the chance to interact with the aliens on their own terms. The problem is that the alien tribe’s home (an enormous tree) is located just above the largest and richest mineral deposit on the entire planet. The human corporation wants to negotiate a peaceful transfer of the territory, if possible, but they are also willing to exterminate the aliens if they will not willingly surrender the land.

Enter the hero, who attempts to learn the ways of the aliens both as an infiltrator, providing the human military with valuable intelligence on the previous unseen alien home, and as a liaison, attempting to convince the aliens that it is in their best interest to simply surrender their home. As you can imagine, that doesn’t go over well with the aliens.

Of course I call them aliens, but the REAL aliens in the film are the humans. Invaders attempting to do to this alien world what the aliens in Independence Day attempted on the Earth. Although in truth the struggle is more akin to the “white man” conquering the American West.

While the story is not entirely original, this is not a film that you go to see simply for the story. (That being said, it IS a good story and well told.) But the real selling point with this film is the alien world. It is alive and magnificent in a way that frankly defies description. It would not be possible to describe this world in words that would ever do it any justice. Frankly, you have to see it for yourself.