Avatar

If I were a professional movie critic, I would have been canned long ago for being such a slacker. I haven't seen a movie for a while. I guess I can blame watching several seasons of 30 Rock on my Netflix queue, but I finally have a real movie review. By the way, I'd like to thank Cheree for helping me create the sweet makeover of my title bar.

Avatar is a highly anticipated movie with a big budget and tons of special affects. I was looking forward to this movie, but after seeing several trailers for it, I felt like I had already seen the entire movie and there would be no surprises. It appeared to be the basic storyline of Dances with Wolves, Pocahontas, or The Last Samurai where the main character switches sides in a military conflict after living with and getting to know his enemy. I knew the villains would be the cold hearted military leaders and ruthless business men.

I saw Avatar in 3 D in an IMAX theater. I was a little reluctant to see it in 3D and wear the silly glasses since I hadn't done so in over 25 years, but I was glad I saw this movie in that format. The enhanced special effects were amazing and it was a visual feast. I have never seen such intense special effects, but it was even a good movie on top of that. I thought all the performances by the cast were good.

This was by far the best movie I have seen this year (sorry, I couldn't resist), but it was good and I give it 8.0 stars. There is quite a bit of skin in the movie, but most of it is the blue CG type. It thought it was funny that when the obligatory romance scene came up, the main characters did not have to rip off their clothes like you see in many movies. Instead they just had to remove a bead or adjust a feather to achieve the same affect.