A Great Movie by a great Canadian

I couldn't wait to see James Cameron's new movie after an eleven year hiatus from movie making. Well, the wait for this James Cameron fan has definitely been worth it and "my" Multiplex does not even have 3-D capability, just good old 2-D, and my town does not have an IMAX theatre either, unfortunately. In spite of my "handicap" I can describe the movie in one word: AWESOME" or in three words: I was impressed. Having seen real tropical rain forest on three continents, I could relate to the setting, but even if you haven't seen the real tropical rain forest you cannot help but be impressed by the computer generated rain forest which is essentially the product of Cameron's fertile imagination. As a passive viewer, I could not help but get completely caught up and "sucked in" by this beautiful fantasy realm. Even though this film would be considered Sci-Fi or fantasy fare, it is really much larger than either of these categories because it has so many obvious parallels to our world which is generally not the case with most Sci-Fi and fantasy films. This is one reason why I found this film so compelling. Even though the essentially simple story is taking place in a distant future on a ficticious planet, in a sense it is really taking place on our planet Earth as we speak. And that is the real magic of this movie.

It transcends the usual categories of Sci-Fi and fantasy and is really part fable, part polemic, part morality tale and in typical Cameron fashion all wrapped up in a generous part of great entertainment. This is no mean accomplishment.

I spoke of magic earlier. I believe this film is a real step (leap?) forward as far as the magic of computer generated moviemaking is concerned. Here, it is becoming obvious that the boundary between naturalism and cutting edge animation is increasingly becoming blurred and in the process is perhaps inventing, as I would suggest, a whole new fusion genre or 'mash up', - to use a contemporary term, -that one could call 'magic realism'.

In closing, (and at this point some discerning readers might question my sanity) I will go out on a limb and say something I rarely say about any movie: I really hope this movie will do well at the box office so Mr Cameron and 20th Century Fox will be inspired to make a sequel and a third one and perhaps even a prequel. (But please, please: NO MADE FOR TV MOVIE VERSION !!) This is where I draw the line.