Avatar is an extremely ambitious film and director James Cameron succeeds in creating a completely immersive and visually stunning world. The landscapes and wildlife of Pandora are incredible to look at and are creative in their concept – particularity the concept of the queue where the Na’vi can physically bond with animals and plants with neural strands at the end of their hairbraids. I get that Cameron did this to make the concept of “being one with nature” tangible through an actual physical (and electrical) interface, something the digital generation of USBs and iPods can relate to.

Besides the mythos, the actual storytelling was quick and effective enough that I was able to easily bite my tongue about how similar the film felt to Dances with Wolves. (Perhaps it helps that I think Dances with Wolves is a good movie, so why not reboot it into the year 2154.)

The comparisons to Native Americans was too obvious to ignore, and if anything I was bothered that Avatar didn’t differentiate the Na’vi a little more – perhaps by doing without the war cries which seemed excessive – I much preferred their more animalistic hissing.

Perhaps the film that Avatar’s story is the most strikingly similar too is that of Pocahontas. Here is a hilarious image I found online where someone has marked up the Pocahontas storyline with Avatar names instead – pretty close, eh?

Regardless of the rehashed “gone native” storyline, the movie really had something for everyone with beautiful landscapes to ass-kicking battle mechs, exciting battles where the underdog Davids take on the Goliath enemy, and even some inter-species romance.

I am very glad I saw it in the theater, it exceeded my expectations. The 3D was cool at times and distracting at others. I might see it again in 2D to see if I can get even more immersed without it and to see if the film is as captivating the second time around.