I am having a hard time with "writing a review" for this, because Avatar is not really a "movie" in that sense.

Avatar is a moment when cinematography changed forever, a watershed, and now we are in a different territory altogether.

* Update: Avatar The DVD Version: Watching Avatar On My TV ...

When I tried to explain this to a friend earlier, I said that there was a moment when someone took the first movie, perhaps of a horse walking along, and people looked at that and went ohmygod, it's a moving photograph!

And the world was never the same.

Now the horse walking along may not be the "greatest story ever told".

But that doesn't diminish the impact of that movie, nor its place in history as the day the photographs came to life.

Thus it is with Avatar.

Avatar is the day when movies came to life and *became* reality.

Instead of a theatre stage by any other name, we enter into a complete world, with all the details levels that you would find in *any* world that actually *is* a world, and not a cardboard replica, or some kind of special effects trick to dupe the human mind into sort of believing for a bit that there is an alien city there, or an alien creature of some kind.

It is quite difficult to explain, but the fact is that after Avatar, things will never be the same again.

Because of the cohesion of the world that was created here, ANY incongruencies stick out like a sore thumb, much as you would really notice if you walked into your kitchen and saw a broomstick hovering in mid air.

"Hey, that's not right!" would be your immediate reaction. There is no artistic licence given at all, if a world really *is* as in is existent, then it has to work as a world in its totality, across everything that happens there, every thing that is there, everyone who acts there.

So when you have bad acting in Avatar, it immediately springs out at you - Michelle Rodriguez in the first few scenes was absolutely terrible, the embodiment of someone reeling off some lines that make no sense because they're not real, *she* isn't real, and it sticks out like the aforementioned sore thumb.

But you can't fault the film for this, or judge it in any way for shortcomings in the story lines or the acting or the over-design of the dragons and such, nor even for the un-resolution of the issues in the story.

Avatar is the very first of a new breed of things from the future.

It's the very first time something like this has been not just attempted, but actually DONE.

They have no trail to follow, no other movie to copy, nor even can they use much of what has been learned over the years which "works" with the cardboard moon hanging over the cardboard sea.

They are in new territory and THAT is the key and core to Avatar.

And you know that when you have lived through it.

My thought now is, what are the others going to do now?

Where are they going to get the stories from, that hold all the details levels from the smallest blade of grass to the biggest planetary movements and everything in between in place to create these worlds?

They won't be getting them from the usual dross holywood machine "writers" because you can't make worlds out of dead parts.

You have to grow them organically, and that is a skill set virtually no-one on this planet today possesses.

Avatar lays down the gauntlet and makes the challenge.

You want to move into the future and make something that is REAL, then you are playing a new game, in a new ballpark altogether.

Technology has created the opportunity.

Now we need PEOPLE to step forward and stop being lazy, REALLY engage their imagination, their genius, and write the worlds and stories that play there.

SFX

* Update: Avatar The DVD Version: Watching Avatar On My TV ...

I was quite intrigued how Avatar would play in the DVD version on my TV. I have a fairly nice High Definition TV and extra surround sound (one thing I really would not like to live without!) as well as a supremely comfortable couch in a special viewing room, so that's a plus to sitting in an old cinema where you can't smoke or get a coffee anytime you want, or put your feet up ... but I digress.

So. Avatar.

Last time I saw it was in 3D in the cinema and I loved it. I was hoping I wouldn't be disappointed in the harsh HD 2D glare, find fault with the story all of a sudden or get distraught in other ways - lol.

But hey!

Avatar is really good.

One of the things I always, always go on about is the amount of love and care that goes into a production. I'll forgive lots if that was the case, I really do.

In detail and without the 3D, which I believe causes one to have a more natural vision, focusing more on certain things to exclusion of others, leading to losing detail in the periphery as a matter of fact, Avatar looks amazing. Really, amazing.

The detail of the sets and the designs, be they from the natural foreign planet organic department, or the techno Earth intruders department, were truly spectacular.

Being able to enjoy all the sets and actions taking place within these in the more overview, see it all type of flat viewing way was a pleasure all in itself, although of course a very different experience from the "step into this world" 3D cinema experience.

I was able to appreciate the effort the actors put into it more, and the story was perfectly fine and made fine sense - it is a re-telling of a very, very old story where a stranger comes to the tribe, wins the heart of the chief's daughter, but then proves himself so dramatically that even the warrior chief who had been promised the girl and was very grouchy to have lost her to the newcomer becomes his friend.

There is nothing whatsoever wrong with re-telling one of the great stories of humanity; and I enjoyed seeing it play out.

I noticed a lot more things in Avatar's DVD version than I did in the cinema, and it also kept me fully amused throughout its long length. I didn't wander off to check the email or started playing the game boy, not once.

That's high praise from me indeed.

Avatar works both ways - in the DVD version and in the flat details TV version.

However, I'll have to say to anyone who only saw Avatar on their TV or in 2D, I'm sorry guys, you don't know what you're missing.

The 3D engages more, engages deeper, creates a totally different experience altogether.

So now for the ultimate experience - a bigger TV, 3D, somehow without glasses if possible, and my comfortable monster couch at home, and I'll be well happy ... :-)