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6. Avatar

Oh no! I didn't make Avatar my number-one movie of the year, of the decade, of ever! Prepare the stoning! Seriously, though, for anyone hoping I would go wild about this movie as the best of 2009, I'm sorry to disappoint you. It's not that Avatar, which is fast becoming the highest-grossing movie ever, isn't a captivating and immersive story. Avatar is all of that, and more. The hype that came with the movie, courtesy of writer-director James Cameron and Fox, was actually pretty much true. Though the rough story outline isn't that original - white man meets natives, becomes one of them after trying to take them over from the inside - the telling of the story is what makes the movie memorable. The world of Pandora is just that: a new world. Cameron spent over a decade creating a planet, and the work shows.

The colors, the plant life, the climate, the native people of the Na'Vi, it all works. The motion-capture technology that brings Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana to life, the believability of the world of the Na'Vi...it does render you nearly speechless. Cameron is a master craftsman, and shows off here. I can only imagine what he's got planned for sequels, though I'm not too sure I need to see the deleted scene in which Jake Sully and Neytiri have sex, even if it is on the DVD. Avatar is a visual feast, an exciting entertainment, one that hasn't been rivaled for years. As much hyperbole as I'm heaping on the movie, I don't know that it's going to be a wild game-changer, as some have said. First of all, it's too damn early to know. Second, though 3-D movies will continue to be released, will they all be as technologically advanced as Avatar? Who's to say. The fact of the matter, though, is that Avatar is a great adventure, one of the best, and proof that James Cameron should not be doubted.

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