Avatar is a movie directed and created by James Cameron.  It is his latest film, and the first movie he has made in nearly fifteen years since Titanic.  

The basic plot of Avatar takes place many years into the future (around the year 2154), and follows a man named Jake Sully, an ex-marine.  He is sent to a moon called Pandora after the death of his brother, in order to take his brother's place in the Avatar program; a program where human DNA is fused with that of Pandora's native race, the Na'vi, in order to create human-controlled Avatars to better interact with the Na'vi people. A few days after his arrival, he meets a female Na'vi named Neytiri, the princess of her tribe. From then on his life-changing story ensues, eventually leaving Jake with a decision: would he rather fight for the natives and their land that he had grown so close to, or his own human people?

The movie does not go completely in-depth as far as background information goes. In the beggining we find out that Jake's brother was a scientist that had been prepping himself for nearly three years for his mission to Pandora, but is deceased. His brother, Jake, is offered the chance to replace him, and Jake takes it. Throughout the movie it never does explain how his brother died. It also does not exactly explain anything on Jake's past, or why he is crippled and in a wheelchair, but due to the fact that it is stated that he was once a marine, it seems like that is left to be the logical reason. There are also many other loose ends, unexplained things, or bits with a lack of depth to them, but the overall present events that take place in the film seem to take away that nit-picky factor.

It cuts to the chase, as the film almost immediately takes us to Jake arriving in Pandora, but after that the story progresses at a pretty slow rate. Not that that is a bad thing, but there were certain parts and scenes that were dragged on, and it felt as if they could of fit a little more into the story's three-month timeline.

Also, it does not help that the film's pace is quickly changed towards the end; with plunty of fast-paced action, and sped-up events. In other words, the film feels rushed towards the end, almost as if all the time they used to build up to it throughout the entire movie was a waste, when all of the conflict and action is hastilly thrown together all at once at the end.

Though, over-all, the plot itself is otherwise so well done, that, for some people, it tends to take away all of those negative parts of the story to the point that they are barely noticable. The plot almost gives you the feeling of freedom, as Jake first appears in his Avatar body, and is over-joyed about regaining his long lost ability to walk; to run. He's so awkward within the first few minutes of being an Avatar, and he acts almost childish when he first goes out on a scout into the open and dangerous part of Pandora. Though it would otherwise seem stupid, it is just uplifting to see him only acting like himself instead of always being told he could never do anything, like he had always been. He's finally experiencing true freedom for the first time. Later, as he is accepted into the Na'vi and their world; their free, spiritual world, the sense of freedom and beauty comes into play yet again.

The over-all world that is Pandora is another story. The animation is amazing, and the environments are quite breath-taking. Some might even go as far to say that it is the world of Pandora that truely wraps you up into the movie and leaves you in awe. The world is dangerous during the day, but at night, it lights up into a wonderous and magical spectacle of light and color that just looks so amazingly beautiful, it almost makes you forget about the dangerous side of the planet, and gives you the feeling of wanting to be there for yourself, to see and to feel all the beauty Pandora has to offer. Also, because of this, the movie is best to be seen in 3-D. 

This eye-candy along with the uplifting and rightious-based plot, filled with both action and drama, makes for quite an enjoyable experiance, that, regardless of the slow-fast time frame, leaves you feeling satisfied and does not feel like a waste of time.

On a scale of 1-5, I'd give it a 4/5, and on a scale of 1-10, I'd give it a 8.5/10.  Over-all the film is very good, and, personally, did not feel like a waste of my time.