It has been one of the most hyped movies of the decade: the return of James Cameron with a $230m-plus 3D inter-species action movie that will, some observers say, decide the future of the industry. 
 
 Avatar Production year: 2009 Country: USA Cert (UK): 12A Runtime: 161 mins Directors: James Cameron Cast: CCH Pounder, Giovanni Ribisi, Michelle Rodriguez, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Zoe Saldana More on this film 
 
 Today it arrived with 20th Century Fox choosing London to launch Avatar, Cameron's sole movie in 12 years – the last being Titanic. 
 
 Cameron said he was just relieved the movie was finally out there. "We can hold our heads high. We got the picture done by the skin of our teeth. It's been a four-and-a-half-year process and it's a relief to let people see it, to quit talking about it, to forget the rumours." 
 
 And there have been a lot of rumours. Rumours that the budget was double the stated amount, more like $500m; that the 3D effects were making people nauseous; that the film, two hours and 40 minutes long, was a complete car crash. 
 
 The Guardian can reveal that the last two are untrue. The film does not make you feel sick and it is not a disaster. All journalists watching the movie in Fox's Soho headquarters had to sign a form agreeing not to publish a review or even express a professional opinion online or in print before Monday. So by saying Avatar was really much, much better than expected, that it looked amazing and that the story was gripping – if cheesy in many places – the Guardian is in technical breach of the agreement. It is not a breach, however, to report that other journalists leaving the screening were also positive: the terrible film that some had been anticipating had not materialised. It was good. 
 
 There is, though, a certain amount of suspension of disbelief needed when watching Avatar. Cynics might sneer at the plot. The film, set in 2154, revolves around a paraplegic marine assigned to a planet where brutish humans are forcing the natives from their homes to mine a precious mineral, unobtanium, which is the only thing that will keep Earth going. 
 
 To get it, they need to blast away an agreeable species called the Na'vi, blue humanoids about 12ft tall, with tails and pixie eyes. Sam Worthington as the paraplegic marine pretends to be a Na'vi through avatar technology. At first, he is on the nasty human military side but he falls in love, gains a conscience and so on. 
 
 Perhaps most surprising was the politics. At one stage the deranged general leading the attack, with echoes of George Bush, declares: "Our survival relies on pre-emptive action. We will fight terror with terror." Cameron agreed there was a connection to recent events, but there were also references to Vietnam and to the 16th- and 17th-century European colonisation of the Americas. "There is this long, wonderful history of the human race written in blood. We have this tendency to just take what we want." And that's how we treat the natural world as well." There's this sense of we're here, we're big, we've got the guns, we've got the technology, therefore we're entitled to every damn thing on this planet. That's not how it works and we're going to find out the hard way if we don't kind of wise up and start seeking a life that's in balance with the natural life on Earth." 
 
 The film will open at cinemas next week and was given its world premiere in London tonight with Cameron joined by his the actors Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldano in Leicester Square. 
 
 Audiences will be able to watch in normal 2D or in what Cameron called the "turbo-charged" version, 3D. Some industry observers are hoping that audiences will be so blown away by the effects that 3D - already being used - will start to become the norm, and a line will have been stepped over. 
 
 "We need something that kick-starts public enthusiasm for cinema as an experience as people start watching on smaller and smaller devices like iPhones. We need something to reverse that trend so I've set as my goal bringing the movie theatre back to it being a sacred experience and 3D is part of that." 
 
 If it does well – and there seems little doubt that it will – then can we expect more? "We'll see," said Cameron. "But yes, I have a story worked out for a second film and a third film." 
 
 • Read Andrew Pulver's two star review ||||| THE last time James Cameron directed a movie he broke all box office records. 
 
 Now — 12 years after Titanic — he has sunk £300million into Avatar to produce the most dazzling film of the decade. 
 
 See a trailer for the epic film, below... 
 
 Click here to download the latest flash player. Video: Avatar - trailer Exclusive look at James Cameron's sci-fi fantasy 
 
 It’s a 3D movie people will look back on in years to come to comment on how it transformed cinema. 
 
 In recent 3D releases such as Beowulf, the effects were impressive but the computer-generated humans looked far from real. 
 
 In Avatar, everything feels real — and it’s as if you are immersed in the action. 
 
 And what action. 
 
 Awestruck 
 
 The final battle scene is 20 minutes long and absolutely mind-blowing. 
 
 Alien nation ... Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana as Na'vi aliens 
 
 Avatar, out next Thursday, is truly an event movie. 
 
 The Sneak still recalls sitting in a cinema 12 years ago watching awestruck as Titanic slipped beneath the Atlantic waves. 
 
 And your critic is sure that, even when he is pushing a Zimmer, he will remember the moment the main spaceship of the baddie corporation goes down in Avatar. 
 
 It is overwhelming, and that is because you are emotionally tied up in the characters and the story. 
 
 The plot is set in the next century, with humans trying to take vital resources from a distant planet called Pandora. 
 
 A paraplegic soldier called Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) gets the chance to walk again when he is transformed into the local species, the Na’vi. 
 
 This 10ft-tall elegant blue creature is his “avatar”. 
 
 Thrill ride ... film's all-action air battle 
 
 Jake is supposed to spy on the Na’vi for his company, but his mission gets complicated when he falls for a local girl. 
 
 The romance between Jake and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) shows that Cameron has not lost his ability to evoke emotion. It will bring tears to your eyes. 
 
 Aussie Sam is totally compelling as Jake. It is easy to see why he is now such an in-demand actor. 
 
 James Cameron has described his new filming process as “emotion capture”. And it’s a boast he lives up to. 
 
 Even when Jake is a strange blue creature, you can tell it is him by his mannerisms. 
 
 A voiceover from Sam leads the audience through the alien world in a soothing, laid-back way. 
 
 Star power ... Sigourney Weaver with Avatar cast 
 
 One of the most amazing scenes comes when Jake and Neytiri are walking in the dark through a forest on Pandora. 
 
 Suddenly, she puts out her torch and you see all the vivid, fluorescent plants. 
 
 Some people — who have only seen the photos and not the film — have commented that it looks a bit cartoonish. 
 
 It doesn’t. Everything feels real. It’s as if Cameron has happened upon this alien world and got his camera out. 
 
 Zoe, who played Uhura in the recent Star Trek remake, also displays star quality. 
 
 You don’t need A-list names to make a great movie but it does help having Sigourney Weaver in the cast. 
 
 Brave 
 
 She plays a scientist called Grace, who wants to prevent the plunder of Pandora. 
 
 mpu 
 
 Clearly, there is a message here about mankind’s destruction of beautiful places. 
 
 And Cameron’s story is very black and white, an old-fashioned tale of good versus evil. 
 
 It’s unashamedly populist. Just like Titanic. 
 
 But don’t worry. This isn’t a preachy story. It’s big action. 
 
 The only reason that Avatar won’t top Titanic at the box office is that there are not enough digital screens around the world to show it in all its 3D wonder. 
 
 But you have to admire the film’s backers for being brave enough to take a risk on funding such ground-breaking technology. 
 
 The Sneak’s advice is to make sure you can say you were there when the future of cinema began. ||||| A paraplegic marine sent to a new planet, armed with a virtual body, to ingratiate himself with locals in order to gain their trust and subsequently destroy them? Sounds like the plot of a bad sci-film film. But as it turns out, it's the plot of a highly entertaining sci-fi film – that being, of course, Avatar, one of the most anticipated films of recent years. 
 
 We know a lot about Avatar – that it's James Cameron first in fifteen years, that it's the first to use 3D in this way. But strip the hype aside and what anyone wants to know is – is it any good? And can you watch it without feeling ill? 
 
 The first is easy. Avatar emerged at last night's premiere as rather good. Paraplegic marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is a last-minute recruit on a mission to the alien planet, Pandora, which boasts incredible quantities of a mineral that is worth a lot of money to earthlings. The invading humans are led by two factions – the scientists, headed by Sigourney Weaver's Grace, who are seeking to learn and understand more about the alien species in a bid to relocate rather than obliterate the natives, and the warriors led by Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who are looking for all-out massacre. The factions have been brought together by Administrator Parker Selfridge (the ever wonderful Giovanni Ribisi), there for one reason only – to bring the brilliantly named, and insanely valuable unobtanium back to Earth. 
 
 Sully and Norm (Joel Moore) are drivers of the eponymous avatars; bodies that have been constructed out of the more sturdy natives, spliced with humans. The logistics of how it all works takes some getting used to; but suffice to say the scene where Sully awakens in avatar form is a real delight. 
 
 It would be easy to assume Cameron drew inspiration from other films of the same ilk but to generalise like that does Avatar, and Cameron a disservice. For starters, one assumes that he was developing Avatar while other seminal films of the past decade were still on the slate. There are shades of detail, and of background – the nuances of the language the native Na'vi speak; the realisation of the animal inhabitants; the history of the clan – which all reinforce the impression that you get from any film that you know has taken 15 years to make: it is a real labour of love. What's more, his decision to make Avatar in 3D was a risky one – and it's paid off in spades. As with most 3D films, less is more. Surprisingly, for a film this rich in action and this beautiful to watch, Cameron doesn't overegg the 3D-ness of it all, which makes those moments, when they come, even more of a joy to watch. 
 
 However, that's not to say that 130 minutes in 3D isn't sometimes overwhelming. Glasses were being taken off, and eyes rubbed for brief intervals around the cinema. Whether this is simply a product of an audience unused to watching movies in this way, rather than a flaw in the production, will remain to be seen as 3D becomes more and more commonplace. 
 
 What Avatar does mark is a new breed. A new breed of action film, a new hero in Sam Worthington (who delivers a much more believable, and compelling performance than previous outings) and a new cinematic experience. For every cliche – every colonel telling his troops that they're "not in Kansas anymore", every fight beginning with trash talk like "Let's dance", there are myriad moments of beauty and of poignancy. And the final battle is worth the price of your 3D glasses alone. ||||| Avatar SCIENCE FICTION: United States, 2009 U.S. Release Date: 2009-12-18 Running Length: 2:41 MPAA Classification: PG-13 (Violence, Nudity) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel David Moore Director: James Cameron Screenplay: James Cameron Cinematography: Mauro Fiore Music: James Horner U.S. Distributor: 20th Century Fox Subtitles: none 
 
 Screened in standard (non-IMAX) digital 3D. 
 
 Avatar has been described as a "game-changer," and perhaps it is. I'll leave that for future historians to determine. What I can say with some assuredness is this is the most technically amazing motion picture to have arrived on screens in many years - perhaps since Peter Jackson's The Return of the King. It's also among the most anticipated openings of the decade. Expectations can be a double-edged sword; ask George Lucas. But when a filmmaker meets or exceeds them, the results are tremendous, and that's the case with Avatar. James Cameron has a lot riding on this film, his long-delayed follow-up to Titanic (which came out an even dozen years ago), the all-time box office champion in unadjusted dollars. Under "normal" circumstances, at stake would have been only Cameron's reputation and future autonomy with astronomical budgets. But Cameron has hitched his wagon to 3D and declared this to be the wave of the future. Watching Avatar, I can almost believe it. If every filmmaker could do with 3D what Cameron achieves, I'd gladly wear the uncomfortable glasses to every screening. 
 
 Avatar is entertainment of the highest order. It's the best movie of 2009. In 3D, it's immersive (that's the buzzword everyone uses for the 3D experience), but the traditional film elements - story, character, editing, theme, emotional resonance, etc. - are presented with sufficient expertise to make even the 2D version an engrossing 2 1/2-hour experience. Despite expending an extraordinary amount of time, money, and effort perfecting the 3D elements, Cameron never lost sight of what's important. His narrative could almost be considered a science fiction version of Dances with Wolves (by way of Surrogates), and it works for many of the reasons Dances worked. Cameron also borrows from his own catalog. The space/military culture is reminiscent of that in Aliens and the cross-cultural romance recalls Titanic. Avatar doesn't have Leonardo DiCaprio but its love story is in some ways more potent than the one told in Titanic because the stakes are higher. From a purely visual perspective, Cameron gives us one of the most amazing presentations ever of an alien world and builds toward an epic clash that may only have been matched twice previously in movie theaters (both times by Peter Jackson). 
 
 Avatar takes us to the planet Pandora in the year 2154. Pandora is a jungle world at which Earthmen have arrived with the intention of performing some strip-mining. Although corporations run the show, the military, led by Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), is on hand to provide protection and lend support. The humans' engagements with the indigenous humanoid population, the 10-foot high, blue-skinned Na'vi, have been contentious, bordering on hostile. For a while, Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) had some success interacting with the natives by using "avatars"(synthetic Na'vi remotely controlled by humans) to provide education and technological advancement, but progress slowed and Grace was closed out of Na'vi society. Now, she and her group of avatars are trying to find a way back in. 
 
 That portal comes in the unlikely person of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic ex-marine. Sam's journey to Pandora is a fluke. His twin brother, who had trained for years to inhabit an avatar and whose genetic identity was imprinted upon one, died unexpectedly and Jake was the only one who could take his place. He is caught between two masters: Colonel Quartich, who wants the soldier to form a bond with the Na'vi so he can pass back valuable tactical information, and Grace, who wants to rebuild the lines of communication. A series of events in the jungle separate Jake from the other avatars and place him in mortal danger. His life is saved by Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), who distrusts him but believes he is touched by the Na'vi god. She takes him to the "home tree" where he must not only plead for his life but for the opportunity to learn their ways. Neytiri becomes his mentor and he soon finds himself more in sympathy with his blue-skinned "brothers" than with Colonel Quartich, who is planning a massive operation to relocate the Na'vi away from a rich load of ore. 
 
 Most 3D films use the technology as a gimmick - a means to prompt younger audience members to "ooh" and "aah." That's not the case here. Cameron's film is immersive because the 3D was ingrained in its cinematic DNA. He has compensated for the pervasive dimness caused by polarized lenses by increasing the brightness (the images look too bright when viewed without the glasses). He has avoided 3D "tricks" (throwing things at the audience) that might take the viewer out of the experience. Avatar's visuals are so sumptuous that, perhaps as little as ten minutes into the movie, I forgot I was wearing the glasses. I'm still not as bullish as Cameron about the future of 3D, but I see potential where I had not previously perceived it. 
 
 Cameron understands how the pieces of the puzzle need to come together to form a complete motion picture, and he assembles them as only a master can. The story, although simple, resonates deeply at a time when media battles rage about whether or not humanity is destroying itself and its planet. As with Dances with Wolves and The Last Samurai, this is about a military man who finds himself transformed by the culture he adopts and ends up opposing his own people in an impossible battle. Jake's love affair with Neytiri confirms Cameron as being a romantic at heart. The Pandora menagerie is like something out of a dungeon master's wet dream: dinosaur-like creatures that are impervious to bullets, vicious carnivores that make T-Rexes look tame, scavengers that roam and attack in packs, dragon-like flying creatures that populate the skies, and vegetation that's just as alive as the animals. The blue-skinned Na'vi, clearly modeled after the Native Americans, are among the most "ordinary" of Pandora's inhabitants. 
 
 All movies like this must have a villain; Avatar provides two. The first is the bureaucrat, Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi), who is devoted to the profit margin above all else. Any resemblance to the Paul Reiser character in Aliens is intentional. Maybe Cameron was thinking of the studio bosses controlling his budget when he created Selfridge. Then there's Colonel Quartich, who is brought brilliantly to life by the scene-stealing performance of Stephen Lang. This man's a real sonofabitch, but it's impossible not to admire him on one level. Like Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now, he loves the smell of napalm in the morning… at noon, and during the night. Quartich is never CGI animated but he always seems bigger than life. If there's a human star of Avatar, it's Lang. 
 
 Lang may have the showiest role but he's not the only actor to do a creditable job. Sam Worthington and Sigourney Weaver are both solid, even though a good portion of their characters' screen time is animated. Zoe Saldana is even more challenged, since she never appears "in the flesh." Like Andy Serkis' Gollum, she is entirely CGI-rendered, but she accomplished her own motion capture work and provided the voice. Michelle Rodriquez, like Stephen Lang, is never required to become blue. Her role is secondary but unambiguously heroic. Weaver's presence affirms that, as bad as Cameron's reputation as a taskmaster may be, there are actors who appreciate his perfectionist approach. (Others in this group include Michael Biehn, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Paxton, and Linda Hamilton.) 
 
 After the late summer 20-minute preview of Avatar, there was some unease about the look of the Na'vi. Such concerns are baseless. They can appear opposite humans without the special effects being called into question; we never view them as anything less than three-dimensional. Like Gollum, they transcend their pixel-based conception. We believe them. We accept them. We care about them. That's the key to Avatar being more than a hollow spectacle. In Transformers 2, everything (including the humans) is soulless. Here, there's heart and soul to spare. 
 
 Any criticisms I have of Avatar are in the nature of nit-picks, but I will mention them for completeness' sake. At worst, they are ephemeral distractions, easily dismissed. At best, they will not be noticed at all. Sam Worthington's performance is solid but his American accent is not. As was evident in Terminator: Salvation, Worthington's "American" sometimes comes with an Aussie twang. Visually, Avatar is almost flawless, but there are some instances when the camera moves so fast that the 3D effect doesn't track well, resulting in a brief moment of disorientation. Finally, although James Horner's score is predominantly effective, there are instances in which he again engages in self-cannibalization. Material sounding a lot like it originated in his often-used Star Trek II and Aliens scores pops up from time-to-time. 
 
 Avatar is the most engaging and enthralling motion picture I have experienced this year - and "experience" is the appropriate word. There's a rush associated with coming to Pandora; this feels more like an interactive endeavor than a passive one. In addition to being emotionally satisfying and one hell of a wild ride, Avatar boasts a smart script, reminding us that would-be blockbusters don't have to be defined by the imbecility of a Transformers 2 or a 2012. James Cameron has been entertaining movie-goers for more than a quarter century and he is in an elite category of filmmakers who has yet to spawn a dog. For quality like this, I'm willing to wait, although hopefully his next movie will come a little more quickly than the 12 years of Avatar's gestation. 
 
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– James Cameron's Avatar had its world premiere in London last night, and audience members and critics are sworn to secrecy for now. Based on the inevitable leaks and pseudo-reviews, the 3-D epic is pretty good: Anna Keir, the Independent: It's "rather good. Surprisingly, for a film this rich in action and this beautiful to watch, Cameron doesn't overegg the 3D-ness of it all, which makes those moments, when they come, even more of a joy to watch." Sam Rubin, KTLA-TV: "This is another rare example where the quality of the movie does indeed exceed the hype." He predicts Oscar nominations for best picture and best director. The Sneak, the Sun: "Everything feels real—and it’s as if you are immersed in the action. ... The Sneak’s advice is to make sure you can say you were there when the future of cinema began.” Mark Brown, the Guardian: "The film does not make you sick and it is not a disaster. By saying Avatar was really much, much better than expected, that it looked amazing and that the story was gripping—if cheesy in many places—the Guardian is in technical breach of the agreement."