I’m absolutely not the kind of person who would line up all day to see a movie when it first comes out, and in order to avoid crowded theatres, I usually wait for around 4 weeks or longer before finally going to see a popular movie. That’s why, even though Avatar has been out for 4 weeks now, I only decided to go see this most popular movie in recent memory a few days ago. Unfortunately, I was out of luck this time, though, because I had to wait all day to get into a showing that wasn’t sold out, and then had to wait in a line up for almost 30 minutes before they allowed us to enter and seat ourselves. This movie was just way too popular.

The cost of a ticket was around 3 dollars more than normal, but that included a pair of 3-D glasses. Forget about saving your glasses to try to save money on your next visit, though, because you will still have to pay extra for the glasses — it’s not optional.

I soon realized that I had made a mistake in my choice of seating position. Normally, I try to sit in the middle of the theatre, or a couple of rows behind the centre, but for this movie, it ended up being a small problem. When you watch a movie in 2-D, your brain can imagine that the action is taking place in a 3-D world, but in the case of a 3-D movie, much less imagination is necessary because the 3-D world is right there in front of you. However, this also creates a perspective that includes the space in the room, and when things would appear in front of the screen, I could really notice the left and right edges of the screen. The screen actually seems smaller, too. If I go see the movie again, I’ll be sure to sit closer to the screen next time, or even better, I’ll go see it in IMAX.

Anyway, I was definitely blown away by the 3-D images in front of me. At first, it seemed surreal, and I was a bit disoriented, but after around 20 minutes or so, I found I could really immerse myself into this 3-D world. Really, there is no other experience like this one in existence yet, and it’s not that easy to describe.

Avatar theatrical poster

Almost everyone knows the story by now, so I don’t have to talk about it too much. I don’t think anyone will be blown away by the story, but it does contain a lot of interesting ideas, even though they might not be completely original. I actually thought it had a bit of resemblance to the animated movie, Ferngully. The most important thing is not the story, though, but the way in which James Cameron’s special 3-D technology, that he had been developing for years mainly for this movie, is able to bring this strange alien world to life in 3-D right before your eyes and make you almost believe you are there.

All in all, I would say it was one of the best movie-going experiences I’ve ever had. I’ve heard just a few people say that they didn’t like it, mainly because the story wasn’t original enough. How someone can go in to experience that amazing 3-D world, and then come out and say something like that, may forever be a mystery to me. That reminds me of a sketch on Saturday Night Live that mentioned some people who were complaining that the movie Avatar showed too much smoking, and thus sent a bad message. The comedian replied to that by saying, “If that was the main thing you got out of watching the movie Avatar, then you were probably born to smoke.” I couldn’t agree more.

More than 4 weeks after it’s release, it has already passed the one billion dollar mark worldwide, and is well on its way to becoming the biggest grossing movie of all time. I didn’t think anything would ever beat the current record holder, Titanic, but leave it to James Cameron to beat his own masterpiece with a new one. Avatar is absolutely, by far, the best 3-D movie ever made, and will no doubt change the way movies are made forever, just as James Cameron said it would.