James Cameron's Latest Sci-Fi Epic

On December 16, 20th Century Fox will release James Cameron's 3-D epic Avatar. To say that Avatar is going to be (or better be) a big movie is to state the obvious. The movie was written and directed by one the most famous and powerful filmmakers of all time, cost over $200 million to make, and was viewed by the largest live audience of a trailer ever (a bit of an unnecessary stunt in this blogger's opinion) at Cowboy Stadium a few Sundays ago.

The movie tells the story of a war in the future on a planet called Pandora. The natives of Pandora, called the Na'vi, are incredible warriors that live in peace and harmony with the rest of the life on their planet. And they are at war with the human race who is trying to take over their land (as I write this, I realize the story sadly parallels that of Native Americans -- minus the superhuman warriors). To aid in their conquest, the humans have developed a way to create human-Na'vi hybrids called Avatars (pictured above).

The story's main character Jack Sully, played by Sam Worthington (from Terminator: Salvation and a name you definitely want to remember because he is a fast-rising star) becomes one of these Avatars. But once he enters their world, he begins to fall for one of the Na'vi (played by the beautiful Zoe Saldana -- you may know her from Star Trek and the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy) and can't decide which side to join (sounds quite similar to the plot of The Last Samurai, a movie I really liked).

I've got to admit. The previews don't really look as awesome as I'd like, but I've got high hopes for this one nonetheless. Cameron usually doesn't disappoint.

Here's the trailer: