And then there was Avatar!

Today I saw the pinnacle of man's ingenuity and imagination. I saw James Cameron's Avatar.

I had read so much about this movie before I saw it. I was expecting the world. And I got it. A world born by someone's creativity and brought up by someone's technical prowess.

I have to admit that after hearing all the glowing reactions from those who had seen the movie, I was a little skeptical and at the same time excited to see the film. I approached the film with a mindset of enjoying it. But I was simply swept off my feet like Jack Sully flying on his Ikraan (you will know what I'm talking about only if you've seen the film).

I liked three specific things about the movie. The most obvious one is the sheer use of technology. It gets better with age. But somehow, it seems like it has now reached a level that cannot be surpassed for a long long time.

The second is the immense creativity that has gone into the movie. Everything - the creatures, the machines, the flora, the fauna has been designed. And designed to perfection.

The third is the message of the movie. It is a typical commentary on the virtues of living in harmony with nature vis-a-vis the folly of indiscriminate quest of power. The theme is age-old, oft-repeated and hackneyed. But delivered in such style that it leaves an impact.

It is tough to imagine that alien humanoid characters can actually be more lovable, believable and even identifiable than real human beings. But that's exactly what you feel while watching the movie. When the Na'vis get together and pray to the Ewah under the sacred tree, you really feel like communing with them. You feel hopeless when the Na'vis with their primitive weapons have to fight the evil Sky People with their explosives and high power ammunition. You feel a pang when a Na'vi warrior hurtles down to his death and you feel a surge of joy when another Na'vi warrior spears the bad guy.

Avatar is the perfect blend of vision, creativity, execution, scale, technology, message and story-telling. It is pointless to talk about individual elements like acting, direction, editing, etc. They don't exist - it's just the perfect world that does. Which only says that the slightest flaw in any of these would have made the world imperfect.

Some say God created the world. That might be debatable. But James Cameron created Avatar. Nobody can ever deny that. Enough said.