Expectations are a funny thing. It doesn't seem like they should impact your enjoyment of something, but they most certainly do. For me, this is typically a bad thing, as I tend to avoid things that have horrible word of mouth, leaving me only disappointment when things that have been talked up don't live up to their reputation. Avatar, James Cameron's new science fiction epic or what have you, which you've no doubt heard about - unless you're living on the dark side of the moon - actually manages to be one of the rare cases where I was pleasantly surprised. It's both a case of a the movie meeting high expectations, and exceeding very low ones.

Make no mistake, Avatar is, at heart, a visual spectacle. The movie is about 3D, computer generated humanoids, and an imaginary world rendered in ridiculous detail. It's the most expensive movie ever made, and with a cast largely made up of unknowns, the vast bulk of that cash went into the computer generated graphics that make up about 80% of the movie's running time. And, whatever incredibly high expectations you may have, Avatar actually manages to meet and exceed them.

Avatar looks entirely believable while also looking incredibly fantastical. Pandora is full of bizarre creatures and exotic fauna, all rendered in lifelike detail. The Na'vi, the ten foot tall blue feline humanoids who are Pandora's natives and the movie's focus, are rendered so well that you actually forget that they're computer generated. That's the movie's true success, really - all of the computer generated visuals are so well put together and executed that you stop noticing that they're computer generated. The Na'vi, the iridescent plants, the human warships, the floating mountains - all of it seems real. Likewise with the 3D, which is virtually always well used and not gratuitous (unlike nearly every preview - "I'll stab him with this stiiiick!" *jabs at audience*). After awhile it all just becomes part of the movie, though it enhances the experience a great deal, much like color over black and white.

The one way in which the movie exceeds expectations, though, is with regards to the plot. I'd heard plenty of talk about how you should go for the visuals even though you have to endure the plot, how it's trite and hackneyed, and how it's Dances With Wolves in Space. Granted, the last is essentially true, but there are only so many plots, you know? Yes, a few lines of dialog were groan-worthy, and the story is nothing incredibly unique and original, but I actually thought it was pretty well executed. I liked the characters, and I liked the Na'vi, and I did care, though admittedly not so much that I was terribly moved by anything that happened on screen.

All in all, though, there are many testaments to the fact that Avatar isn't pure visuals, and to how worth seeing the movie is. The box office numbers have stayed record-breakingly strong for a month, which is something that won't happen if the movie is pretty to look at but crap for substance. The almost three hour running length also feels shorter than some movies I've seen that are half that length. And lastly, at least on a personal level, I do intend to see it again - on an Imax screen, this time, and in 3D again. You do indeed go for the visuals, and you will be wowed by them and not the script, but the movie actually ain't half bad either.