Last week the ridiculously popular AVATAR was released on Blu-ray Disc and DVD. You know the movie that you couldn’t walk two feet without hearing about when it came out in theaters? With the oooh and the ahhh? Being the semi-impoverished parents of two young children, my husband and I weren’t lucky enough to get that 3D theater experience so I was thrilled when I got the opportunity to review the DVD.

Yesterday my copy finally came in the mail and my husband and I could not wait another night so despite it’s 2 and half hour run time, we stayed up late last night to watch it together. Totally worth the couple hours of sacrificed sleep, I have to say. My husband was just in awe of this movie – he had that giddy “I can’t believe how awesome that was!” glow that not many movies bring out in him – think Kill Bill good or Across the Universe good.

If you’ve been living in a box up until now and haven’t heard of James Cameron’s epically popular AVATAR yet, here’s a brief summary as borrowed from IMDB:

In the future, Jake, a paraplegic war veteran, is brought to another planet, Pandora, which is inhabited by the Na’vi, a humanoid race with their own language and culture. Those from Earth find themselves at odds with each other and the local culture … In exchange for the spinal surgery that will fix his legs, Jake gathers intel for the cooperating military unit spearheaded by gung-ho Colonel Quaritch, while simultaneously attempting to infiltrate the Na’vi people with the use of an “avatar” identity. While Jake begins to bond with the native tribe and quickly falls in love with the beautiful alien Neytiri, the restless Colonel moves forward with his ruthless extermination tactics, forcing the soldier to take a stand – and fight back in an epic battle for the fate of Pandora.

A lot of people are comparing AVATAR to the story of Pocahontas and I can see the similarities – a scene in the beginning with a waterfall had me singing “Just around the river bend,” to myself – but then the last scene of the movie made me think of The Lion King so I might have just been over-tired. :OP

My husband and I both agreed that despite a plot that has been vaguely done before – it was a really remarkable movie. It definitely has a very strong plot, fantastic actors and actresses and the special effects were of course stunning. The movie really drew us in and had us rooting for the survival of the Na’vi. Suffice it to say I now want my own dragon to fly and kind of want to go hiking this weekend and get in touch with mother nature a bit – never a bad thing.

All in all, I’d give this movie a solid A+ and strongly encourage anyone who hasn’t gotten around to seeing this movie to do so immediately!