THE last time James Cameron directed a movie he broke all box office records.

Now – 12 years after Titanic – he has sunk £300million into Avatar to produce the most dazzling film of the decade.

 

 

It’s a 3D movie people will look back on in years to come to comment on how it transformed cinema.

In recent 3D releases such as Beowulf, the effects were impressive but the computer-generated humans looked far from real.

In Avatar, everything feels real – and it’s as if you are immersed in the action.

And what action.

Awestruck

The final battle scene is 20 minutes long and absolutely mind-blowing.

 

Alien nation … Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana as Na’vi aliens

Avatar, out next Thursday, is truly an event movie.

The Sneak still recalls sitting in a cinema 12 years ago watching awestruck as Titanic slipped beneath the Atlantic waves.

And your critic is sure that, even when he is pushing a Zimmer, he will remember the moment the main spaceship of the baddie corporation goes down in Avatar.

It is overwhelming, and that is because you are emotionally tied up in the characters and the story.

The plot is set in the next century, with humans trying to take vital resources from a distant planet called Pandora.

A paraplegic soldier called Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) gets the chance to walk again when he is transformed into the local species, the Na’vi.

This 10ft-tall elegant blue creature is his “avatar”.

Thrill ride … film’s all-action air battle

Jake is supposed to spy on the Na’vi for his company, but his mission gets complicated when he falls for a local girl.

The romance between Jake and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) shows that Cameron has not lost his ability to evoke emotion. It will bring tears to your eyes.

Aussie Sam is totally compelling as Jake. It is easy to see why he is now such an in-demand actor.

James Cameron has described his new filming process as “emotion capture”. And it’s a boast he lives up to.

Even when Jake is a strange blue creature, you can tell it is him by his mannerisms.

A voiceover from Sam leads the audience through the alien world in a soothing, laid-back way.

Star power … Sigourney Weaver with Avatar cast

One of the most amazing scenes comes when Jake and Neytiri are walking in the dark through a forest on Pandora.

Suddenly, she puts out her torch and you see all the vivid, fluorescent plants.

Sam plays Avatar Jake

Some people – who have only seen the photos and not the film – have commented that it looks a bit cartoonish.

It doesn’t. Everything feels real. It’s as if Cameron has happened upon this alien world and got his camera out.

Zoe, who played Uhura in the recent Star Trek remake, also displays star quality.

You don’t need A-list names to make a great movie but it does help having Sigourney Weaver in the cast.

Brave

Clearly, there is a message here about mankind’s destruction of beautiful places.

And Cameron’s story is very black and white, an old-fashioned tale of good versus evil.

It’s unashamedly populist. Just like Titanic.

But don’t worry. This isn’t a preachy story. It’s big action.

 

The only reason that Avatar won’t top Titanic at the box office is that there are not enough digital screens around the world to show it in all its 3D wonder.

But you have to admire the film’s backers for being brave enough to take a risk on funding such ground-breaking technology.

The Sneak’s advice is to make sure you can say you were there when the future of cinema began.

 

 

LEONA LEWIS

LEONA LEWIS was the star attraction at the US premiere of Avatar – and she’s not even in the movie.