“Avatar is hardwired to its creator in a way films of this size simply cannot be due to reality and the nature of the business,” writes CHUD’s Nick Nunziata. “But it is. That’s why the film took so long to reach screens. That’s why it apparently may be one of the costliest films ever made if not the costliest. That’s why on many levels this is an impossible dream of a film, something that could never meet expectations or justify its own existence under the weight of its ambitions.

“But it does and make no mistake, this is a film worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as The Matrix and The Lord of the Rings. It’s epic, visionary, breathtaking, and as immersive as any tentpole film in recent memory.

“And no trailer, teaser, or sizzle reel can do it justice until you see it living and breathing on a very big screen in 3-D. As I sat in the theater my doubts, suspension of disbelief, and cynicism melted away as Pandora came to life and took me in her arms.

“Avatar is not the future of storytelling or the reinvention of the wheel. It’s pulp, but pulp done with the best toolbox Hollywood can offer and pulp created by someone who knows and loves pulp like very few others. It has as much in common with Edgar Rice Burroughs as it does with Dances with Wolves. It has elements of the work Frank Herbert, Hayao Miyazaki, George Lucas, David Lean and William Wyler, and yet is unmistakably James Cameron.”

This may be the best-written Avatar review in a formally composed sense that I’ve read thus far.