I don’t need to write a long-winded introduction for this movie. “Avatar” is the biggest blockbuster of this decade. It is destined to become a classic. Years from now, film buffs will point to this movie as the one that raised the cinematic bar, even with its few flaws.

Just to give you an idea of how big “Avatar’s” scope is, I’ll tell you that James Cameron, its writer/director/producer, wrote his first treatment of the film in 1994. The world of Pandora germinated in Cameron’s mind until the summer of 2007, when filming began. In that time, Pandora became a fully realized world. Every single aspect of it was meticulously planned out and organized, from the diverse flora and fauna to the language of the native people, the Na’vi.

It is these Na’vi the story revolves around. They are the dominant species on the forest world Pandora, and their culture and technology is roughly analogous to the stereotype of tribal Native Americans. The humans travel about 4 lightyears from Earth – the year is 2154 – to mine Pandora for the mineral unobtainium, an extremely potent source of energy Pandora possesses in abundance. The humans in charge, as is common in movies, care only for the quest for profit and not for any of the lives they end or land they steal along the way. The atmosphere on Pandora is toxic to humans, so they have created avatars, engineered Na’vi shells that a human can donate some of his or her genetic material to. Whoever is the donor for an avatar can mentally link with it; the humans use them to interact with the Na’vi without scaring them off. One human, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is tasked with using his avatar to gain the trust of a tribe of Na’vi and negotiate their relocation, as their home is sitting upon a large source of unobtainium. Instead, he falls in love with a young Na’vi woman named Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña). She teaches him the way of their people. Jake is torn between his obligations to humanity and his love for his adopted people.

If this story sounds familiar, then you must have seen a movie like “Dances with Wolves” or “The Last Samurai.” A white man, initially reluctant, joins a group of non-white people, “goes native,” and eventually leads them to victory against the whites. The whole notion just seems like white guilt wish fulfillment. The script isn’t very original, and it’s filled with lines like “Come to papa!” It’s nothing cringe-worthy, though. The characters are also too underdeveloped. It’s not that there are too many characters to keep up with, but that we switch between them so often it’s hard to get emotionally involved with anyone other than Jake.

“Avatar” will be remembered for its unprecedented cinematography and CGI. Cameron nearly started production in the mid-ninties, but decided to wait for computer graphics technology to catch up to his vision. This was a very good decision. The movie is 60% CGI, but it would be impossible to tell the difference between any of the colorful, beautiful scenes Cameron’s team has crafted and reality. It is seriously that good. A common problem with computer generated characters is called “uncanny valley”: When a character looks almost exactly – but not quite – human, it will trigger revulsion. The Na’vi have gracefully leapt the uncanny valley and hit the other side running. Every single fold and pore on Na’vi skin is discernible. Their hair flows exactly how hair should. They simply look real. This photorealism was achieved through the newest motion-capture technology, which Cameron helped develop.

“Avatar” will also be remembered as the first movie to use the 3D format perfectly. Every 3D movie before “Avatar” used the technology as a gimmick. Here, it is absolutely immersive. There was some initial awkwardness – sometimes my eye was drawn to an out-of-focus object in the foreground – But after the first 20 minutes, you might as well be standing right in the scene. A scene where Jake’s avatar flies above the forest on the back of a winged creature is one of the movie’s best and most immersive sequences.

Two hours and forty minutes may seem like a daunting runtime, but there’s never a dull moment. “Avatar” is a movie that must be seen to be believed. That may seem cliché, but it is entirely true. James Cameron was wise to wait all of these years, since now his visions of this astoundingly gorgeous alien world can be exactly replicated on the big screen.