So it's 2010 now, and the 200x years are past. Happy New Year, and Happy "New" Decade. (By common convention it's the end of the first decade of the 21st century, even though the century didn't start until 2001 due to the lack of a year 0 in our calendar system -- although there is some disagreement about this, given that people (including me) would like decades to fit neatly into centuries. The third digit in the year changed, and that's enough for me, especially since it was enough to trigger software bugs.)

I managed to squeeze one more movie in before the end of the year, due to a friend discovering that there were seats available for the first session of the morning, almost in the centre of the front row, starting less than an hour after we spoke.
So with a bit of a rush we made it to the theatre in time to see most of the shorts before the movie.

The movie, of course, was Avatar (IMDB; wikipedia). Which we saw in 3D. (There's only one theatre in Wellington City proper which has been fitted out for 3D projection, and it's relatively small, so even a couple of weeks after the release all the sessions were still selling out. The front row really is a bit close to properly watch either a 3D movie or one with subtitles; Avatar is both.)

It's very pretty. Weta, et al, earned their money. It is also the first movie I've seen in 3D where the 3D was just there, added to the experience of the movie, but wasn't thrown in your face with "look we're in 3D". Maybe there is a chance for reasonable movies with 3D as a feature (everything I've seen to date treated it as a gimick). (Although they'll need to find a way to achieve a similar experience without spending quite as much -- supposedly approaching US$500M once marketing is included.) I'm likely to go back and see it a second time in the theatre (as I don't think it'd be the same movie on a small screen), although not the four times that James Cameron is apparently hoping.

The Na'vi and Pandora make for an interesting race, and world. They too have a strong belief in the fundamental interconnectedness of all things, and an interesting means of making a connection with other creatures in their world -- the rider and ridden working as one becomes especially true. In many ways it seems like a view of the spiritual part of Earth, living at one with nature. And portrayed in fairly direct contrast with those from Earth who largely don't understand, and don't want to understand. The implication that Earth tends to send those least inclined to take the time to understand to "new lands" is almost certainly deliberate, along with various other parallels that can easily be drawn between the story and Earth's history.

Some of the new Earth technology is interesting too -- choosing to set the film 150 years in the future, gives it a bit of scope for inventing things. The Avatar technology itself is the most obvious new technology, and clearly central to the story. It seems similar to The Surrogates, but more refined. But there are other aspects too, including long distance travel (apparently not faster than light, since sleep technology seems to be the method), and the display technology (transparent, wireless, glass screens -- beautifully rendered). I'm not a great fan of transparent anything for readability, and I suspect such transparent displays are prettier than they would be useful due to stray reflections, etc.

Overall I suspect that this will be the Matrix (wikipedia) of this decade, both in terms of advancement of movie technology (there's lots of "wow, didn't know you could do that" in both, for their time) and in terms of a new world with its own interactions with Earth. Some of the religious ceremonies in Avatar also reminded me of ones in the later Matrix movies, unfortunately both being some of the more "hokey" parts of the two movies. If they do make sequels of Avatar, I hope they'll be better than the sequels of the Matrix.

For good measure I'm going to see another movie (The Lovely Bones) tomorrow, for a total of four movies this week.

Edited 2010-01-03: To better reflect link to jwz's post and status of first decade/versus century.