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BY ANTHONY STOECKERT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

MOVIE REVIEW

For all of James Cameron's talk about revolutionizing moviemaking, he's a pretty old-fashioned storyteller. "Avatar" may be a groundbreaking visual spectacle, but it's also a standard tale of good against evil. There's not a speck of gray in this movie, it's strictly black against white (or make that black against blue).

It's a good thing allegory is free, otherwise Cameron might have doubled the reported $500 million he spent on "Avatar," with its evil military/corporate entity (called SecFor) invading a world it knows nothing about. Not only do the invaders dismiss a race of people, they disrespect an entire planet in their thirst for a valuable mineral. Gee, could Cameron be trying to tell us something?

We're in the future where some Earthlings are awakening from a six-year sleep, rested for a mission on Pandora (with that name, you'd think the Earth people would know not to open it), a moon of the planet Polyphemus. Upon awakening, a Marine named Sully (Sam Worthington) learns that his brother died in his chamber during the trip.

Sully is all military, pure and proud, while his brother was a scientist, assigned to inhibit an artificial body (or avatar) of a Na'vi, the native people of Pandora. Since Sully's DNA matches his brother's, he asked to take over his avatar, even though Sully lacks the scientific, intellectual training his fellow avatars (played by Sigourney Weaver and Joel David Moore) went through.

Weaver's character resents the assignment — Sully's a warrior, he could get everyone killed! The Marine is reckless, all right, but wouldn't you know it, he works his way deeper in the Na'vi culture than anyone ever imagined.

That happens after Sully is abandoned on Pandora — avatars return to the human form at night. He makes a torch to fight off some strange dog-looking creatures and is headed for doom before being saved by a princess named Neytiri (played by Zoe Saldana). Neytiri's parents see something noble in Sully and order their daughter to teach him their ways.

Thus begins a jarhead-egghead battle over Sully's soul. Weaver respects the Na'vi, but the military-corporate folks want Pandora's unobtainium — a mineral (or something) that can help make Earth inhabitable again. Getting it peacefully would be nice, sure, but if it takes killing blue people and destroying their sacred tree, screw it. There are other trees. The bad guys are represented by Colonel Quartich (Stephen Lang), the kind of movie military stereotype who calmly sips coffee while his troops wreak havoc on a civilization.

Sully's all-mission at first, but as he learns the Na'vi way of life, he starts to respect this strange world. Pandora is the kind of movie place where new age mysticism is tangible, the blue people literally bond with animals and communicate with plant life. They're wise and peaceful, in touch with their surroundings and more advanced than humans with distractions like iPhones, Blackberries and 3-D spectacles like "Avatar."

There's not much original in Avatar's story; it borrows from prior Cameron vehicles like Aliens and The Abyss. Add in some bits of Braveheart, The Fugitive, Apocalypse Now and even Doc Hollywood, and you've got a nifty tale to tell.

None of this is meant to diminish Cameron's achievement. Pandora is an incredible movie creation and it's clear the King of the World had a vision for it. He's created amazing creatures like giant, charging animals, six-legged wolves and huge soaring reptile-like things. There are also smaller wonders like tiny jellyfish-looking things that share wisdom from the trees they've fallen from.

And blue the Na'vi may be, but I found them convincing. Everything in this movie looks real in its sheer awesome-ness, from the giant foliage to those animals and the blue people's expressions. 3-D adds to the fun, I suppose, but I'm not sure its essential.

At 162 minutes, the movie is long but that lets us take in everything Cameron has to show. It also allows him to set up an actual story. Too many action movies these days drop us right into the thrills. Avatar's characters aren't deep but we know enough about Sully, disabled in his human form, to appreciate his being able to run in his avatar body, his growing appreciation of the Na'vi culture, and his falling in love with Neytiri. And even with all the mumbo jumbo jargon, the story is pretty easy to follow, it's nice to know what's at stake in an action movie.

The script takes effort to note that SecFor represents a futuristic human race, but it's a stereotype of the worst of Americans — greed and conquest. The wreckage after SecFor destroys the Na'vi all-important tree conjures memories of 9/11. Watching an evil American-like military presence on screen as our country fights two wars is a bit disconcerting, how different from the rah rah spirit of WW II Hollywood. It's amazing the angry right blowhards haven't labeled Cameron unpatriotic yet.

But why get political? When an action movie's climax features the villain crashing his flying jet, then emerging Iron Man-like in a personal tank to fight a blue princess and the his ex-protégé in 3-D, I say let your inner fanboy take over and admit it. This thing is pretty freakin' cool.