Now that ?Avatar? has finally hit the screen, we know why:

To fully realize his new sci-fi marvel, he had to wait for the latest film technology to catch up with the revolutionary vision for his new cinematic opus.

Indeed, Avatar couldn?t have been made just a few years ago, the way viewers are now enjoying it. Some of its visual effects and magical splendors are simply too advanced for digital filmmaking?s ?old? technology to have created.

But beyond Avatar?s visual splendors lies the real reason for its success: Cameron?s proven skills as a storyteller. He makes sure that his movie is peopled, not just by the dazzling creatures that have sprung out of his agile imagination, but by characters who may look very different from you and me but still feel a wide range of emotions that human viewers can empathize with.

Monumental struggle

Thus, in Avatar, we are introduced to an alien race of blue giants who inhabit a planet that looks very different from Earth, but is actually its psychological and psychic mirror image. Its denizens are huge, but they are even more sensitive than most humans and are more attuned to their environment, which they now have to defend in the face of vicious attacks from rapacious human exploiters.

By focusing the film?s central conflict in this unique thematic way, Cameron makes, not just a sci-fi flick about intergalactic wars, but a monumental struggle for a way of life that has been threatened with extinction.

Seen in that context, Avatar?s release this month is perfectly timed, whether consciously or not, to ?coincide? with the recently concluded global talks regarding the rescue and salvation of our own planet?s similarly threatened environment.

Fifteen years ago, when Cameron first started outlining his film, he couldn?t have known that this would happen now, but his visionary concern for the world we live in has made his ?sci-fi? movie the most acutely relevant film shown this year.

Repetitive plot points

To be sure, Avatar has some drawbacks that detract from its great filmic worth. For one thing, it?s a mite too long, and some of its amazing cinematic wonders end up feeling a bit repetitive. A number of its plot points are also rather redundant, especially its avatar character?s many shifts from human to humanoid form.

In addition, there are also too many characters, especially among the members of the alien race, whom we have to keep track of, thus blurring the production?s otherwise firm and clear-eyed focus.

Finally, some of the movie?s ?cultural? sources feel too artificially ?borrowed? and ?grafted on? for the film to come off as completely integral and organic. There are too many facile references to human tribal rituals and chants, and too ersatz renderings of the psychic links between creatures and planet for the entire production to end up as absolutely true to itself.

But these minus points end up as relatively minor distractions in the face of Cameron?s luminous and towering cinematic achievement. His emphatic storytelling and the amazing images it conjures up affect not just the eye and mind, but also the viewer?s heart.

For a fantasy film about strange-looking blue giants, you?ll agree, that?s saying a lot.