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Taking my family to see it today - and looking forward to it.

Keith, my wife and I are going to see it in IMAX 3D in Universal City (Hollywood) tomorrow. I couldn't agree with you more that NASA needs to merge into the publicity for this movie. A natural question people may ask is, "Can this be done?" -- and somebody at NASA needs to step forward and say, "This is what we can do, what we cannot do, and what we could do WITH YOUR SUPPORT!"

We are big fans of NASAWatch, and equally big fans of the Centauri Dreams blog. Suggest your readers also check this site out for interesting and reality-based scientific discussions related to potential travel to the stars.

Just saw it in 3D IMAX at the Metreon in SF... it is a cinematic experience that will stay with you for some time. It's also not a bad movie... not great, but it does work on an emotional level as well. I didn't notice it in the credits (may have missed it), but the basic story owes a lot to Ursula Le Guin's "The Word for World is Forest". Anyway, I can't wait to go back and see it again... although next time sitting a little further back. We were in the front rows and I was having trouble fuzing the stereo in some scenes.

By the way not all "IMAX" theaters are full size... see:

http://lfexaminer.com/ImaxMapUS.htm

avoid the ones with yellow and red markers.

Several of us have been interviewed by various magazines as to the plausibility of technologies featured in the movie. As for that, there hasn't been anything officially orchestrated by NASA HQ. It's unfortunate because this is the kind of stuff that really gets people excited, and pushes the boundaries of imagination.

Looking forward to seeing it over the Christmas holiday weekend. I'm sure it is going to be an eye-popping experience. I think space folks might actually be misunderstanding the real take-away with Avatar.

Our future is going to be more like the Matrix than like Star Trek. Avatar just moves us further along the path toward deeply immersive virtual reality. After all, the movie is called "Avatar" for a reason.;-) All the work that is capturing people's imaginations these days isn't going into outer space, it's going into virtual space.

People are hungry to find other interesting life in the universe. If I had to pick one "mission" for NASA that has the potential to spark human imagination at the deepest level, it is the search for life out there. And we are tantalizingly close. My prediction is that in my lifetime I will see the discovery of a planet with the signatures for live before the first human sets foot on Mars.

I saw it in a regular 3D screen and was quite impressed! So I plan to see it again next week in 3D but on an IMAX screen!

Looks the the beginning of a new era of 3D motion pictures!

Marcel F. Williams

Are we sure a film that portrays humans as vicious exploiters of idyllic noble savage aliens is pro-space exploration?

3D or no, I think not.

@ CessnaDriver

I'm pretty sure the guy that said this

The difference between what Cameron says here and the implications of the film... I'd say it's the equivalent to the gap between Magellan's circumnavigation of the Earth and what the conquistadors did to the Aztecs. Just because someone is in favor of the former doesn't mean they should also support the latter.

Luckily we don't know of any 'space Aztecs' so humanity should be free to do as it pleases.

Well that's a little misleading... while some characters fit your description (although I'd say uncaring, rather than vicious) others do not. The film is fairly clearly pro science and pro-investigation/exploration.

Maybe the pro space community can use the technology demonstrated in the movie to create Avatars of the ideal pro space President, NASA administrator, Congress and the American public!; then, like the marine in the movie, they can live out an idyllic life of space adventure through their Avatars, going where no one has indeed gone before!

Like the ALIEN franchise before it, the movie shows the potential (as well as the pitfalls) of space exploration.

It glorifies the tools... but I suspect most of the folks who watched the movie would have used them differently.

I saw it in Imax 3D; it is very impressive and entertaining. Worth seeing, but don't wait for it on the small screen.

--WARNING: Plot spoilers follow.--

I agree with the comments that the story is a bit silly though. It would be nice to live in an idillic world were you have a USB plug in your hair that you can just plug into a tiger's hair to tell him not to eat you but attack your enemies or plug into a bird's feathers to tell him to take you for a ride or plug into a tree's leaves to talk to your dead grandma. That would be mighty fine, but I rather doubt that life is that easy anywhere in the universe.

On the other hand, I think I might be willing to blow up a tree full of blue monkeys to get at the mother lode of Unobtanium. That stuff sure would be incredibly handy if we could ever find any. ;-)

Still, it was fun to watch and at least the ending wasn't as stupid & selfish as Titanic.