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It’s his first commercial film since “Titanic,” and judging by the 25-minute preview unveiled at Comic-Con, James Cameron’s “Avatar” will be every bit the spectacle as his Oscar-winning film from 1997.

The animated “Avatar” is set on a distant, lush planet called Pandora, a super-saturated world filled with 1,000-foot trees, exotic, near fluorescent forests, fearsome predators and an indigenous people known as the Na’vi — tall, blue humanoids who are peaceful until provoked. The story revolves around the war between the Na’vi and the human military invading their world.

To make the film, Cameron used a new technology that enabled him to super-impose the computer-generated creatures onto his live actors while shooting. He said he wrote the project 14 years ago specifically to push the art of digital 3-D animation. The results, to hear the Comic-Con attendees in Hall H tell it, are stunning.

The audience, many of whom camped alongside the “Twilight” fans for the privilege, were treated to a sequence of scenes condensing the tale: Jake Sully is a paralyzed Marine who volunteers to become an Avatar — a genetically engineered human/Na’vi hybrid. He suffers several brushes with some dinosaur-types, a violent flirtation with a Na’vi princess, and an even more violent Na’vi rite of initiation.

Cameron will get to test-run the film on an even bigger crowd on Aug. 21, which he’s declared “Avatar Day.” The filmmaker announced he’ll be taking over IMAX and 3-D theaters around the world to screen 15 minutes of the film for moviegoers for free.

In introducing the film, Cameron said it was made “for the 14-year-old boy that is very alive and well in the back of my mind.”

But don’t expect a film for kids. In fact, I’d wager “Avatar” is going to be kind of heavy.

Read the rest from the LA TIMES HERE