Film Review: Avatar

Avatar is James Cameron’s latest venture, a long time between drinks for the box office favourite. His last directorial project was a little film you may have heard of by the name of ‘Titanic’. I had read several glowing reviews and consequently had high expectations. The hype has defined this movie as a watershed in motion pictures, however one reviewers comment stuck in my mind as I settled into my seat and adjusted those ridiculous 3-D glasses: don’t expect the ‘new wave of cinema’ to wash over me. So it was with a healthy objectivity that I digested all 161 minutes of it. My verdict? Stunning. Not many films can be far from perfect, be littered with mediocrity, but still have most viewers leaving the theatre thinking: WOW! Love him or hate him, Cameron’s films have that ability.

Let’s start with the glass-half-empty stuff: the themes and message of the film are as subtle as a brick. The war monger Colonel Quaritch, at times, a ridiculous caricature, with a continuous stream of one liners to remind us that this is one nasty dude. And the cheese is dripping throughout, never reaching a torrent, but always there. But in between, it delivers enough kick-arse dramatic action and emotional round houses to leave me wanting more, ready and wanting to forgive all the flaws.

Thirty minutes into it, as the avatar (surrogate alien body inhabited by Sam Worthington’s character) is exploring the alien world of Pandora, I turned to Lina and whispered........this is awesome! Yes, there is no originality to the stories themes. This tale has been told many times before in a stream of excellent films. But without question this film has set a new standard for visual splendour. It looks incredible. It is incredible.