Avatar

Last night I went to watch Avatar in 3D at the Greenwich Picturehouse cinema. Now, usually, when a film gets hyped up, I expect to be disappointed. It never lives up to my expectations... I hear the bold and bragged declarations from colleagues and friends on how brilliant a film is, and the bar is set too high. Avatar was the exception. No amount of wild imagination could have prepared me for what was a visually stunning, beautiful and imaginative film. I'd heard people say that the graphics were excellent, but the storyline was your run of the mill James Cameron epic, and perhaps in some way they're right. It was the time old tale of good vs evil, one side trying to take what they want and destroy whatever's in the way in the process, but what good story isn't based on just that? And when you have creatives behind the scenes dreaming up the awe inspiring luminescent night scenes and stunning almost mythical creatures, who cares?

The story tells the tale of a ex marine brought to Pandora, the alien world that the human race tries to rape for a rare and highly profitable ore, to infiltrate and gather intelligence on the indigenious people the Na'vi. Of course, he becomes emotionally attached to the people and the forest they live in, and switches sides. As someone described it, it's like Fern Gully for adults. A fair comparison. What stood out for me about the film isn't it's storyline or plot, or the moral message it rather unsubtly conveys (although this is important), but the visual feast your eyes are treated to. This is the first film I have seen since 3D became popular that truly makes the most of the technology, enhancing the experience as opposed to a nice after thought. To see it on DVD or in 2D just wouldn't do it justice. A colleague of mine told me "you MAY want to see it again after you watch it once... so you might want to book iMAX now before it's sold out" before I went to see the movie. I kind of scoffed. I take it back... this is one film that is DEFINITELY worth seeing twice. The best film I've seen this year and a brilliant way to end 2009.