Film: Avatar

Avatar is a wonderful film. But before I get into why it's so wonderful, let me get the bad bit out of the way: it's long, and feels longer, especially with your eyeballs getting pummelled by the 3D visuals. But more about that later.

There was more than enough to make this an epic: we had the huge world, much of it at stake. We had the big and super powerful bad guy and the love story. We had the moral dilemmas and heroes and heroines.

But what got everyone talking about Avatar was the visuals. And amazing they were too: it was clear how much love and attention was spent building this world. The story had much to do with life and how it streams through the inhabitants of Pandora, something which called for some fantastic special effects, although I must admit being uneasy with some of the augmented scenes. On the 3D side of things this was by far the most impressive and effective use of the technology I've witnessed in the past ten films or so I've seen in 3D; that said I still had a bit of a headache and eye strain after leaving.

The story seems to be getting the bulk of the criticism from those who have been to see it, but I don't think it's as bad as has been made out. Don't get me wrong: it was definitely secondary to the mythology created and CGI used. Some bits did fall flat, like the ending, and the whole Evil Humans versus Good Natives was a bit too black and white and even patronising for me; this was something that was obviously designed to get us, the audience, to start cheer-leading (bashing capitalism is popular enough to sell stuff now) and a bit too much was done to labour the point of how much a dick humankind can be. We get it, okay?

But all that is easily ignored. Avatar is by far one of my most favourite films this year, and perhaps even for a long, long time. I think I may have enjoyed it a bit more if it had been split in two (a thinking episode and an action one maybe), or even had an interval, but as it stands a bit of physical and mental exhaustion is a small price to pay for such entertainment. Heavily recommended.