Avatar 3D

Image courtesy of collider.com

What: Film.
Director: James Cameron .
Actors: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Sigourney Weaver.
Where: Holloway Road Odeon, London.

It’s epic, it really is. It’s two and a half hours of distraction from everyday life by means of travelling to another world (literally). It’s got morals and it’s got a clear message directed at the human race. The fact that nearly the whole of the human race has seen it reaffirms the old saying ’you get what you pay for‘. It’s also a clear step forward for Hollywood blockbuster films and CGI film-making. People will always remember the whole Avatar package. The hype, the product and the legacy.

But how many directors could do as well as Cameron with the same budget? How many could produce something as entertaining for 2.5 hours of viewing? About 25 - 50 I reckon. That’s taking nothing away from him. He’s done his job, in fact he probably even did a bit of overtime.

When someone’s spent this much money on the film you can’t help but consider was it good value for money. It’s not as good a value as Cameron’s dark thrillers The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day but probably better value than Titanic. This is the thing, because it’s broken all the records, you can’t help but compare Avatar to everything that’s ever gone before.

So it’s epic and decent value for money. Definitely those two. What else is it? I think that’s it. I couldn’t see a stand out performance in the film but this was always going to be more a Director’s film than an actors stage to shine. No-one’s watching the acting when strange plants and animals surround you and your 3D glasses.

Maybe a top performance would have pushed it closer to the real benchmark: Star Wars: A New Hope. I’m sure that cost a lot of money too but it was also clever. It was the Eric Cantona to Avatar’s Andy Cole. More iconic, more classy and a wider appreciation but don’t get me wrong, Avatar still knows how to put the ball in the onion net. It’s just that there’s an edge that’s missing. It’s an edge he had with the Terminator films and Aliens.

You won’t think too much about this story for a while after you’ve seen it. It won’t blow you away like the ending of, for example, the beautiful 2007 Oscar winner The Lives of Others (which I only managed to see late last year). It won’t make you want to go out and buy an Otis Redding album like watching Tony and Carmela Soprano make love to My Lover’s Prayer does. There’s no performance anywhere near what Carey Mulligan gives in An Education.

Image courtesy of slashfilm.com

This isn’t as much of a life changer as the money might suggest. But it wouldn't be undeserving of best film at this years Oscars after all it’s better than Chicago or Slumdog Millionaire. Maybe it’s the fact that I thought I’d seen snippets of this film before. In fact, I’m sure I’ve spent night’s out and mornings hungover with some of the cast. No hold-on, that was Aquaman and the (virtual) success of everything that surrounded that was down to the fact that no-one took themselves too seriously. Maybe a cameo from Johnny ‘Drama’ Chase was the finishing touch that Avatar needed.

Rating: 8/10
Comments: An epic blockbuster and a step forward for Hollywood film-making.