Well, if you like CGI....

Rating: 4/10 (21 January 2010)

Well this is the event movie of the year I guess. It's currently on the rounds making shed loads of money, its huge success I think is down to the clever idea of presenting it in 3D, meaning that it is seen as a very cinematic experience, i.e. you have to pay to go see it! Admittedly the CGI is very impressive and the 3D effects are integrated in a surprisingly subtle way – there is a distinct lack of gimmicky 3D effects that are designed to make the viewer jump. This is a sensible approach in my opinion as such things really only serve to take the viewer out of the film, so James Cameron has to be commended for his restraint here. I do have to say at this point, however, that I am hardly a CGI fanatic. I am, in fact, incredibly unexcited when I hear a film has amazing CGI. It just doesn't interest me very much. That said, it did seem obvious to me that the effects here were pretty impressive. So if that's your thing, then this film will very possibly rock your boat.
While the effects are groundbreaking, the same cannot be said of everything else. The story is trite beyond belief. It's ridiculously predictable. The sort of thing you've seen a hundred times before. It's amazing to me that Cameron took 12 years out to make this movie, yet could not think of anything story-wise than only the most overused clichés. After about an hour-and-a-half, once I had had my fill of the alien world, I started to find it almost impossible to care what happened to these blue cat-people. They were so tediously worthy that I began to think that the gung-ho army guys might have a point. Completely unreasonable of me I know but there you have it – Avatar temporarily turned me into a warmonger. Cheers Cameron.
Even as I am writing this review, I realise that it is one of the most pointless things I will ever do, as only a month after Avatar's release it already has amassed over 1,800 reviews on the IMDb alone, so the chances of anyone actually ever even reading what I have written above is close to non-existent. Sigh.