So another year yet more films to see. I tried and failed to see Avatar last year and so decided to go see it today. I saw it in eye popping 3d, which is why you need those glasses it keeps the eyeballs in. The 3d is impressive in the way it works in the live action portions (3d in the cgi bits is not technically exciting you get it by default) it's nothing we've not seen before though it is on a very grand scale and a degree of finesse that in and of itself is nice. As with all 3d movies after a while you don't even notice it and it might as well be in 2d.

The story is basically "Dances with wolves" mixed with "furngully" with the cast of "full metal jacket". If James Cameron was working on this for 20 years he must have been taking some pretty big coffee breaks, the story is highly derivative but acceptable enough if a trifle preachy, Humans with technology Bad! Hippy aliens Good!

The acting is good enough and the environments though extremely stupid in parts (why do the flying mountains have waterfalls where the hell are they getting the water? a flying lake? And why they hell does everything glow at night and flash when touched?) it does all look wonderful. The cgi blue people work well the avatars looking a lot like the actors they represent and the facial animation and motion capture is really superb it seems a genuine step forward in that respect. All the flora and fauna are all colourfully deadly.

The vast majority of the human characters tend to be dastardly and from the over the top pantomime school of evil. They are as a result very funny the Colonel bloke especially. The head of the mining operation is pretty funny too for sheer denial.

It was a very enjoyable film though visually very impressive interesting from a technical point of view and with just enough story to keep you interested. Well worth checking out.