Avatar

I watched Cameron’s Avatar today and it is without a doubt the most visually pleasing film ever to have graced the big screen. The actors filled their roles well but the cigar goes to the visual studios responsible for conceiving the hyper-realistic imagining of Pandora; I guess the effects had to be great, considering every 240th of a second took 50 hours to produce, totalling into that (estimated) budget of $300-500m. It has achieved what special effects are meant to do, to immerse you and to be unintrusive and not emphasise the effects, just as in District 9. Although I’m not too fond of the poorly-implemented concept of 3D viewing, I unfortunately didn’t get to see it in 3D as the technology has improved (so I’ve heard) from the vision destroying red/green glasses of yesteryear. Now they make you wear photophobia inducing spectacles. Nice

I guess I’ll have to wait for the next film to jump on the 3D bandwagon, or buy another ticket; but that won’t happen soon as this is a film to be remembered, not watched repeatedly. It’s designed to make you think about the consequences of (y)our actions, about the impact of corporotocracy and human behaviour (there’s no such thing as human nature). It probably helped that I had watched the Zeitgeist films yesterday; kinda’ set the film in context.

I’d definitely recommend this film to anybody; in fact, I recommend it to you, go watch it. Strangely, the cinema screen I viewed this in was empty, save for about 9 other people (excluding my family); rather ironic considering the huge hype surrounding the film. If you like this, you’d probably like District 9, and vice-versa (although ‘film critics‘ would disagree, although I would say District 9 has better plot execution)