Avatar

I guess you all know this, but it snowed on Friday last week. This minor meteorological phenomenon persuaded me that I really couldn't be bothered going into work (imagine all that potential for falling off my bike) and that I should kick it back old school, relive the heady days of my PhD and head down to the cinema for a matinee showing of whatever the latest exciting release is.

Turns out that the big release of the week is Avatar, James Cameron's first film for ages, a 3D extravaganza, a film decades in the making - and a load of other jazz making it sound pretty bloody exciting. This was my first 3D film experience, so I paid my £9.60 (!), donned my special glasses when instructed by the disembodied voice and watched half an hour of adverts. 3D adverts, but HALF AN HOUR of adverts none-the-less. For £9.60 they should really be making enough money already, bloody Capitalism.

Anyway, the film is neatly divided into two parts. Not the film itself, rather my opinions of it. There's the graphics and the plot. Let's start with the good stuff, the graphics. This was one of the most visually stunning films I have ever seen. The level of detail in the computer-generated environments and sets was beyond anything I've encountered before. How much of this was a result of the 3D aspect of the film is unclear, if I had seen the 2D version I could well have been underwhelmed.

The impact of the 3D technology was significant though. I struggled to follow the opening 20 minutes of the story; such was my wonder at what I was seeing. I kept looking around the screen and focussing on different parts to the test this new technology out. When Sigourney Weaver first appeared on screen I got a momentary shock as I thought she had somehow arrived in the cinema in person. A favourite moment of mine was the 3D representation of a see-through computer screen - rendered in luscious detail. This alone was probably worth the price tag.

I mentioned the word 'plot' above. Since I had gone to the cinema rather than a 3D art gallery I was expecting some kind of plot. It is here that Avatar turns into something of a sham as its paper-thin morality tale about tree-huggers fighting the big bad corporation falls apart under even the slightest scrutiny. Zero-dimensional characters and extravagant plot contrivances do nothing to help the thought that much of the plot is in fact an expensive advert for toys and computer games based on the gadgets, monsters, vehicles and weapons of the film. There isn't enough time spent at the start of the film setting anything up, the main character is someone we don't care about, the natives and planet of Pandora is a place we are barely introduced to. For a film that is 160 minutes long that is totally unforgivable.

And don't even get me started on the mineral the evil corporation are meant to be mining - Unobtainium? For fuck's sake.

However; there are moments in cinema history when I think that certain lapses are forgivable. James Cameron has created a slice of cinema history here, Avatar could yet be looked back upon as the moment when 3D cinema came into its own as more than just a gimmick. Or of course 3D cinema could remain in the confines of big budget blockbusters that can afford to splash the cash. Whichever way it goes, Avatar is a visual masterpiece that you need to see in the cinema in 3D.