Avatar: If you haven't seen it you really need to

By Steve Wollaston on Dec 30, 09 09:06 AM

I have been excited about watching Avatar for weeks.

Ever since fellow Anorak City scribe Paul Cole called it 'as good as Star Wars'.

I'm not sure about that statement but what I witnessed yesterday on the giant IMAX screen in 3D was every bit as groundbreaking.

For three hours I sat there completely mesmerised, I have never witnessed visuals and special effects like that before in my life.

The 3D effects are very understated yet very important. There are none of the Polar Express style effects of trains coming towards you etc.

The 3D technology used in Avatar is altogether more submersive and just beautiful.

The film interlaces effects and animated characters with real characters and settings but at no point in the film do the two seem disjointed.

I have read a lot of cynical reviews of Avatar. In many ways it became the Chinese Democracy of the cinema world in the sense that it would never live up to the hype.

It does though, and then some.

This is close as you will get to a perfectly created film, stunning visuals and a totally absorbing world called Pandora.

The film for me ticked all the boxes of what a cinematic experience should be.

It had a great storyline, it took the viewer out of their reality and it entertained in ways no other film has done before.

It's a love story, it is a story of man's greed and their disregard for nature and beauty and it is also a story of the vision of a film director who hasn't grown up and had a vision he wanted to bring to the big screen.

James Cameron is an innovator; Titanic and Terminator 2 are great examples of how he has used special effects in a pioneering way.

More importantly Cameron knows how to spin a yarn and entertain, his films are always packed with drama, suspense, action and excitement. He also likes guns, big guns, cannons, creatures and explosions.

There are plenty of those elements in Avatar.

There are also some great performances in the film. Sigourney Weaver is great as Dr. Grace Augustine the passionate scientist. Her role is perfectly complimented by the gloriously two-dimensional bad guy Colonel Miles Quaritch played by Stephen Lang.

The mind boggles as to what went into actually making this movie.

The technology on display is clearly a work of art in its own right. For me the film will not win too many awards for its classic narrative which draws on many films for inspiration, but for production and entertainment alone this film deserves to clean up at the Oscars.

This will go down as one of the most pioneering films in cinematic history and a great way to end 2009.

Personally I am so glad I watched it at the IMAX - this is a film that needs to be seen big and loud.

Switch your brain off and enjoy a truly moving and magical experience.

Details of film times at the IMAX here