Avatar

James Cameron ends his 12 year feature film drought with Avatar; a film that proves that the $200 million spent on Titanic was simply spare change. (The rumour is that this film cost half a billion dollars, though in true Spider-Man 3 fashion the studio is unlikely to let on exactly how much was spent on marketing.)

Cameron has returned to the genre he loves (science fiction) and the colour he can’t seem to live without (blue). Quite simply, it’s the tale of marine Jake Sully who is posted on the planet Pandora – a world humanity has just begun to plunder for its natural resources. Pandora, of course, has its own indigenous population and for some selfish reason they don’t wish to give up their way of life just so that we humans can go on using up and spitting out planets. Before long, Jake comes to realise how he despises his race and essentially ‘goes native’ (the film could quite accurately be called Dances with Dragons).

Avatar is one of the most visually stunning films you’ll ever see. The world of Pandora is easily the most fully realised alien world to ever grace the big screen. I’m trying to think of comparisons and all that come to mind are those hideous CGI messes dreamed up by George Lucas in his Star Wars prequels. Pandora is a living, breathing place and despite the fact that the flora and fauna look, quite frankly, ridiculous it all works. This is a case of money well spent. I’m pretty sure that the majority of the exteriors are CGI, though some of the forest scenes look so good that it’s hard to tell.

I remember thinking that the special effects of Titanic looked pretty bad even back in 1997, whereas it’s hard to find fault with Avatar. The alien humanoids are clearly designed with the limitations of CGI in mind – they have their hair tied back in a pony tail, they’re so skinny as to not have any body fat or um