Avatar

The hype for this film has been going on for a long time in film magazines, so I had been joking that it would be really funny if was a steaming pile of crap. Or that peoples reactions would be that they thought it was crap because that can happen if people are looking forward to a film too much they are let down because they have built it up in their minds(Phantom Menace, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull although they had Jar Jar & Shia Labeouf to mess things up). Avatar far exceeded my expectations, it was fun, soppy, violent, sad and mind blowing. The 12 ish years wait for a new James Cameron movie was worth it for this. There have been some very good 3D movies this year - UP, Bolt, Coraline but I would say this is the first proper movie that isn't animated for 3D, hopefully this will encourage other film makers to be willing to use similar technology and isn't just used to make more Bloody Valentines.
Avatar is basically Pocahontas (for romance and basic story) mixed with Aliens (for violence, marines and sci-fi) the combination is classic James Cameron. Maybe a little too many trade marks put in there with the Marines and exo-machines but the film would be no where as cool without them. Wasn't expecting Sigourney Weaver to play such a big part, but it was nice to see her play more than a cameo and a character unlike Ripley(only somewhat) probably her best performance since Aliens. Sam Worthington is still unknown enough that seeing him doesn't make you think of other films, which I think makes you get drawn into the film more.
The planet Pandora is such a beautiful planet I want to leave earth now and move there and live with the blue creatures. This is the second time this year I've been cheering for the Aliens to kill the evil humans, the first time being with District 9. The film did feel long but at 2 hours 40 minutes - it didn't feel that long.

Five Stars