Review: Avatar

Finally a movie that did not get hit by the South-East Asian delay train. James Cameron’s Avatar was this week’s new release and it’s definitely something you shouldn’t miss.

James Cameron wanted to make this film back in 1999, but apparently the special effects he wanted for it weren’t good/cheap enough yet. He spent 10 years developing the technology needed to make Avatar, and you can clearly see the results. Some of the CGI looks really indistinguishable to live action. It’s been said that the movie’s budget, including promotional marketing, totals up to $500 million, making it the most expensive movie ever made.

My first impression of Avatar from the early teaser was that it looked like a cutscene from some video game. While some (particularly PS3/X360 gamers) will argue that Avatar’s visual are not far off from today’s next-gen games, in my opinion it’s a different experience seeing a full length, 2.5h movie on a cinema screen compared to a 5 minute cutscene on your home plasma TV, even if you think they look the same visually.

I don’t have much to say about this film really except for the fact that you should go see it. Avatar’s story is nothing you haven’t seen before, but I can guarantee you’ve never seen it like this. The scale of this movie is epic and it’s a visual masterpiece. Pretty much everyone I know who’s seen it thought it was amazing so yeah. Avatar is easily up there with District 9 on the list of this year’s best movies.

Rating: 5/5

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