Avatar

I just saw it, admittedly only in 2D, but was totally blown away by the special effects. Got to give credit to Mr Cameron, he raised the bar with this. I will probably try to see it again in 3D just to get the full effect.

He certainly packed a lot into two and a half hours and I sure enjoyed it. BUT.

Yeah, you knew that was coming. Well, for a start the humans were just a little one sided for me. Either too goody, goody or just plain bad. Meh, maybe their personality quirks ended up on the cutting room floor but it was just a little too black and white, which is quite an achievement considering the glorious colours of the forest at night.

Also, there were just a few too many cliches:

- the nasty corp (Aliens - although I guess this one could have been deliberate. If so, kudos to you Mr Cameron)
- the whole indians versus cowboys, err aliens vs marines (I've heard it called Dances with wolves with a happy ending)
- the cavalry charge (Polish lancers vs Panzers, Charge of the light brigade). Even I know not to charge machine guns, meh.

Maybe all these things were fresh and great ideas when he wrote it, but they were just a little jaded for 2010. Or maybe that's just me.

I'll give it 4 stars out of 5 as I believe it really needs to be seen on the big screen and ideally in 3D (I'll let you know if I do go back). But those little niggles kept it from getting that extra star.