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3 stars***

Did it match the hype? Well kind of yes and no. Yes, in the sense that the effects, CGI and anything including blue and green screens were wonderful, but no in the sense that the movie wasn’t seriously exciting and tended to plod along for large periods of time until the final battles.

James Cameron has been trying to get this picture made for a decade. However, technology hadn’t moved along enough for it to match his vision, hence the delay. He’s written a deeply interesting screenplay which could only have been directed by the same person. A different director would have made a completely different movie. I wonder, having not seen the screenplay, how much of the final vision was in those first few pages and how much was lodged into the director’s mind?

Star Wars was a great movie originally and although it’s newism slowed down across six movies, it was way ahead of its time. Avatar was supposed to be ahead of its time but we were left underwhelmed at the CGI and special effects. Perhaps we’re too used to what they can do in the studio after the acting has finished, that we just take greatness for average expectations these days.

Obviously a budget of some $250 million plus another $150 million for marketing needs a substantial payback and with turnover of $750,000 to date, the break-even point has already been passed and that doesn’t count for merchandise sales over the festive period.

Our almost three hours run time was nearly in jeopardy at our showing; the film got stuck and burnt some frames with just five minutes remaining. So we spent a few minutes guessing which slushy ending would follow and weren’t surprised when we finally viewed the last few minutes minus those lost frames. Why Hollywood believes we all have to leave the cinema with beaming smiles after a war epic, I don’t know? We can take bad news, seriously. Most of the theatre ticket purchasers have brains and can work out what’s real and what’s fiction.

So the movie that’s a cross between Vietnam and the Waltons proved to be good entertainment; it just didn’t take us to that final level. No doubt Avatar 2 & 3 will follow in time, something Mr Cameron didn’t try with his superb epic; Titanic. Something tells me he should stop here, but he won’t.

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