Film review: Avatar (****)

Still buried under a bunch of pre-Christmas deadlines so I'll have to be brief with this.

1) Is Avatar worth seeing? Hell yeah.

2) What's so great about it? The visual effects. The 3D. The sense of scale. The imagination behind it. The sheer spectacle. The camerawork. The design.

3) Is it the best 3D I've ever seen? Again, yes. The way the camera "picks up" the falling ash or the foliage brushes by the camera as it moves through the forests of Pandora, or we rush through the air when the characters ride those beasties, is, simply, breathtaking. As is the use of depth. It's quite brilliant. And never once did I feel sick, or that my eyes needed a rest. If this is the future of 3D, I'm all for it.

4) Does the story suck? Well, kinda. As has been reported else, it's a hodge-podge of Dances With Wolves, Pocahontas, John Carter of Mars, Ferngully, Aliens, and Jurassic Park.

5) Does it matter? Well, yes, cos he had 14 years to hone the script and there are no real narrative surprises here, the spiritual/hippy stuff feels a tad clichéd, and the dialogue is expositional and clunky at best.

6) Will I see it again? Most definitely.

7) Is it Cameron's best film? Personally I'd still go with T2. But if he could ally this technology and this vision with a tighter script, there's no telling what he'll be able to pull off.

8) Is it the game changer the industry's been talking about? On reflection, I'd have to say very much so.