Avatar

So, a brief review of the new James Cameron film. You'll have seen the basic plot before in films. Many, many times. It is not innovative and it is not clever in terms of the script. But then again, who really thought it would be? This isn't a great piece of storytelling - it never was going to be. Instead, this film is all about how the film is told.

And in fairness, if you go see this film in 3-D, it is spectacular. Visually, anyway. It is extremely impressive and probably does represent a leap forward in visual FX. Of course, you have to turn both your ears and your brain off in order to enjoy this film. And I can't shake the feeling that this is basically a commercial for 3-D film-making. Which is the biggest problem with this picture. See, your standard commercial is a couple of minutes long. Whereas this film is just under three long, bum-numbing hours. Avatar's biggest failing is falling into the trap that so many modern films make - namely, that a long run time automatically makes a film Important and Worthy. Of course, it doesn't. It just makes it long. And in the case of Avatar, it makes it far longer than it should be or needs to be.

So if you like sci-fi, then I'd say go see this film. However, see it at the cinema, in 3-D. If you wait for the DVD release you will miss all of the visual FX, and end up with an over-long film with a plot that you have seen somewhere before. And probably isn't worth sitting through to the end credits.