Movie Review: Avatar (12A)

DIRECTOR James Cameron isn't a name that rings true to many people.

He directed Terminator I &II, Aliens True Lies, wrote Rambo First Blood: Part Two and was responsible for the Titanic.

After that successful period he fell from the spotlight for most of the 2000s as he began a fifteen year journey into producing the decade's most beautiful film.

Starring Sam Worthington and Sigourney Weaver, Avatar tells the story of wheelchair bound ex-marine Jake Sully and his adventures as a Navi throughout the tropical world of Pandora.

Jake digitally controls his Navi - a cross between a cat, monkey and zebra, blue and three times the size of human - through the Avatar computer programme from a pod in the marine base on Pandora.

Sully soon becomes part of a corporate plot to exploit Pandora's natural resources and works to gain the Navi's trust. He soon finds himself in a struggle between his duty as a marine and his love for his new life as a Navi.

The world of Pandora took the CGI team a reported two years to get out from the drawing board and onto the big screen. And it shows.

The planetary jungle is absolute eye candy. Everywhere on screen you'll find at least a dozen different flower designs, countless animals and thousands of different colours.

The story is interesting, although it is nothing that hasn't been done before. It bares strong similarities to Dances with Wolves, The Last Samurai and even the Matrix but bringing a disabled main character really helps it stand out.

Worthington is fine, as is Weaver but stand out performance mentions go to Stephen Lang as the grizzled Colonel Quaritch and Michelle Rodriguez as Zoe Saldana as the proud Navi, Neytiri.

If you like the sound of it, see it in 3D or in an IMAX Theatre to fully appreciate it.

Despite the 12A rating, some of the film is very violent and even includes a questionable inter-species sex scene. It also runs in a 163 minutes, so it's probably best to leave the restless kids at home for this one.

Was it worth the estimated half a billion dollar price tag? Well that remains to be seen. As of this article going live it has internationally pulled in somewhere over 230 million dollars.

Avatar is out now in theatres across the country.