Avatar, a like totally psychedelic ride man

If my headline seems to suggest that this is a totally like hippie movie all laid back, I apologise. It is hippie’ish in its message, which we accept. In its ambition, Avatar reaches beyond what it can really grasp and gives us a taste of what could be without leaving us unsatisfied.

I’d not seen a 3D movie before this. So for me and my sister child it was virgin territory and we were totally taken in, it was supper cool.

But then, going further into the marvel, we notice that yes the images come out at you and almost make you feel like you are in the movie, but I can see a border, a black square border and I can sadly see where the images start and end. Is it supposed to be like that? Is the idea not to be totally enclosed in the movie so that you cannot see the outside? We thought this problem could be fixed with better 3D glasses like the one that Keanu Reeves has in Jonny Mnemonic.

Secondly, I know 3D movies have been around a while, have they actually progressed in leaps and bounds? With the $300m spent to make this movie, is the outcome more spectacular than previous 3D movies and Imax Movies? We have no frame of reference so we can comfortably say this is the best 3D movie ever, but think for $300m we should have come out with blue paint on us or something.

Thirdly, is there a difference between the various cinemas where these 3D movies are screened. I would imagine that watching it at an Imax theater (which is my next thing for me, the last time I saw an Imax movie was about 10 years ago and it was a spectacular documentary) and watching it at fourways mall would result in different experiences of the movie. I think 3D should be more than just projecting a 3D image on to a white screen and hope for the best, the theatre house needs to be more prepared than that. Like making the screen larger thereby eliminating the visible borders.

All that said, Avatar was amazing, it is a simple story that you could get into easily enough and go aout and hug a tree after. It is beautiful, it is stunning and it will almost take your breath away.

It is based on a sims game, I am told by sister child, an Avatar is a character you assume in the game world. In the movie, an Avatar is the body of an alien what gets merged with the consciousness of the human. Basically (as we know there are no new ideas just new takes on ideas) it is the Matrix where the matrix is real and not imagined. The humans go into their Avatars to mingle better with the aliens and understand them so that they can convince them to move away from a space the humans want to mine.

Sigourney Weaver takes on the role, for the second time, of Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist and is an expert on the aliens.

The utterly gorgeous yet limited Terminator dude Sam Worthington looks so good in his Avatar you just want him to sink his teeth into your neck.

You will kill yourself guessing and guessing who the female lead is. It kinda looks like Thandie Newton, no I saw a glimpse of Penelope Cruz in there, no actually, it could be Cameron Diaz? You will be wrong every single time. She is Zoe Saldana, if you don’t know the name that’s okay because I did not either, until I looked up a picture of her. She is Ohura in Star Trek, Spock’s girlfriend?

Avatar is full of colour, purple, it is luminous, the luminosity gives it that psychedelic look. It has elements of a recent black eyed peas video, the Michael Jackson Billy Jean video set in the Shire. Its beings are beautiful with catlike grace and angelic stature.

It lingers in your mind and infused itself into my dreams last night. Needless to say I awoke with a purple feeling.

Looking over the 2009 releases, Avatar threatened the number one spot for my best 2009 flick but I think Star Trek remains it for me.

It gets 4 stars and belongs in the stars.

PS: Does anyone know where there is an Imax theatre in joburg?