Mind-boggling effects in spectacular 'Avatar'

Director: James Cameron

Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Sam Waterston, Stephen Lang, Zoe Saldana

The much-hyped and long-awaited Cameron film, his first since the Oscar-laden 'Titanic', finally arrives on our screens, for the large part unseen by many critics … doubtless as part of the pre-release hype.

What we get is a sci-fi story full of action and mind-boggling special effects, half-human actors and half new-wave screen animation that blends quite brilliantly into the sort of film that delivers what the hype promised, even if the storyline comes across as weak.

Billed as the first mainstream live-action 3D film, it is definitely worth seeing through the next-generation glasses, immersing the viewer even deeper into the other-worldly setting.

The plot revolves around a futuristic conflict between the bickering Earthlings and the inhabitants – blue and elfin humanoids – of the planet Pandora, into which conflict is thrust Jake (Waterston), a handicapped human transformed into an alien.

Cameron first attempted to get 'Avatar' made in 1999 but the cost of the F/X would then have been around $400m (reduced now to much less, though no less spectacular).

Weaver returns to the sci-fi fold, playing Grace, a driven character with a good heart, though with so much going on on screen the characters are often overwhelmed by the technical wizardry.

It’s the sort of film that will divide audiences, as 'Titanic' did: a big, splashy, spectacular epic constructed around a thin storyline and swamped by what we are looking at rather than what we might be feeling about the characters and their story.

Star Rating: 4/5