Avatar

Sam Worthington

I was feeling ok until I read all of the previous post comments this morning, and now I think I must have sounded a border line depressive!
The rain is lashing down, so I completed jobs, counted the poultry (all present), walked the dogs and drove to Prestatyn to the cinema , taking some heed of all of the advice to "have a break"!

I know there was a pensioner showing of AVATAR at the scala this morning, so at 10 am (yes AM) I lined up with a few adventurous silver hairs who were clutching their pension books, and asked if I could go in.
Now although I am a youthful looking 47 year old, the manageress waved me through quite cheerfully ( and a little too quickly for my liking) and feeling a tad guilty at bunking off, I sat down in the warmth and dry, intent in watching some mindless rubbish.......tee hee
Cinema is a wonderful diversion from the mundane for me. It is a treat, it is a ritual and it always feels as though I have "come home" in a strange sort of way as I make myself comfortable in the usual pull down cinema seat!
Like many geeky teenagers (I was an expert in 1970 disaster films, terrapins and tropical fish at 15!!!) I was a lonely kid.
There was no internet,computer games and the like to divert me from the misery of puberty, so for me it was cinema that was able to transport me to somewhere a little more exciting......All during the 1970s, burning skyscrapers, overturned passenger liners, Roger Moore's acting eyebrows and a whole series of 747 near misses, kept me amused and obsessed.

Anyhow back to Avatar, which was an inspired choice for a rainy and depressing day!

James Cameron's voyage into movie history is basically an adequate Christmas present of an adventure movie which has been wrapped up in some exquisitely beautiful wrapping paper. To look at, it is quite, quite amazing, and I was entertained with this boys-own actioneer from the very start.

In Avatar, Cameron pays homage to Aliens his 1986, public and critically acclaimed blockbuster, with gut wrenching battle sequences and a reintroduction to some of his most famous characters.

So we have Dr Grace (Sigourney Weaver) who is an older and wiser Ellen Ripley, tom boy Hispanic marine Trudy (Michelle Rodriguez) is a ringer for Pvt. Vasquez and mean bastard corporate manager (Giovanni Ribisi) is definitely based on the reptilian Carter Burke.

Having said all this, Avatar is an adventure film which pays further homages to the likes of A Man Called Horse (1970) and Dances with Wolves (1990) and by doing so, it will please everyone. as the basically simple story of a man finding his true "home" is a universal fairytale of sorts.

Sam Worthington makes for a measured and quite charismatic hero (he is very easy on the eye too!) and Zoe Saldana (who is never really seen except in her CGI form) is also very good as his alien love interest.

But this film's strength lies with what you see AND experience rather than the originality of the plot or the performances of the leading actors (good as they are)........and what you see IS quite beautiful and impressive.

I gave it a spirit lifting 9/10