OK, so I finally did it. I went and saw the film the rest of the Western world apparently saw over the Christmas break.
Don't get me wrong; I had some fantastic albeit lonely viewing with the Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Sherlock Holms is an absolutely top-notch romp. But neither took almost $300 million to make.
Luckily, this world has James Cameron who upon seeing Golumn knew special effects technology was advanced enough to make this film that can be summed up with the words "visual orgy." Which is great timing because everyone loves an orgy over the holidays.
But is the plot as good?
I do like the fact that it opens with a wheelchair marine going into certain death because if he retires as a veteran his benefits will leave him destitute. So he ships out and ends up infiltrating the evil enemy that he was instructed to destroy.
Well surprise, surprise, they're not monsters after all but caring animals and wouldn't you know it, some of their ladies are smoking hot. The only glitch is that these people live on top of a hugely valuable resource that white men are willing to pay billions of dollars for and killing innocent coloured people is just a bonus (think: space oil).
In the end, the visuals are amazing and the plot is horribly predictable but just good enough to get you through the amazingly long three hour running time.
My only suggestion is that if you can, drive to the city to see it because we don't have 3D and this is all about the visuals so you may as well go big.
