It’s hard to ignore the hype when it comes to the usual rubbish from Hollywood, and if you fall for it expectations are rarely fulfilled. This has only happened twice to me: I hear everyone raving about a movie but manage to avoid seeing any spoilers, specials, previews, clips, magazine interviews… you name it. That first film was Terminator 2, and right until the moment Arnie saves John Conner I thought Arnie was Mr Evil Killing Robot. It made the movie for me! I felt so lucky because, I really had no idea what to expect.

Work and other commitments kept me out of the ‘film’ loop for the last month or so, so the vast majority of the Avatar hype passed me by. I knew it was 3D, and very expensive, and I had seen the trailer. That was it. Nothing could have prepared me for sitting down and watching this film. First off, the 3D is just outstanding. My inner nerd wanted to stand up in the middle of the screening and jump up and down excitedly like a 5 year old screaming “did you see that! did you see that!?”. You quikcly forget the pig-ugly glasses you have to wear, and the weird brain twisting that goes on as your reality is warped: the 3D is something really, really new. It was like watching Star Wars for the very first time.

The computer graphics were also quite superly executed. May Jar Jar rot in his cartoony pixelated grave! For the first time these CGI characters were 100% convincing. At no point was I pulled from the movie by shaking computer-game characters and dodgy wire-removal stunts. And the forests… you have to see this movie for the forests! Just beautiful.

The down side? Mediocre wannabe eco-friendly heroic storyline and paper-thin characters. But you’ll forget all that