Avatar

I’m not exactly what you’d call a science fiction/fantasy movie fan. Matrix? Hated it (People as batteries? Spare me.). Lord of the Rings? Still haven’t seen any of them. However, there’s been so much hype around Avatar that I figured I’d go see it at the theater in 3D (Cinemaxx in Mannheim). For those who would like to see it in its native language, it’s playing there at 18:20 most days.

The verdict? An exceptional movie. Really a game changer. I would recommend it to anyone whose attention span can be stretched to almost 3 hours (unlike my kids). I personally don’t remember being bored at all. Here in Germany, there was even an intermission!

The script isn’t particularly brilliant (or subtle), but there’s nothing wrong with a little mass appeal when you can distract the audience with the best special effects ever. It’s funny to consider that people were astonished by the special effects in King Kong in 1933. It will be interesting to see what we think of today’s bleeding edge effects in just a few years.