Last night Haylee and I wandered along to see what looks likely to be the biggest money making movie to date - AVATAR. We are fortunate to have just had a new 3D projector installed in Nelson's State Cinema late last year to enable 3D movies such as this to be played in all of their 3D glory - and what a glorious thing it is!!!

Haven't seen it yet - do get along and see it if you can get to a 3D theatre. WOW! What a great visit to the movies! The 3D environment is truely stunning. It is a whole different movie going experience, and makes conventional movies seem very underdone and flat by comparison. I now want to see all of my favourite movies remastered in 3D.
The whole movie felt very tactile, rich and layered. The 3D effect was all encompassing and gave a total feeling of inclusion rather than the tacky "it's coming at you" effects of older versions of 3D ( I seem to remember an edition of the Jaws series being 3D along time ago...).

This is one of those movies that really needs to be seen to be understood, the 3D aspect means it needs to be seen at the theatre, albeit with some silly glasses on (but at least they are abit cooler than the old cardboard numbers).

The story is a classic hollywood take on the good vs evil of humanity with an element of the eco warrior thrown in to make it all current. The effects are not too over the top but what is really supurb is the overall digital texture of the film. It is very rich with some amazing organic detail available in the Pandorian forest. The 3D element seems to make you concentrate a little more on the entire frame and you take in everything, rather than just what the central characters are doing.

Avatar has a comprehensive online marketing programme supporting it. If you have seen the movie (or not) visit the main movie website (click here) and explore if you have some time up your sleeve. There seem to be a myriad of websites coming off the central site all offering a deeper level of involvement in the story, the setting of the planet Pandora and the characters. More and more this kind of marketing strategy seems to be employed by the large studios in their major releases. No longer is the film just contained to the screen, but now it gets a life of it's own on the internet as well, and a very interactive one at that. If you are interested in seeing what a marketing programme with a huge budget can do for a product launch you need to look no further than the movies - they are doing all that they can to get you to buy into the experience in one way or another.

AMAZING. I hope we have more family come and visit over the next month so we can go and see it again!