Anyone seen James Cameron's film Avatar? I went to see it at the London BFI IMAX this afternoon (biggest cinema screen in the UK, at over 20 metres in height) and I have to say I was impressed. Visually it's stunning in 3D on the big screen.
The storyline is anything but subtle, and the film is not highbrow, but it's better than some of the newspaper critics make out. I was gripped for the 162 minutes. Apparently it's the most expensive film made to date; I've seen figures between US$ 300M and 500M mentioned in the press (which is a big range of uncertainty; surely the studio know more accurately than that how much it cost?!). If you do get a chance to see it in 3D it's worth going in my opinion, even taking the hype into account.
The floating islands, the flying creatures, the jungle and the Scorpion choppers remind me very much of the work of artist Roger Dean in the 1970s. He was the guy who painted LP covers for groups such as Yes, Budgie, Greenslade, Uriah Heep, Badger, Osibisa, etc.


