I went to see Avatar at the IMAX this afternoon. Incredibly we had had to book the seats for this 2.20pm performance almost exactly a month ago. It was not a surprise to me to discover that it is now the top grossing film of all time. Finally the day had arrived, though the people who were meant to be sitting next to us had either forgotten to come, or something else had come up or maybe they'd died in the interim as two seats were empty.
The IMAX experience is still at least half the fun and as I discovered when I saw the fairly abysmal "A Christmas Carol", it doesn't really matter too much how good the film is.
And for the first half an hour I thought that the bad crits I had seen of the film might be undeserved. It was shaping up quite nicely and I had particularly enjoyed feeling a bit weightless when the characters were floating around in space.
But it is a very long film and I was already a bit tired and perhaps the slightly dizzying 3D images made things worse, but I did start drifting off in the middle.
And the allegory became a little heavy-handed as the film progressed, though it was interesting to see a mainstream American film like this being so critical of imperialism and (essentially) the war in Iraq.
But perverse as I am by the end I was hoping that the aggressive and insensitive humans would defeat the doe-eyed blue aliens, partly, I suppose because it was obvious that they wouldn't and because in reality they obviously would crush the bow and arrow carrying natives with their military might. But the woman from the Wright Stuff would have liked the film because it made it graphically clear who was good and who was evil, with no ambiguity or even hint that the humans might have a point.
And of course we all know that technology has made the world worse and less spiritual and we were all in a much better place when we lived in the jungle and believed in gods and spirits and we've all lost something living in this evil modern world. So let's give up on our computers and cars and 3D cinemas and head back to nature shall we? Where magic trees will protect us against anything that comes at us.
Perhaps it could have had more balance and greater moral conundrums, or maybe it's best just to keep it all simple and sit back and enjoy the spectacle (and there's some brilliant stuff in there, even if there is some boring stuff too). I might have sided with the people I was meant to side with more if I wasn't being so manipulated to do so. I felt patronised.
Alas in reality even if the simple forest folk had managed to take down the evil empire, then the evil empire would return with greater force and napalm the shit out of them. And it might have been brave to have a dose of reality in this fantasy. But that wouldn't make for the biggest box office of all time would it?
It's a film that despite its flaws you will probably still want to see. And it's much better than Titanic so that's something. Just make sure you've had a good sleep beforehand, but you won't miss too much if you have a nap at about the hour mark.
And good news for those of you with tickets to see Collings and Herrin on Monday - there isn't another show on that day, so we are able to do a full show, with secret dancing, stand up, a full podcast and a Question and Answer, as well as hanging around for a drink afterwards. All the seated tickets have sold out, but if you're quick you can get an usher seat or one of the limited standing spaces
by clicking here. It's going to be a big party night and you really should be a part of it if you can!
