It seems simple really. But let’s face it: inspiration often strikes when you least expect it, so it’s best to be prepared.

Professional copywriter tips

As a professional copywriter, I’m never more than 10 feet away from a memo pad at any given time.

The only exception to this rule is when I go swimming. I have considered buying a waterproof pen – though that might be taking things too far.

Director James Cameron famously conceived the idea for The Terminator during a fevered night’s sleep. Had Cameron failed to place a notepad on his night stand, perhaps he’d be flipping burgers today.

So the moral of this story is simple: if you are a professional copywriter, make sure you are armed and dangerous at all times.

Avatar 2-D is flatter than a pancake. Given that I don’t like eggs, you’ll understand how I feel about pancakes.

I remember leaving the cinema one frosty night earlier this year having been wowed by James Cameron’s visual-effects epic. The film review which followed was, of course, more than favourable.

And I still stand by my initial assertion that Avatar ascends beyond the epitome of entertainment into the realm of ‘experience’.

Watching the movie at home, however, two crucial things were missing. Quite simply, the depth and texture of the 3-D and a 50 foot cinema screen.

Avatar 2-D versus Avatar 3-D

I can’t stand 3-D. Whilst I appreciate the purpose it serves in giving cinemas a unique selling point, it just doesn’t float my boat. Avatar is the only film thus far to make me question my misgivings about 3-D. Viewed at the cinema in this capacity, Avatar is visually mind-blowing.

It does indeed remain a sight to behold and a must for anyone interested in film and the visual arts.

The problem is, when you strip away the added dimension, it fast becomes apparent that Avatar is far from a masterpiece.

Will the real Avatar please stand up?

In my initial review I outlined concerns over the creaking script, clunky dialogue, poor characters and uninspired plot. Watching at home, these inconveniences became more transparent than the Invisible Man in a greenhouse.

That’s not to say the visuals still aren’t amazing. But having already seen them once through 3-D glasses, the ‘wow’ impact was somewhat nullified. In fact, I became seriously bored about 20 minutes in, my interest sinking faster than the Titanic. There was just way too much jungle for my liking.

Visual-effects: No Substitute for storytelling

As a general rule – Avatar 3-D being the exception – visual-effects shouldn’t act as a substitute for good story-telling. Take The Terminator as a case in point.

While Stan Winston’s special-effects were groundbreaking at the time, they are somewhat dated now. This became blatantly obvious when I re-watched the movie with a teenager who found some aspects of the effects amusing. Nonetheless, this did little to detract from the fantastic storyline and characters – they still hold up nearly 30 years on.

It’s a shame then that Cameron was unable to blend his flair for storytelling and mastery of visual-effects in Avatar.

Avatar: A Tale of Two Films

I’ll finish things off by reiterating that I stick by my original review. Viewing the movie in 3-D at the cinema was an amazing experience and nothing will change that.

Sat at home on the couch though, things look notably different. The smokescreen of the effects quickly dissipates leaving a movie with about as much depth as a dried up ravine.

Life’s full of contradictions right?

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars – available on Blu-ray and DVD

Every couple of years or so a film comes along capable of turning the most ardent arm-chair viewer into a temp cinema-goer. Avatar is one such film. Scores of people continue to brave the harsh winter in a bid to catch a glimpse of this year’s ‘Event’ movie.

“If you haven’t already seen it, you’ve got to” – at least that seems to be the general consensus of the movie-going public.

And the numbers don’t lie. Since storming into cinemas late last year, James Cameron’s sci-fi epic has become the largest grossing film of all time – sinking the director’s own world-box office record set by Titanic.

Things can’t be bad for the self-proclaimed “king of the world”.

Is it worth a watch…?

In a nutshell: definitely. Like Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings, Cameron manages to usher in a new age of special effects. As with its predecessors, it’s hard not to be blown away by the detail and depth of imagery on display. To this extent, Cameron surpasses the dubious post-film buzz, and delivers above and beyond expectations.

The plot and characterisation, on the other hand, is a whole different story.

We are thrown into the world of Pandora through the eyes of Jake Sully, a former Marine restricted to a wheelchair. The planet, which rests light years from Earth, is consumed by an atmosphere toxic to humans. This is where the Avatar Program comes in. Our reluctant hero, Sully, plugs into a machine that links his consciousness to an avatar – a remotely-controlled biological body blending human DNA with DNA from Pandora’s indigenous, the Na’vi.

Given the complexities of convincingly rendering such imagery on the screen, it’s no surprise Cameron waited 15 years before executing his pet-project.

And watching Avatar, 3-D glasses glued to my face, I can say the results – for the most part – were worth the wait.

The photorealistic CGI technology seamlessly brings the Na’vi to life in a world so full of texture that at times it threatens to drip off the screen straight into your popcorn. And while I remain sceptical about the ability of 3-D to “save” cinema, Cameron’s rendering of the technology is a delight. Rather than promiscuously splashing it all over the screen, the director opts for the ‘less is more’ approach – a move allowing the fourth wall to remain intact.

Style over substance…?

The ‘style over substance’ question is one that I found myself asking about halfway through its 162 minute runtime. Once the initial shock and awe of the visuals had subsided, I felt sort of the same way as when I watched 2012 earlier in the year. The creaking screenplay and thinly drawn characters quickly floated to the surface.

Now I’ve long been a believer that special effects should first and foremost serve the progression of plot and character. Even the granddaddy of CGI George Lucas agrees with this thesis – which fails to explain why he embraced style over substance in the most recent instalments of the Star Wars saga.

But Avatar is a rare cinematic case that should be viewed as an experiment in the visual. Cameron’s attention is clearly focused first and foremost on furthering the technological tools of the cinematic and producing a visual opera of epic proportions.

To put it in the same cannon as Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey would be remiss. The two movies are worlds apart in terms of their mastery, Kubrick’s magnum opus operating gracefully on both a visual and intellectual level. But where Avatar lacks 2001’s mind-bending pretence, it successfully creates a world which in itself is filled with profundity. The attention to detail is such that it all but renders the clunky and repetitive dialogue irrelevant.

And despite a lack of originality in the storyline and the tired reluctant hero device, Cameron displays brains as well as brawn. He subtly builds in a strong Green and anti-war message, as well as inventing a new language, Na’vi, adding to the film’s authenticity.

A cultural milestone…?

Say what you will about Avatar, but Cameron’s brainchild unquestionably raises the bar five-fold for any CGI/3-D films that follow. Avatar has planted its hefty feet in the cinematic landscape and will surely be looked back on as a turning point in the filmic revolution. Talk is already sounding round the back-lots of Hollywood studios concerning the ability of this new motion capture techonology in bringing, for example, James Dean back to the screen or making Alec Baldwin look thin again.

Flawed, but fantastic in all its grandeur, Avatar invites you to step into the world of Pandora; the only question is: will you want to leave?

Official Avatar Movie