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New DVDs available at Leisure Time

Avatar

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Stars: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver

Director: James Cameron

Rated: PG-13

Runtime: 162 minutes

Action/adventure/sci-fi

James Cameron's visually stunning eco-warrior epic arrives on DVD - but this movie loses all of its impact on a home viewing.

Its strength is its special effects and it badly needs 3D and cinema screen to captivate viewers - because the dull plot and poor dialogue certainly won't.

Avatar is the most expensive and technically brilliant film ever made with a budget of more than $300 million.

It won three Oscars - Visual Effects, Art Direction and Cinematography - and was nominated for another six, including Best Picture.

But while the film lives up to its hype visually, narratively it is weak and far too long at nearly three hours.

It is set in 2154, when the earth is in ecological crisis and desperately needs a scarce mineral to survive.

It can be found on Pandora, a jungle-covered planet home to the Na'vi, a peaceful race of blue-skinned, 12ft-tall humanoids.

Humans cannot breathe the air on Pandora, so have created genetically bred human-Na'vi hybrids known as Avatars - living, breathing bodies mind-controlled by wired-up humans.

One man recruited to control an Avatar and scout out Pandora and its inhabitants is Jake, a paraplegic war veteran. In return for his services, he is promised an expensive operation that will enable him to walk again. In the meantime, as an Avatar, he can walk and run again.

While exploring Pandora's beauties and dangers, Jake meets young Na'vi female warrior Neytiri and integrates himself into her clan.

As he falls in love with her and the Na'vi way of life, he finds himself siding with them against earth as they defend their threatened existence in an epic battle.

Avatar is a technically brilliant piece of film-making that employs ground-breaking special effects.

It's the most convincing blend of live action and motion-capture animation yet and the CGI is breath-takingly flawless and realistic.

Cameron uses 3D extensively but it is immersive instead of a novelty attraction.

There are no spears thrown at the audience's face or similar gimmicks - 3D is harnessed to enhance the whole world of the film, to make it bold and all encompassing. It's a shame this will be lost on DVD.

Pandora is a massive, detailed forest landscape of monstrous looking plants, floating mountains, exotic bugs, giant flying reptiles and dinosaur-like beasts.

The visual details rivals and probably exceeds the rich world of Middle Earth brought to life by Peter Jackson in Lord Of The Rings.

Another impressive feat is Cameron's decision to create a whole new language for the movie.

He had a professor invent more than 1000 new words for the Na'vi dialect, which is spoken extensively throughout and subtitled.

Watch if you liked: Aliens.[[In-content Ad]]

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