Avatar

The popcorn cost nearly as much as the tickets, but taking the kids to see James Cameron’s movie Avatar in 3D last week really was a terrific experience. The film’s breaking all box office records and it’s easy to see why. In case you haven’t seen it, it’s an amazing 3D spectacle which transports you to an imaginary planet called Pandora.
The 3D is not gimmicky, but engages you, draws you in and makes you feel you’re really there. I certainly felt I was watching something innovative and significant.

I took James' advice and saw Avatar on the biggest screen I could find, so naturally, I went to the IMAX in Greenwich.

Yes, Avatar is a nice film, very vivid and colourful and it is a really well made sci-fi with nifty 3D. Although, if it wasn't for the 3D stuff, I don't think it would stand up that next to the best the genre has to offer, which is where it seems to have found itself.

But before the film had even started my excitement about seeing Avatar was swiftly snatched away and directed immediately towards one of the trailers.

In 1958 Disney presented their vision of the future in an episode of a TV show entitled Magic Highway USA. Watching it, it becomes evident that this vision was heavily influenced by fordism and the significance of the car to American culture, but it was also clearly an overly optimistic vision. Little of this view has actually come to pass – or even looks ever likely to happen. Compare it now with Microsoft’s equally optimistic, March 2009 vision of the future in 2019. Is Microsoft’s vision realistic? Or will it suffer the same fate as Disney’s predictions?

Perilous and difficult as predictions of the future are, this 5-part series of articles seeks to answer these questions over the week or so by delivering a thoughtful and realistic view on what the new decade may hold in store for us in terms of technological advancement and innovation.

For years film-goers have been bombarded with films that have attempted to venture into the third dimension, but have dismally failed to deliver any form of delectable cinematic feast. Gimicky, cheap and devoid of a story or a talented cast, they have given 3D films a bad name.

 So when James Cameron promised to create a live-action 3D film, whilst shouldering the slain beast of Titanic, critics must have drawn their bows with baited breath, waiting for his Achilles heel to show.