For those of you who don’t know what Avatar is, have you been living under a rock? …at the bottom of the ocean? …on another planet? Avatar is the latest (and apparently greatest) film directed by James Cameron. You may remember him from such other great films as Titanic, Alien and Terminator. Currently he has the next Terminator film and a remake of Forbidden Planet in production.

So what’s so special about Avatar?

Well, for a start it is the most realistic CGI film ever made with a huge budget of over $200 million. Does this mean it’s going to be successful? Well, no but you’d expect them to want to make their money back. Nobody invests that sort of money on a whim. The real reason Avatar is so special is that it will be the first blockbuster to be available in true 3D. By that I mean that the 3D elements included are not used as gimmicks as in the ‘olden days’ but serve to further envelope your senses and draw you deeper into the story.

But I thought 3D was for kids and theme parks?

Believe me, I thought so too. But given the rise of 3D recently and the leaps and bounds it has been making in terms of production quality, it isn’t really surprising for Hollywood to want to capitalise on it. Given the recent success of films such as ‘Up’ using 3D and the high definition IMAX screens capable of doing justice to the feature length 3D films, I for one would be interested to see how this affects my viewing.

What else is in 3D then?

At the moment, not much worth noting except ‘Up’. Toy Story 3 is being produced in 3D as well as TinTin, Shrek Goes Fourth and George Lucas has said he plans to remaster all of the Star Wars films in 3D. So does this mean that 3D is the way forward? Is this the death of standard films? I don’t think so. Truly I think that Avatar will be something amazing, but 3D will still sit in its niche of certain films until such as time as there is a viable way to view 3D without wearing any glasses. TVs are already available that produce a 3D image with very good results but not the quality which would be acceptable for regular viewing.

Until those pesky glasses are gone, 3D market penetration will still be small. Putting on glasses every now and again to watch a film such as Avatar though, might be acceptable.