After three earlier unsuccessful attempts to get tickets for IMAX showing of Avatar, today I have finally got to see this movie. To begin with, I should have gone to a regular 3D weeks ago - while sound was definitely an improvement, the IMAX screen in our theater seemed to be hardly any bigger than a regular one; the only major difference I've noticed was in for some reason very uncomfortable chairs.

I am probably one of the last people of earth to see the movie, so I don't think it is necessary to tell anyone what it is about. There is no doubt that technically this film is the acme of not only its director's career, but all modern cinematic art. A product of Cameron's genius, Avatar has definitely reestablished its creator as one of the best directors of our time.

The amount of imagination that went into it is mindboggling - every plant and creature of Pandora is something incredible; the special effects are top notch; the implementation of 3D makes the whole thing twice as great. For 160 minutes the viewer emerges into a completely different world, every detail of which is so well thought and crafted that it makes you almost believe that it is all real. As far as technical aspect of film making is concerned, Avatar is undoubtedly the best movie I have ever seen.

Somewhat of a drawback was, however, the fact that Pandora and its creatures that are supposed to be a background to the story take the center stage. When watching Avatar, I often felt that the story was just an excuse for showcasing advances of modern cinematography - the dialogs were few, not very interesting, and seemed to be written by a fifth grader; the characters, especially that of "I didn't sign up for this shit" girl, were flat, somewhat cliched and uninspired. Highly unoriginal names of the planet and the mineral, unobtainium, the humans were after once again made me question whether too much of the creators' mind power went into the CGI, taking away from the story.

In conclusion, I think that Avatar was an OK, not an amazing, movie; it was, however, an amazing moviegoing EXPERIENCE. After seeing it, I'll probably never spend a dime on watching 2D film in a theater: Paying 10 bucks to see a romantic comedy on a big screen is definitely not worth it; any Sci-Fi or cartoon that is not shot in 3D, on the other hand, will be put to shame from now on.

"Seriously?" was the first thought that came to my mind after the credits of "Up in the Air" started to roll. I've spent almost two hours waiting for this snooze fest to take a sharp turn and magically become worthy of all the buzz it has generated, but this has never happened.

"Up in the Air" received 6 Golden Globe nominations: best picture, best director, best actor, and best supporting actress for both Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick. I say that the critics were either blind or drunk. Vera Farmiga is the only part of this movie that makes it more or less bearable. The rest of the film is lackluster, to say the least. The script is unimaginative and lacks in dynamics; the camera work is bad; Anna Kendrick is just ok; George Clooney...well he is just George Clooney.

For two hours, the audience is subjected to watching a guy who spends more than 200 days per year traveling all over the country and firing people. He sincerely believes that everything that most of other people value in life is an unnecessary baggage that weights them down. Another two characters are overeager recent college graduate, who is supposed, I guess, to charm both the audience and the main character with her lack of real world experience, and a woman that Clooney's personage meets in the airport and whose purpose is to help him discover what really matters.

The action in the movie is pretty much limited to scenes of firing a bunch of random people and to for the most part boring dialogs between the main characters. Clooney is undoubtedly nice to look at, but if anyone is able to find 5 distinctions between this personage and, let's say, his character in the whole array of "Ocean's Twelve" movies or any other of his movies for any of that matter, I'll be very surprised. The premise of the film is highly unrealistic; the storyline is predictable and full of clichés. The message? - family is important; being alone stinks. Wow, that is quite a revelation!