THE Q80 MIX

A Kuwaiti Blog For News, Tips and Reviews (and other interesting stuff!)

 I finally got round to watching Avatar this weekend at the IMAX at Mall 360. Even though it’s been out for a while here in Kuwait , I have been waiting to watch it on 3D, which is really how it’s meant to be shown. So I was hoping 3D on IMAX would make it extra special.

Plot :

Almost impossible to explain in brief way so expect the following - Sci-Fi, fantasy, blue aliens which have some human features, humans impersonating the blue aliens (Avatars), humans attacking the aliens on their planet, aliens fighting back. Oh and throw in a couple of moral messages “Protect our environment” and “respect natural habitats of foreign people”.

 Verdict

 A while back I talked about Avatar after watching the trailer. At the time I said that I didn’t feel it looked anything special. How wrong I was !! The movie is simply breathtaking and the most visually stunning I have ever seen. It is a true epic in every sense. Original story, sweeping music, amazing action scenes, wonderful cinematography, fantastic and scary creatures and a truly magical world.

Even the acting, which usually suffers in these type of special effects movies, is good. If you like the Star Wars or Lord of The Rings movies you will absolutely love this. In my opinion it easily beats the last 3 Star Wars movies hands down - no question.

Avatar should definitely win the Oscar for Best Movie, I would say it is definitely a contender for Film Of The Decade. Don’t cheat yourself by watching this on regular cinema screen - the combination of 3D and IMAX is truly amazing. Watch it, watch it, watch it !!

Censor Watch : Unfortunately the censors decided to cut/black out a few scenes, mainly I think because the shape of the female aliens body in some scenes looks like a woman’s body. Ridiculous. The good news is that it doesn’t affect the story. Still annoying though.

Top 5 Tips for watching Avatar on the IMAX in Kuwait :

1. Book as early as you can to get the best seats. I booked 3 days in advance to get the seats I wanted (it was a holiday so I guess extra busy)
2. Arrive on time. The movie starts straight away, no commercials, no trailers.
3. Go for the seats near the back if you can. We were in the middle, 3^rd row from the back - perfect seats.
4. Try not to leave your seat during the movie, there is never a slow part and you will probably miss something important. 2 1/2 hours flies by.
5. The movie is not really for kids and actually there were very few kids in the cinema when we watched it.  

 Kuwait IMAX vs. London IMAX 

Watching Avatar was the first time I had been to the IMAX in Mall 360 and I was interested to see how it compared to the one in London . Well the sound is very good in Kuwait , but the screen although very big is maybe only 2/3 of the size of the one in London. The IMAX in London screen is so big it just makes you say WOW ! The one in Kuwait doesn’t do that. In fact even if you sit in the back row in IMAX London, you feel too close to the screen.

Also in terms of seating the one in London has a lot more seats. Of course price comes into it. The price of tickets here is KD4 vs approx KD 7 in London.

You can read my review on the IMAX in London [here]