Cirque Du Soleil's 'Toruk'

The excited, opening-night hum of the Brisbane Entertainment Centre foyer is quickly swallowed up as we entered into the mystical blue world of Pandora.

The story takes place 3000 years before the events of James Cameron's 2009 film Avatar. Cirque Du Soleil's Toruk - The First Flight takes us on the journey of Ralu and Entu, two Na'vi boys on the brink of adulthood who are forced to undertake a quest to find the five talismans that would allow them to tame the beast Toruk and save Pandora from an impending catastrophe.

As they proceed on their journey we get to explore the other parts of Pandora through stunning design imagery projected across the massive stage, taking up the entire arena floor, magically transforming the landscape from barren landscapes to lush forests using 3D mapping of over 40 projectors placed on the roof of the arena.

Complementing this is the brilliant production design. When the performers emerge like giant flowers that bloom, with some suspended through harnesses, the scene was simply breathtaking. The sacred Tree of Souls, as seen in the movie, served as the luminous centrepiece for the finale. The costuming is beautiful and the performances are, as always, brilliant. The actors channelled animalistic qualities as they flew across the stage throwing in all kinds of capoeira and parkour-style tricks.

The aerial performers stole the show, entangling themselves in ropes and silks, tumbling and somersaulting in the air and the scene with impressive feats of contortion and balance atop a spinning skeleton was particularly memorable.

However, the weakest point of the show, which proved to be the biggest barrier preventing the audience's total emersion into the story was... well, the story. The "story" seemed oddly juvenile and plays out more like a device to just get you from set to set so you can see the next bit of design prowess.

At times, sequences dragged a tad too long but it was made up for the fact that everything was ridiculously impressive to look at. The pacing felt a little off and the story simply wasn't intriguing enough to justify it. If you love Cirque, you will still love Toruk; all the traditional Cirque elements are here in full force and visually it is spectacular. But much like Cameron's original movie, there's a whole heap of flash that would've been set off by a more thoughtful story.

Definitely worth a look. Kids, in particular, who enjoyed the film will really love this.