James Cameron seems to be the king of hype these days. To his credit, his last work won him an Oscar and the highest grossing feature of all time. Yet he hasn’t made a movie in over a decade. No wonder every interested party has anticipated his next film so heavily. To garner further hype, nothing about his new film ‘Avatar‘ has leaked. Nothing that Mister Cameron hasn’t approved has hit the interwebs.
Finally after the months of anticipation for any shred of discovery, Cameron and 20th Century Fox released a trailer and an unprecedented event: releasing15 minutes of footage to the public to go see if they were lucky to get tickets. I was among the first to get a ticket to an IMAX 3D showing, and can report firsthand on what ‘Avatar’ is.
I was treated to six scenes from the first half of the film, to avoid spoilers of the ending.
SPOILERS AHEAD as I discuss what I saw on screen.
The first scene introduced the commanding officer of the planet Pandora. It was an expository speech to incoming troops to the planet, describing the danger that lurked beyond the base. While he tried to sound mean, the general came off as cliché and uninteresting, and was not a good beginning to capture the attention of a cinéphile. The 3D looked pretty good for a completely live action scene, but my friend mentioned that the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince footage looked even better in 3D.
The next scene brought Sigourney Weaver into the story as a scientist of some sort, who programs the main character, Jake Sully (a paraplegic veteran), into a machine that transports him into the body of his avatar, and 8 foot tall blue creature known as a Na’vi. They are indigenous to the planet and provide a vessel for humans to make contact with the wild. Sully gets transported into his avatars body, and enjoys disrupting the doctors as he tries out his legs. The CG of the avatar looks great, but it never seemed photo-realistic as it was announced to be. He interacts with live action well and looks believable while remaining CG.
We find ourselves in the jungle with Sully as the avatar as he is approaching dinosaur looking creatures. Sully undergoes a chase with another creature, and we are enveloped in the lush computer environment. This is the technology that has been raved about by all. The computer graphics look stunning as the entire world blends together quite well.
There doesn’t seem to be any live action as the next scene features Sully saved by a native Na’vi girl as she hunts creatures that are attacking him. This leads into even better looking environments of bioluminescent plants that light up the world. The world is spectacular and I went along for the ride. This scene leads into an argument with the girl, which seems to be the very next scene in the film.
The final scene was the most impressive and showed Sully attempting to tame a bird like thing, much like a dragon warrior. This scene in particular shows how advanced technology has come in a short time, with such a immersive environment with compelling action and sweeping camera moves. I can only hope the textures get refined a little more so that it looks even more lifelike.
The 3D looked spectacular when the CGI was on screen, but the live action scenes seemed choppy and drab. It didn’t have spectacular depth of field with the actors, and it simply looked like normal 3D, composed of layered images. Once the world of Pandora surrounds the lens, the magic of the movies kicks in. The environments, while not completely realistic, look gorgeous and feasible. Character movements are smooth and life-like.
The issue of seeing the footage is that I feel that I can predict where the story goes. Mankind discovers life, only to try and kill it. It’s not nearly as revolutionary as reported in the past, and it almost has lowered my expectations for the film itself. It’s not new or breathtakingly groundbreaking, but hopefully James Cameron and company finds a great way to put a twist on the tale.
More ‘Avatar’
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Comic Con Round-up – ‘Twilight,’ ‘TRON,’ ‘Avatar,’ ‘Alice,’ ‘Saw,’ ‘Iron Man’ + fan costumes
James Cameron talks about the anticipated ‘Avatar’ at Comic Con
Comic-Con recap vid with Tim Burton, RPattz & KStew and Stone Cold
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