Geekscape Impressions – 15 Minutes With Avatar
15 minutes. All we get of Avatar right now is fifteen minutes, and fifteen minutes wasn’t nearly enough. James Cameron’s latest opus of alien and man meeting has been in production since 20th Century Fox opened its doors in 1935. Okay maybe not that long, but this is a movie Cameron has been talking about for the last 10 years. Right on the heels of another movie he did. What was that again? Oh yeah, Titanic. It’s been far too long for him to be away from feature films, but man the wait sure looks like it has been worth it.
Avatar is the story of the human colonization of the planet Pandora. On this planet reside the indigent species of humanoids the Na’vi. The Na’vi are not quietly accepting the human occupation on Na’vi and a military presence is growing from the humans who need a new home. Into this enters Jake Sully a paraplegic who wishes to enter a program where he can occupy a human Na’vi hybrid avatar to regain his ability to walk.
Going to a sold out Imax auditorium in Universal City I got the impression I was going to a movie premiere, instead of just an extended preview of James Cameron’s new alien epic. But, when the lights went down, there was no one else in the room.
The preview opened with a brief intro from Cameron in three dimensions, greatly disappointing however was the lack of a Jim Cameron beard in 3D. The presentation consisted entirely of footage from the first half of the movie and contained in Cameron’s words, “no spoilers.” Footage from the scenes shown is what makes up the bulk of the teaser trailer, albeit extremely cut down.
The 1st scene we were treated to was a group of marines being briefed about their new hostile home Pandora. The 3D in this scene alone was threw me a little. The amount of depth added to the film in a simple briefing scene was really amazing. A security commander is pacing along the aisle way instructing the new recruits that their time on Pandora will be worse than hell. “Hell will be a vacation you can take when your time here on Pandora is up.” Col. Quatrich, character actor Stephen Lang, is visually imposing with three scars running across his face as if he just lost a fight with wolverine. In the trailer he turns so quickly he looks like an aged Michael Bien. Jake Sully, Terminator Salvation’s Sam Worthington, enters in a wheelchair and gets a cursory glance from the Colonel. He obviously was not expected, at least not in a wheelchair.
The next scene was the download of Jake into his Na’vi Avatar. Sigourney Weaver comes back to work with James Cameron for the first time since Aliens, and unfortunately the glimpses of her still leave her character pretty vague. All we know is that she is both the doctor overseeing the Avatars and she downloads into one herself. The footage of Jakes download is the only time in the 15 minute preview where the 3D seems gimmicky, but a few 1st person perspective shots as Jake awakes in a new body really show off the fun that can be had with 3D. The scene continues with Jake being so excited that he can walk, the doctors can’t control or contain him. This also showed us the Na’vi Avatars for the first time. I can only describe them as a supermodel-Smurf-cat-people. While they are gorgeous to look at, a pang of worry swept over me as I flashed back to Jar Jar Binks. Standing next to a live actor, the difference between live action and animation is still as clear as it was in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The promise of a seamless computer animated character isn’t happening in Avatar unfortunately.
Jake’s first interactions with the wildlife of Pandora were the focus of the next two pieces of footage. In the first, Jake confronts a large rhinoceros looking creature. The animal is rendered very beautifully. However, the animation feels too pretty and just a bit too slick. It borders on cartoony. Cameron’s use of 3d shines through though with the chase of Jake by a dog-esque creature that looks as if it was designed by Guillermo De Toro. The following two scenes featured our first glimpse at Zoe Saldana’s Na’vi character Neytiri. Again, a very beautiful and well designed character, but visually there is no reality to latch onto and allow you to feel connected to the Avatars and Na’vi. The characters voice is provided by Zoe Saldana, but her movements harkens back images of Legolas more than a bad ass alien. Plot wise though the scenes are used to display the Na’vi’s deep resentment of being forced to kill.
The final scene we were shown was a bizarre beast rider courtship ritual. Apparently the Na’vi have the ability to bond with flying dinosaur-like reptiles. My mind was filled with images of the “Dino-Riders” cartoon when I realized Jakes intention on a Pandoran mountain top. The flying creatures and the Na’vi choose each other and form a bond of lifetime servitude from the dinosaur, this is essentially the scene where Jake, “Dances with Wolves.” It’s in this scene that I felt as if I was watching an extended cut scene from the latest Final Fantasy or Resident Evil game. Don’t get me wrong, the animation looks gorgeous, but a week after District 9 was able to, for the most part, integrate computer animation and live action beautifully, I expected James Cameron to be ahead of the game, not lagging behind.
The rest of the preview just had tiny clips from the trailer in 3D to round it out, and some of those Marine toys look brilliant in 3D. Bottom line, even with a few speed bumps and minor disappointments, seeing this footage has allowed me to readjust my expectations of Avatar. Avatar will be at the very least a beautiful film and now I can look forward to what it is going to be, not what my expectations had led me to believe.
