Well I attended the sneak previews in 34th street Loews IMAX Theater for the 16 minutes of footage from Avatar, the highly anticipated new sci-fi epic from James Cameron. The IMAX 3-D presentation began with a filmed introduction by Cameron, thanking the everyone for joining him for Avatar Day. The first clip begins in the briefing room of the marines. The Drill Sergeant explains that hes in charge of making sure his soldiers don’t get killed in combat but he won’t be able to accomplish that task. The speech ends with Jake (Sam Worthington), our main character and Avatar “test pilot”, entering the room via a wheelchair who was paralyzed in combat apparently.
The second scene shows Dr. Grace places Jake into a CAT scan tube of sorts and then uploads Jake’s brain to the Avatar, something similar to Neo being jacked into the matrix. Jake’s Avatar awakens on an exam table and Jake starts to learn how to stand and walk all over again. Jake gets a little carried away with the cool factor of being tall as hell and pushes the Dr away and even more so he doesn’t realize he has a tail and has been hitting a nurse with it. He pushes his way out of the lab and through a door into the blinding sun of the outside world and the scene ends.
In the next scene Jake finds himself in the way of an amazing alien creature best described as a rhino and a triceratops mixed into one with weird but colorful patterns all over its skin. I come to realize this is where they most likely glow in the dark but we got to wait and see when the film comes out. Dr. Grace who is in her own Avatar instructs Jake not to run because it’s challenging Jake to see whose king of the territory. The beast prepares to run him down, as Jake grows some balls and decided to run toward it. The beast stops and quickly turns back, but not because Jake trash talking but because behind Jake there is a creature more dangerous and is about to bite his head off. This beast roars and begins to start chasing Jake through the most impressive CGI forest I’ve ever seen in my life. At times and still am, I’m wondering if they filmed on a set or is this truly all CGI. The new monster rips through trees like kindle as it tries to eat Jake. Jake eventually gets under a tree but the monster eventually claws right through it and the scene ends as Jake jumps out of the way.
The next clip shows Jake at a camp being attacked by much smaller creatures then the last clip. They seem like stray dogs. As he being attack Neytiri, a Na’vi played by Zoe Saldana who I just looked up cause after the I saw the preview I still wasn’t sure who was playing this beautiful female alien but was shocked to find out it was Zoe from new Star Trek. Armed with a bow and arrow, she takes down these creatures. She looks at Jake and gives him a disgusted look and finishes off one of the remaining dog monsters as she whispers something in her native tongue. She walks away angry and Jake tries to stop her to thank her but she pushes him away and tell him not to thank her because what she did was wrong and that the creatures did not deserve to die. He asks her why save him and she brings up that she feels he has a good heart but that hes just like a child who doesn’t know any better. The best part of the scene is the environment, as Neytiri turns off the fire that Jake set, you finally see the beauty that Cameron has made for us. Everything in the forest glows in the dark in a beautiful neon colors including the freckles on Jakes and Neytiri face. It’s an epic thing to view and I couldn’t really give you a great detail without downplaying the sequence.
The final sequence, Jake now a member of Neytiri’s tribe is being instructed on how to get a ride. This is no ordinary ride but some form of dragon but is different than anything I’ve seen or read about in books. Jake is told the only way to gain its trust by wrestling it into submission, the other warriors are egging him on and for a few moments you think this is live-action until you see the scenery that is something we know as impossible. Jake finally takes control of this dragon by putting something down its ear that connects to it like vines. Neytiri tells Jake he has to take it for a flight to completely earn the dragons control. Jake jumps off the cliff in a very awkward way and crashes into cliff, dragons face first while trying to learn how to steer it without have to die first. Eventually, Jake gets tired of his ride’s attitude and screams at it like a child to fly straight and the clip slowly fades off. Small epic clips start to show as the screening is coming to a climax with a fantastic musical score. As it finally ends with the final scene being of two Na’vi about to kiss the words AVATAR transition on the screen and the lights come back up with the audience applauding.
My reaction: I like it alot, its the best CGI I’ve ever seen, what James has done is unbelievable. The first realistic humanoid alien with out it having to look like a bug. The texture on the skin is unbelievable and the one thing I always found bad about using CGI is that the skin is very plastic and shiny. You can see examples in Matrix Reloaded or for the best film to really see it in is Catwoman. This seems to have been removed, also the poorly animated eye animation has bee finally done properly. It was always the eyes that ruined any full on CGI film. Beowulf was the first to try and take it on and almost did but still had issues. Avatar is the first film to ever do it perfectly. You can see the emotion in the characters. I think the movie is gonna be a huge epic film but the problem is people have over hyped it even further then Cameron wanted. So I suggest to anyone whose going to go see the film that this is not the next huge evolution in filming but that its the first step into that future.
The teaser trailer was released the day before the preview. check it out on the bottom and tell me what you think. The teaser trailer it looks amazing but remember the movie was designed for IMAX 3D.
