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Avatar Day
23 or 24 minutes worth of 3-D Avatar footage were shown at Comic-Con this afternoon. And it should come as no surprise to report that this taste of James Cameron's 3-D action fantasy, set on a foreign planet and involving a primal conflict between militaristic humans and a race of ten-foot-tall aliens called Na'vi, played serious wowser. As in "Jesus, this is something...oh, wow!...crap, this is new...oh, that's cool...this is so friggin' out there and vivid and real...love it all to hell."
Cameron announced at the end of the presentation that the rest of the world will have a chance to sample Avatar in a similar way on Friday, August 21, which he called "Avatar Day." On that day IMAX theatres coast to coast (and, I presume, in various foreign nations) will show about 15 minutes worth of 3-D IMAX footage of Avatar to the public for free. I guess the footage will be shown at successive shows all day and into the night, and that some kind of ticket reservations system will be set up.
20th Century Fox will open Avatar all over on 12.18.09.
The 3-D photography that I saw this afternoon is clean and needle-sharp and easy on the eyes, and the CG animation looks as realistic and organically genuine as anything anyone might imagine, and which certainly seems to represent the best we've seen thus far.
6,000 people watched the show inside the San Diego Convention Center's great Hall H, and then sat for a brief but informative presentation by Cameron, producer Jon Landau and costars Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang with a video apearance by costar Sam Worthington.
Cameron described the film as both a meditation on the wrongness of any effort by any military to conquer and suppress people in their native land, and a sci-fi adventure that will appeal to the proverbial 14 year-old boy in all of us. (Girls too.)
Set in the 22nd Century, Avatar (20th Century Fox, 12.18) is an allegory piece about militaristic/industrial-minded humans messing with and thinking about destroying a race of tall blue warrior aliens called Na'vi, who are peaceful unless attacked. In order to head off conflict between the Na'vi and the U.S. military, Weaver's botanist character invents a technology that genetically engineers human/Na'vi hybrids, called Avatars.
The story involves a crippled Marine named Jake Sully (Worthington) volunteering to be transformed into an Avatar on Pandora in order to mingle with and understand the Na'vi. In so doing he falls in love with a Na'vi princess (Saldana) and gets all caught up in the conflict between her people and the bullshit U.S. military.
I was transported, blown away, melted down, reduced to adolescence, etc. I mean, I saw some truly great stuff.
But I need to share one thing. As drop-dead awesome and mind-blowing as Avatar is in terms of super-sophisticated CG animation -- a realm that looks as real as anything sitting outside your window or on the next block or next continent -- the bulk of it does appear to be happening in an all-animated world.
Which means that after the first-act, live-human footage (i.e., laying out the plot basics, preparation for the Na'vi transformation, etc.) the film seems to basically be a top-of-the-line animated action-thriller.
Which means that once the visual climate and atmosphere of animation begins to settle in, we'll be watching something that's cool but one step removed from a "real" world. Which means that for people like me, Avatar, beginning with the portion of the film in which the animation pretty much takes over, may not finally feel like a really solid and true-blue high-throttle experience because -- yes, I realize this dates me -- it lacks a certain biological completeness and trustworthiness.
To put it another way the visual dazzle element will be wondrous, but the trust element (a reference to Werner Herzog's statement about things have gotten to a point at which audiences don't trust their eyes any more) will be in constant "hold."
I'm saying this knowing, of course, that Avatar appears to do a truly amazing job of bridging the gulf between CG and reality, but for me hard-drive compositions will always be hard-drive compositions -- they aren't what God created on His/ Her own. And never the twain shall meet.
Here's Luke Y. Thompson's description of the Avatar footage on Deadline Hollywood Daily.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 23, 2009 at 5:23 PM
comment #1
fausti
says ...
That sounds very promising! Damn, I can't wait to see this for myself!
Posted by fausti
at July 23, 2009 6:33 PM
comment #2
CitizenKanedforChewingGum
says ...
M. Bay eat your heart out!
Posted by CitizenKanedforChewingGum
at July 23, 2009 6:40 PM
comment #3
Alboone
says ...
I so hope this movie rocks the house! Sci-Fi needs to be restored back to its grander roots. Holy bug shit I cannot fucking wait for this to come out!!!!
Posted by Alboone
at July 23, 2009 6:42 PM
comment #4
Alboone
says ...
Yeah Fuck M. Bay! That cocksucker better show his ass up on the 21st and see how its done. Its the characters stupid!!!!
Posted by Alboone
at July 23, 2009 6:47 PM
comment #5
York "Budd" Durden
says ...
Yowsers!!!! Is this a franchise??? Is there a logline for Avatar 2 yet???????
Posted by York "Budd" Durden
at July 23, 2009 6:49 PM
comment #6
York "Budd" Durden
says ...
Yowsers!!!! Is this a franchise??? Is there a logline for Avatar 2 yet???????
Posted by York "Budd" Durden
at July 23, 2009 6:51 PM
comment #7
Travis Crabtree
says ...
Did uniformed security thugs tackle you to the floor for taking pictures?
Sounds interesting in a Sci-Fi sense, but jeez that tired old hippy shit sounds tedious.
Let me guess, Weaver's group is a rag-tag bunch of rock 'n rollers who don't follow the strict doctrines of the stuffy, borderline psychotic, buzz-cut military beasts who want to kill! kill! kill! until the benevolent aliens teach us that it's all about love, baby.
Posted by Travis Crabtree
at July 23, 2009 7:08 PM
comment #8
larry braverman
says ...
God also didn't create matte paintings, sets, and makeup.
Posted by larry braverman
at July 23, 2009 7:52 PM
comment #9
DeeZee
says ...
Judging by Thompson's description, it's gonna be a geek bomb in the vein of Serenity. And it doesn't help that Rothman likes it, either. I believe Jeff was impressed by it, but then he was also impressed by King Kong, too. And no, I'm not knocking his opinion, since I did like the latter flick on a visual level for a short time. But, like Kong, it probably doesn't deliver on the action, and it'll be more about making some sort of over-priced art film than a popcorn movie.
Posted by DeeZee
at July 23, 2009 8:00 PM
comment #10
Ray
says ...
Not to sound like Jeff here, but I'm increasingly tired of the CGI bullshit. Aside from certain instances of CGI performance - JURASSIC dinosuars, Gollum - CGI effects almost always take me out of the experience in some mysterious way.
It's weird. I almost prefer crappy blue-screened models from the eighties to this CGI tsunami horseshit that smears across every single Hollywood film. It's blinding and distracting at the same time.
Posted by Ray
at July 23, 2009 8:11 PM
comment #11
p.Vice
says ...
National Avatar Day? You have to be kidding.
I was sad to see Stephen Lang's name mentioned once and then disappear into the ether. Public Enemies actually had some life when he was onscreen.
Posted by p.Vice
at July 23, 2009 8:13 PM
comment #12
byanyother
says ...
King Kong was a GREAT movie.
Posted by byanyother
at July 23, 2009 9:26 PM
comment #13
storymark
says ...
Funny that Jeff is higher on this footage than the guys at AICN and Chud.
Which means he'll probably loathe it roughly one week after posting a positive review.
Posted by storymark
at July 23, 2009 10:22 PM
comment #14
DeeZee
says ...
Jeez, now they're pegging the budget @ $230 billion! http://www.riskybusinessblog.com/2009/07/james-cameron-teasing-avatar-for-free-on-imax-3d-screens.html Does anyone not get that Abyss in Space has no place in a market dominated by Harry Potter and Transformers?
Posted by DeeZee
at July 23, 2009 10:29 PM
comment #15
DeeZee
says ...
billion=million.
Posted by DeeZee
at July 23, 2009 10:30 PM
comment #16
Scott Mendelson
says ...
Am I the only one who thinks this sounds disturbingly similar to Battle For Terra?
Posted by Scott Mendelson
at July 24, 2009 12:37 AM
comment #17
CitizenKanedforChewingGum
says ...
"billion=million."
Perfectly encapsulates the D.Z. (real, fake, what have you) "mentality" in a nutshell.
Posted by CitizenKanedforChewingGum
at July 24, 2009 4:16 AM
comment #18
Cde.
says ...
Scott Mendelson: Battle for Terra may well have been a cash-in attempt, given that the early Avatar scriptment has been floating around online since 1996.
Posted by Cde.
at July 24, 2009 4:30 AM
comment #19
BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey
says ...
Yeah, it seems CHUD and AICN are both somewhat disappointed. I think the comments from the likes of Soderbergh have built up the hype in a way that would be impossible to live up to. General consensus seems to be that it's impressive, but it's just impressive and not revolutionary. Whatevs. It'll still be worth a punt. I'll just dial down my expectations and hopefully be pleasantly surprised come December.
Posted by BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey
at July 24, 2009 5:29 AM
comment #20
Rich S.
says ...
After the early reviews, I don't think I'll be willing to pay a premium price (aside from the normal IMAX markup) to see it. It sounds like the next logical step after Beowulf.
Posted by Rich S.
at July 24, 2009 6:33 AM
comment #21
MilkMan
says ...
Nerds.
Posted by MilkMan
at July 24, 2009 7:16 AM
comment #22
BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey
says ...
Was the 3D all spiffy? When I saw Harry Potter at the weekend on IMAX 3D, it wasn't absolutely amazing. Some of it was a bit out of focus and some of the characters had a sort of shadow image behind them. The glasses themselves looked exactly like the ones you'd get at theme parks since the early 1990s. I thought the technology had been advanced since then?
Posted by BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey
at July 24, 2009 7:20 AM
comment #23
actionman
says ...
highly skeptical of this project
I really think it's going to underperform at the domestic box office
critics will be LINING UP to take down the first feature in over a decade from Cameron
I'm sure it'll offer some cool set pieces, but I just don't think it will live up to the hype
I hope I am really, really wrong
Posted by actionman
at July 24, 2009 10:30 AM
comment #24
Yermo D
says ...
I saw the footage at the con... pretty mind blowing. There's a hell of a lot of criticism out there already for a movie that hasn't been released yet... I'm pretty sure everyone and their mother is going to be impressed by this film. Cameron, as far as I'm concerned, has not made a bad movie yet. I think it's going to hold true for Avatar. I'm really excited to see more on Imax and when the film is released.
Posted by Yermo D
at July 24, 2009 11:43 AM
comment #25
BQuarrey
says ...
All the hype has been about the mind-blowing special effects, but the more I learn about it, I'm really getting excited about the story now (not to mention the return of Sigourney Weaver!)....
Posted by BQuarrey
at July 24, 2009 11:58 AM
comment #26
Juan E
says ...
Avatar is gonna rock!!! The 3D technology looks out of this world! And Cameron (unlike some other directors) does not neglect a story and acting in his film making. Bring it on!
Posted by Juan E
at July 24, 2009 12:08 PM
comment #27
Samantha Q
says ...
Looks like Avatar is the ONE we've been waiting for.... fantastic, epic story told by a visionary director using groundbreaking F/X technology and excellent cast of actors!
Posted by Samantha Q
at July 24, 2009 12:26 PM
comment #28
Lewis F
says ...
I've never been a huge fan of 3D, but if anybody can pull off a super cool, gripping scifi flick with groundbreaking tech it's Cameron..... Avatar Day here I come
Posted by Lewis F
at July 24, 2009 12:34 PM
comment #29
Rene G
says ...
Cameron's track record and commitment to making great films that don't rely on technology, but rather use it elevate a fantastic story and strong human cast, should make Avatar well worth the wait and hype. Wild, giant mutant CGI horses couldn't keep me away!
Posted by Rene G
at July 24, 2009 12:52 PM
comment #30
frankbooth
says ...
I can't tell if all the posts after Actionman's are plants, or parodies of plants. There so over-the-top and obvious I suspect a regular of having a laugh.
Zoe Saldana plays an alien? So does this mean it's an Andy Serkis mocap performance and that she's not really "in" the movie?
Posted by frankbooth
at July 24, 2009 3:35 PM
comment #31
DeeZee
says ...
Yermo: There'd probably be less criticism if Cameron would just leak more footage sooner, IMAX be damned. And he did make a bad movie: Piranha 2. Or, depending on how you feel about his 90s output versus his 80s output, three bad movies. And a crappy Sci-Fi Channel production with Jessica Alba which makes Firefly look hi-tech!
Juan: Cameron can write when he keeps the premise basic. When he's obsessed with details, he tends to lose the audience.
Samantha: I'm sure that's what they said about Dune once, too.
Rene: What are you talking about? Cameron's whole career revolves around technology! He just makes it blend in better than other directors. [Dark Angel excluded.]
Posted by DeeZee
at July 24, 2009 7:27 PM
comment #32
YRG
says ...
Given that thus will be marketed as the movie you have to see in theatres and the ticket price will be between $15-20, I'll probably wait for DVD.
Posted by YRG
at July 24, 2009 8:48 PM
comment #33
YRG
says ...
thus=this
Posted by YRG
at July 24, 2009 8:49 PM
comment #34
markj
says ...
@YRG: Watching a movie on TV is like being kissed over the telephone. Especially a movie like Avatar.
Posted by markj
at July 25, 2009 5:23 AM
comment #35
free games
says ...
Sounds promising.
Posted by free games
at November 1, 2009 9:40 AM
comment #36
lindatan
says ...
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Posted by lindatan
at January 18, 2010 1:56 AM
comment #37
aris
says ...
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Posted by aris
at January 31, 2010 11:33 PM
comment #38
gaintwee
says ...
A 30 first choice on opening day would be pretty damn strong. A very good opening weekend. Something in the $65 or $70 million range, I'm guessing. Or higher...I don't know. Up to $100 million in no time, and past $200 million two or three weeks later. But this is a film that has to do lots of repeat business and rake it in like it's almost never been raked in before. Who isn't going to want to see this film? No one. Everybody will want to check it out. But how many will want to see twice or thrice? That's the question. Nursing school AND Civil engineering degree AND Phd degree
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Posted by gaintwee
at February 8, 2010 11:12 PM
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