The day has finally come. James Cameron has returned to science fiction with Avatar. After months of hearing exciting praise from tremendous filmmakers (Ridley Scott) and hearing the notable reaction from Comic Con, general audiences have been able to enter the world of Pandora. 20th Century Fox just unveiled sixteen minutes of 3D footage across the world in IMAX theaters. If you got the chance to check out the footage then you surely know that watching the trailer on a computer screen doesn’t do the film justice.
My hopes and expectations for Avatar were quite grounded while walking into theater. It was a fact that the footage would be undoubtedly impressive, but I wasn’t expecting anything to be mind blowing. That expectation was met. This may not be the revolutionary film that many were/are hoping for, but it is a huge step forward. There are many tremendous aspects such as the non-gimmicky use of 3D. It’s not distracting and objects are not constantly being thrown at you. This is definitely the first film to fully use 3D to enhance and add detail to the film. Cameron also seems to have taken motion capture to a whole new level.
Read the rest of this article below
The footage started out being based in the real world then transitions to the CG world of Pandora. Once Worthington’s character Jake Sully takes full control of a Na’vi he is sent to Pandora. Thankfully, this transition from live action to pure CGI doesn’t feel very jarring. The first scene that reveals this detailed world includes Jake being chased down by a wild animal. This is a very well executed action sequence with a great sense of geography. Unfortunately, that scene starts out with Jake having some questionable dialogue — He gives the “yeah I’m bad, you better walk away” shtick. This line is also similar to another scene where Jake tries to tame a winged creature and says “lets dance.” Some of the dialogue came off a little cliche, and it was the most disappointing part of the footage. They aren’t bad in context and they do work due to Worthington’s charisma, but those lines still come off somewhat cheesy.
The real factor that had a genuine sense of awe is the facial work of the Na’vi. Motion capture is an exemplary technology that hasn’t been developed to its fullest extent, especially when it comes to facial work. Robert Zemeckis faced this problem with The Polar Express and fixed parts of this issue with Beowulf, but Avatar takes it to a whole new level. The range of expression that the Na’vi have is astonishing. From the footage presented, they have conquered the feat of making motion capture characters show consistent general emotions. The Na’vi design isn’t by any means photo realistic and it does come across as simply good CGI, but its still impressive. The facial work is the most impressive factor as well as the fact that the actors make CG rendered aliens feel like genuine characters.
While there are a few quibbles to be had with what was presented, it was still an overall excellent experience. It was difficult to not feel fully immersed in this beautifully detailed world Cameron has crafted. The 3D actually added depth to the visual aesthetic, the CGI was terrific and the chase sequence showed that the action will be great. With only seeing a few scenes it would be a lie to say that Avatar will be amazing, but it would be wrong to say that it won’t be a very good film.
What did you think of the Avatar footage?