Avatar in 3D

First off, this was the first time I saw a film in 3D, and it was... surprising. It's definitely a great effect, but it's not nearly as dramatic as I expected it to be. It does add depth to the image, but it's more subtle than I thought it would be. Unless there's a close up action scene, or unless something is put right in the foreground, you sort of forget about it, although it's always there. In general it just makes everything look more real, like looking at a person rather than a picture of a person (obviously, hence 3D).

Anyway, the film. In terms of sheer technical achievement, I'm not afraid to saw it's practically flawless. It. Looks. Amazing. The Na'vi look real. They do. Straight away you forget it's just digital effects. Of course, obviously you still know it's all fake, since these things don't actually exist, but that's different. You believe what you're seeing for the duration of the film, and that's the important bit. Anyone who says the digital effects look fake needs to point me to another film that did it better. There hasn't been a movie to date where digital creatures, plants, people (well, big blue humanoids), a whole world basically, have been put right in your face, where they're so open to scrutiny and examination, at such length. And it still works. Everything works. No other film has done what Avatar has done as well as Avatar has done it. Kong comes in second I would say. Not the whole film mind, because God knows some of that look really awkward, but Kong himself was and still is great. Basically, a lot of the film is devoted to showing off the world, and it's worth it in my opinion.

In terms of design, it was a little bit of a letdown. James Cameron's idea of an alien animal seemed to just be "Take an Earth animal, shave it, give it an extra pair of legs and an oddly shaped head". There's 3 or 4 creatures in the film like that. They also sound just like their Earth equivalents, which was somewhat distracting in the fantasy setting. Some are better though. The flying things are awesome, although I'd swear they just stole some of the dinosaur sounds fro Jurassic Park. And the plant life is cool too, although it's not surprising, since i would guess being cool was what it was designed for. It's all bio-luminescent, and touch sensitive. The moss lights up as the walk on it, leaves light up as the walk past them (this is only at night of course). There is a plot significance to all of that, but mainly it just looks nice.

One thing that I loved about the design of the film though was that it had the confidence to just do crazy shit without explaining it. Like floating mountains. Yeah, they have floating mountains. Why are they floating? I dunno. It's an alien world, crazy shit happens. I never questioned it, because I didn't care why they were floating. You just go along with it. Cameron is great that way. He does some ridiculous crap in his films and gets away with it because he's a great director and you trust him. The whacky shit that happens in this film doesn't feel whacky because you can tell Cameron is complete control and knows what he's doing.

One thing the trailers don't convey, or at least I didn't realize it from the trailers, is the scale of everything. The Na'vi are at least 12 foot tall, but because for most of the film you're either seeing all humans or all Na'vi, you never really remember that. In the Na'vi scenes, there's no reference point to suggest they're bigger than normal humans, so your brain just imagines them that size. Then when you see them together in a scene it's like "Oh yeah, they're really tall". It did make the final battle scene a bit cooler though, since only then do you get a proper idea of how everything relates in size.

But, judged simply as a story, it's nothing new. The plot held no surprises beyond establishing things that the trailers were slightly misleading about. A few plot elements were left out of the trailers, but nothing that really changes the story. Once you get about 15 minutes in, you know pretty much how it's going progress. Which isn't to say it's totally boring or un-compelling (that's a word now, remember it). It's done very well (it's Cameron after all), and the fantasy setting carries it nicely.

I've heard this called the new Star Wars and such, in terms of setting a technical precident at least. And while that may be true, although it's too soon to tell I think, and while I like Avatar a lot more than Star Wars, it will not be reaching the same cinematic and cultural status that Star Wars has reached. Not even close. Hell, not even close to something like The Matrix, and for one simple reason. It lacks iconic characters. The generic angry marine bad guy is no Darth Vader or Agent Smith. The hero is no Luke Skywalker or Neo. The heroine is no Leah or Trinity.

Also, special mention for how weird it was to see Sigourney Weaver as a 12 foot tall blue alien, particularly because it was still recognisable as Sigourney Weaver.

A_Nonny_Moose wrote:

Anyone who says the digital effects look fake needs to point me to another film that did it better..

P-Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3? Not that I'm saying Avatar's effects actually suck or look fake though. But Davy Jones and his crew blow my mind away more than the smurfs.

I forgot about those films, because they were pretty shit. Davy Jones was pretty awesome though, but I wouldn't say better than Avatar.

damn

you mjade me want to watch that movie despite my hatred of sci fi films

I'm not really a sci-fi fan either. But it's James Cameron. Terminator and Aliens are great sci-fi films, and so is this. Frankly Terminator and Aliens are slightly better films, but Avatar is still good.

I just saw it, and thought it was ****ing amazing. The story is fairly predictable yes, and you can see most plot developments coming a mile away, and while initilly it seems like a bit of a slow burner, it's never less than gripping, it's frequently thrilling, and you can't help but gasp at the artistry of it all. Seriously, the art design was jaw dropping, and like Nonny said, you soon forget about thinking of it in terms of CG, and just accept that it's real.

Awesome, just awesome.

SimianWonder wrote:

Seriously, the art design was jaw dropping

The 6-legs thing didn't bother you? That was the only thing that bugged me, visually, about the film. Pandora's equivalent of a horse is basically just an Earth horse but with 6 legs. Same with the monkeys and wild dog things. Just seemed a bit unimaginative.

I wouldn't say it bothered me on the whole, though I did find it odd that whilst most of the animals had six limbs the Na'vi had evolved with only four. It didn't affect my enjoyment of the film though, particularly when there was so much else to slacken your jaw.

That said though, I take your point about lack of iconic characters; the actors all did a fine job with their roles, but the characters themselves don't stand out. I'd expect Avatar to be remembered as one of those films that sets a bar for technical achievement a la Terminator 2 or Jurassic Park, rather than something like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings which trades on it's heroes and villains as much as it's setting, simply because effects will date, however unlikely that may seem watching the film at present, whereas a great story may potentially have never ending appeal.

Still, in the here and now, that was one of the best films I've seen in years, and the first since The Matrix that I'd happily pay money to sit through again the following day.

I think my favourite moment of the film was during the final battle scene, when...

Spoiler:

My other favourite moment was the introduction of Sigourney Weaver's avatar. Again, it was just weird to see her as a big blue alien. All the other characters who get one aren't that famous, so you don't know their faces as well and as such it's not really a big deal. You can kind of see that their avatars look like them, but whatever. But for Sigourney, it's just her face on a big blue person. That it's so obviously her and so recognisable is just freaky.

I loved all of it, even though you could see most of the story points coming, though granted, I didn't foresee the bit you mentioned above, simply because

Spoiler:

Also, as an aside, there was a featurette on some of the deleted scenes doing the rounds, and whilst a couple were really horrible and I'm glad they didn't make it, at least half of these would've been great. http://io9.com/5446538/everything-that-was-cut-from-avatar-sex-drugs-and-suicide

Eh, most of them seem cut out for good reason. The Earth scene would have made sense of the ending at least.

To be honest, I'm quite glad that didn't make it.

They should have left it in or taken out the humans-killed-the-earth thing that pops up at the end. One or the other.

I'd have simply left it at saying that humans were only there for the mining potential; anything involving the fate of earth wasn't really necessary.

Same. The animal legs thing sounds stupid as well. That would completely mess with the main character's whole situation.

Yeah, I think that's why it was cut. I simply took the line in the film about his 'real legs' as meaning his own legs rather than his avatar's, and I'm sure that was the thinking when they left that line in.

I'd keep that first attack bit out as well. It's better to start exploring and experiencing Pandora once Jake has his avatar.

Yeah, I agree completely. I'd have just liked to see more of the Na'vi stuff, like the scenes with Jake's avatar getting drunken and tripping out. I'm glad they left out the scene with Tsu'tey asking Jake to kill him as well; the importance of the Na'vi's 'hair' (if that's the term) was quite apparent without it being necessary to spell it out. It was quite nice to have a director with enough courage not to assume the audience are all morons, and not to feel the need to actually spell it out. Don't they say that a picture paints a thousand words?