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SDCC: Avatar 3-D footage wows Comic-Con
After an afternoon at San Diego's Comic-Con packed with amazing new revelations, including a first look at images from Tron and clips from New Moon, James Cameron offered fans the first-ever look at footage from his forthcoming, highly-anticipated film Avatar. And while his prerecorded comments at yesterday's IMAX event might have suggested that the filmmaker's confidence outweighed his capabilities, rest assured that the 20 minutes or so of material he screened more than lives up to expectations in a full 3-D screening this afternoon.
The footage drew cheers of wild appreciation from the crowd, and Cameron, clearly pleased, said, "Everybody always asks: So where've you been? Well, that's where I've been. Pandora."
The first scene introduces Jake (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic grunt who serves on the remote planet of Pandora under Commander Miles Quarich, a gruff military man who reminds one of familiar drill sergeants like R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket. Jake jokingly absorbs Quarich's motivational speech about the sad fact that not all of his fellow soldiers will survive the battle against the Na'vi, an indigenous race of alien creatures: "nothing like an old school safety brief to put your mind at ease." Enlisting for the military's avatar program, which allows the personality of humans to be projected into clones of the Na'vi people, Jake lies down in a tomblike chamber where his brain is connected to that of his designated host. Interestingly, he and his companions' avatars look remarkably similar to their human counterparts, even though they are in fact tall, blue-skinned creatures with tails, whose primitivism is exceeded only by their grace and beauty.
After a literally shaky start in his new body, which affords Jake the chance to walk, he descends to the surface of Pandora, where he is endlessly fascinated by the flora and fauna. While exploring a patch of indigenous, orange conical flowers that retract when touched, he accidentally reveals himself to a nearby creature that design-wise seems to combine a hammerhead shark with a prehistoric triceratops. Ushered by his fellow Avatar, Grace (Sigourney Weaver), to stand his ground, he scares off the creature and its herd, only to discover that what in fact drove them away was an even more fearsome creature, a black, reptilian monster that chases him deep into the forest. Narrowly escaping by distracting the creature with his backpack, he falls to the ground, and the scene comes to an end.
Cutting next to a shot of Jake alone in the rainforest, he tries to hunt, or perhaps protect himself with a spear. High above in the trees, an actual Na'vi native, stealthily aims a bow and arrow at him and plans to kill him. Before she shoots, however, a small, wispy jellyfish-like creature floats down and perches on the end of her arrow. Mysteriously enchanted by the creature, she lowers her weapon as Jake wanders further into the lush vegetation. Before long, however, he is attacked by a band of small creatures who look and act like wild dogs. The female Na'vi, whose name is Natiri (Zoe Saldana), bravely saves Jake's life, twisting and turning in a balletic display of athleticism. But when he approaches her to thank her for saving his life, she reprimands him, calling him a baby who knows not what he does.
He challenges her, asking why then she saved him from death, and she explains that "he has a strong heart." As he follows her back to the treehouse community where she lives, more of those jellyfish creatures float down and swarm him, which seems to indicate that he is indeed a special person even among these magical beings. But before this is explored, the footage cuts to a scene in which Jake and Natiri are training to tame these large winged creatures, like a cross between a Nazgul and a horse. Negotiating a narrow cliff that runs beneath a waterfall, Jake emerges onto a cliff face where a herd of pterodactyl-like monsters are shrieking at the Na'vi creatures who have invaded their territory. After being told that his supposed "mate" would be the creature that would try to kill him, Jake challenges one of the creatures and it responds.
After the two of them grapple with one another for a few minutes, Jake successfully mindmelds with the beast by lassoing its ear and weaving his own animal tendrils into its. He is told that he now has control of the creature, and when it is suggested that he tell it to fly, it promptly dives off the cliff face and clumsily begins weaving in and around its fellow flying monsters. But just as he seems destined to crash land atop the beast's back, he demands that the creature fly straight, at which point it begins gracefully gliding through the air. Jake, empowered as he controls the creature, instructs it to bank left, and the screen goes to black as he flies off into Pandora's expansive landscape.
Even such a thorough description fails to do justice to the footage: This truly is something unlike anything any filmmaker has ever created, both technically and artistically. The images themselves are breathtaking in their beauty - as when Jake, intoxicated by this new world, runs free and excited through a landscape that looks as if it's been shot only with black lights. Technically, the 3D looks immaculate, and is fully immersive while not sacrificing the visceral quality that Cameron's action scenes classically possess. But the performances are complete, and the scenes are not purely a technical virtuosity; Worthington, Saldana and Weaver (among others) do a brilliant job investing the characters with depth and emotional dimension.
As the panel came to a close, Cameron revealed that even non-attendees will soon get an opportunity to at least some of the footage from the film prior to release, when he shows 15 minutes of material absolutely for free at IMAX 3D and regular 3-D theaters across the globe. But even if he showed nothing between now and the film's December 18 release date, Cameron has proven that his film shows all signs of being worth the 12-year wait, and that Avatar promises to be one of the biggest and most groundbreaking films of the year, if not all time.
By goddogx at 1:31 AM ON 07/24/09
Avatar promises to be one of the biggest and most groundbreaking films of the year, if not all time.
hmmm. do we have extreme fanboyism here? it's hard to imagine that 20 minutes of footage can lead to such hyperbole! and we still have nearly 5 months to go lol.
By nate9111 at 6:47 AM ON 07/24/09
Mark my words this will let you down they always do!!!! Think the worst any final product may be a nice suprise for you.
People that say lol are donks
By miles316 at 8:14 AM ON 07/24/09
Trailer, trailer, trailer, trailer
By Rainverse at 2:15 PM ON 07/24/09
I have never, in all my life, read so many negative comments from people. NOTHING makes you happy. All of you are very sad people and you just need to stop watching movies all together. I'm not just talking about these posts and this story. I'm talking about all of them. It's amazing. Seriously, STFU... I'm not saying you're not entitled to your opinion, but it just seems like nothing will ever satisfy most of you, so that being the case, move on. Do something else. Try reading or something.
By AngryJonny at 5:22 PM ON 07/24/09
Reading sucks!!!!1
No, just kidding. I love reading. :)
I, for one, am really impressed that Cameron still has it. After Titanic, he could have just coasted (or what would be coasting for him). But to devote so much time to this in order to push way past the boundaries of what we know and to be successful, apparently, is commendable.
I'm really looking forward to Avatar.
(Heh-heh... the letters in my Captcha are B-E-M. Scifi joke.)
By RGaston at 5:45 PM ON 07/24/09
There is indeed a lot of hype here, don't you think a director with Cameron's vision and track record would have spent years on making a film that won't be wildly entertaining, if not ground breaking? It is going to be fantastic!!!
By Juan E at 5:52 PM ON 07/24/09
I'm no "fanboy" but I know James Cameron is one director who doesn't rely solely on flashy F/X to make a movie so he can take a moviegoer's $$. He has shown he knows how to use CGI tech to maximize storytelling without losing action, suspense and the human element. Avatar is going to rock!
By Squidoosh! at 6:04 PM ON 07/24/09
I agree... so much hate out there, and I can see hate being spread about complete morons... but people like Cameron who have always made groundbreaking films... it's kinda sad really. There will always be people for whom everything sucks, period. For myself, I saw the footage at the Con and I had to pick up my lower jaw from the floor. At worst, this is going to be the best, most realistic CG you've ever seen. It's not going to suck, I promise. And beyond that, the story looks good, the character development and creature design is awesome, plus James Cameron and Sigourney Weaver... I think it's pretty much going to melt our collective brains... not just the CG, but the whole concept.
By guiyermo at 6:09 PM ON 07/24/09
I don't like expecting so much out of a movie to begin with... people forget we're dealing with human beings here. As far as human beings go, you may or may not like Cameron but he's made some pretty bad-ass movies so far. I think if any of us were him, we'd be pretty proud of ourselves so... 'nuff hate already. And don't forget all the talented people who worked on this movie (it's not just Cameron's gig). Avatar won't be the second coming, but I still think it's going to be awesome. I'm really psyched for this.
By AngryJonny at 9:21 AM ON 07/25/09
Squidoosh!,
You actually got to see the Avatar footage at the SDCC? Lucky! (Getting to go to the con at all is great, too!)
I'm just curious to know what the faces look like in the sneak-peak? Do the eyes have that "soulless" look like in Beowulf? (Although they're almost there with being able to recreate that spark of life in the eyes, too, so maybe Avatar will be able to. Little bit disturbing, the idea.)
By G0m3r at 5:09 AM ON 07/26/09
Groundbreaking? Not likely. I cool fun CG film to watch? Maybe. I hate when people make claims like the ones in this article based on a VERY small clip. hey always build a film up so hight that the film itself can never hope to live up to the hype.
By FireHawk at 5:06 PM ON 07/27/09
Frankly, if you didn't see the footage I don't expect you to be a believer yet. But I was there - I saw the footage and I assure each of you who doubts that you will EAT YOUR WORDS once you see this. This was the best thing I saw at Comic-Con; heck, the best thing I've EVER seen at Con. This movie will make every other Sci-Fi movie you see seem hokey because it is SO amazing. I waited through the Twilight panels to see this thing, and it was worth all of the ear-splitting pain Twilight caused me.
@AngryJonny - I know exactly what you mean regarding Beowulf and soulless eyes. This movie eclipses all animation I've ever seen. Rather than fully animating characters, the movie used performance motion capture with the actors and it resulted in something unlike anything ever seen. The characters are living, breathing animals on screen that look so real that I could swear Cameron hired aliens to play the roles.
This is the most brilliant movie I've ever watched, and I saw only 20 minutes. Effects wizardry does not even begin to cover the depth of detail in this film. The 3D features used in the film are not gimicky at all, which will make Avatar the first film to pull that off. It feels absolutely immersive.
For a long portion of the clips shown, the main character is abandoned on the alien planet Pandora. Cameron's research really is shown off here; the movie had a $10m pre-production budget and it looks like it all went to biologists who designed a fully-formed ecosystem for Pandora. It is absolutely brilliant, and I guarantee you've never seen anything like it. This film will change movies more than The Wizard of Oz and Star Wars combined.
By FireHawk at 5:14 PM ON 07/27/09
@G0m3r - The film really will eclipse all of the hype, and that is coming from a skeptic. I could see your perspective if Cameron had showed off a 2 minute teaser of the movie, but in fact he showed almost 25 minutes of the movie, and it was nothing short of amazing.
I can't wait for you to see it so that you can appreciate why we are saying this is the most breathtaking movie you have ever seen.
@all - This movie is not Titanic-style or Aliens-style groundbreaking. This will be like nothing you have ever seen before, I promise. This movie will shatter everything done in the industry to date.
At Comic-Con James Cameron said that on Aug 21 they will be screening 15 minute clips of Avatar for free at "every IMAX and 3D theater" he can get. It will be SO worth your time. The real thing comes out on Dec 18.
For those who are curious, it will be released in 2D and 3D and it looks to be brilliant in both formats.
Visit mobile.syfy.com/wire on your mobile device.
FireHawk:
@G0m3r - The film really will eclipse all of the hype, and that is coming from a skeptic. I could see your perspec...More »