My Post Avatar Sneek Peek Thoughts

 

As I mentioned before, I managed to get a ticket to go see the 15 minute preview for James Cameron's Avatar which is coming out in December.  Before I went, I told you how annoyed I was starting to get by the film and the capmaign they're pushing to make it sound like it'll be the greatest thing ever made.  While I said I was looking forward to the film, I had some rather strong concerns over the bits and pieces I had seen.

 

Well, I've seen 15 minutes of the film now and I've seen in on an IMAX screen and in 3D like the film is being intened to be seen.  And my thoughts?

 

It's definitely pretty, I'll give it that.  Of the select footage that was shown, once the characters are on the alien world and are running around the jungle, the film was absolutely gorgeous.  The CG is spectacular and the 3D does add a cool level of depth to the world being shown.  However, most of my original concerns about the film and its story still stand.

 

Nothing I saw in the footage shown has stopped me from being worried about the bland and generic story that the film revolves around.  None of the concepts shown seemed to strike me as completely original.  In fact, most of it looked like bits and pieces that were lifted off of other films and then were all smooshed together to make this one.  The marines look dead on like something out of Starship Troopers, the scenery like the floating islands and the flying creatures look a hell of a lot like they were taken from the animated film Delgo.  And the plot?

 

So a guy from one high tech, aggressive culture is introduced to a beautiful woman from another, more nature loving culture.  They spend time together, he falls in love with her, is accepted as a member of this new culture and then joins forces with them to do battle against the evil and agressive culture he used to be a part of.  Sound familiar yet?  Think either Kevin Costner or animated Disney movies from the 90's.  That's right.  That plot line is pretty much exactly what happened in Dances with Wolves and Disney's version of Pocahontas.  Hell, the blue alien the main character falls in love with in Avatar even looks like Pocahontas.

 

I'm sorry if I'm being really negative here, but this film has been talked up so heavily about being groundbreaking and original, and I'm just not seeing it.  Yes, the special effects are groundbreaking.  The motion capture of the actor's faces onto the alien bodies is really cool and the 3D IMAX stuff is incredibly impressive, but other than that nothing about this film is really jumping out at me or making me excited to see it.  I still think that the blue aliens look sort of freaky looking.  As good as the CG is, I'm still not sure if we have the technology yet to cross the uncanny valley just yet.  Animated near-people are always a little creepy looking, and these aliens are no different.

 

Also, at what point does a film stop being able to be considered a live-action film and just becomes an animated feature?  For at least 10 of the 15 minutes of footage I saw, there wasn't a single live action thing on the screen.  The actor's were CG'd aliens running around a CG world and being chased by a big ass CG monster.  Every single bit of it was animated.  I'm not saying this is a bad thing, I'm just genuinely curious.  To me, I felt that this was a CG movie with the occasional live actor included in it, much like old Disney films mixed animation and live-action. 

 

In the end, am I looking forward to seeing Avatar when it comes out on December 18th?  Yes, of course I am.  I'll be seeing it on IMAX in 3D, and chances are I'll really enjoy it.  I don't think it's going to be a bad film, I just think it's nothing we haven't really seen before in one form or another.  This time around though it has pretty special effects to go along with it.  I like big special effects films, so that's fine with me.  Just don't go spouting off about how Avatar is going to change filmmaking as we know it or will turn the genre of sci-fi on its head, because you know what, that's just not going to happen.

 

Avatar may be cool, but it's nothing mind blowing like The Matrix was when it first came out.