I got a nudge from a friend at Fox followed by an invitation to see about twenty minutes of James Cameron’s new movie, Avatar. The footage, I had been told, was revolutionary. The movie represented a quantum leap in visual effects. The hyperbole wasn’t coming from the studio. It was coming from a select number of friends that saw the footage earlier this year.
Did it live up to the hype? The creatures, called Na’vi, certainly pass the test. I hesitate to call them lifelike because they appeared completely natural. There was no “like” about it. The world they inhabited was more difficult to judge. This was my first time viewing footage in IMAX 3D, and the riot of detail was a little difficult to take in. On the good side, it lacked the simplistic vision of most science fiction films (water planet, desert planet, etc). On the bad side, the footage seemed way over the top. Of course one could argue that any truly alien environment would have the same impact.
When Cameron conceived the screenplay, over a decade ago, the idea of an ‘avatar’ was science fiction. Today, it feels ever-present. With people literally losing themselves in games like World of Warcraft, the idea of a paraplegic ex-soldier traveling to a world where he can inhibit the body of an indigenous creature…it seems almost too reasonable. What follows appears to be a “Dances With Wolves” style storyline where the main character slowly becomes part of the alien Na’vi and then must confront the collision of his two cultures. Will it work? Your guess is as good as mine. Some scenes were touching. Others, ham-fisted. My wife (a science fiction fan) was put off. I was cautiously optimistic.
There is only thing I can say with certainty. The Internet teaser trailer simply can’t convey the width and breadth of James Cameron’s vision. You’ll have to see this one in the theater to decide. And I’m sure that fact has placed a permanent smile on his face.