My Date with 'Avatar'

It was a roundabout trip that led me to my local IMAX for Avatar day. For starters, I'm not a big fan of 'sneak peeks' -- I'm all for teasers and trailers, but I'm a firm believer in going in to a movie with as much as a blank slate as possible, and that's not always easy in this job. But the thing is, I love a cultural phenomenon, and brother -- Avatar is one of 'em. So I decided to put up with stalled servers at Fox and multiple confirmation emails with threats of everything short of a cavity search to watch a 16 minute commercial. Add to the fact that while I admire the technical stylings of James Cameron, I've never counted myself as one of the devoted. So as you can see, I was hardly the perfect audience for his experiment and I went in to that theater with an open mind, but very few expectations.

Now, thankfully, I tend to be little high strung about these things, and so I showed up an hour early with email and ID in hand -- and judging by Elisabeth's experience with Fox flacks, boy am I glad I did. So there I was in my seat, and as I looked around I kept thinking: what was with the half empty theater? After listening to horror stories of line-ups and sold out shows this made no sense to me. So I have to wonder if all that talk of sold out showings were an attempt by Fox to limit 'exposure' of the film (and piracy). Maybe they just wanted to beef up the hype surrounding the event by touting sold out tickets. But if that was their plan, then it might have backfired because to me, a half-empty theater made the movie look like the bloated, over-hyped flick that some detractors were calling it in the first place. That said, after a brief intro from the man himself (and in 3D no less!) it was time to get on with the show.

After the jump: my two cents on what I saw...

Now if you're like me and can't stand the idea of a spoiler, don't worry, there isn't anything that I'm about to reveal that could ruin the fun. The good news is that for all the hassle of Avatar Day, there is some truly remarkable stuff onscreen -- so here's what I thought about what I saw, and a quick description of what you might have missed if you didn't make it to the theater yesterday.

Manly Men Being Manly
We start off with some classic Cameron soldier exposition. There's a grizzled captain and plenty of machismo oozing off the screen, with a touch of info about a hostel hostile planet. But other than some 3D boots and impressive deep focus, I can't say it was blowing my mind.

Jake's (Sam Worthington) transfer into the Na'vi body.
The second scene picked up, and we got some cheap thrills with some jaw-dropping FX showing touch-screen virtual computers and trippy visuals once Jake steps into the 'Avatar machine'. The online trailer may have given us the first money shot of the big blue guy, but in 3D suddenly there is a sense of scale that makes it so much more real. Plus, I have to say that the 'uncanny valley' seems not to be a problem for Cameron, because as strange as his creatures may look, at least they don't look like they're made of plastic.

A Romp in the Forest and Taking a 'Pterodactyl' for a spin.
These sequences earned some claps, and I can see why. Up until these two scenes, sure, the technology was pretty cool, but this was when Cameron really let it rip. First up was Jake being chased through the jungle by a 'monster' and the second showed you Jake taming what looks like a psychedelic dinosaur for an incredibly rocky test flight. In both cases, the 3D went beyond just being a gimmick and created a depth to the image that I've never seen matched. Cameron used the 3D as an add-on to the camera movements and it never detracts from the excitement of what was going on in the narrative of the scene.

Our introduction to Neytiri (voiced by Zoe Saldana).
Fans of naked cartoons will be happy to know that Neytiri spends most her time without a shirt on in the footage. But, Cameron respects his lady heroes -- meaning there's more to her than boob shots -- and the bulk of the scene is a nifty little fight scene against a backdrop that looked a little too much like a black light poster... but that's just being picky. Cameron has never been known as an 'actor's director' and I couldn't help but think that Avatar is his chance to get rid of those pesky flesh and blood limitations and create an action heroine that is capable of anything. One thing is for sure, Neytiri is one flexible chick.

So after all that time and energy spent, I walked out of that theater much more enthusiastic about Cameron's opus than I had been, which brings me to the online trailer. Now, I'm not the first person to mention this, but let's be honest: that trailer isn't doing this film any favors. There were quite a few comments that after 13 years of work, the best that Cameron could come up with was something that looked like a video game, when in reality he has done something much more remarkable than that -- so don't let that trailer fool you. I'm here to tell you that regardless of whatever else might have gone wrong with 'Avatar Day', those 16 minutes did exactly what they were supposed to do -- they made me want to see Avatar a lot more than I did before.