15 minutes of Avatar – thoughts

So last night I went along to one of the free previews that Fox had put on around the Globe to promote James Cameron’s Avatar. I met three of my friends at the BFI IMAX – without a doubt the best screen to have been watching this on in the UK – around 6pm. We exchanged our email printouts for actual physical tickets and headed to the foyer.

None of us had any real clear vision of what we were about to watch. Bar the online trailer released the day before, there was no real sense of what Avatar is, the style, the pacing, the story, the dialogue. Obviously this was the point of going about these unusual early previews – to draw out the initial buzz and guage an instant raw opinion from those who already have a vested interest in the project.

In our seats a clearly nervous suit from Fox introduced the footage we were about to see. He spoke of how excited they were to be involved in this project, how they thought it was going to change the way films were made and how it would set the bar in terms of what audiences expected. Glasses on, the footage began with an introduction from Cameron himself. “All the scenes are from the first half of the movie, so no spoilers for you!” he said. All good. We’re now in Avatar. Over the next paragraphs I’ll briefly explain the scenes we were shown. They all setup the story and the World created.

*********** START OF SPOILERS************

The first scene was a briefing from a colonel to his soldiers on a base on the planet Pandora. We’re introduced to the key character – Jake Sully – a paralysed marine. The colonel explains his mission is to keep them all alive as they make their way across the planet, but that he cannot succeed, some will fall. The scene is slow and precise, it sets a tone for the commanding character, his authority, focussing on elements such as his perfectly aligned, spaced, pressured march through the lesser ranks that surround him.

Second scene is in a medical bay. Sigourney Weaver’s scientist meets Sully, who goes into a pod where he’ll eventually have a psychic link bonded between his mind and that of his avatar body – designed to let him move around the planet, which humans cannot breathe on. The lab is full of science types, with the vitals of each subject being displayed on opaque, touch sensitive displays (think Minority Report). The displays can be swiped off and moved to a handheld portable device, “a beautiful mind,” one scientists comments of Sully. The end of the scene see’s Weaver following in a pod. This sequence is the first we see that wants to utilise some of the 3D elements. The camera pans around to give the depth of the lab, we see the pods moving.

This segues directly into seeing Sully’s avatar awaking with the bond to his mind intact. He wastes no time in getting on his feet and enjoying his new body, breaking free from his cables and breaking out into the compound on shaky feet – much to the horror of the scientists. In the trailer this is the point where he proclaims, “This is great!”

Into the jungle of Pandora for the next section. This is the first glimpse of the entirely CGI world that Cameron has created. Sully, along with Weaver’s avatar, come face to face with a creature that resembles a hammer-headed rhino. There’s interaction between Sully and the creature, a standing of ground. They then encounter a less-favourable creature and a high-octane chase ensues. At no point was I thinking ‘this is computer generated’, the scenery is quite breathtaking and the avatar bodies look quite realistic in three dimensions, opposed to on the trailer where I felt they looked quite cartoony in a ‘clone wars’ style. It’s in these scenes that the technology is really starting to be employed, the depth and detail being used to both enthrall and scare – with a moment that involves a hostile creature slowly creeping up behind Sully.

As the chase continues the pace quickens, the edits speed up, the ‘camerawork’ gets jerky. This really wasn’t suited to the medium, it took longer to process the dimensional  information and I felt that I was both becoming slightly dizzy, but also lagging behind the understanding of what I was watching.

Next sequence, in the forest at night. Sully is struggling with fending off more creatures. Enter a female warrior of the same body as Sully, native to the land. She fends off the enemy with her bow, arrow and knive at blistering speed, then lambasts Sully for attracting the attacks to him – those creatures didn’t need to be killed, she says. This scene annoyed, whilst the introduction to the native tribe is going to be important to the story, this just reeked of ‘boy meets girl, girl despises boy, boy is captivated by girl and her aparent dislike…’ It’s leading to a love story. I don’t mind romance, but I feel it could become an integral part to the film and general gushyness doesn’t mix well with (what I was hoping was going to be) a serious Sci-Fi/fantasy. Sully makes his way through a landscape of firefly like creatures and glowing plants, the 3d is incredible here, giving a sense of depth to a scene like I’ve never seen before. Sadly at the same time it’s a little too cutesy.

The final part of the preview sees Sully with the native tribe trying to mount and take control of a dragon-like winged creature. If he succeeds, the creature will be his for life, if he fails the creature will be likely to kill him, “You only have one chance,” the female says. After some initial suspense where he’s thrown off and over the side of a cliff, Sully re-engages and takes the creature. Now being his master, they fall off aimlessly down the side of the cliff until a comedic instruction to ‘fly straight’ kicks his control of the beast into full flight. Flying over the jungle, the 3d obviously comes into it’s own.

***************** END SPOILERS****************

The footage ended and what happened next summaises pretty much my initial reaction. There was a pause and then a light smattering of applause. NO geeky WHOOPS, CHEERS or PUNCHING OF FISTS. In my mind Cameron has been wise with his use of the tech – the was no gimmicky flying out of the screen with a directors *nudgenudgewinkwink*, instead the steroscopic 3D is used to give depth, richness and a greater understanding to the scenes – albeit (as previously noted) in scenes of high octane close-up action, where confusion reined. I’m certain that in a flat render of the film, it’s going to look like a cartoon, but given the extra depth the imagery comes to life and seems to give extra detail to everything.

My fear is that Fox continue to play the 3D card in promoting it. I think anyone that goes along with the view of what 3D is, thinking that’s what they’re going to get (especially if it’s hyped), are going to be greatly disappointed. This will not jump out at you, instead it has the promise to pull you in – thats the revolution in what Cameron’s done. So long as Fox don’t ramp up these dimensional expectations, the audience will discover that what’s been written with Avatar is a film-makers instruction manual for mature use of the technology, providing a richer experience of the story. In that respect, I sure hope the story is pretty darn impressive. What we saw today was certainly interesting and well paced, I hope the narrative drives like this when pieced to the remainder of the film and doesn’t meander.

We decamped to a nearby restaurant and compared notes. We all had some mis-givings and all had things we loved. Just as that initial reaction in the screen, we all felt as though we definitely wanted to see this film, nothing dissuaded us, it looks stunning. But at the same time not one of us thought that we must see it tomorrow, there was no instant buzz, no internal ‘wibble’ of excitement. Strangely we all agreed with my friend Jeff’s opinion on the look of the film, that it’s the film that Halo will want to be. It really does look like the game, the military bases, the environments, the pace, the sound.. just minus Master Chief! All in all, the experience seemed to ground and make us rethink  our expectations.

And therein lies the real reason as to why Fox have staged this Worldwide ‘Avatar Day’. Sure, they want to kick start the buzz. But at the same time my personal opinion is that they probably don’t have a clue what to do with this film. They know what they have, but they’re probably have no idea what and how they should do with marketing it to the general public. After all, there’s little point in having a game changing movie from a technical production perspective, if they can’t fill more 3D seats than 2D. The way they handle the build up to release will undoubtedly make or break the format that the industry so doesn’t want to be a gimmick.