Avatar Day Screening

16 minutes of Avatar in IMAX 3D

I was fortunate enough last week to get a ticket to see a 16 minute sneek-peek of James Cameron's Avatar at 20th Century Fox's "Avatar Day" screening event which took place nationwide at select IMAX and IMAX-lite theatres.  What we saw were five different scenes that essentially flesh out things we've already scene in the teaser trailer that was released last Friday.  For those of you who didn't manage get to one of the screenings, have no fear, for I have written up a scene by scene breakdown every of glorious, CG-drenched second.  Hit the jump to see read what you missed.

Intro: James Cameron

A HUGE 3D James Cameron explained that since he was so excited about the work he's being doing on Avatar for the last decade, that he didn't just want to release a trailer, he wanted for people to get a chance to see the real thing, in 3D, on IMAX.   He explained what we'd be seeing was from the first part of the film, and nothing would be a big spoiler.  

Thankfully, his speech was short and no where near the 20 minute long snore fest he gave the Ubisoft press conference.

Scene 1: Drill Sergeant explains the perils of Pandora

Jake (Sam Worthington), a handicapped (space) marine arrives at a military base on the planet of Pandora, landing on ship which looks like a cross between something from Halo and Aliens.  A drill sergeant with three big claw scratches across his face explains how Pandora is full of an abundance of living things, all of which would like to eat the newly arrived recruits.  He then goes on to explain how it is his job to protect the marines…and he will fail…for some of them.  The scene ends.

Commentary:  

Not the strongest scene to lead with, most of which establishes the setting and peril involved, though the whole thing about essentially telling the marines that they will die was a bit weird and the dialogue delivery felt a bit awkward. I’ve also never felt photo live action does well in 3D, and this was no exception.

Scene 2: Jake enter’s the Avatar

Jake is talking with Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) who asks him why he chose to come to the most inhospitable assignment available. Jake retorts back something campy about “I’m handicapped and want to prove myself” before he forcefully refuses help getting into the chamber where his mind will be connected to that of a 10 foot tall, blue, feline-like Na'vi body, known as an Avatar.  He is transferred through, and we see him over eagerly get to his feat in attempt to test out walking (which he presumably has never done, or hasn’t done since some form of accident).  Ignoring commands to stay down, he uses his new, powerful body to push out an apparently unsecured security door and start to walk off.  The scene ends.

Commentary:

This is the first time we get to see an Avatar fully animated and interacting with human actors.  The details of the Na'vi body, from the glimmer of the eyes to the wrinkles on the bottom of his feet are remarkable, and there is very little beyond the obvious fact that the large blue cat-man is not real to lead you to believe this is CG work, and not sophisticated makeup artistry.  However, this is another example of the dialogue and pacing seeming a little awkward as Jake essentially tranfers to the new body, stands up, says “this is great” (in a somewhat underwhelming tone) and walks out the door despite the protests of superiors and medical staff.  Maybe it will make more sense when the seen in context.

Scene 3: Jake & Ripley...err…Dr. Grace face off with local wild life

This is the first fully CG scene in which Jake’s Avatar is face to face with one of the large indigenous creatures of Pandora, a rhino-like animal who is facing down Jake while Sigourney Weaver, now in an Avatar as well, tells Jake to stand his ground.  Jake and the space-rhino stare each other down in until the rhino charges and so does Jake, causing the rhino halt and back off, seemingly from Jake’s aggressive move.  That is until we see the large, what I will call “space-hippogryph,” that has crept up behind him.  The chase is on as the space-hippogryph chases Jake through the dense vegetation and into a large hollow tree, grabbing the gun from Jake's hand the flinging it aside.  The scene ends.

Commentary:

Now that world has gone entirely CG, I think the 3D seems to work better, and man does it look good. The art design is bright and vivid, and color tones of the blue Na'vi bodies against the lush greens of the forest and the iridescent blues & and purples which adorn the wild-life like encrusted jewels is simply a feast for the eyeballs.  And while the CG creatures still move with that “floaty” feeling that seems to trouble animators, you’d be hard pressed to tell that this wasn’t a real forest they were running through.  It was this scene where the footage & story really began to grab me.

Scene 4: Native Na'vi saves Jake + Bioluminescent Forest

Here we are introduced to Neytiri, the first native Na'vi we’ve met, as she runs in to save Jake from these small, space-jackals who are attacking him.  It’s night and apparently Jake has been separated from the other human Avatars, leaving him alone to fight off the space-jackals and their “deep sea fish” like bioluminescent bodies.  Neytiri, jumps in and successfully kills off the creatures with a bow and arrow, and some fancy fighting moves, after which she snuffs out torch Jake had been carrying, apparently the cause of commotion.  After extinguishing the torch, the entire forest begins to glow with eye-popping, brilliant natural bioluminescence.  Neytiri chastises Jake for being so foolish and expresses regret at having to kill the space-jackals.  Jake retorts as to why she decided to save him at all, and after a brief pause, Neytiri softens and explains his has a strong heart, though hardens again reiterating that he still foolish and childlike.  The scene ends.

Commentary:

While the human Avatars look somewhat like their human counterparts, Neytiri is a native Na'vi and looks far more exotic and alien than the other human Avatars, and is voiced with an equally exotic African-tribal accent by Zoe Saldana.  She also is the first character who actually seems believable as a person, with wonderful subtly put into both the voice acting and animation alike.  Also, based on the trailer, I think we can assume that Neytiri becomes a potential love interest for Jake’s character.

Scene 5: Taming the dragon

This is the final scene of the screening where we see Jake, now apparently adopted by a tribe of Na'vi, attempting to capture a space-dragon creature, the Na'vi's form of war transport. The scene plays out much like an initiation ceremony with the other male Na'vi warriors laughing and egging the nervous Jake on, while expressing to themselves that they doubt he will live through the ordeal.  Neytiri explains that a space-dragon will choose him, and he will know which one when it is when it tries to kill him.  Jake slowly walks through the space-dragon roost until one clearly stands its ground to attack.  Jake then proceeds to wrestle with the creature, nearly falling off a cliff in doing so, but managing to hold on an finally subdue the creature.  At this point he uses something that looks like “moth feelers” which seem to extend from his Avatar’s hair and attach to the dragons long, rein-like ears.  The space-dragon immediately appears to become “mind-melded” with Jake, and the two are pushed off the cliff to attempt their first flight and "seal" the melding.  Jake and the dragon struggle at first, appearing to be in out-of-control free fall until in desperation, Jake issues a command to fly straight, and the creature does so.  The scene ends.

Commentary:

This is the final scene, and really gave me a Dances with Wolves feel of an outsider being accepted into a native people’s tribe and being but through their rites of passage.  The animation of the space-dragons was phenomenal and their menacing, snake like heads were frighteningly close in the 3D IMAX presentation.  The action pacing and choreography with a hint of mystery is clearly where James Cameron shines, and this scene really sealed the deal for me that this is going to be fun adventure film, something we just haven’t gotten with the recent trend of gritty, realism cinema.

Getting a chance to see nearly 20 minutes of Avatar footage has certainly whet my whistle to see more of this film.  And not just for the fact that this will be the most beautiful film of the year, but the story seems genuinely fun and fantastic.  Now there may be some fair criticism that film doesn't seem to overtly offer anything "new" in the way of 3D films or CG films, but it's utterly ridiculous to ignore the fact that this film, groundbreaking or not, looks phenomenal.  I, for one, can't wait to see this film in its entirety. 

Keep an eye out for Avatar when it hit theatres December 18th.