First Look at James Cameron’s Avatar

By Toby Weidmann

I was lucky enough to blag my way into an early screening of around 15 minutes of footage from one of the most eagerly awaited sci-fi films of the year: James Cameron’s Avatar. We were shown seven scenes in total, all from the first half of the movie and all in glorious 3D at the BFI Imax in London’s Waterloo. Below, I offer some details about each scene – so consider this a spoiler alert if you don’t want to know any specifics – but in more general terms the overall impression was positive and the footage shown was certainly more intriguing than the recent teaser trailer, which looked like FernGully’s Smurfing Cousins Vs Master Chief And His Halo Chums.

It’s impossible to judge a film on just a few scenes and the trailer, but it’s clear from the outset that the world Cameron has created is incredibly detailed. The CGI is excellent, but then what else would you expect from Cameron, who has consistently broken new ground in special effects? As for the 3D presentation, I'm not so sure: it’s still something of a film gimmick as far as I'm concerned and although this film is supposed to push the boundaries of 3D I'm not convinced it’s entirely necessary. There were times when the screen was so busy with 3D movement it detracted from the main action – your mind wanders from what’s being said onscreen to distractedly watching fireflies zipping in and out of the screen. At least it gives you another reason to go see the film for a second time.

Anyway, onto the scenes …

The first short scene is set in a base of some kind and sees Stephen Lang’s Colonel Quaritch briefing an assorted group of humans, including hero Sam Worthington’s wheelchair-bound Jake Sully, about what a dangerous planet Pandora is. As he aptly says, “We’re not in Kansas any more.”

Then we’re onto another scene in a lab where Sigourney Weaver’s doctor straps Jake into a machine that maps his brainwaves. His mind is then transferred into the head of the Na’vi, one of the indigenous creatures of Pandora, that are similar to humans but are much taller, with longer necks and limbs, wide eyes, pointy ears, a tail and they are blue in skin tone. Jake has trouble standing up as he gets used to both his new avatar and walking again, but is soon making a break for Pandora’s jungle. The blend of CGI and live action footage here is suitably impressive.

Now in the jungle, and armed with some kind of rifle, Jake meets a giant rhino/dinosaur-like creature that is trying to defend its territory. Their fraught meeting is broken up when a large cat-like carnivore shows up and decides Jake will be its next snack. Cue an exciting chase scene through the jungle as Jake tries to escape this new threat.

The next scene is at night and introduces the character of Neytiri (voiced by Star Trek’s Zoe Saldana), a native Na’vi, to the mix. She saves Jake from some smaller fierce creatures in another exciting action scene. Later she blames him for having to take their lives, saying he’s acting like a stupid child and their deaths were unnecessary. She also says he shows great bravery, so it’s probable that these two are going to pair up at some point.

The last scene is another action one and set atop a huge waterfall. Jake, now teamed up with more Na’vi, is set a task of capturing a strange winged creature. He’s told he will know which of the creatures has chosen to be his ride because they will try to kill him. He picks out the creature, they scuffle, before he tames it and then they launch off the waterfall to ride the breeze. The CGI is at its best here, when the action is not too frenetic, and the detail is crystal clear.

All exciting stuff! We can’t wait to see the finished article when it’s released on December 18.

SECOND OPINION | Stuart O'Connor It's very, very hard to judge a film on just 15 minutes of footage. But from what we've been show so far, Avatar looks ... OK. From a 3D point of view, it's pretty stunning. I'm a huge 3D fan, and have seen almost everything that's been released in that format over the past 18 months or so, and I have to say that Avatar really does take it up a level. It is, to my mind, the first live-action film to really tackle full-on action scenes in 3D. Technically, the 3D looks as good as that in CGI films such as Up and Bolt. And with much of this film in motion-capture CGI, I guess that's to be expected. Storywise, again it's a bit hard to tell from just a few scenes, but it certainly has the potential to be engrossing: Aussie star Sam Worthington is paralysed marine Jake Sully, who travels to the planet Pandora where the Avatar Programme will give him a healthy body. Once there, though, Jake falls for an alien princess and gets caught up in the fight between her people and the military threatening their world. Personally, I hope it ends up being more Terminator 2 than Titanic. And from what we were shown, it looks like it's definitely heading the right way. But (and there's always a but) despite the stunnig visuals, it all looks a little too cartoony. Is there more tweaking to be done before its December release? It looks like there well could be.

THIRD OPINION | Duncan Bain It seems somewhat absurd to be reviewing what is essentially a trailer, but James Cameron’s gargantuan Hype Machine is shifting into 2nd gear, the result being a global event showing 15minutes of teaser clips in Imax cinemas, and cannot be ignored. Numerous people have already documented a shot-for-shot rundown of what footage was shown, so I’ll spare you the minutiae and concentrate instead on my initial thoughts and reactions.

Prior to today, Titanic Jim has kept his cards pretty close to his chest, espousing hyperbole such as “revolutionary techniques”, “game changer” and “photorealistic CGI”. Well, unsurprisingly, the reality of the situation could never match up to his own self-aggrandisement, the 2D trailer was unleashed on Thursday, and inevitably led to snarky and negative comments all around the web. “Ferngully in Space” ; “The Smurfs v The Matrix” ; “Dances with Wolves featuring the Cat People” are among the more imaginative reactions, “It looks shit” and “seems my Xbox broke” feature amongst the less-so. 3D technology is still an enigma that a large portion of the cinema going public appear to wrestle with, and indeed in the opening few shots I worried that I was all set to experience a flashback to Superman Returns where headache inducing incoherent noise was tirelessly blasted at me. It was a great relief then that after a brief settling in period, the 3D appeared to be crisper and easy to process. In later shots based on the alien planet Pandora, JC cannily uses the architecture of the jungle to frame shots and generate field depth – minor details like a cloud of mosquitos create a haze that makes the viewer realise you’re having to look through them to see the action. Somewhat ironically, what jolted me as the most 3D element was when one of the indigenous Na’vi spoke in their native language, and bold subtitles leapt out of the screen.  If you have been lucky enough to see Pixar’s UP in 3D, there is nothingly instantly revelationary here, although the seismic shift from a pure CG model to one featuring live-action actors is undeniable.

As for “photorealistic CGI” – we appear to be straddling something known as the “uncanny valley” – 10 foot tall blue furry cat-like warrior people do NOT appear to be authentically realistic – who could have seen that coming??? I suspect part of this is because we know that such creatures don’t feature in our day-to-day waking life, and so a part of the brain rejects the “truth” that we are seeing on screen. It is undeniable that what we are seeing in Avatar is CGI, but I must counter that to date, the bar was set with Robert Zemeckis’ mo-cap Beowulf. This blows Beowulf well and truly out of the water – the detail of facial expressions, body movement, and the animation of bizarre alien creatures are all of a standard previously never seen. My knee-jerk reaction was that this will make Jar Jar look like the cartoon we always knew he was. Na’Vi and Avatar alike are instantly recogniseable as actors Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, and Zoe Saldana, even thought theyre seen as alien blue behemoths. Being a fan of robotica and future-mech, I must admit I’m genuinely excited to see the human’s Power Suits and military hardware which only gets the briefest of look-ins here. From what we have seen in the last 24 hours, it would appear that despite all the fantasy and sci fi elements, not to mention technical prowess, Avatar will be bringing a fairly conventional story arc that would imply the Dances With Wolves comparison isn’t entirely unwarranted. I suspect that this is why there has been such a surprisingly negative reaction from various quarters. District 9 comes to mind as a Young Turk sort of a film that is eager to try something fresh with established technologies, whilst Avatar is seemingly seeing the Old Establishment do what it’s always done, but just a whole lot shinier and more-polished.

In summary, I think what was shown looks stunning – the environments, creatures, and creations all look beautiful, and whilst 3D could easily be dismissed as a gimmick, it is a gimmick that I will not be wanting to avoid when I find myself in the Imax on December 18th. The footage was intruiging and certainly made me want to go back to see the completed product. James Cameron may not be Jesus but he has the same initials, and the jury is still out as to whether Avatar is likely to be his Second Coming – the marketing men will still have a long way to go to convince Normal People and not just Film Nerds that this is something they will want to pay their £14 for. What can be said for certain is that we can look forward to a roller-coaster ride showing off what Cameron has always excelled at, namely: action sequences that the eye can follow, interesting characters not just teen-bot cardboard memes, and some good old fashioned robot porn. Watch out Michael Bay, Jim’s back to show you how it should be done.