Posted

Aug 21st 2009

Mood

Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/avatar/


My only response:
HOLY.
SHIT.

The preview starts out with a short introduction by James Cameron (who promises us that the film is over 3 hours, and this 15-20 minute collage of clips won't spoil anything). After that we see a meeting room with a bunch of marines, one of them (white hair dude with scars on his face) talking about how deadly the "savages" are on this planet - armed with arrows which can strop a man's heart in less than a minute, etc, etc.. Lot's of fear-mongering. The main hero (paralyzed war veteran, Jake) rolls into the scene on his wheelchair to overhear what's going on.



- Next clip we see Jake getting out of his wheelchair and pulling his legs onto a table/bed machine which will later hook his brain to an Avatar. Sigourney Weaver and a team of other scientists prepare for the link-up. Lots of high tech 3D monitor screens and a quick "stargate" effect later...

- Jake wakes up in his avatar body. The screen is blurry, but sharpens as you see two people/doctors in their oxygen masks, trying to wake Jake's avatar up. They do audio/visual tests on him, and his eyes/ears responds. Here is where you see a close-up of an Navi's face, and DAMN does it look real.
Realizing that he can move his toes/feet/legs, he eagerly jumps off the table and in a confused state, stumbles around the room. He's so relieved to have regain the ability to walk, that he opens a hatch and runs out into the wilderness, with a bunch of doctors in pursuit, armed with tranquilizers.
(There's another Avatar in the room with him and says: "If you don't go slow they'll put you down!")



- Jake and a few other avatars encounter a large land creature which has a head in shape of a hammer-head shark. It runs off, and another, big, dark, 6 legged creatures chases after Jake. Action/chase scene ensues.

- Jake encounters Neytiri who uses a bow and arrow to kill a pack of wild dog-like creatures which are attacking Jake. After all of them are gone, she hears one of the creatures yelping (sounding like a wounded dog whimpering in pain) as it lies suffering on the floor. This is where some of the emotion of the story kicked in... She walks over to the creature and stabs it in the heart, thus putting it out of its misery. She then confronts Jake and says something along the line of: "It didn't have to die. It's because of you it did. No creature should die, etc, etc.." And Jake replies: "What would you have preferred to die? Those creatures, or one of your fellow kin?"
Naytiri tosses Jake's torch in the water, and the forest comes to life with lights and bio-luminescence - amazing shot. This really is a new, original world.
I have to mention, despite all immaturity, that the attention to detail is so good, that you see boobs and nipples on this semi-nude Navi female. All she wears is a necklace and a loincloth. (The furry community will explode with fan-art once this movie hits, that I can garuntee.)

- Next scene we see a bunch of winged creatures. Jake is sent to find his, which he will use some special kind of root(?) in order to tame it.
Jake: "How will I know which one is meant for me?" Neytiri: "It'll try to kill you." Jake approaches many of these winged creatures, but they hiss at him, and fly off. He then comes across one of them which actually does try to kill him. A struggle ensues, while the other natives are watching and saying to themselves in their native (authentic) sounding language: "It'll kill him, he's not strong enough." In the end he gains control of the beast, jumps with it off the edge of the cliff and flies off.



Then you see a few more scenes from the trailer, including an epic short of a massive craft blowing the hell out of a giant tree - fucking. EPIC.

Whew.. I'm still shaky from all the goosebumps, so forgive the crappy description.
The CGI will no doubt be amazing, second only to the story, which I honestly believe will blow me away. So far it has a strong environmental message, it's filled with emotional scenes, the characters interact AMAZINGLY well. It was flawless.

In comparison, the teaser trailer is only that - a TEASER. I doubt the CGI is final and we still have 4 months to go until release, so I'm sure it'll look even more amazing than it does now, and that is saying a LOT. The 3D effect really enhances the CGI and makes the trailer look like a cartoon in comparison. The final film, in 3D looks real.

The music was James Horner all the way, and had a LOT of native, tribal themes to it which made it sound similar to "Apocalypto" (unless the music isn't final and they did use music from that film).

This movie has revolutionary CGI and 3D effects. Not only that, but it pushes the limits as to what can be done, and takes a step further.
Everything looked and moved photo realistically, from the creatures down to the giant leaves of a thousand foot tall tree.
Any fan of cinema, or any generic sci-fi fan owes it to themselves to see this - it was that good.

It was 15 minutes, but it felt like 15 seconds. I left the theater shaking in awe, wanting nothing but MORE.