Movie News: Review Avatar (3D), Poster, The Toys, Official Theatrical Trailer and Veredict

Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Giovanni Ribisi, Michelle Rodriguez, Stephen Lang

Director: James Cameron

Writer: James Cameron

Cinematography: Mauro Fiore, Vince Pace

Original Score: James Horner

Running Time: 150 Mins.

James Cameron, as we all know, is the self-proclaimed king of the world but which world might that be, not so much the Earth but more the king of actually “creating” worlds, there is no denying the infamously control-freakish director has a knack for immersing his audience a world from the bottom up, whether it be the postapocalyptic future of the Terminator films, an Aliens planet or, indeed a great big (doomed) Titanic sized ship. So it would be prudent to assume that in creating a whole new world (called Pandora) for his latest opus, topically named Avatar, that he would once more succeed in bringing this Pandora to fully immersive, believable and most importantly entertaining, life.

Couple Cameron’s past repertoire with the tools he has at his disposal, most notably a totally new way of shooting in 3D and hugely advanced mo-cap techniques that put Zemeckis‘ Polar Express, Beowulf and A Christmas Carol to shame, and you should have a product well worth the 11 year wait even in the face of an insurmountable level of hype…

So, does the final product add up to the sum of its parts? Well, to answer diplomatically, yes, and no, you see for all the strengths Avatar has it also has equally as many weaknesses, some you can overlook while others prove too pertinent for even lush visuals to paper over. And what visuals they are and always were destined to be the crowning achievement of Avatar, in creating his Pandora James Cameron has brought to life a world as lush and most importantly realistic as anything you have seen on-screen before, in the same way that Peter Jackson did with The Lord of the Rings, from a visual point of view at least,we are transported to the world inhabited by a vast array weird and wondrous creatures.

It is obvious, even to the most oblivious viewer, that Cameron has spent the last decade crafting this world with meticulous loving care, enhanced furthermore not so much by the 3D element (more on this later) but more the emotion conveyed by the Na’vi, the blue skinned indigenous population of Pandora, always a strong writer of female characters Avatar presents yet another fine example of this, with both Sigourney Weaver and particularly Zoe Saldana’s Na’vi, Neytiri, as the stand out performances. Though kudos must go to Sam Worthington, surely now destined to become one of the biggest A-List action stars following his promise in Terminator: Salvation and now a much more nuanced performance here.

That these three stand out so well is purely down to performance and charisma, and not script, for this is the film’s biggest failing, in crafting Pandora, its look and inhabitants Cameron seems to have neglected to write a script that matches the technical achievement, at its worst it invokes the weakest parts of the Star Wars prequels (no good thing I assure you) and at best it’s simply clichéd and predictable. The story itself is so hackneyed and has a terrible “seen it all before” air about it. and yes the question as to what is truly ”original” nowadays in film remains but there are ways around making things feel not so stale, and injecting something you have seen before with a bit of energy can liven it up. But here the suggestions that we were being faced with Dances With Wolves or Pocahontas in Space, and Ferngully with blue aliens are fully deserved, not so much in a derivative way but more disappointingly.

James Cameron’s Avatar - official Theatrical Trailer

The best example of this stereotyping comes in Stephen Lang’s villainous General Quarritch, he isn’t an actor lacking in menace but simply written so two dimensionally you can play dot to dot with the plot and his character arc, so badass he can breathe in the usually lethal air of Pandora this is the closest we get to characterisation.

Though to be to down on the film for a lack of good script may seem harsh given its achievements but without substance behind the sheen I simply cannot endorse something on the same level as Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings or even Cameron’s own Titanic, which suffered the same stereotyping but overcame with real emotion. Even the final 40 minutes of action fail to hold a single stand out scene, which is gravely disappointing in the face of the fact that a.) this is the man that gave us Terminator 2: Judgement Day and b.) the potential that exists in the film’s world, hopefully in the suggested sequel these issues can be rectified…

On a final note much has been made of Avatar’s 3D, and it is true this is the best example of it yet, however it still has a rather needless feel, given the version of the film I saw was digitally presented the hi-def alone does enough to enrich the world of Pandora and the 3D aspect left me feeling more distracted than in awe by the supposed revolutionary advances, something not helped by the increased hike in price for the priviledge of this new technology.

VERDICT

Avatar has a stunning outer shell and there is no question as to the amount of time and effort that has gone into making it look good with or without the 3D “upgrade”, however what lay underneath is greatly lacking meaning that while your eyes will be in awe your brain will wish that Cameron had spent as much time scripting as he did on the mind-blowing visuals.

He teaser trailer for James Cameron’s Avatar created a lot of debate online, and left many over-hyped film fannatics disappointed. But 20th Century Fox is left with bragging rights as the Avatar trailer has become the most-viewed trailer in Apple.com history with over 4 million streams in the first day. The previous record was 1.7 million in 24 hours. You can read the full press release after the jump.

Thankfully Fox was able to win a lot of curious film goers back with their Avatar Day promotion. Online tickets sold out despite server problems, reports of screenings being half empty, but from what I can tell, the resulting word of mouth has been overwhelmingly positive. Many of the people who were complaining about the CG of the teaser trailer were left glowing about the amazing 3D visuals and realistic facial movements of the Na’vi in the 15 minute footage preview (However, some complained about the on-the-nose dialogue and expressed worry about what appears to be a predictable story).

But is it enough? How many people attended the Avatar Day screenings? 100,000? 200,000? And it seems logical to me that anyone who would make the trip to their nearest IMAX theatre to see 15 minutes of footage, were already going to buy tickets already. Will the positive word of mouth pay off?

I have combined some of the things we missed during all the Avatar Day excitement after the jump, including photos of the ugly Avatar action figure toy line and the trailer for the video game. Enjoy.

The Toys (click to enlarge):

avatar toys

avatartoys2small

Video Game Trailer:

The Trailer Press Release:

AVATAR TEASER TRAILER MAKES HISTORY, BECOMING THE MOST-VIEWED TRAILER EVER ON APPLE.COM

MUCH-ANTICIPATED FIRST-LOOK AT THE EPIC ADVENTURE FROM

“TITANIC” DIRECTOR JAMES CAMERON NETS OVER 4 MILLION STREAMS, SHATTERING PREVIOUS RECORD OF 1.7 MILLION

LOS ANGELES, (Friday, August 21st, 2009) – Twentieth Century Fox announced today that the AVATAR teaser trailer has become the most-viewed trailer ever on the popular iTunes Movies Trailer section of apple.com, which Thursday hosted the long-awaited public first look at writer-director James Cameron’s motion picture epic. The teaser registered over four million streams in its first day on the site, shattering the previous record of 1.7 million.

On Friday, the trailer arrived in theaters around the world, presented in all formats, including IMAX® 3-D, IMAX® 2-D, digital 3-D, digital 2-D, and 35mm 2-D.

The record–shattering online trailer debut marked the launch of AVATAR DAY, an unprecedented experience that also saw the unveiling of special scenes – in 3-D – prepared especially by Cameron for this event. The extended look at AVATAR unspooled for two showings only Friday evening. The U.S. showings were held in select IMAX® 3-D theaters, and international unveilings were in select digital 3-D and IMAX® 3-D theaters. Reservations for all showings were completely booked.

In addition, Fox took the wraps off its special “3-D”/lenticular one-sheet posters for the film, Ubisoft® unveiled the trailer for their videogame James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game, and Mattel revealed the action figures for the film’s Avatar and alien Na’vi characters.

AVATAR takes us to a spectacular new world beyond our imagination, where a reluctant hero embarks on a journey of redemption and discovery, as he leads a heroic battle to save a civilization. The film was first conceived by Cameron 14 years ago, when the means to realize his vision did not yet exist. Now, after four years of actual production work, AVATAR delivers a fully immersive cinematic experience of a new kind, where the revolutionary technology invented to make the film, disappears into the emotion of the characters and the sweep of the story.

AVATAR opens in theaters everywhere December 18, 2009.