Friday, August 21, 2009

Prediction: Avatar Will Blow Our Minds (By Not Being Mind-Blowing Enough)

James Cameron thinks he's so tough. He's going out there, telling us he's revolutionizing cinema, making 3D much more than a gimmick, and telling a good story while he's at it. Who does he think he is? An audacious director? A blow-hard? All of the above? 

San Diego's ComicCon premiered about 25 minutes of Avatar, Cameron's sci-fi epic, and garnered reports ranging from "this is the best thing of my life" to "meh". Just yesterday the first trailer debuted. The world went nuts. All the blogs were buzzing. Nerds shook hands with theatre projectionists. I shrugged, and went back to reading the description to Inception's soon coming teaser trailer.


The music is terrible, the one line of dialogue is puzzling, scenes aren't cut together well at all, and the sense of wonder and mystique intended wasn't executed like I think it hoped for. James Cameron thinks he has a masterpiece on his hands, when I think he has a pretty conventional fantasy film on his hands. I wasn't, and am not impressed yet. 

Except by one thing: that was almost entirely computer generated. The Na'vi have a rubbery look to their skin in a few clips, and the more monstrous beasts feel 10,000 BC caliber, but the environment is just as fake and looks as believable and real as the trees right outside my window. For that I'll go see it. And for the event of it all.

 - Eric T. Voigt, Buh Duh Duh

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