15 minutes of Avatar made me cry

31 August 2009

John Howell

Reactions to the first trailer from James Cameron's upcoming SF epic, Avatar, released on "Avatar Day" 20 August, have been surprisingly mixed. While the 2-minute trailer grabbed some people immediately, others have been less than thrilled.

I recently had the opportunity to experience 15 minutes of extra footage from Avatar in a 3D equippied cinema, a long series of spoiler free clips from the first half of the movie, and the experience was overwhelmingly positive, winning me over completely. If you're one of those who were disappointed by the trailer (although there's no reason you should be) and watched it on a small screen without 3D, you're likely to have missed Avatar's most salient selling point: the cutting edge 3D technology Cameron developed to make it as real and vivid as it can be while audiences remain immersed in an extra dimension.

Spectacular-looking floating rocks in the sky, soldiers in oversized military robot suits, menacing exotic winged dinosaurs, nine-foot blue avatars with amazingly detailed movements and features, and wild alien forestscapes brimming with bizarre animal and plant life are just the beginning.

Scenes in the extended footage include a drill sergeant Col. Quaritch (Stephen Lang) informing new arrivals on Pandora that they can basically expect to be killed the second they step outside, a wheelchair bound Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) being helped by Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) into a coffin-like structure inside a high tech lab which will enable him to have an out-of-body experience in a huge, blue avatar on the planet's surface, and Worthington's character waking up as a nine-foot blue avatar for the first time. We also see Dr. Grace Augustine (also in a blue host body) teach Jake some basic Pandora survival skills deep in the forest. Most vividly of all, there's an extended wrestling sequence and flight with a (herd?) of dragon like dinasaur creatures.

Avatar takes place 100 years in the future, after Earth has been stripped of its natural resources and massive corporations lead the charge to the stars to try and replenish stocks. A mining operation on the lush, forest world of Pandora is under threat from hostile wildlife and the feline, blue-skinned sentient Na'vis who live there. Dr. Grace Augustine leads a group of scientists who have bio-engineered hybrid human/Na'vi bodies using their own DNA. Using these biological Avatars they study this fertile world and attempt to win the trust of its inhabitants. As far as I can tell from the footage, human consiousness is somehow projected (transferred?) into the Avatar body.

"It's a film about bullies," Sam Worthington recently told Empire Magazine. "The humans have come here to tear into the Na'vi planet and strip mine it. Meanwhile you have Sully, a guy in a wheelchair, who's lost but comes to this planet and has his eyes opened. He gets to stand up to the bullies. And, even though we're going to another planet, we're telling a story that's relevant now."

While it's extraordinarily hard to work out if the story will match the amazing visuals, it's clear that Cameron has achieved what he set out to do: taking 3D to the next level. What I've witnessed suggests that Avatar will be an extraordinary visual feast, a hypnotic, mesmerizing trip. I wanted more, and would have happily spent the day re-watching the short clips presented if given the opportunity. Some have suggested that experiencing such a rich and detailed 3D environment is akin to some sort of drug trip, and after watching 15 minutes of footage, I'd have to agree. The scenes from Pandora stay with you long after you leave the cinema.

Whatever you do, make sure you watch this one in 3D on a big screen. If ever there was a movie that deserved the big screen 3D treatment, Avatar is it. For once the hype seems deserved. The possibilities Avatar represents to a new generation of big budget fantasy and science fiction filmmakers should be enough to bring tears to any fan's eyes.

You can view the first Avatar trailer on YouTube below or watch a high resolution version on Apple's website. Remember though, it's a hell of a lot more impressive in 3D on a big screen!

Update!
Read our review of Avatar here.

Related Articles

Guy Pearce's Lockout a prison break in outer space...
I know many of you may have disliked the 2002 remake of The ...

Tarsem Singh's Immortals: a triumph of vision and spectacle ...
Tarsem Singh’s Immortals is a strange beast, a hybrid creatu...

Torchwood: Miracle day trailer here...
A trailer for the next season of Torchwood, Torchwood: Mirac...

Live from WETA: "APES" revealed!...
WETA Digital, the industry-leading and Academy Award winning...

First trailer for X-Men: First Class is brilliant ...
20th Century Fox's relaunch of the X-Men franchise with X-Me...

Captain America: The First Avenger trailer...
There are so many comic book inspired movies in production t...