Movie Poster for Avatar by James Cameron

I wanted to see it opening night. I wanted to be there at the Imax 3d, and to tell you the truth… I thought I’d also eat some shrooms before going. I have not been excited about a movie in years. Not like I was about this one. One thing that made me so excited (other than the obvious- seeing the trailer) was this article about James Cameron, and how long he’s been thinking of this movie. That article not only made me want to see the movie more (and be able to get other people more excited about it), but it also added James Cameron to that extremely small group of heroes I have…. currently it’s just him and Sir Richard Branson. Why? ’cause he knows how to pursue his dreams, and he goes scuba diving above undetonated watermines from World War II.

You know how I said I wanted to see it opening night? Yeah.. well.. that didn’t happen. They were sold out. My parents got to see it on Christmas on Imax 3d… I argued with them for a while that it would be worth the 40 minute drive, and line-waiting to see something so epic on Imax. They thanked me for arguing, and winning. I mention them, ’cause they saw it on Christmas — right after I posted that awesome Chinese Food On Christmas post. But as for me.. I didn’t get to go, ’cause I’m not in Florida. The same friends I invited to go on opening night had made it out another night… and from the time they got their tickets to the time I tried to get mine.. sold out again.

I wasn’t worried! I mean, it’s playing in Imax 3d until February, and I work whenever… so I can really catch the 3pm showing every weekday between now and February, and probably not have anyone interrupt my viewing experience, as I memorize the different scripts. While I had thought of that, I really just wanted to see the movie. Tonight was that glorious night. I’m couchsurfing with Craig & Suzanne, and they leave on a New Year’s snowboarding trip tomorrow morning… leaving me with their St. Bernard & Golden Retriever (who like Craig & Sue eat raw). Craig said “We leave in 30 minutes” – I didn’t bother asking where. I love random trips. In the car, Sue had brought up showtimes, so I instantly knew. We saw it at the Alamo Draft House — which is an Austin tradition. You watch a movie, and they bring you dinner and booze.

The only remaining seats were in the very front. This took away from the movie a little bit, but here is my review, and where I see things going (keep reading, ’cause I tell you how to make your own Pandora-like worlds and creatures).

The trailer, in case you haven’t seen it yet.

James Cameron and this movie will forever go down in history. Why? Because James had the vision to do what no one else had the balls (or budget) to do. He refused to make the movie until it was ready to be made. He refused to make it until the technology was ready… and I’m glad that it was ready now! He made the 1st movie where special effects were used for what they are supposed to be used for: a tool for story telling. Movies and TV shows are getting to that point (I thought District 9 did a great job), but James created an entire world, where all the creatures and plants were in 3d, and they interacted with the real actors so well that you didn’t sit there ooh’ing-and-ahh’ing about how real this looks or that looks… you just sat there and enjoyed the story that James was telling.

Let’s talk about the story real quickly. Some paraplegic ex-marine goes to a foreign planet to become a spy on a native species that lives where the people want to mine for expensive minerals. He has to do this by remote-controlling a native-like body that’s got some human DNA in it. Now, don’t get all pissy at me… the trailers show you all this. Is it a strong plot? Eh. It’s so-so, but.. who cares? I mean, frigging Titanic – highest grossing film of all time, at $1,842,879,955 worldwide – is just a chick flick about a boat ride, right? Shuffle board, buffet, dancing, tanning, oh-shit! Iceberg! Something about a diamond and some nude art-modeling.

Avatar is kind of like Dances With Wolves. I mean, the frigging Na’vi (That’s what the giant blue creatures are called. Did I forget to mention they are giagantic?) even do their hair, and fashion after the old Indian look. I’m not complaining. They’re beautiful creatures. In fact… They’re all very scantily clad. I was on the search for some Na’vi nipples in 3d, but didn’t really notice them. Craig & Sue said they spotted them. I also noticed that there’s no fat or obese Na’vi. Clearly McDonald’s and Pizza Hut haven’t hit this planet yet. Consumers complain that Barbie gives little girls all sorts of inner issues when they grow up, because she’d have back-pain with such large boobs, and she’s so skinny, and she has all the toys. Well.. I guarantee you that there will be many Na’vi toys sold! There will be a lot of Avatar lunch boxes sold! So… everyone’s gonna feel fat again.

The aliens of the planet were very diverse, and James had actually had boatnists and taxidermists help him classify every creature. There will be a book selling soon called Pandorapedia, which will detail all the creatures in Avatar. I thought that many of the creatures resebled Earth creatures, but… why wouldn’t they? I mean, there’s plants, water, some gravity… why wouldn’t things evolve Earthlike (Remember I did say the Na’vi are good looking? Well, while their eyes and nose are cat-like, their bodies look very much like athletic humans… with a tail… and they’re blue.)? The movement is what got me. Everything felt so real. It’s almost hard to explain. Being in the front row, we could actually feel some air moving from the bass of the speakers, so it really felt like we were moving along. The planet, Pandora, is very beautiful. The myst, the alien lighting, the size of the trees, the diversity of wildlife, and of course… the bio-luminescense. Oh yes my friend, Pandora would definitely be a cool place to throw a rave!

I shed a few tears. I notice that being a trend as I get older (and maybe give less of a shit what people think). There were a couple spots in the movie that make you sad, despite that you saw them coming a mile away, and they are cliche. There’s also a few points where you want to throw your hands in the air, and scream “Woo Hoo!!!!!!” as a Banshee (the flying creatures) dives off a cliff, or someone jumps throught the branches of a (really frigging humungous) tree. The thing is the overall feeling I walked away with. I long for adventure in general. Playing Bull Poker, training with UFC fighters, jumping off a cliff, flying, scuba diving, skydiving… they’re all fun excursions…. but it’s not “REAL” adventure. The main character got to explore a whole new world, discover new creatures, bang a giant alien chick (oh come on…. you can’t sell a $300,000,000.00 movie without a love interest) , fly off cliffs, lead a race of creatures against some Earth military (again… all stuff that the previews show). That’s adventure!

I know there’s lots of things on our extremely beautiful planet to explore, and I’m working on it. But I grew up on Indiana Jones, King Solomon’s Mines, and even ET (again… alien, running from the cops, flying bicycles…. that counts as adventures). These days, I get a rush from Crank (1 better than 2), Matrix (part 1 way more than 2 or 3), and one of my all time favorite movies, Gattaca. Gattaca is not about adventure, but about the big dreams required to get it… being able to overcome the odds if you put everything into it, or “The ultimate triumph of the human soul” as I like to call it. So.. yeah… I watch this movie, and I’m bored with my life again. I figure Richard Branson has the power to make me the 1st CouchSurfer in space. That would certainly help my mood.

Let’s go back to having to do what it takes, and have the big vision. That’s the reason that most people have mediocre lives. Socrates said “The unexamined life is not worth living”, and I think he was right. So, why is this movie so monumental? Because James Cameron had a vision of making this thing since he saw Star Wars in 1977. He wrote a treatment in 1995, but shelved it ’cause the technology wasn’t ready yet. When the technology was resembling what he wanted, he went out and invented technology to make it so the movie could come out. He reinvented the 3d Camera, projector, and glasses… to make a more realistic 3d, and to make nausia / headaches from 3d go away (apparently, that was an issue with previous 3d… Did he reduce it? Hmmm.. I don’t know, Sue had to go purge– could’ve been the fish and chips though). James had created a world unlike any other, animated more creatures more realistically than anyone before (Lord of The Rings did a pretty nice job too),made more realistic 3d than ever before, invented a new language, a whole set of creatures and plants…. not bad for a few years worth of work. You have to be pretty f’in focused to do that! You’re also not going to get the world’s largest movie-making budget to date on something you just came up with (though, I think James can now get any size check he wants from now on).

James – and Sony – pulled off a 1st. And for that, they’ll get the big rewards, and go down in history. Just like Roger Bannister who ran the very 1st 4-minute mile in 1954. Prior to that people never really tried to run a 4 minute mile, because they thought your heart would explode. Why do I mention Roger Bannister? It’s not just that he was the 1st, it’s the fact that after he did it, his record was broken within 6 weeks… within 3 years, there were 16 runners who broke 4 minute miles. Yes folks, it’s a metaphor. I’m saying that now that Cameron’s had the vision and guts, he’s going to get the glory in the history books – like Bannister — but we can expect to have many more incredible movies unfold before us.

I predict that movies will have more of a focus on amazing stories, and incredible acting. Acting no longer means having to look like Brad or Angelina, or being in shape like Jason Statham. It will just mean being able to convey emotion and personality with your voice. Being able to make a character believeable. Just like how music producers can take someone who sounds like crap, throw some auto-tune on it, fix some pitches, edit out breaks, and voila… you have a very polished sounding product (or… the hell that I go through as a Photoshop artist / compositor, when clients are like “yeah.. we don’t have the ferrari.. but can’t you just photoshop or after effects that in? (usually I can… but that’s not in the cheap budget area, and it takes time!). Well, now you’re going to have people who are ugly and obese, but can deliver lines so well that people want to laugh/cry, they’ll be acting out bodies that do look like Brad & Angelina. Those bodies will do stunts that require you to be in shape like Jason Statham. How appropriate that this is a review about Avatar… because that’s a symbol for those bodies. Acting will go digital! And just like in the cartoons, if an actor wants to be really stubborn, or demand more money than they command, the studio will just find another voice for that character.. hopefully it’s as good.

We’re not too far off from virtual actors. There was that one movie, Simone, that kind of spoofed the topic. In it, a virtual actress was created, and no one knew she was virtual, and she got all famous.. yada yada yada. James Cameron’s actors are still human, with an army of animators kicking ass to make the characters convincing. It’s not automated like Simone was. But the realism of his characters and environments is far from where Final Fantasy was in 2001. In 8 years, emotions can be conveyed. Not that the characters in Final Fantasy didn’t look good, but there was something “not quite human” about them. They were still a little stiff. Sure, it was supposed to be stylized, but in Avatar, nothing looked CG. The faces would crease properly, and you could see the pores in their skin.

Let’s see… so I said there’d be more emphasis on acting ability rather than looks. I said there will be more of an emphasis on incredible stories, rather than effects. There will also be more use of CG… Computers are getting way more powerful, and each year I watch as the software available gets more powerful (often times improving its own coding to compensate for hardware not being able to keep up with the effects that are doable). Not only will we see better effects, and better stories told in other worlds/times, but there will be more 3d… as in the glasses requiring type.

This is the first time that I had been in a a movie, watching previews, when “Please put on your glasses” is projected… during previews! The remaining previews were in 3d, and there were plenty of them! The new Alice in Wonderland looks pretty amazing…. it’s Tim Burton, so I”d see it anyways, but wow… crazy story telling brought to life.

The way I see it, we’re about 4 years from having technologies that make 3d so good that you can have an “out of this world” experience right at home. You’ll be able to play video games that are so real that people will be traumatized by them (Recently, while couchsurfing at Eric Farewell’s place, I played Medal of Honor (or something like that) on Xbox 360 — it was farily realistic, and very fast). Microsoft has already shown off concepts of their full-body motion games, which make the Nintendo Wii look like child’s play.

If this is the preview they can make of it now.. imagine it in 4 years, with processors that can display infinite lights, fog, and polygons, advances in AI, social networking built into games, and of course… 3D displays right at home (Blueray 3D standard was just officially finalized… a day before Avatar came out… coincidence?). People are really going to be obese and never leave the house… unless of course those games will actually make you walk to explore those other worlds. I gotta say, I just saw Wii Fitness, and I was very very impressed. In fact, I said “Wow, this is sci-fi”.

Speaking of games… Avatar already had a game come out for Xbox 360. The neat thing is that when UbiSoft approached James Cameron, they wanted to make a game that was not jsut retelling the story the movie was made of, but rather let you explore the world that the movie created. While watching Avatar, you only get a small look at the planet, the creatures, and the battles. In the game, you supposedly get to explore the planet more, and run across more missions. James Cameron had his hands in it since he started working on the movie. So, I predict it should be interesting. Fast forward a few years though, and the games will interact with us. The 3d will be so amazing, some people will even prefer their game characters to real people, and again… won’t leave the house. This will cause a boom in the pizza (and regular groceries) delivery business. I also predict a giant spike in the sex-toy market… once people make sex toys (for both genders) that interface with the major game consoles. The warranty / repair industry will boom once those things come out

Many people don’t know that I used to be a 3d animator. I’m worked on a few small video games, commercials, music videos, corporate trainings, etc… So, if you want to create your own worlds and creatures right now… you can! Here’s some of the best tools I”ve found:

E-On Vue Xstream (the Xstream edition plugs into the major 3d applications: maya, 3dsmax, softimage 3d/xsi, lightwave, cinema4d- which are other applications that let you create, texture, and animate your characters/vehicles/etc)- lets you create and animate your worlds. You control everything… wind-direction, clouds, sun(s), rock-types, water types, fog types, moons, planets, and of course you can import 3d stuff from other software. Now if you have a scene in mind, and are thinking “Gosh! I can’t create the world, and the spaceships, and explosions!”, you might be wrong. Check out TurboSquid, you can purchase various 3d models and textures there. Oh yeah… there’s a PLE (personal learning edition.. i.e. FREE to use) of Vue Xstream 8!

If you’re into painting or sculpting, or 3d modeling, or just always wanted to get into that… basically, if you’d like to create your own creatures (which you can later animate, or pose, or just send photorealistic images of them to your friends), I highly recommend Pixologic’s Z-brush. I have watched this software evolve from what seemed like a joke with version 1, until version 2 when it became the de-facto tool, and now at version 3.5, it’s just sheer mind-blowing… and now if your software doesn’t work with Z-brush, you’re a loser. Just about every movie and game studio has this. It is very powerful (though, it does take a little getting used to- compared to other 3d applications), and it’s a lot more artistic, and less “technical” than most other 3d applications – such as 3d studio max, or softimage. There is massive support, tons of tutorials, and it’s extremely affordable. Check out the Zbrush gallery for inspiration… if nothing else, it’s very appropriate that someone’s modeled some Avatar characters in it.

The other thing that I had to explain to my parents… who kept arguing about how that couldn’t've all been CG, because it didn’t look like CG (back when I was doing 3d and effects, we’d always say “the best effect is the one you can’t tell you’re seeing”), I told them about the new camera technology, and the advances in software, and the adances in computing power… but then I mentioned something I’ve totally forgotten to mention in this post! People! As 3d has gotten more popular, schools have embraced it, and there are a lot more people now who can work on the effects. Back in the day, studios had a harder time finding qualified artists that could crank out the creatures and worlds they wanted, or that knew how to program custom effects for their Flame* compositing systems… these days, there’s a lot more animators, modelers, virtual lighting artists, compostiors, and programmers.

As they say “We stand on the shoulders of giants.” Our achievements grow and grow, because we use the life-work of others who came before us. Someone can make a movie, because someone’s already invented film, the film camera, the projector, the editing systems, and of course, the centuries of script-writing…. fast forward to computers and software, and new hardware…. Students these days can reverse engineer amazing works that came before their time. The future of film and games is a very bright one (and I”m not referring to just the brighter bulbs they have). If the first moon landing was a fake, the other world exploration we’ll be seeing soon will seem very real. The government will make more propaganda for the news, and we’ll think that’s real too.

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added in:  I don’t think any of the creatures on Pandora had any fur! wtf? (actually, it probably saved them thousands of rendering hours)… but was just thinking, there’s no fur on anything!

*If you’ve seen “Team America” you MUST watch this Avatar Spoof!

What did YOU think of the movie?