AVATAR!

Like a few thousand other people, I'm not the first to blog about James Cameron's new movie Avatar. What I am however, is the first person to write about it from my perspective. So HA! I win.

By far, this is the movie of the year (2009) for me. Kicked the crap out of Transformers and everything else that I've spent $9.75/ticket on. I will go so far as to say that this one of my all time favorite movies for that matter. It's been a damn good long time since a movie has taken my breathe away.

I won't be a loser and throw in a bunch of spoilers about the movie, that and the fact that I refuse to spoil movies, so I'll do my best to keep this interesting and yet happily vague, keeping my focus on the imagery. Besides, if you're that desperate for a spoiler go to Google, there's only a million or so resources out there now on the movie between screen shots, vids, reviews, and so forth!

The story of the movie is fairly simple. We follow a former Marine, Jake Sully, as he explores the distant world of Pandora. This is done via an Avatar, a living, breathing Simulacrum of the native inhabitants the Na'vi. Pandora is a jungle like world, orbiting a gas giant some 5+ years via space travel from Earth and is far different from any place we as humans would be fortunate to know. Being that I don't spoil movies, I won't go into detail as of to why Jake is on Pandora on the first place (again, go Google it!). In short order Jake meets Neytiri, one of the Na'vi people... and I will say no more! I only mention her because she will inevitably be mentioned again in this post.

What allowed this movie to jump into one my top favorites is the visuals and the shear scale of the movie. I have always, always been a big fan of movies that give you a good sense of the environment, especially when it's on a grand scale. Lord of the Rings first and foremost is one that jumps to mind as a prime example of this. Plenty of camera shots that pull back and allow you to see a vast, rich landscape of life and activity. Delightful details on every close up. And even better, for a movie that is some 60% CGI, the details make a HUGE difference.
 

As you can see in the first image, Cameron in his never ending quest for details pulls through. Note the highlights and shadows on the texturing of the skin, striations on the teeth, and little dimple marks that are on the nose. Even color detail is great when you look just above the nose, that subtle dark line of blue. The detail continues further when you look at Neytiri's hairline in the next image. You can clearly see each hair at it's base as it travels back into her cornrows. Don't ask me if each hair was rendered individually or if it's some fancy trick of the texturing, I'm not a 3D artist, I just know that I'm pleasantly pleased by the devil in these details! One more thing to point out is the tiny thread that holds together Neytiri's head piece. Again, another small detail that some might overlook, but adds so much to the reaslism of the film.

This little animated gif (left) is one I love for the simple fact that it shows the emotive qualities that go into these 3D creations. Neytiri's sudden smile to what Jake says, the tilt of her head, the shift in her eyes give the obvious hint of happiness and amusement. The one afterwords (right) is the opposite, anger. To bad the quality of the gif is so low, but hey, PLENTY of high rez images out there, and if you look hard enough you'll find a few high quality video's too.

Pandora- Flora and Fauna

So. Awesome. That sums it up.

Ok, maybe I should go a bit more into detail. Like everything else in this movie, the creatures of Pandora as well as the plants are wonderfully inventive, original, and beautiful. They have a great sense of realism to them.To the left is an illustration from The Art of Avatar: James Cameron's Epic Adventure (A wonderful book by the way which I love looking at.) of an Ikran, the main flying creature in the movie. I've yet to find a good image of it from the movie, but if you look hard enough out there on the interwebz you'll find some good video's with them in it.

The plant life in the movie, which of course helps create/set the mood and (duh) envoronment is visually breathe taking. Outside of an obvious jungle look, it literally shines during the Pandoran nights as not only do the animals light up, but as do the plants. Everything on Pandora has the ability to glow via bioluminescense, creating a brilliant display of glowing neon colors. One thing that has driven my love for this movie has been the Avatar game itself. As you play through the game itself you have the ability/task of scanning the people, wildlife, and plantlife of Pandora, and in so doing you build the aptly named "Pandorapedia". This alone has made the game total worth getting for me. A pansophical paradigm of pandoran philosophy (How V of me!). While I haven't taken notes on who came up with all the content (obviously Cameron had a foot in this one), the game goes into wonderful detail about the planet and it's environment, the science and wonder of it all... but that will be another blog post.

3D versus not 3D

For me this was a very simple comparison. Visually they are both stunning. The biggest difference I found was a result of the 3D glasses. 3D glasses have a natural tint to them, causing the screen to be a touch dimmer (a well known fact.) As a result the bright and shiny awesomeness isn't quite as.... bright and shiny in 3D. Not to say that it's horribly dark either. In an article in Newsweek in conversation between James Cameron and Peter Jackson, James states "this is easily overcome by increasing the color saturation and brightness on the film." Good fix, but for me personally I didn't see it, maybe my eyes aren't as good as they used to be... still was fun to watch though. Thusly, the 3D version has a greater sense of depth and personal immersion, bringing the movie right to you (as it should), while the 2D version has a better overall sense of color and grander sense of scale to the environment. I'd suggest seeing both versions if you can, very much worth it.

And finally, to all the haters. Hush. Take your Fern Gully, Matrix loving, Pocahontas comparisons some place else. I think you're wrong. The theme of someone falling in love and switching sides is a tale that has gone on for thousands of years and appeared in many, many movies. At this point it's damn near impossible for something to be made that can't or won't be compared to something else with someone inevitably crying "Ripoff!". Do yourself a favor: sit down, be quiet, and enjoy the movie for what it is: A visually stunning masterpiece that has taken advantage of today's technology to create a wonderful experience.

"We've seen every story before. Everything else is a retelling and customizations of those stories. The effectiveness in those retellings and customizations is what makes certain movies stand out."

-from a random forum post.

'nuff said. For now anyways.