Thoughts on *AVATAR DAY* footage (mild spoilers)

So, Friday evening, I headed to my local IMAX and got to watch a glorious 16 minutes from Jim Cameron’s new AVATAR. Prior to playing the trailer for AVATAR and the preview footage they played a trailer for Burton’s ALICE IN WONDERLAND, and to be honest, I had forgotten about it until just now. Make of that what you will but I guess I’m not too surprised myself that I’ve been drawing blanks. So like I said, prior to the footage, we got to see the AVATAR trailer in stunning 3D. One complaint that many Comic Con attendees had when the trailer was released online was how underwhelming it looked on a small computer screen and without 3D. I wholly agree. The IMAX screen, boosted audio and 3D make it a completely different and memorable experience. Immediately after, Jim Cameron appeared on screen to introduce and preface the scenes they’d be airing and assured us they were from the first half of the film. The footage opens in a small canteen with large glass windows where Col. Quaritch (Stephen Lang) is briefing a roomful of soldiers about their mission here on Pandora. Since I don’t really want to spoil much else, I’ll only give an overview. The next scene introduces us to Dr. Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) who is setting Jake up right before his mental jump into his avatar. Aside from the Terminator and Spiderman rides at Universal, I haven’t seen a film in 3D (stupidly watching BEOWULF on in 2D). Despite the slight uncomfortability of the glasses, the film looks amazing in 3D. Especially these first two scenes because they take place in everyday environments and so it’s very easy to place ourselves in those very rooms with the characters. I loved that, not to mention how beautifully shot in high definition all these scenes were. The following two scenes take Jake and us to the forest where there is heaps of running, jumping, biting, shooting, and arrows flying throw the air. Mind-blowing, huh? Not only are the scenes just absolutely gorgeously rendered but it was just an amazingly encapsulating and visceral experience. The last scene involved Jake having to creep among a mountainside full of dragons in order to find his perfect match. And how do you know when you’ve found your perfect dragon match, you ask? It’ll try and kill you, of course. The 3D works especially well here because of the depth and action that entails when putting a dragon in any scene of any movie, except for DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, that doesn’t count. Yes, the CGI does seem apparent at times but that is the fault of me, the viewer. I’m sure by the end of the film, every audience member will have bought every character and every action set-piece because it’s convincing, done masterfully, and face it, it’s Cameron.Though the scenes screened were from the first half of the film, for me Cameron has two modes. There’s his niche film enthusiast mode which made the ALIENS, TERMINATOR and ABYSS films. Then there’s his expert commercial mode which gave us POINT BREAK, TRUE LIES, and TITANIC. AVATAR, though seemingly a niche film because of it extreme sci-fi plot in nature, appears to be a commercial film. Now, his commercial films have never been poor or underwhelming. Always fun, always well-made and always financial successes. This really has Cameron combining his two modes and giving us a film that takes risks in its concept and development but, from what I saw, not cinematically. I mean to say that, on screen, though tremendously exciting to watch and wonderfully framed, T2 seemingly took more risks. It’s difficult to explain more so because so few have actually seen the footage and therefore discussion is impossible. I still am incredibly excited to watch the finished product and know audiences will snap it up; they’ll have to for FOX to be making its money back, though I’m not worried, and I’m sure neither is Cameron.