Last night I went along (alone) to see James Cameron’s Avatar. I went with an open mind despite what people have said about the story (or lack thereof of a well-written one), and came away completely in awe of what I saw. For me to say this is difficult since if there is just one little problem and I usually go right off the film.
Avatar is NOT without it’s problems. Some of the VFX still do look like very nicely rendered cut-scenes from a videogame. But WOW – WHAT A VIDEOGAME! For the most part, 90% of the film stands up to very close scrutiny, and it has to be said that the creature design and rendering is the very best I’ve ever seen in any movie to date. The work here is incredibly organic and even me, who has seen how artists, TDs, shader writers, animators, VFX supervisors and everyone in-between work – there were many a time when I just thought: “How the bloody hell did they do THAT?”. It was like watching your first major FX movie and haven’t a clue how it all works. Nor do you care. Well, I didn’t care how they did it. I was in awe with the animals of Pandora, the Na’Vi themselves were brilliantly animated and rendered. The forests, the mountains, everything – absolutely beautiful. It was like watching living art. All so organic, and yet all so digital and artificial at the same time.
I am in awe of what Cameron and the VFX teams have achieved. A lot of hard work and love has gone into making this film work. The story itself is simple, but works very well. It doesn’t feel like a three hour film at all – it all seems to go far too quickly. The 3D work itself works well enough, although I’ve always found that 3D doesn’t work well for me. But for Avatar it’s not in your face and does indeed bring the movie a bit more to life.
Cameron has upped the ante here. All those years he and his team have spent working on this film have paid off in spades. If there are sequels to this film, I look forward to them. Avatar is fantastically entertaining and I think it has plenty of re-watch potential. Looking forward to the Blu-Ray (oh the irony! Perhaps they could call it Na’Vi Ray instead) and a massive audio commentary from all involved as this film is one that’s worth exploring.
My rating: 9.9 out of 10
