So last night, at the fantastically decadent hour of 3:08 a.m., I emerged from James Cameron's new movie in 3D. First thing to know: Avatar is a visual orgy. The colors are brilliant, the scenery is fantastic in the most literal and most metaphorical senses of the word, and the surfaces made me drool just a tiny bit. You could watch this movie on mute and still come out rejoicing. It's a technological marvel. Go see it, just for the ride it is.
I was most impressed with the facial expressions of the blue aliens. A few years ago, I read in the New York Times about the breakthrough in digital mapping of the human face, and saw what could be done with the technology when it first came out. The people working on this have clearly not been twiddling their thumbs; it has totally come into its own. Davy Jones was a great leap, but he was just one guy, and this movie is about two thirds populated with CG people with perfectly believable faces. Also, 3D has never been my favorite, and still isn't, but they really make it work for this movie, mostly because the scale is so terrifically huge. 3D IMAX would probably rock my socks into next week, so if you can see it like that, do! (I'm looking at you, Hyde Parkers).
The whole environment is steeped in detail. I kept flinching at bugs in the jungle. Bugs! In the jungle! They were in 3D, and I kept thinking they were in the theater with me. Also, woodchips fly, bark is not just one matte painting mapped onto various tree-shapes, it has its own texture. Water looks real, acts real. Particles behave as particles ought to. Things glow with appropriate (and oddly MYST-like) bioluminescence. WETA has done it again. Go forth and contribute to their worthy coffers.
That said, (and I do mean it - go see it! Except you, Mom, you'd hate it) some things about it bothered me. If you have no interest in my nitpickery, stop reading now. Go, enjoy the movie on its merits as a romp and a visual feast. For those somewhat more accepting of my foibles, forge ahead.
First, a couple of hard(ish) sciencey problems.
- The celestial body on which the action takes place is a moon of a gas giant, which we see several times in the sky. This would be a lot better if it weren't so clearly Jupiter, dyed blue.
- Every macroscopic life form (which they take care to show us with fabulous clarity) is six-limbed. Except for the conveniently humaniform blue cat-people. They're not monotremes in Australia. Evolution: they're doing it wrong.
- I... I really should talk about the floating mountains and what should have happened with the atmosphere there, but it was just so awesome to look at, I'm wussing out and saying that the phenomenon affected only certain types of solid stuff. (You may envision me with my fingers in my ears, going, "na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-BATMAN!")
And now, the social sciences!
- Archetypes. Many said archetypes with rich subtexts of privileged guilt. Noble savage, anyone? (links to Sociological Images' analysis) It would be like me coming to Korea, getting elected president, and single-handedly ending the North Korean missile threat, except that South Korea would be populated by the Huns.
- The language they make up. It... makes my brain hurt. I do love me a glottal stop, but there is no discernible reason the persons in question are incapable of producing a much richer phonetic set than Hollywood ever gives them. (Except for District 9. They win).
So, bottom line: see Avatar. It is worth seeing in 3D. Admire what technology has given us, and think longingly of the day when this particular visual extravagance will be par for the course. I'm going to go teach some classes and daydream about having my own alien pterodactyl-hang-glider thing.
PS - Bunny, bunny!
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