[kj] (OT) Avatar

[The Mighty TB]

Got around to seeing it this morning at the local IMAX in 3D.

I echo and agree with a lot of what many people have said about the flick 
pro and con.  It's an amazing *technological* achievement, beautifully 
designed, a real triumph of art and technology at a small expense to story 
which has nicked and cobbled together some pretty obvious ideas from well 
kown older mainstream sources. Regarding the whole Dances with Lion King 
syrupy "circle of life" stuff  - it does get a bit annoying and contrived at 
times.  I was going in expecting close to video game level artificial 
looking CGI and that's there in large doses, but about 15 minutes into the 
flick, you get lost in the whole thing and it doesn't matter.  Seeing it in 
3D is a major reason for this.  And there's a couple major gaps in the plot 
that would have resulted in a pretty abrupt end to the movie (why not just 
nuke 'em from orbit?) but oh well.

Still the overall package is a pretty amazing 2 1/2 hour experience.  After 
seeing it in 3D, I can't imagine seeing it again at least in a theater in 
2D.  It's be like hearing a full surround film soundtrack in mono.

It's funny, but I was really reminded of the first time I saw the original 
Star Wars during it's opening weekend in that the story wasn't really too 
original but after seeing it, my impression was that the film itself was a 
game-changer. Same to a lesser extent with Jurassic Park.   I'm sure a lot 
of people in the 30's and 50's thought the same thing about King Kong, The 
Wizard Of Oz and/or the Ten Commandments.

I really think the one big thing about this movie is that it will push more 
live action films of a wider variety than just CGI sci-fi stuff or gimmicky 
horror movies to be presented in 3D in addition to the mainly CGI animated 
fare.  Avatar proves that there's a big audience who will tolerate sitting 
through a long movie wearing those goofy glasses.  I think the technology 
has a long ways to go, but this is still a major step towards truly 
immersive, commonplace 3D moviegoing experience.  As the hardware for 
filming and exhibition cost drops, it's going to be much like introducing 
stereo or multi-channel sound into cinemas in that it will become fairly 
mainstream for even low budget independent films.

Another perhaps unexpected benefit for the entertainment industry is 3D is 
really a unique form of copyguard in that people who bootleg movies in the 
theater with a camcorder just won't get anything usable from the unfiltered 
3D image on the screen. But then again, there's always some theaters showing 
2D versions of (the) movie so perhaps that point's kinda moot.

I'm holding my breathe for 3D interactive home theater porn right outta 
"Brainstorm," the 80's movie with Christopher Walken.

T.B.