24 minutes of James Cameron’s Avatar was screened for the very first time to 1,000 European industry attendees at the Cinema Expo International in Amsterdam. Cameron’s decade long passion project has been touted as the film that will change how we watch movies forever. Now that is one hell of an expectation to live up to. So is that the case?
The insider writes for comingsoon.net: “3-D until now has been used as a gimmick.” On the human characters he writes: “It took my breath away. I thought–just like you guys–that I’ve seen it all with Gollum, or The Hulk, but Cameron has done it again. These creatures seem so real, that within minutes you forget you’re watching an enormous and very blue CGI character. Even the eyes are totally convincing. The characters have real personalities and a soul.” … “How the hell is it possible that I never once felt like I’ve been watching a movie where almost everything comes out of a computer?” … “The effects are in a league of their own. After some disappointing or even pointless 3-D movies, Avatar maybe the first movie where 3-D is properly utilized.”
“Anonymous” over on IESB: “It makes me want to create a time machine like Cartman from South Park, so that I don’t have to wait till the 18th of December to watch the finished movie. If it’s anything like the scenes I saw, it’s going to be one of the best movies of the decade.”
Unique Cinema Systems Nord on Twitter: “stunning, literally jaw dropping. Amazing visuals unlike any before seen, with incredible detail.” … “CGI was photorealistic, characters look really real. Believe the hype, this movie will be massive!” … “Cameron told audience each frame of finished film takes 30-50 hrs to render, and then double that up for 3D.”
A scooper at MarketSaw: “The clips were amazing” … “You will NOT believe the detail.” … “The world outside is amazing. It all lives, breathes and works.” … “You will not believe the amount of leaves that look like someone created that jungle for real.” … “Little fireflies and birds fly through the shots without being there. You just take them as the world, like a dove in Central Park. It’s not placed there, it lives there and just happens to be in the shot.” … “There’s a shot of leaves somewhere which is so photorealistic you don’t want to think its CGI. You believe this world from the get-go. It’s there; you don’t need to believe it because you will experience it.”
GJKooijman on Twitter: “is mindblown” … “Still in awe of meeting James Cameron… Avatar will change movie industry forever. Thank you Jim” … “It’s nothing you can imagine, it’s real. Cameron made a new planet and took a cam there.” … “THIS WILL CHANGE MOVIES FOREVER. Trust me, it will.”
Sperling on Twitter: “It’s official! The footage from “Avatar” shown at Cine Expo was amazing. Absolutely stunning in 3D. Should be a huge hit.”
We can breathe a sigh of relief after all this positive feedback. I’ve never enjoyed the overuse of the words “jaw dropping” and “amazing” this much. Anticipation looks to be growing even more (If that’s possible at this point) because we at least know the film is an absolute must see for the visual experience alone.
David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) are in “advanced talks” with Columbia Pictures to adapt a Facebook centered film The Social Network to the screen with Kevin Spacey and Scott Rudin producing. The film is an adaptation of Ben Mezrich’s upcoming book The Accidental Millionaires: the Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal. Mezrich is the best selling author of the book Bringing Down the House, which was also adapted into a feature film (last year’s 21). The film will focus on the formation of Facebook from its inception in 2004 by a Harvard sophomore Mark Zuckerberg to the world wide phenomenon that it is today, with over 200 million members. Fanboys seem to be mystified that Fincher would choose a project like this. How could a movie about Facebook be as enthralling as say Zodiac? But Fincher is a filmmaker that has made built his career on unexpected choices, for better (Fight Club) or for worse (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). The later film was hindered by a bad script, but with this outing it’s hard to go wrong with Sorkin. He has had a track record of excellence for how long now? The project promises to be very interesting, if nothing else. Accidental Millionaires (the book) will hit shelves on July 19th.
