Articles, Featured Articles, Industrial Design

I knew that James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ movie had a massive hype train behind it, but I just wasn’t that interested in it.  I had finally watched the entire trailer a mere day before it was due to be released in select 3D capable theatres (around 2200 total) and thought that while it definetly looked good, I always find myself extremely skeptical of products that are marketed or ‘pushed’ a little too hard.  Making me even more skeptical, was the use of 3D in the movie.  I have not had the fondest memories of movies that used the stereoscopic technology in the past.  Nonetheless, I was presented the opportunity to go see the almost 3 hour epic last night, and I (a bit reluctantly) accepted.

An Avatar Still from the Extended Trailer

It’s a gorgeous movie, with beautifully rendered scenes and environments and almost seamless integration of CGI and live action footage.  The story was well thought out, creative, and delivered a message to the audience in a manner that lay somewhere between ’somewhat subtle’ and ‘heavy handed’.  Surprisingly, the highly touted 3D stereoscopic effects were executed in a manner that did not detract from the film as I thought they might, but rather added a sense of depth and wonder that I was most certainly not expecting.  I frequently found myself flicking them off just to see the differences between what was actually being projected on the screen and what I was seeing through the glasses, and was amazed at the sense of depth that was being created.  What stuck out to me even more so than all of the effects and the beautiful environments, was the incredible attention given to every aspect of the film.

A living and breathing world was created through this film.  The detail given to each and every animal, plant, and character that graces the screen creates such a sense of realism and wonder that it suspends the viewers disbelief.  This film has supposedly been in the works (in James Cameron’s head anyway) for roughly 10 years, and included roughly 4 years of work with Industrial Designers in order to create machinery, environments, characters, etc., that all could potentially be functional and real.  It’s not hard to see how the comparisons between this and Star Wars have started, as they both have (and had) the potential to spawn wholely unique and creative alternate worlds that the user can actually escape to and are believable.

Another Still from the Avatar Trailer

The movie itself may not be everyone’s cup of tea, as it is still at it’s core a fantasy / sci-fi movie, but I believe that it does deserve a viewing if only to give it a chance and to see the amazing effects.  After having seen it in 3D, I am already itching to go see it again at the IMAX theatres to truly see the differences.  Even without that though, this film has already proven to me the value of 3D technology when used appropriately.  With many of the television manufacturing  giants already hoping to have 3D capable televisions on the market by 2010 and support for 3D Blu-Ray standards being readied at the moment, it looks like there are a lot of people banking on 3D being the future.  In the end, it boils down to whether or not consumers are willing to upgrade once again, and so soon after many are just getting around to joining the High Definition market as to whether or not it will succeed, but movies like Avatar just might be 3D’s ‘must have app”.  The question is, will Avatar stand alone, or are other films going to be able to help prove the usefulness and value of 3D in films?