I went to an IMAX preview screening of Avatar at Long Beach Edwards 26.  For those that doesn’t know about Avatar:  It’s a sci-fi flick combining  CG, 3-d effects and real actors.  The feedback for the regular trailer was mixed.  Some were disappointed how the creatures looked too much like Thundercats, while some people were excited to see the crazy battle scenes.  For me, I’m on the latter.  James Cameron is one of my favorite directors and I have faith that when everything is said and done, Avatar will be an awesome movie.

I got to the theater 15 minutes before the screening and there was no line at all.  The IMAX auditorium was only about 30% full.  I thought it’d be packed like the Transformers 2 trailer screening but I was wrong.  I talked to the managers and they said most people reserved for 2 seats and only one showed up.  Either way, the audience was small.  I was given my 3-d glasses and I seat with my fellow nerds.

The preview starts with James Cameron’s intro and he tells us that the preview has no spoilers since all the footage are in the first half of the movie.  Here are the scenes:

– Briefing of a group of workers going to a new “world” where not everyone will survive.  The main character is also introduced, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) he’s on a wheelchair.  I was surprised they used real actors in the scenes because in the trailer, everything seemed like it was motion captured.  The cinematography was nice with the soft lighting.  The 3-d scene consisted of some boots, whoop dee do!!

–  Sigourney Weaver’s CG (?) counterpart telling the main character about an experiment.  I got confused if Sigourney Weaver was really the real life counterpart or not because they combine real actors with CG background.  The CG is good but it’s still obvious it’s not “real”.  It’s not organic enough and sometimes it looks flat.  The 3-d scenes were better used this time around as the tubes looked like it was really in front of you.

– The main character becomes a blue, tall, cat-like creature.   He wakes up and he’s amazed of the new transformation.  This was the least entertaining of the scenes.  It showed that they still have a long way to with CG.  The creatures looked too cartoonish and it took me out of the movie.  I don’t remember any 3-d scenes, maybe one where the characters gets close to the camera.

– Jake is hunting some big ass creatures in the woods.  Creatures looked cool and we see some gunplay.  The empty casings were flying towards me as Jake tries to shoot down the creature.  Cameron went with the Aliens route with the weapons, no lasers but guns that we can relate to.

–  Jake gets attacked by bugs at night and gets rescued by a female creature that looks like him.  Wow, the CG for the female sucked.  It reminded me of Matrix 2’s Burly Brawl.  It looked like plastic being stretched.  The script was pretty cheesy too.  The last part was beautiful though as Jake sees a glowing garden.  When nothing is moving, the scenery looks awesome!

–  Jake tries to claim his pterodactyl looking creature.  I loved the background where u can see more creatures flying. The flying creature was very detailed and you can see textures on the skin.  I like the part when Jake rides the creature (reminds me of the crazy ride at the OC Fair) and he’s holding on for dear life.  Still looks like obvious CG.

–  Last 30 seconds or so has different cut-scenes, most were seen on the regular trailer.  But seeing it on an IMAX screen got me pumped.  It looked like the final battle is going to be great and there’ll be some heroic battle speeches, sweet!

Overall, I see what James Cameron is trying to do with this movie.  He’s trying to bring us into his world by combining all the elements that can be used for movie theaters.  I respect him for trying it out but I don’t think it’ll work the way he wants it to.  Like I said before, the CG is good but it’s not great where you totally accept it.  The 3-d part might be cool but it’s still too gimmicky for me, reminds me of Disneyland attractions: Captain EO and Honey I Shrunk The Audience.

I’m still going to watch it the first day it comes out because I see the potential of the movie.  I hope they’ll work out the major issues.

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