Sure, you have Wolverine, Terminator and Transformers left to battle it out for summer box office dollars, but this year’s biggest film is still quietly sitting in limbo as we all await a first look at a project that could change the movie business forever. Time magazine recently visited the set of Avatar, James Cameron’s (Titanic) $200 million science fiction film about a wounded war veteran (Sam Worthington) who travels to the distant planet of Pandora where he helps lead an indigenous race in a battle for survival.
What they brought back were the sort of comments we’ve been waiting to hear – especially from a movie Steven Spielberg is predicting will be the biggest 3-D live-action film ever. Time magazine’s Josh Quittner notes, “I couldn't tell what was real and what was animated--even knowing that the 9-ft.-tall blue, dappled dude couldn't possibly be real. The scenes were so startling and absorbing that the following morning, I had the peculiar sensation of wanting to return there, as if Pandora were real.”
Is it even possible to walk away from a movie with a sensation that what we just watched was real? Because that could be very cool (like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory cool) or very uncool (um … anything where aliens destroy the earth and eat people) depending on which film you’re watching. Cameron claims that 3-D viewing "is so close to a real experience that it actually triggers memory creation in a way that 2-D viewing doesn't." Time later adds that the "stereoscopic viewing uses more neurons"…which makes sense, but sounds freaky, right?
Avatar arrives in theaters on December 18th, and until then we won’t truly know what sort of experience we’re in store for. Hopefully it’s one for the record books, because one thing I’ve always loved about James Cameron is, with him, it’s either go big or go home.
Are you excited for Avatar? Have you enjoyed the recent influx of 3-D films?
