Humbug!

The waltz continues…

I’m breaking step just for a moment to say that tomorrow the anticipation is over, and I’m finally going to see AVATAR (in full Imax splendour no less; bring it 😀 )! Then on Saturday it’s off to Thailand with me for two weeks, so all in all December’s going to have been a Scrooge of a month in blogging terms. There is one particular event that deserves a good entry dedicated to it, but that’ll have to linger in the dungeons for a bit longer…

I might be able to catch some digital surf out in Thailand, but if not; Happy Holidays dudes and dudettes. Take care, be safe, and be glad that Jack Bauer is protecting us from Christmas.

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Avatar Again

I saw the Avatar teaser-trailer yesterday. Couldn’t help it! It was shown before Final Destination 3D, and while I closed my eyes for some of it (not wanting to spoil the film for myself) the sounds drew my eyelids back open and I resigned myself to staring, rapt, at the events unfolding on-screen. There was so much going on it was incredible, and the 3D was utterly involving; there was a bit where an avatar is sitting on a lab table, wiggling its toes, and just the whole thing looked amazing… ahhh I can’t wait ’til January, when I’ll finally get to see it (due to going to Thailand over Christmas). Final Destination 3D was decent enough fun, but what I saw of the Avatar trailer was probably better than the entire feature film…

Anticipating Avatar…

.

So, Avatar, a brief introduction:

Fourteen years since its original conception, and four years in the making, it’s the latest film from the director of Terminator 1+2, Aliens, The Abyss, True Lies and Titanic. A sci-fi, the plot is set around a war between humans and the Na’vi, the native inhabitants of a planet called Pandora. Who happen to be blue, and ten feet tall.

In order to better their chances in the conflict, the humans come up with a way of transferring the mind of a human into a Na’vi ‘vessel’ body (thus creating the avatars the title refers to). The main character undergoes this process and is sent down to the planet, where he becomes entangled with the Na’vi people and their culture. That’s about all I know, as I’m intentionally staying away from further details from now on.

As I’ve mentioned before, what’s really got people excited is the supposedly mind-blowing 3D technology and CGI, that makes you feel as if you’re actually in the fictional world itself. A few people have described watching the film as similar to tripping, in that it’s impossible to tell what’s real and what isn’t.

And daaamn, the first ever footage is being shown over at the Comic-Con right now.

Waiting for updates on the IMDB forums…

Yep, I really am a bit too excited about this 😀

——-

Edit 1 : Been following a live update from Stephen Johnson, one of the people in the crowd:

3:28	Stephen Johnson:  They’re going to show nearly a half hour of footage, here, people! Amazing!

3:28	Stephen Johnson:  But sadly, there won’t be live blogging. Screen must be closed. Sorry. be back soon.

3:54	Stephen Johnson:  Back… Wow.

3:55	Stephen Johnson:  Okay. I just became one of the first 6000 or so people on earth to have seen part of Avatar. I’m still sort of soaking it in, but I’ll give you my fresh-off-the-dome impressions:

3:56	Stephen Johnson:  First off: This is like no other movie you have ever seen. It’s ambitious, and entirely original, full of digital effects, flawless executed, in an entirely imaginative world.

😮

😀

Alex Billington from FirstShowing.net:

“Just finished watching a full 25 minutes and holy shit it was phenomenal, just amazing. It does indeed look like nothing you’ve ever seen, it is groundbreaking, it looks incredible. Every single second in this looked real. And most of it was a completely CGI created universe that does not at all look CGI. It is truly amazing!”

———-

It’s a kind of special awesome that amongst all the copycat comedies, sequels and book/film adaptations these days, an original vision can still come along and just have everyone all over the world buzzing 😀

Edit 2 : Woah there… From the Q&A session with director James Cameron:

Q: Do you have any projects in mind for Arnold [Schwarzenegger] when he’s out of office?

A: Well Arnold and I have discussed the possibility of him returning to action, I wouldn’t rule that out.” But he’ll let him do the announcing.

My face, once again = 😮

———

Fanboy mode disengaged.  The next thing I find out (intentionally, at any rate 😉 ) about Avatar will be when I’m sitting in an Imax cinema and the film is starting, on the 18th of December!

Official Avatar Website

Comic-Conned

Added my mock-analysis of the first page of the sci-fi ‘epic’ Moon People (oh, you’ve never heard of it?) into the Imaginarium, which you might enjoy if you’re in need of a chuckle, a writer, a sci-fi reader, or anyone who appreciates a bit of satire on their cornflakes:

Linky

Also, just read that Sam Raimi will be directing a World of Warcraft film after he finishes Spider-Man 4… crikey! Something to keep an eye on, that. [/geekout]

In the here and now, the 2009 Comic-Con festival is about to begin over in San Diego! While comics don’t do much for me, it spans into all sorts of things; film, TV, games, arty stuff, etc, and the main thing I’m looking forward to this year is the first footage of James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’, which, after a lot of exciting-sounding feedback from industry insiders and directors,  I’m hoping is going to be something absolutely incredible. He’s using some supposedly ‘revolutionary’ filming technique that could ‘change cinema’. Skepticism goggles firmly on, of course, but if anyone can pull something like that off, it might well be Cameron.

What won’t be blowing minds any time soon, by the way, (because I know everyone’s interested) is the new Universal Soldier film, with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren back in their cloned boots as a couple of reanimated army experiments. I saw some footage today, and oh. Oh dear… don’t think it could even be redeemed if they chucked someone in a combine harvester again. Which is saying something.

I’ll be keeping up to date with the various things going on at Comic-Con, so I’ll make a few posts over the next few days on the interesting stuff going on over there in an attempt to curb my bitterness at being on the wrong continent.

Edit: The trailer for Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland has been released:

Click Me

I see Johnny Depp’s branching out his acting technique… Hard to sum up much from rest of the brief snatches of scenes but it has promise. Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee look great!

Metaphoric Digitalisation

It’s me as a little computer dude! As part of Microsoft’s ‘New Xbox Experience’, similar to the Nintendo Wii and upcoming Playstation ‘Home’, you create a 3D avatar that you use in all your interactions and games etc as a representation of yourself.

So, we live in a time when not only do we create abstract digital ‘presences’ through blogging, posts on forums etc, but actually can create visual manifestations of ourselves that act as a ‘physical’ entity in cyberspace. Amazing really…What does it actually mean to exist in this day and age? (Oo-er, here we go) As a species we have extended ourselves beyond the physical state, and are creating an ever-expanding universe for these alternate representations of ourselves to live in. Where does it end? Brainwave patterns digitalised into electronic consciousness? Transcending biology altogether?

Eventually, I reckon so.

This is such a fantastic time to be alive 😀 If a genie were to turn up and give me the choice of either living in a land of magic, or staying in the here and now, I think I would prefer to stay here. How about you? Friends and loved ones notwithstanding – say you could take them with you – what would you choose?