In keeping with the big Avatar reveals this week, like the official trailer on Thursday and "Avatar Day" on Friday that showed 15 minutes of footage in Imax 3D, Mattel today unveiled the rest of the Avatar toy line that was half shown at SDCC last month.
They’ve set up both a Twitter feed for the line, and a Flickr page with pics of all the toys, including the 10ft tall alien characters, the Na’vi.
As for the movie itself, I saw the footage on Friday and I have to admit that the 3D is very impressive. The subtly of it was well utilized with a deep depth of field. But the story/character designs looks like every sci-fantasy book cover thrown together with every "hero goes native" storyline we’ve already seen. It should be a very fun movie, and possible a unique experience, but judging on the reactions in my theater, I’ll be surprised if it turns a profit on it’s very high production/marketing costs. It should be a sizable hit though.
The one jarring thing that kept taking me out of the movie during the preview clips was Cameron overdoing the CG camera and during heavy action moments wildly whipping it around the the 3D space. Coupled with the sudden depth changes and blurred foreground objects, this made it very hard to focus on what was happening during these scenes (which may very well have been his intent). The effect is much, much, better when the camera motion is much smoother or stationary. God help us when Michael Bay starts making 3D movies. And I don’t know about anyone else, but the glasses I had were filthy. You couldn’t clean them because the flimsy plastic lenses popped out of the frame if you put any pressure on them. For all the money that’s being spent perfecting the technology, I hope equal care goes into the presentation at the theater level once this is released.
If you missed the footage, Cameron and Panasonic are taking their show on the road, maybe to a place near you.
