I was one of  the people in the long lines lastnight to see the first public showing of the new 3 hour James Cameron file AVATAR. This is the first movie I have ever waited for the midnight premier in my life but it was well worth the effort. I had seen parts of the movie from 5 years ago in a Special FX studio to the 23 minute mind blowing preview Autodesk University attendees were treated to just weeks ago in Las Vegas where Producer Jon Landau was there talking about the making of the movie.

James Cameron used cutting edge 3D motion capture technology from Autodesk such as Autodesk  MotionBuilder to enable real actors to control digital characters in a virtual set in real-time. Jon Landau said “We could not have made this movie without Autodesk”.

I want to congratulate everyone involved in bringing this eye-popping mind-blowing technology changing movie to the screen  Director James Cameron, Producer Jon Landau, Lightstorm Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, Weta Digital (an Autodesk Maya using Sfx house in New Zealand), Stan Winston, the great cast actors like Sam Worthington who plays lead character Jake Sully, and many many more that brought this visual and auditory masterpiece to life.

I sincerely enjoyed the file from the first minute to the last. The opening 5 minutes was not to be missed in setting up the storyline as well as being really cool in 3D. The only issue was with so much  action and vibrant colors for 3 hours, I had remember when to blink and swallow or risk my eyes being dried out and my mouth dried wide open. This movie is not all about freaking out an audience with 3D screen gimmicks but actually brings you into the immersive 3D world of Pandora. It was like a good 70’s flashback with the colors and some of the freaky creatures.

I could not help recognize the undertones of man destroying their own planet and the need to go get resources from another planet which was in pristine condition. The Na’vis are the interesting blue colored humanoids (definitely not smurfs) natives with a “special” tail that are being attacked by the mean and greedy Sky People in their search for minerals. I would love to visit a planet like Pandora, but for now I can only experience it on the big screen or in vibrant dreams.

I would strongly suggest seeing the movie the way it was intended in 3D at an IMAX 3D theater if possible.

This was indeed an E-Ticket visual ride!

With only 3 hours of sleep last night, and vivid blue dreams, I will see how much I can get done today before heading for 2 weeks of vacation with many of my Autodesk coworkers.

Shaan

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