Avatar, de James Cameron, tal vez la película más esperada en mucho tiempo, tuvo el viernes un particular lanzamiento mundial: en varias ciudades se dieron a conocer 16 minutos del filme en 3D, un adelanto más completo que el habitual trailer. Al evento se lo llamó Avatar Day.
No hay dudas de que el director de Titanic y el sello Fox están poniendo todas sus fichas en una película que, esperan, no sólo se convierta en el éxito del año sino -como sucedió con otras películas de Cameron, como Terminator 1 y 2 o El abismo- en una verdadera revolución tecnológica.
Lo que se vieron fueron escenas completas y separadas entre sí, con un minuto al final más similar a los resúmenes visuales típicos de un trailer. La primera escena muestra un grupo de militares reunidos para ir al planeta Pandora y la llegada de Jake (Sam Worthington), un soldado en silla de ruedas. La segunda lo muestra a Jake junto a la Dra. Grace (Sigourney Weaver), pre vio a someterse a una operación que transportará su cerebro a un avatar que tiene la forma de una criatura azul y con... cola de caballo, similar a los habitantes del planeta Pandora. Una vez "transportado", el nuevo Jake azul, entusiasmado con la posibilidad de volver a caminar, se escapa.
Las escenas siguientes lo muestran luchando contra un par de criaturas gigantescas, encontrándose con los Na'vi (la raza azul con cola), conociendo a Neytiri (Zoe Saldanha), entrando a la asombrosa jungla -casi psicodélica- en la que ellos viven y, finalmente, luchando para domar un ave gigantesca que se convertirá en su vehículo.
A juzgar por el adelanto resulta posible imaginar que la película plantee un futuro tecnológico diferente. Visualmente impactante, con un un manejo del espacio físico sorprendente y avanzado (pese a lo extravagante del mundo, Cameron mantiene un estilo y un control narrativos propios de un cineasta de escuela clásica), lo visto de Avatar es llamativo pero a la vez produce un efecto desorientador. El formato produce cierto mareo y cansancio visual, lo que se ve intensificado por un problema extra: leer los subtítulos. Las diferentes perspectivas que ofrece el 3D exigen un reacomodamiento visual para leerlos que es mucho más complicado que el habitual.
Pero si bien es cierto que hay una aspecto de curiosidad tecnológica, la sofisticación no se refleja en la historia, que se ve como una mezcla de películas bélicas de ciencia ficción (la propia Aliens, de Cameron, o la segunda trilogía de Star Wars) con elementos de King Kong, Danza con lobos o Apocalypto. Y cierta sensación de estar viendo un mundo completamente animado, como de Playstation.
Claro que lo visto es un adelanto y la película completa puede ser diferente. Pero a juzgar por la no del todo convencida reacción internacional (muchos comparan a las criaturas del filme con el odiado Jar Jar Binks de Star Wars), tal vez se pueda decir que Avatar no sea la revolución que su creador espera.
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More than 10 years and $200 million dollars after “Titanic,” the director James Cameron gave moviegoers an early look Friday at “Avatar,” his new 3-D science-fiction feature that 20th Century Fox will open on Dec. 18. In a promotional event held at movie theaters around the country, about 100,000 viewers who signed up for free tickets were shown an extended preview of the movie on giganto-size Imax screens, 3-D glasses and popcorn included.
Mr. Cameron wasn’t present in the flesh at the screening I saw this evening, but a 50-foot-tall version of him appeared on screen at the start of the presentation, introducing himself as Jim and welcoming us to the 22nd century. He told the audience that he wanted to offer more than just an “Avatar” trailer, explaining that we were about to see 15 minutes of the movie (all taken from the first half of the film, so no major spoilers, he promised). If you can’t wait until December to see “Avatar” in its entirety, here’s what happened next:
1. We hear a voice say “You’re not in Kansas anymore,” and discover that the speaker is a military officer talking to his cadets. He tells them that they’re about to be deployed on the planet Pandora, where “everything that walks, flies or squats in the mud wants to kill you and eat your eyes for jujubes.” While he’s speaking, we see Jake, a wheelchair-bound soldier played by Sam Worthington, enter the room.
Cut to Jake as he’s strapped to a gurney and about to be inserted into what looks like an ultrasound machine. (Talking him through the process is none other than Sigourney Weaver.) After a colorful display reminiscent of the Star Child sequence in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” Jake wakes up in the body of his Na’vi avatar: a 10- or 11-foot-tall blue alien with vaguely feline features, and is particularly pleased to find he can walk again.
2. We’re now in completely computer-generated territory, following Jake (in his giant blue body) on a jungle-like planet colored in psychedelic shades of cyan and green. He’s being taught by a fellow Na’vi how to tangle with the planet’s free-roaming population of hammer-headed dinosaurs with peacock-like plumage on their heads. (This was not an outtake from “Yellow Submarine,” as far as we were aware.) As one dinosaur charges at him, Jake is told that he must stand his ground against the oncoming creature, which he does with confidence — not realizing that a second dinosaur is coming! Up! Behind! Him!
3. Now it is night, and Jake, who appears to have been separated from his group, is rescued from a dinosaur attack by a female Na’vi who wears her hair in dreadlocks, dresses in a loincloth, fights with a bow and arrow and talks with a vaguely Caribbean accent. (Though she wasn’t identified in the sequence, this appears to be Neytiri, the character played by Zoe Saldana.) Jake thanks her for the assistance, but she reacts angrily, then guts a small dinosaur that dies with a dog-like whimper. You don’t need the 3-D glasses to see the sexual tension here, folks.
4. Jake has been taken in, “Last of the Mohicans”-style, by a group of native Na’vi, including the female warrior from the previous scene. He is led behind a steep waterfall, where a flock of winged, dragon-like creatures are nesting, and instructed to tame one. (He is told he will know which one has bonded with him because it will try to kill him.) Jake wrestles a particularly ornery dragon-creature to the ground and puts something in its mouth (which makes the beast’s pupils dilate). The female warrior shouts that he must take his first flight on its back to complete the bond. Jake and his new pet go tumbling off the side of the waterfall — and in this moment, I can say I genuinely felt like I was falling with them. Do they pull up in time? What do you think?
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