Opening Weekend
It's official: Avatar is the #1 movie in America. It opened up with a cool $73 million--not spectacular, but slightly more than I expected. My theater only had about 50 people attend the midnight show on Thursday. Friday was slow all up until the evening when I left work. Business picked up on Saturday. All day we had people calling in, asking if the show was sold out. It was funny to me because people didn't call the theater this much for New Moon, and when they did call, their worries were valid. James Cameron did such a great job marketing this picture that people thought it would be huge, like the second coming of Star Wars, when this wasn't the case at all. People seemed flabbergasted, almost disappointed when they came into the theater early to buy tickets for a later screening and didn't have to contend with long lines and sold out shows.
As Saturday became Sunday, the traffic increased. Not only that, the crowds seemed to be more enthusiastic. I remember feeling sorry for Cameron during Friday because no one (aside from my managers) gave any indication that they liked the movie. They just shuffled to the bathroom with their eyes glazed over from 3+ hours of 3D. But by Sunday, our matinee totals nearly doubled Saturday's, and crowds couldn't wait to get their seat. For first time since I heard James Cameron was making another movie, you could actually feel the excitement surrounding this film. The masses showed up for a good time, and they didn't leave unsatisfied. Both showings in the big screen enjoyed applause from the crowd. People were talking about it as soon as they came out of the doors. "Wow, that was really good!"
Either the people in the Sunday matinees were feeling blessed from their morning mass, or they were just excited having an excuse not to watch the Bears get pummeled again. Here's my theory: The people who came out to the Friday and Saturday shows were more of your die-hard Cameron fans like myself, who just couldn't wait to see the movie. They had their hopes set so high, there was no way it could reach them. The Sunday crowd consisted more of families and larger groups, so right there you've already got a higher level of excitement. But then when you consider that these folks are just looking to see a matinee for family entertainment on a Sunday afternoon, without all the expectations and preconceived notions, their margin for enjoyment is exponentially larger than that the previous crowds'.
Ya Know What Really Grinds My Gears??
I myself still haven't seen Avatar, otherwise this post would be a review. I have however, seen a good chunk of the movie from doing 'walk-throughs,' and I've come to two conclusions:
A. I still don't like CG
B. And I don't like 3D
Right at the beginning of the film, Cameron tries to 'wow' you with this insane corridor shot consisting of about 50 different levels of depth. If you plan on seeing this movie, heed my advice: wait to put on the glasses. This shot will hurt your eyes and give you a headache. I'm sure it would look great if your eyes were adjusted to the 3D already...but they're not. And instead, it's like getting stabbed in the eye. Although there are some beautiful scenes in the film, the 3D barely enhances the experience. As I mentioned earlier, 3 hours of 3D is 2-much. If you want to see the 3D in IMAX, I'm guessing that would be awesome. But if its just in your garden-variety theater, try to find a screen playing it in 2D, or wait to see if the studio releases it in 2D. Otherwise you'll spend half the time cleaning your glasses and squinting to distinguish the background from the foreground.
And lastly, my rant about CG. Ya know what really grinds my gears?!
Here's what I want to know: If they can make the characters' faces look so realistic, why did they have to skimp on the body? I mean, seriously. The faces look unbelievable. But then the body looks like a bad instructional video from the 90's. They're just blue and lifeless. They don't move anything like a human! And don't tell me "that's because they're not human." They are played by human actors. If they can motion capture the faces, why couldn't they do it with the body as well?! Is it because they're supposed to be 10 feet tall? That's no excuse. They've been making people look tall and short for as long as there's been cinema--they could've done this and done it well. But instead they chose not to. Maybe to save time or money...I don't know. All I do know is that it makes me much less excited to see this movie. I don't care how good this movie is, it will never be great because of that one major flaw. I can totally buy in to the rest of the film. It all looks fantastic and feels like a James Cameron film. You feel like you're in Pandora. But then you see the na'vi and the whole fantasy is ruined. It's like having a dream about the girl of your dreams, and then right before you're about to score, she turns into your mom. Thank you, Buzz Killington.
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