I’m just back from the Avatar screening of selected scenes from the movie. I have to be honest and say that I saw the trailer online when it was released yesterday and I was very underwhelmed. My honest reaction to that trailer was that I had seen video games that looked more interesting. But I decided to not let my inner nay-sayer get the best of me and tried to keep an open mind for the screening.

Holy Crap, am I ever glad that I did! I am exceptionally stoked for this movie now. The trailer, especially when watched on a computer and without the benefit of the 3-D, really does not do this movie (or at least, what I’ve seen of it) justice.

The scenes didn’t give away any spoilers and gave the overall glimmer of the plot. It’s the 22nd century, and quadrapalegic Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) has signed up to help explore a planet with an inigenous population known as the Na’Vi. Due to the conditions on the planet, the humans control avatars that look like the Na’Vi. Taller than humans, the Na’Vi have very feline features and move with a cat-like grace and have natural carbon bonded skeletons…which I’m guessing makes them pretty damn strong.

The scenes were set in such a way that you could get a baseline read, as it were, for the live action vs. the CGI. The first two scenes were all live action. First, Jake meets the tough as nails head of security for the operation. Next, we see Jake entering the machine through which he will control his Na’Vi avatar (on a side note…it’s like a big, mechanical coffin that is then slid inside an MRI machine. My claustrophobia kicked into overdrive with that one!). The third scene was a great combination of live action and CGI as Jake “wakes up” in his avatar body.

The rest of the scenes all took place on the planet and was where the CGI and the 3-D effects all melded together and created the very submersive feel that director James Cameron is going for with this movie. Jake’s chased by wild animals; he’s saved by a member of the Na’Vi; a beautiful scene of the planet at night, where all the plants seem to give off a bioluminessence that makes for a visually stunning scene; Jake, along with a tribe of Na’Vi, taking control of his own…well, I’m not sure what they were, but they looked like dragons and they flew. At the end, several of the clips that were also used in the trailer.

As I said, nothing spoilerish, or probably even that major to the over all film, but, man, what a treat to be able to see this stuff. The CGI in this film is incredible. There were times that I almost forgot that these were computer generated images. In one scene, we got to see the avatar of the character played by Sigourney Weaver and I just could not get over how much that CGI character actually looked like Weaver. It was almost as if they just put her in special effect make up and filmed her live in action. And the scenes with the flying dragons (that’s what we all called them…not sure what they really are) was simply breath taking. The movements of all the animals in the movie were very fluid and almost natural (for vicious alien animals anyway).

The use of the 3-D along with these incredible CGI effects only help the scenese we saw. It’s not over done and there’s none of the ’3-D gimmicks’ found in so many movies (no one pointed a gun directly at the screen in any clips). Instead, they just let you almost fall into the scene, making everything come alive and pop at you just a little bit more.

Now, it’s not all sunshine and roses. While 99% of the CGI I saw was incredible, there were some scenes that were less than perfect. I got to see several of the clips that were used in the trailer, including the aerial assault scenes and, while these were on screen for only a few seconds, I still came away with a feeling like they were pretty cheesey. I also wasn’t too crazy for main character Jake’s attitude. I know that by the end of the movie, he’ll be all redeemed, but even in the 15 minutes of scenes I saw, he’s a real douchebag and makes it hard for anyone to like him…including the audience.

All-in-all, though, my complaints are pretty far and few. I realize that this was 15 minutes out of a much larger cinamtic experience and anything can happen. But, for now, my excitement level for Avatar has grown by leaps and bounds. I’ll be there on December 18th for the movie’s opening day, hoping that the rest of the movie lives up to the awesomeness that I was able to witness tonight.