Sometimes I think I’m alone out here. Like I’m the only person who thinks the way I think. Make me feel better; make me feel less alone and tell me that you agree that this first look at the Na’Vi, Cameron’s all-CG alien race from Avatar, looks like a CGI cartoon.
According to Market Saw, the 3D enthusiasts who got the first picture (which is what you see here. Go to their site and take a look at this picture (possibly a photo of a monitor?) to see it gussied up in Photoshop), this is likely a final resolution version of the Na’Vi, so besides the fuzziness and whatever, this is what they’ll look like on screen. Like something from Reboot. I’m hoping that Market Saw is wrong, since that image looks so glossy and fake it’s disheartening.
Looking at this I’m doubly perplexed that Cameron couldn’t pull this off with people in suits. And I don’t mean green screen suits, I’m talking dancers in body suits. Hell, this looks a lot like a CGI version of Doug Jones’ Abe from the Hellboy movies.
I’ve long felt that this particular emperor may be wearing no clothes – the story of Avatar feels uninteresting and now the first images (albeit sneaks) underwhelm. I don’t think this is going to be a bad movie, but at hundreds of millions of dollars, I am wondering if Avatar will deliver on the levels we need it to deliver – ie, beyond being a big, expensive action film.