James Cameron's 'Avatar' Game Visuals Unveiled

James Cameron's Avatar, a 3D science fiction film, is not due to be released until December. But recently screen shots of the computer game version of the film were released. The visuals revealed were nothing less than eye popping.

According to an account of the Ubisoft's E3 press conference by Coming Soon, Avatar the game, which will run on a variety of platforms, will be released just before the movie. Like the movie it will run in 3D and will likely represent a prequel to the movie, perhaps not even using the same character. Avatar the game is a role playing game, presumably with the player taking on the persona of one of the characters, human or Navi, in the story.

Avatar is a science fiction film "taking place in the 22nd century on Pandora, an Earthlike moon, Avatar tells of a war between humans and the Navi. Humans can't breathe the air on Pandora, but there's a hope that creating a human/Navi hybrid could solve this problem."

According to the account of the press conference, the film's main character is "Jake Sully, a wounded marine who's come to Pandora for a second chance at valor. Paralyzed in combat, Jake inhabits an Avatar, which is basically a surrogate for him to explore the moon's surface."

The visuals revealed at the press conference were scenes on the lush, jungle-style planet of Pandora, with soldiers and vehicles of the humans as well as strange beasts and other indigenous life forms.

James Cameron's last feature film was the cultural phenomenon Titanic, which was released in 1996. Avatar was originally written fourteen years ago, but the project was considered too ambitious for the special effects technology at the time. Capture motion and stereoscopic 3D technology has just gotten advanced enough to make creating Avatar, both movie and game, possible.

If Avatar promises to be visually stunning, the story and theme seems to be a bit more conventional and perhaps even irritating. The evil future military industrial complex is moving in to exploit the resources of Pandora and, incidentally, oppress and displace the Navi. The Navi are, when humans are not trying to oppress them, wise, gentle and peaceful, but are fierce warriors when aroused. Jake Sully winds up falling in love with a Navi girl and fighting on the side of the Navi against his fellow humans.

There might be some surprise twists, but it looks like James Cameron proposes to remake Dances with Wolves, another gentle native vs. evil invader film from the 1980s. Avatar stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Peter Mensah, Laz Alonso, Wes Studi, Stephen Lang and Matt Gerald.

Sources: James Cameron Previews Avatar Game!, Comingsoon.Net, June 2md, 2009

E3 2009: Avatar Teased, Hilary Goldstein, IGN.Com, June 2nd, 2009