HCM CITY — At least one fan wanted to join Pandora in the fight against the cupidity of the human race.
That by itself is a measure of the success of Avatar, James Cameron’s latest, most ambitious undertaking.
The 3D film has opened to rave audience reviews in Viet Nam, scoring a hit already by virtue of the country being part of the world premiere of the film.
"It took me to a completely new, lively and spectacular world beyond my imagination and made me feel a part of this world," said a visibly excited Nguyen Thi Thu Thao, resident of Binh Thanh District in HCM City.
The movie takes viewers to the 22nd century on a small moon called Pandora with an Earthlike environment and flying islands, home to mysterious and beautiful creatures living together in peace with its natives – the Na’vi – through a strong spiritual connection.
The humans – and humanity – come into the picture in the form of a paralysed marine, Jake Sully, who enters the Avatar Programme, in which humans have their consciousness linked to an avatar, a remotely-controlled biological body that can survive in the lethal air. Avatar is a genetically engineered hybrid of human DNA mixed with DNA from the Na’vi.
Reborn in his avatar form, Jake can be a warrior again and start to learn to become one of the Na’vi. But his love for the people and a beautiful Na’vi woman, Neytiri, turns him into their leader in the fight against invasion by the human race that wants to mine a rare mineral that is key to solving Earth’s energy crisis.
"Once I wore the special glasses (for watching 3D movies), everything changed," said Nguyen Trung Hau, a resident of District 3. "All the characters and things on the screen become true as I followed Jake’s tracks to discover Pandora.
"And this is the first time I saw such a quiet atmosphere in a cinema hall," he said with a sense of wonder. "The audiences seem to be living in Pandora, busy avoiding trees, animal attacks, and even arrows flying straight to their faces. The feeling of fear when human soldiers aimed guns and rocket was quite real!"
Pandora uses the "revolutionary" computer-generated imagery (CGI) – an application of 3D computer graphics and special effects – and other modern technologies to construct a perfectly real planet with huge mysterious and photogenic creatures.
CGI helps characters resemble the actors who play them, but their appearances are different. The Na’vi eyes are twice the diameter of human eyes and farther apart. They are much leaner and larger than humans with long necks, different bone and muscle structures, and three-fingered hands.
"Avatar is the most challenging film I’ve ever made," writer-director James Cameron has said. It took him 15 years from the germination of the ideas to making it, by most accounts, the most expensive film in movie history. The figures cited range from US$250 to 500 million.
"Pandora was so real and attractive that I could feel it in my bones, and was ready to protect it from the destruction that human beings would wreak on it with their modern weapons," Thao said.
She also felt that the movie was effective in communicating the need to protect the earth’s environment, because it did it "naturally."
"James told a great story, he used the most fabulous art of technologies. He can get action, he can get love into the whole story but what he did in this movie really surprised me," said Brian Hall, chairman of Megastar Media Ltd who distributes Avatar in both 2D and 3D versions in Viet Nam.
"I will come to see it again," Thao said with certainty.
First million
Avatar, written and directed by James Cameron, is now being screening in both 2D and 3D versions at all Megastar Cineplexes in Viet Nam. The 3D version can be seen only in HCM City’s Megastar Hung Vuong and Ha Noi’s Megastar VinCom City Towers. Walt Disney’s 3D animated films –Toy Story, Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 will be released on January, February and June. Live action version of Alice in Wonderland in 3D will hit the screens in March while DreamWorks’s 3D animation films How to Train Your Dragon and Shrek Forever After will be launched in April and May.
Tickets for 3D movies now are VND80,000-100,000 ($4.20-5.26) on weekdays and VND80,000-150,000 ($4.20-7.89) on weekends.
Based on the reactions so far, Megastar believes this could be the first million dollar Hollywood blockbuster in Viet Nam.
"Tell everybody to keep their tickets, don’t throw them away. If and when we touch $1million, your Avatar tickets will get you back to other movies for free on a special day in the future," Hall promised.
The film distributor has seen increasing box-office receipts from Hollywood blockbusters over the last 16 months.
In August 2008, the third part of the Mummy series The Mummy: Tomb of Dragon Emperor, recorded revenues of $600,000 and the second part of Transformers –Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in July got more than $700,000.
"Three weeks ago we released New Moon and already it’s moving up and I think it’s going past Transformers 2. But Avatar is the biggest of all," Hall said.
Megastar saw more than 10,000 tickets for both 2D and 3D versions sold across the country until Wednesday.
3D potential
Ever since word about 3D films came out with Megastar announcing their first 3D cinema theatres in HCM City’s Megastar Hung Vuong and Ha Noi’s Megastar VinCom City Towers in October, many film aficionados, especially youngsters, have been waiting with bated breath for the chance to experience the technology.
"Once I heard of the launch of new 3D cinemas in HCM City, I’ve rarely stopped talking about it," Hau said. "It has been a torment waiting for so long for this movie."
Thousands of people in the country have been hitting the company’s website for more information about Avatar and other 3D movies like Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland directed by Mia Waskikowska, Tron Legacy directed by Joseph Kosinki, and the animation films - Toy Story, Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 that will be released in the coming months.
Although 3D movies are welcomed by the audience, the film distributor does not have any plan for opening more 3D cinemas in Viet Nam. "At this point of time, no," said Hall. "We’re going to wait and see the reaction to the first one or two 3D movies. If we see the audiences really like it and its popularity is going to stay, maybe we will open some new 3D screens in the future." — VNS
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