Avatar, At Last
Jan 09I’ve followed the ongoing mystery surrounding exactly what James Cameron’s next project would be for what seems like years. Actually, it doesn’t seem like years; it HAS been years.
Finally, Cameron has announced the film that will be his follow-up to Titanic: Avatar. Rumored for years but only now set in stone, the flick will use some kind of fancy new bleeding-edge technology to marry reality and “reality.” In other words, Cameron is at long last rushing in where many have foolishly tread, most notably Senor Jorge Lucas: The computer-generated film.
Of course, Titanic pioneered CG effects, but it was really Lucas who bust the door wide open. Since then, we’ve had every blockbuster director in town, from the new guard to the old, stepping up to play in this virtual sandbox, to the point where CG effects aren’t a groundbreaking novelty anymore–they’re mostly the norm.
And yet, I remain VERY intrigued and excited to see where Cameron will go with this. Robert Zemeckis combined motion capture with CG animation for The Polar Express, and to me, the end result was creepy as hell. Only time will tell whether Cameron’s effort can bust that creepy barrier and truly transport viewers–it will no doubt help that he’s hired two unknowns for his leads (the animated Tom Hanks may have been the creepiest of the creepy in Express).
Here’s what I know: James Cameron isn’t just a pioneer of special effects technology–he’s a MASTER of it. When the T-1000 melted into metal in T2, it was not an effect being tried out just to see how things would go–it was fully realized, complete, masterful technology married to thrilling filmmaking.
Break me off a piece of THAT again, Jimmy.
Happy New Year pt.2
Jan 02I’m back as well, and like Matt the holidays went very well… then the sinus/chest cold combo hit. Had-oo-ken! Pow! I’m done for.
But that just means I have more of a chance to play with a couple of toys. Here are the nerdiest of the holiday highlights;
– Absolute DC: New Frontier. If you have haven’t picked this series up, the you should get the two TPB volumes. And if you can go just a little bit further, pick up this slipcased hardcover. The extras in it are as spectacular as the original story.
– Dead Rising. I keep missing the little side missions, but I don’t care. And the game doesn’t care. I can save or not save as many people as I want. And along the way, I get to beat the crap out of endless hordes of zombies.
– Guitar Hero. My band is called Beedwolf. We rock. Hard.
– World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. I blew through this book in about 36 hours, stop and go. I still disagree with the man, that a frozen zombie isn’t a dead zombie, but the rest of the book is exactly how the zombie apocalypse plays out in my nightmares.
– An Evening with Kevin Smith: Evening Harder. It’s Kevin Smith, talking about everything and nothing. Of particular interest is finding out that yes, indeed, Jen was mad at him for telling some of their stories on the first Evening With DVD.
Happy New Year
Jan 02So, we’re back. I think. I’m back.
Everyone have good holidaze? I had a fine, relaxing, fun time with family and friends. I think that’s what the season’s all about. That, and PWESENTS.
I rang in 2007 in style–spent a relaxing morning at Acme Superstore, a fine comics emporium, enjoying their 30% off New Year’s Day sale. Picked up my pull list, which was nice with the extra discount, and also found the first Bendis Daredevil trade and the first volume of Brubaker’s Sleeper–for FIVE DOLLARS APIECE.
With the discount, that means I got those two for $3.50 each.
That bodes well for ’07.
