avatar triple feature > movie, game, and toy review
Monday, December 21, 2009 at 6:23PM Here's an early lump of holiday coal from ole' Noleo...a review of Avatar marketing synergy from the minds of Jim Cameron, Ubisoft, and Mattel. The film I've watched in glorious 3D. The game I've played to completion with both races, and have delved as deeply as I can. And the Avatar iTag toys, well, I've played with a few. So while I cannot claim to know all the ins and outs of these three unique executions within Cameron's universe, I do feel I can give enough of an overview to those who might be curious.
*UPDATED 12/30/09 to reflect full play-through of the game*
The Film
Let's get this out of the way right off the bat: James Cameron is probably my favorite director from the 80's and early 90's. You see, ole Noleo is a sucker for a good action-sci-fi epic, and nobody does that better than James Cameron. However, looking back on those great films such as Terminator 1&2, Aliens, and The Abyss with adult eyes, and you can see the shortcomings of Cameron as a writer. These shortcomings are part of his formula of success: The one-liner. The black-and-white morality. The broadly painted villains. Self-sacrificing heroes. And above all, the preachy, heavy-handed moral take-away...which is often stated very plainly with no ambiguity through voice-overs that neatly wrap up his stories as the screen fades to black. Where I come from, you love people warts and all, and the occasional bout of cheese is definitely the wart on Mr. Cameron. His stories are just too big to ignore because of the bad parts.
And we should probably start there, with the story. Make no mistake, this is very much a derivative story in the vein of Dune, Dances with Wolves, and more recently, The Battle for Terra (which is almost identical in it's premise.) It's the story of an outsider learning the ways of the native and siding with them in the inevitable battle against his own people. Jake Skully, played dutifully by Sam Worthington, is a crippled veteran who has a chance to regain use of his legs through the Avatar program on a moon named Pandora half a galaxy away. The Avatars are genetic clone hybrids of the native population, the Na'vi. And if you've seen any of the trailers, you know what happens next...he puts on his Na'vi suit, falls in love with a hot blue native chica, and takes up arms against the human invaders. Yes, we've all seen this story before. But it is a classic story worthy of being retold. In my opinion, there are only about ten stories in the world that have been repeated over and over through the few millennia of human history. For instance, the classic messiah/martyr story was retold as Star Wars, Dune, The Matrix, and countless others. They just had new coats of paint. Avatar is the same in this regard, but what a new coat of paint this is.
Pandora is world that is at once wholly alien and completely grounded. Cameron spent years of planning in building a living, breathing world complete with a believable ecosystem of flora and fauna which have just enough rooting in the familiar to make them feel real. The world, particularly the Na'vi and the environment, are rendered in stunning detail which allows you to be completely immersed in the story. The human tech is also very grounded in the familiar...it feels like a natural progression of our current technology, which again helps sell the world. And this tech is of course used in evil ways to bring about the destruction of the planet's ecosystems, which of course brings about the EPIC final confrontation where the amount of imagination and (and money) on screen is sometimes staggering. But where Avatar really shines is in its quiet moments. The first time you see the bioluminescence fully bloom at night on Pandora, you'll wish you could live there. It is a wonderland of imagination. And when you meet Neytiri, played by Zoe Saldana, you will want a blue girlfriend with a cat nose. Just sayin'. She is truly the heart and soul of the movie, and the performance that this totally digital character gives is completely endearing. And most unbelievable of all, the technology has for the first time ever allowed the nuance and soul of a digital performance to be utterly believable.
By the time the final credits roll, you'll have seen some of the most amazing sights you'll likely see in a theatre until the sequel comes out. In 3D, you will almost certainly have to scoop your jaw from your own crotch. The 3D effects offer a level of immersion that allow you, after a short adjustment period, to be fully enveloped in this fantastic and believable environment in a way I've never experienced. The visuals, along with the imagination of Cameron takes you on a journey like no other. But Cameron being Cameron, it also means you are in store for some moan inducing moments...you just accept that's part of the deal with Cameron or you don't. Whether this film has lived up to the hype or not...whether you want to take the ride a second time or forget the whole thing is probably tied into your ability to forgive Cameron of his warts. And if you can, you will have a hell of a time at the movies.
The Game
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Buy a movie licensed game at your own peril...this is a rule that almost all savvy gamers follow, unless buzz indicates that there might be an exception to this rule...a game that actually lives up to the source material. Most of these licensed games are dreadfully rushed marketing afterthoughts...often having only six months to a year from start to finish in order to release in sync with the movie and to capitalize on marketing dollars. They are often high selling games, and therefore highly profitable due to low production bids. The truncated schedule and lowest bidder model often produces a final product that is pure crap. Very well selling crap, mind you, but crap nonetheless. There are few exceptions. Thankfully, the exceptionally long development cycle for Avatar allowed Cameron to work with the game designers at Ubisoft much earlier in the development phase than most movie licensed games have the luxury of. The end result is a mixed bag that is beautiful and huge, but drags due to tired mission structure.
The good: The world of Pandora has been miraculously reproduced by the developers at Ubisoft Montreal, and truly does inspire awe as you traverse the alien landscape. It really has maybe the finest jungle environments yet seen on the 360, with tons of detail and a vast variety of foliage that you can interact with, as well as stunning waterfalls. The character models are detailed (although I found the human models a bit better...something about that blue skin makes the Na'vi look very flat), and do the job well, even when there are many on screen at once. And the framerate never misses a beat, running at a very solid clip (probably around the 30fps range, which is plenty for a game of this type.) It even has a 3D mode which mimics the film if you have the proper hardware (I did not, but it is supposedly awesome.) It truly is a first-class looking game.
The game follows a similar story arc to the movie, but doesn't actually follow the story OF the film. It's a prequel, and allows you to experience the world of Pandora through human or Na'vi eyes. This choice effectively doubles the gameplay, with a "good" and "bad" campaign after you make choices within the game. I started as a human avatar "driver" and eventually am given a choice similar to that of the movie. And gameplay style varies considerably depending on that choice. While it follows all the beats of the movie pretty closely, if you've already seen the film, you will find it pretty predictable as it draws to the conclusion which sort of helps set up the film, but doesn't really reveal anything new about the world or give events in the film any new significance. I found this to be a major missed opportunity.
Gameplay is divided up by the two races, and varies enough that a playthrough as both isn't a waste of time. The Na'vi play more like a 3rd person beat'em up: you have melee weapons and rudimentary projectiles such as bows and arrows. Fortunately, you are also very fast, athletic, and durable. You will have access to riding animals such as the flying beasts, known as Banshees. These flying mounts will give you quite a thrill flying through the floating mountains of Pandora. But the controls are pretty lose, and will cause some frustration in navigating the environment. Particularly landing. But nothing so severe that it ruins the experience. As a human, you are far more vulnerable and less physically impressive, but you have access to all the guns and tech of the humans, including mech suits and gunships which can lay waste to land. Both races have access to "skills" which significantly augment the players abilities, which grow in power as you "level-up." You will also gain powered up weapons and armor, which is a nice perk. And there is a Risk-like game called "Conquest" which is a fun diversion. You'll basically try to take over territories by allotting units (troops of various types) to territories in a turn-based fashion. It is fun, but of little substance. Still, as a bonus, it's hard to complain.
All these previously mentioned options are encouraging, but gameplay is king. And the gameplay is merely solid, not spectacular, as the missions are pretty linear and basically fall into the fetch quest variety. This is really where the game goes wrong. The world the developers have recreated from Cameron's imagination is so compelling that the bland mission structure leaves you a bit cold. And at worst, bored. After playing through the game as both human and na'vi, both campaigns suffered from this problem until the credits roll, although I found playing as the humans to be more fun as they have the better toys, by far.
In the final analysis, Avatar: The Game is most certainly a better-than-average movie license game, with beautiful visuals and solid gameplay. It can be a lot of fun, especially in the vehicles. But outside of that genre, the game feels much more average, which is a shame. It really could have been outstanding with just a little more variety in it's missions. Still, it is worth checking out if you are interested in Cameron's universe. And If you are like me, and fell in love with the world of Pandora, then you will likely gain much more enjoyment from the game. As it stands, I'd rate it as a good, solid action game that will keep you busy for a solid weekend of gaming, but if you are tepid about the subject matter of the game, you'll want to keep it at a rental.
The Toys
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Ole Noleo is a toy geek. Always has been. Transformers, GI Joe, He-Man...you name it. Even in adulthood, I find myself entertained with these little figures and vehicles, even if I don't "play" with them anymore. As such, I've seen and tinkered with just about every major toy line over the years, and not much takes me by surprise. But when Mattel announced the iTag as a supplement to its Avatar toy line, I found myself very surprised. Basically it brings 3D models to life through your webcam. They exist on the surface of the physical iTag which comes in the package with the toy on which it is based. The iTag in itself is nothing special. Just a piece of plastic that has a picture of a character or vehicle on it. But when you use these in conjunction with a webcam, true magic happens.
The process is relatively simple. Go to http://www.avataritag.com and download a plugin for your web browser called Total Immersion. Once installed, you find the iTag you want to examine on the website, and click the "activate iTag" button. Once activated, you simply hold up your iTag to your webcam and something amazing happens...a 3D model appears on the tag within your webcam's onscreen image. The model is tethered to the tag in space, so as you rotate it in space, it reacts as if it were a real, physical object in space. This is very, very cool.
The amount of interaction you can have with the model is fairly limited. You can't reach in and manipulate it with your fingers, but you can press certain areas of the tag's surface which will cause the model to react. For the models I tinkered with, Level 4 tags (meaning more interaction), these interactions included Get Info, Attack, Defend, and a refresh button which essentially makes the model do a canned animation sequence. Some models can be paired and will interact with each other to battle. This special "Battle Pack" essentially means that if you place the cards close to each other, they fight it out right there on your desktop. Again, pretty cool.
The novelty does wear off after a bit (I only played with a few), but the implications this tech has for future toys and games are very exciting. One day, perhaps we'll have true holographic projections of models that we can play with in a true 3D space...like the 3D chess set on Star Wars. I've always dreamed of such a thing, and I hope that I am still just as enthusiastic (and alive) about toys when that day arrives. But until then, Mattel's iTag toys are very cool glimpse into the possible future of interactive toys. I highly recommend giving them a try if you have any interest in tech or toys.
Of other note, I did actually tinker with some of the physical toys which the iTags are packaged with. They are solid, with many points of articulation. I found the likenesses to the actors a bit lacking, but otherwise the figures a ok. The vehicles, as in the game and movie, is really where the universe shines. The AMP suit (mech walker) is especially cool, with tons of articulation and sturdy construction. Unlike the toys of our youth, these modern plastics seem to have much more bend in them, and stand up to far more abuse than the ones I played with growing up. If I still "played" with toys in a childlike manner, I imagine that I'd have a ton of fun with these.






















