Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Finally... straight from the horse’s mouth. Yesterday, James Cameron was interviewed on NPR, and you can find the archived interview here. If you want to hear him talk about his next film, fast-forward to about 31 minutes into the piece, close to the end.
We’ve been saying this for months now... maybe longer... but Cameron has confirmed all the details I’ve written about here on the site. BATTLE ANGEL is the next film, pre-production is underway as they finish up the shooting draft, the main character will be completely created using CG, and the film will be shot in 3-D.
The majority of the interview is about his new film ALIENS OF THE DEEP, and we actually got in a letter from someone who was at the premiere screening of the film, which I’ll excerpt here:
... so that’s how I ended up seeing a press screening of ALIENS OF THE DEEP on Thursday morning in NY. Thank god for sneaky friends, you know? Overall, I liked the movie a lot, but the 3D is still a little problematic. Cameron mentioned that they are going to redo the main title, so that’s not a big deal, but there are some shots in the film that just made my brain hurt. I can name three in particular:
There’s this one CG graphic that starts in space and zooms down to the bottom of the ocean that is pretty amazing, and you get a real sense of vertigo as you’re zooming past ships until you get underwater. But the 3D is screwed up somehow. If it gets fixed, this’ll be an amazing moment.
There’s also this very cool winged octopus that just doesn’t seem real because of the 3D. It doesn’t work right.
And then there’s a simple depth perception issue with some of the shots of the people inside the submarines, like we're too close to them. It can get disorienting.
It’s not an action movie, obviously. It starts slow and takes its time getting to the main subject, but when you do finally see all the fish and the other crazy underwater creatures and the black smoking chimneys, it’s incredible. I’m willing to put up with that weird 3D headache to see such a cool alien environment and such bizarre critters so close you can almost touch them. I think it would help if I had a science background or if I’d done the same amount of research that Cameron obviously has. The brief narration really helps, but I could use more of it. I wasn’t sure what was going on sometimes. Cameron’s one of those super-smart guys who forgets sometimes that we aren’t all as knowledgeable as him.
Also, what’s with the obsession on bacteria? It doesn’t make sense at times. Cameron says in the film that he thinks it’s beautiful, but I’m not sure how it all ties together.
Thanks to our reviewer, and also to NPR for finally getting Cameron to go on the record about BATTLE ANGEL. I’ve heard he has a firm start date for this summer, so get ready, kids... Cameron’s finally coming back!!
"Moriarty" out.
