Your Avatar Primer: 10 Things You Need to Know For Opening Day

Okay, here’s the deal. You’re thinking about seeing Avatar tonight, yes, or this weekend? You know it features blue people. And that it’s set on a different planet. But you’re still a little confused – and not entirely sure if your girlfriend is going to dig it. (Check out our spoiler-free morning-after Avatar review)

Trust us, we understand. We get paid to follow these things, we even talked it out with James Cameron in our interview yesterday, and it still took us a while to wrap our brains around this thing.

First point: Your girlfriend/wife/date will love this thing. I think it’s more a movie for women than for men, more about exploring, adventure and falling in love than about detonations. (Check out Techland’s 10 best sci-fi films of the decade)

Second point: Short and sweet, here are the 10 things you should know about Avatar going in, to avoid all possible confusion:

1. The planet we’re operating on is called Pandora. In one online feature, Sigourney Weaver takes you through Pandora, Planet Earth-style.

2. The reason humans are amassing on Pandora is that Earth is running low on energy sources, and Pandora is rich in unobtanium – the best superconductor in the universe.

3. The humanoid species on Pandora are known as the Na’vi, and one of the largest tribes of the Na’vi lives right on top of the largest deposit of unobtanium. (this makes more sense using Avatar’s interactive online trailer)

4. The ecosystem of Pandora is linked together in extraordinary fashion – the animals, plants and Na’vi are always in synch with one another through something like an organic internet running through the soil.

5. The Na’vi are 9 to 10 feet tall, they possess a tail, and they hunt by riding banshees, huge winged creatures that physically “link” to their masters.

6. The “Avatars” are genetically grown Na’vi bodies, which can then be controlled by humans who match the DNA.

7. The main human character of Avatar is Jake Sully, the twin brother of a marine who was going to pilot one of these Avatars before he died. Thanks to being twins, Jake’s DNA matches that of the Avatar and he can take his brother’s place.

8. The humans can psychically connect with their avatars by laying down in a circular device that helps convert – well, actually, I still have no idea how this works. If you figure it out, let me know.

9. Once inside their Avatar, humans can only exit by falling asleep.

10. Pandora is filled with plants and animals that have bioluminescent qualities, meaning that the planet pretty much glows in the dark.

So there you go. Now you’re ready. Tell us what you think of the film! I’ll be back Monday with a piece about what it was like to see the movie in regular 3-D versus digitally projected IMAX 3-D. I’m seeing the whole thing again tonight on 34th St.

More on Time.com:

Avatar Arrives! Can James Cameron Be King Again?

Corliss Appraises Avatar : A World of Wonder

Obama’s Inner Geek: Robots to Flying Marshmallows

On Tuesday, Obama hosted the second White House Science Fair, an exhibit of more than 30 student projects that ranged from a system to detect nuclear threats to a prosthetic hand to portable disaster shelters. For nearly an hour, Obama toured the displays and visited with students, pressing them for details and admiring their work.

http://www.twitter.com/leverus Lev Grossman

11. BLUE BOOBS
http://twitter.com/thepeterha Peter Ha

I really want to go and see this again.
grape_crush

Damn. I know too much about this movie before I’ve seen it…so much for the joy of discovery.

(pouts)
Steven James Snyder

wait, from this article? This is all I knew already going in a week ago, and there was TONS more to discover. So if this is what you know, you’re still going to have an awesome time. Let us know what you think!
grape_crush

Not just from this article…no worries; it’s just an ongoing gripe I have, the one where your friend who has seen the movie tells you kinda what it’s about plus movie trailers plus critics’ reviews, plus special features all adds up to TMI about a movie which by all accounts is gonna set the standards for movies to come.
nemerzain

I can’t wait to see Avatar! I’m going this weekend with my gf.
crispy4

I feel your pain, grape_crush. I’ve been doing all I can to avoid too much info about Avatar.

Richard Corliss’s review begins “In the last shot of Avatar…” I stopped reading right there. Why in the world would an experienced critic (whose columns I typically enjoy) begin a review that way? What a colossally stupid lede.
jsnyde

@ those griping about TMI:

I agree, but this hardly tells us anything that we don’t know by a single trailer (Way to waste our time, Steven James (joking)).

However, we are not the norm anymore. Many people want to read about the movie prior to seeing it so they can 1) weigh their options or 2) save their money. I’m not friends with many of these people, but there are a lot of them out there.
radiohank11

I saw Avatar at Midnight, it was amazing! I really feel like its close to being this generation’s Star Wars, in the sense that it could change people’s minds about what movies can do. The plot didn’t exactly rock my world, but the visuals alone were well worth it. I’m trying to convince my sister who wants to go see it in 2D (because she says 3D will make her sick) that the 3D is actually an important part of the experience.
crispy

Hey Techlanders,
Saw Avatar last night in IMAX 3D… one of the top 3 movie-going experiences of my life. Just amazing.

I’m planning to see it again. But someone told me that on IMAX screens, they chop off a bit of the sides because the width-to-height ratio is a bit more square than regular screens. Is this true? A primer on the differences between the 3 versions would be really helpful!
lazarusl

grape – this isn’t a movie that can be spoiled. Don’t be worried about that.

I would also love to see a comparison of the formats – I saw it in Real3D, and was disappointed about the size of the screen. I am curious if it’s worth my time to find an IMAX theater showing it.

I clearly was influenced by the reviews, but I came out of the theater agreeing that it was the closest thing to the virgin Star Wars experience I could get, since I didn’t get to see Star Wars during its original theatrical run.
badestkty

Hey guys, I find it strange that writers for a tech blog/magazine would have problems ‘getting their head around the story.’ If that is indeed the case, maybe you should look for something more suited to your non-creative point-of-view. One of the biggest reasons I became a techie, was to seek out the impossible possibilities.

The graphics are pretty darn tasty. During the 90′s, I lived in Toronto (for all those who don’t know, IMAX was created by Canadians), and had my first taste of IMAX, it was a simple movie about wolves, but the curve of the screen and film’s clarity drew you in. And to see what Cameron created from that little train that could, was enthralling.

To get the full benefits of this flick, you have to go for the double header: IMAX/3D, if this movie does not touch you, see a shrink and don’t call me in the morning.