Avatar, First Look: Why This Geek Hopes Pandora is the Future of Movies

The first press screenings of Avatar were held late Thursday night, so naturally the reviews are flooding online today. We're dying to hear what TIME’s film critic, Richard Corliss, thought of the whole thing – his review will be posted here in a day or two – and we're going to be publishing a lengthier roundtable discussion later this afternoon, about what worked and what didn’t.

But aside from all the specifics, I had a few (spoiler-free) initial thoughts about something larger that I believe Avatar represents.

As a hard-core film geek, I’ve seen plenty of sci-fi posers. Films that lose their soul to special effects or mythology run amok. I'm talking about you, Phantom Menace, or you, Transformers 2. You look so good, you feel so flashy, but there's just nothing beneath the surface. No sense of wonder, no hint of discovery.

Avatar is selling itself as the future of cinema, and in one key way – after it rakes in hundreds of millions at the box office – I think it will prove to be just that. This is a movie that puts the focus not on wowing us with the same old effects sequences or star power, but with a whole new array of sensory experiences. We used to talk about computer effects being used in the service of a story; I think we will now start talking about computers being used towards creating the Immersive Moment. There were a few times in Avatar when I was on Pandora, in that jungle, at harmony with these new species that don't actually exist. Kinda creepy, actually, if you think about it. (More from Techland: Exclusive interview with actor Joel Moore, about Pandora, the Na'vi and getting drunk with James Cameron).

via Avatar, First Look: Why This Geek Hopes Pandora is the Future of Movies – Techland – TIME.com.