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FIRST LOOK

First Look: Sam Worthington in the First Real Avatar Photo!

by Alex Billington
August 14, 2009

It's finally here! Although the trailer will be online in about a week (next Friday), Fox has released the first official production photo from James Cameron's Avatar featuring Sam Worthington and his Avatar (in the background). Thanks to our friends at SlashFilm for first discovering this, as it's a very big reveal. Those of us who were at Comic-Con and saw the footage (including the scene that this is from) know all about the Avatars, but for everyone else in the world, this is their first look at James Cameron's world and at least one of the creatures that you'll find on Pandora. Without further ado, check out the first Avatar photo below!

Avatar is the story of an ex-Marine (Sam Worthington) who finds himself thrust into hostilities on an alien planet filled with exotic life forms. As an Avatar, a human mind in an alien body, he finds himself torn between two worlds, in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people. This is from a scene early on where Worthington enters a lab and meets his Avatar for the first time and goes through the procedure to integrate his mind into it. The only hint I'll give you about the rest of the movie is that most of it follows Jake Sully (seen above) as this Na'vi creature on the planet of Pandora. Your first impression?

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Related categories: First Look, Hype, Photos

http://www.patiencemovie.com Nick Sears

This is gonna be insane. Good year for Sam Worthington thats for sure!
Ripper

Looks awesome and its just a Picture. I cant wait for the 16 min screening next week!
http://www.myskoteket.se Tomb

IS THAT ANIMATED?! WTH.. O_O
Gonzoyote

@Tomb The two Na'vi are, possibly some/all of the background is also CGI.
KenDoll

Wait so.. that whole image shown above is rendered completely in CGI? I can't believe it. I'll have to see a trailer or something.
Cody

@#3 that's what I want to know, it this animated, or is this a photo?! I honestly can't tell...
Al

the way this frame was created and the technology used to bring it to life may be remarkable, but the end result, the image itself, isn't exactly mind blowing, not even close.
Voice of Reason

uhm....yay?
Bender

um... poor Legolas?
Vold

This picture is unimpressive.
Cat

His avatar! Sweet!
kocio

OMG! some guy, and a fuzzy rendered elf in the background THIS IS insane!
Marcus

Im not liking the sarcasm thats coming from some people about this. This IS mind blowing. You try coming up with a program that can generate computer images that are so photo-realistic that people think that its just a photo.
Vladimir

Ok, I gonna be the first to say it: What is Elrond doing in a fish tank?
mcgruff

# 9 lol i was thinking the exact same thing! so basically its rivendell world plus blue
Al

13, as I said, its certainly an impressive TECHNIQUE. The only problem is the technique is useless when it looks like things i've seen before. this still could have been done by anything else.
bltzie

Has anyone seen Sam Worthington with hair?!
JoJo

@17 he is suppose to be a marine.
jelipe

cant wait to december 18th.ill be there opening day.
http://www.deadrobot.com deadrobot

I'd have to say "bust" - the avatar looks like a Furry in a sunbed.
Felix

Real nice, and tbh some of the story seems slightly like an "mmo" - you have your avatar in a world not your own and you're fighting not just for your own survival but also to save your faction. Oh yeah, and it has elves and beautiful enviroment.
1-7

Wow, so cool, something that could have been done just the same without CGI.
Governor

Revolutionary...
Dan W

The Avatar in the tank doesn't look one bit photo realistic. Looks like straight up CGI. I'm not sold on the effects by this picture.
MikeC

Disappointing looking avatar creature. I understand desire to have the creature look humanoid etc to allow it to relate to the audience - but it seems just too humanoid .... like latex and body paint could have achieved much of same effect.... and yes - I thought it looked like a pickled blue elf
http://www.avatarmoviezone.com Chris G

Sam Worthington is obviously real, and the Avatars in the tanks are CGI...and they look great, those are top notch visual effects.
RRuu4meereyr

This is Animated!?!? holy freak. LOL @#14 comment.
Fubar

its all 3D aint it? like that shitty Boewulf movie, its supposed to look real thats the whole point. the character is drafted from the actual actor. with the exception of that fat guy who played beowulf, this looks great. soon there wont be any need for actors, everything will be 3D
Scott

Dang nice.. effects. wow
http://moviepocket.net Nicholas

It's pretty awsome... hope to see it in 3d
Han

God you morons, the only thing CG are the two avatars. And they obviously look it too.
Fisherr

I like his hair style if they ever made a movie for Killzone 2 he should play "Sev" the protagonist.
http://MYSPACE.COM/ESOPHUS JEFFREY

I'm pretty sure same is real in this shot guys. James used real actors.
Curtis G

It looks great in the photo, but you can really tell that the avatars are CG. I was kinda disappointed when I first saw them at Comic Con. I thought the hype was you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Through out the entire footage you could easily pick what was CG and what wasn't. Still, it was the most impressive thing I have seen.
marc

I'm really underwhelmed by this. the cgi is NOT what it was claimed to be. i guess movies will not be "leaping forward" this christmas.
Said

WHAT THE HELL!!! haha
mcgruff

im underwhelmed by the character design, but not really sure how you guys say its obvious cgi. it looks like a prosthetic creature in a tank. maybe youre saying its obviously cgi just because it has a cartoony design?
Jason

The photo is not real at all. you can tell if you look at worthington's ear. Great job on him. can't judge on the avatar. of course its going to look not as good, its in blue-blurry water! I'm impressed but want to see more.
Tra la la la la di da

Cheesier than a Frenchman having wine. If you don't catch the sarcasm, then you've passed to watch this movie which lacks any substance.
eric estrada

its just a photo. i dont see what the big deal is. i just cant wait until some footage is finally seen.
Rosie

So . . . is he going to spend most of the movie as a human or alien?
stefan

meh, i thought the Navi would look cooler.
Tom

OK, I am massively confused. What am I looking at......complete CGI or what? Sam Worthington looks fake in the picture. And what I mean is that the blue lighting and shadowing is confusing the hell out of me and I can't figure out if his is supposed to be photo realistic CGI or that is him and green screen. A few points to make. His forehead had creases only in the blue shadow. He looks cross eyed. His scruff is also blue on the non blue side. My guess is its all CGI, and if thats the case I am not impressed. If people are going to tell me I should be blown away, I have to disagree. This movie is going to be the most over hyped cartoon since Sponge Bob. Ill wait 10 more years and another 500 million til someone "perfects" it. And that will probably be Madden 2020.
NarniaLover

AVATAR OVERHYPED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dreckent

Maybe the design aint so impresive but if this is CG...wow... congrats Mr. Cameron.
Squiggly_P

This isn't CGI. This is from a scene that is shot live-action on a set with a CG character in a tank. I find it hilarious that some people here and other places, tho, are talking straight from their assholes about how 'fake' this 'cg' person looks. It's a photo. If the whole movie was CG, then why the fuck would they need to build full-scale replicas of the powered armor vehicles and shit? Just for kicks? There is maybe 15-20 minutes (just a guess based on shit I've heard) of live-action at the beginning of the film which then switches to CG characters in live-action sets which then goes to CG characters on CG sets (and my guess would be that they also mix some live-actors on CG sets as well, given the humans vs navi storyline, but that's purely speculation on my part.
Al

this movie may do reasonably well, but by no means will it break any record, it might not even make its money back. I know its hyped and everything, but only to the film community, 4 months till' show time, and the rest of the world still thinks "the last aribender" when someone brings up Avatar.
HellBoy

the avatar looks sooooo different from the poster we've been seeing all these days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.avatarmoviezone.com Chris G.

Oh my god, Sam Worthington is real people...Cameron filmed with real actors on sets...he said so. This was filmed with Sam Worthington on a set, the only CGI is the Avatars and probably the fluid they are suspended it. I love how people are saying the Avatar is obviously CGI, yet they are thinking someone that IS real is actually CGI...jesus. Worthington is real, absolutely, I'm laughing at those saying he's 'obviously' CGI because he isn't, he's real, and the Avatar is CGI, albeit damn good CGI.
Derek

Anyone who thinks that Sam isn't real in that pic is a dumb fuck. End of.
Mattyc

While I'm curious about this film, I'm almost too afraid to buy the hype - generally, when something is built up as much as this has been, it ends up being a HUGE disappointment
Curtis G

That is really Sam in that picture lol. I remember the scene from Comic Con. Once people see the Avatars on "Avatar Day" I think people will be disappointed. Not that the CG isn't beyond beautiful because It Is. Personally, I went in thinking we wouldn't be able to tell the difference, but I was totally wrong lol. Still the footage was incredible.
hope_springs_eternal

Avatarsssss! cgi will always look like cgi. forever. they should spend all that cash they blow on crazy computers on bad-as-fuck puppets and muppets and costumes and insanely elaborate sets. to me that stuff is always better than cgi, even the best cgi there is. at least with puppets and costumes theres like a weight and a physicality to them like you could ya know..really hug them or something. like where the wild things are! wee bits of subtle cgi and big ass costumes.
Tra la la la la di da

So why is there a leprechaun in a tank? Right hope! That's why Farscape was so awesome and Pan's Labyrinth. They'll never learn.
Big O

Estan con una interrogante como si esta fuera a ser una gran pelicula. ¡Espero que sea asi y no sea una porqueria!
gary m

besides the technology, does this movie even seem or look good?
http://www.juno.com joe

Um...photo realistic? Looks like something from wow or Final Fantasy. Ha. Hype killed the video star.
Captain Nemo

I liked this a lot better when it was called Mass Effect. At least that had blue skinned omnisexual alien vixens.
malory knox

I think this movie will live up to alll the hype on the visual side, but JC tneds to fall short on the story side me thinks..story doesnt really seem too original or creative..
Meghan frat

I love how this movie is so overhyped, it has HATERS already picking apart shit that ISNT EVEN CGI as fakes!!! hahaha #43!! LOL...how can you "investigate" the logic of the pic if you dont even know the environment its in or whats on the side of the photographer..but yea, keep calling the live action photos obvious fake CGI so I can laugh..I LOVE WHEN people bitch and moan about shit they have no education in and are clueless about! hahaha...perhaps I will go down to the hospital and tell the surgeons how to operate..Ive seen ER before so I can comment and direct others..
sumonesumtime

Agreed 59.
http://www.avatarmoviezone.com Chris G.

The trailer is coming a day early, Apple has a countdown, its goming out at 7 AM Eastern time, on Thursday August 20th http://www.apple.com/trailers/
pipo

The Avatar reminds me exactly to one character of captain future...
Squiggly_P

@Hope_springs_eternal: Right on, dude. This is one of the reasons I'm excited about Del Toro doing the Hobbit movie. He does use CG, but he uses it as an extension to makeup and prosthetics, and you end up not knowing if half the effects are real or not real or a mix of the two things... And thank the film gods that Spike Jones did the same thing for Where the Wild Things Are. CG monsters would have killed it, but the CG facial manipulation looks great on those suits. Not that This will look bad or anything. I think this film will look great, but Cameron has never used technology to hide bad characters. His stories might not always be flawless or overly deep, but he writes some of the best fucking characters that exist in film. I'm sure this will be no exception, and I can't wait for it to finally come out.
job

"3D" dont mean the whole film will be "beowolf" or whatever its called... its live action with cgi vfx and shot with stereo cameras...
marty

Why don't we just wait for the trailer!!! How can you comment on the quality of the effects by looking at one photo!! I'll pass opinion once i've seen a trailer and then another once i watch the film. While we're talking about CGI, Watched Jurassic Park the other day, CGI was way ahead of it's time can't beleive it was 1993!!!...god i feel old!!
Django

That rubbery thing in the back looks so fake! I know Cameron's trying to revolutionize our Eyeballs & all but ... I can't shake the feeling that Stan Winston is simply rolling in his grave ~ Gimme CHARACTERS! Enough gee whiz bang boom eye-gauging video-games. I wanna see this f*cker ACT already.
http://www.thebatcaveofoz.us Bruce Wayne

Speaking from inside the industry....James Cameron is an ASSHOLE! I will never pay to see anything he makes, and wish the rest of the world would not fall for his smarminess. He thinks Unions are ruining the business...would refuse to pay a prop man his weekly wage, but would pay Arnold $20mil?! So, he leaves the country and films in Mexico or other places with no fair wage laws!! He would Stop the Camera and make a scene just because a worker happened to Touch his leg, while doing his job moving things out of the camera's view as it moved!! He 'dared' to touch the great Cameron!!!!! Major Douche. ^^X^^
Kroe

Can't I go onto a reliable (accurate) and useful site without hearing from complainers who are not likely to even know what goes into 1 minute of film? Serious! The least you people could do is watch how they make a movie (A high quality movie, but avoid regular horror and lean to sci-fi if you do). Hey, #66, I agree. Jurassic Park was way ahead of its time. Particularly Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, in 2003. Its effects are still ahead of movies today while mainting a strong story. CGI is no walk in the park! Pass opinion after the trailer and movie, fair chance, better judgment.