Random Thoughts: Avatar and Super Heroes

I saw Avatar recently.  One of my first thoughts upon leaving the theater: They need make a superhero movie with these types of effects.

One of the pitfalls that superhero movies fall into - aside from lousy scripts, bad acting and incoherent plots -is bad special effects.  Some special effects just simply do not work well when human actors are involved, or the technology isn't there to make them look believable.  CGI can solve some of that, but sometimes CGI and live action shots just don't blend well, making the CGI stick out like a sore thumb.

Compare the stretching effects used in Fantastic Four and The Incredibles.  In Fantastic Four, Richard Reed's stretching really isn't a very convincing effect, but in The Incredibles, Elasti-Girl's stretching is completely believable because the CGI effect works perfectly in the CGI world of the movie.

I also think that The Incredibles works so well because comic books, even realistically drawn ones, do not come close to matching the real world.  There is a cartoonish element to comics.  That isn't a bad thing, but it can cause problems when trying to have live actors play out comic book stories.  Superhero costumes, mutants with physical mutations, aliens . . . believable enough in CGI or drawn form, but they suffer problems when you try to get special effects to duplicate them.

Of course, my dream would be a Justice League movie with Avatar-level of special effects.  Because, if nothing else, Martian Manhunter's powers would be freaking awesome to see.