No…TechCrunch didn’t really bribe us with tickets to Avatar. They actually did something really great. Thanks to Michael Arrington and the team at TechCrunch, dozens of readers were able to crowd into the Metreon theatre in San Francisco last night to watch a screening of James Cameron’s new blockbuster movie Avatar. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend that you do, especially with a bunch of friends – it makes it that much more fun.
Don’t worry, this post won’t include any spoilers, but here’s the background, a marine goes to another world called Pandora to join a program designed to help in the interaction with the natives. The natives don’t trust humans and so the humans try and use avatars which are controlled through the minds of the human hosts. Needless to say, romance, battles and self-discovery ensue. Lots of internal struggle and philosophical idealism that is brought into light.
A bevy of who’s who showed up last night for the showing, including most, if not all, of the TechCrunch team, Jeremiah Owyang, Chris Saad, Oren Michaels from Mashery, Ethan Bloch of Flowtown, Robert Scoble, Karl Long, Cyan Banister, Adam Jackson and many more. As an added treat, they even gave out ten Avatar action figures, but unfortunately they didn’t have enough for a couple of the kids that were in attendance. So (shameless plug), since I got one, I decided to give it to a kid that wanted it more.
Hilarity also ensued throughout the movie as Arrington opened the evening off with some opening remarks and noted that Scoble wasn’t in attendance (he did show up a few minutes after movie previews) because of Rackspace having issues and temporarily shuttering TechCrunch’s website. When Avatar did begin, lots of “oooooh’s” and “aaaaaah’s” for the 3D special effect. And probably the last thing that got a few laughs before everyone got settled in? Someone excitedly pointed out that there was a CrunchPad in the movie – we all laughed…but did Arrington?
Overall, the Avatar screening was really great. TechCrunch did a great thing sharing this with their fans and readers.
Great job, TechCrunch!
You can read TechCrunch’s article on the screening by clicking here.