AVATAR Trailer is here!

[Twilight]

Definitely! Kong looked great in the final film - not so much in the Trailer.

And the female through the branches shot looked great, as did the very last shot of the two Na'vi embracing.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

I think you read too much into that.

Well, perhaps. But mostly, I'm reading what you've written. Paintings, everybody knows how they're made, we've seen a million iterations of them before, and we know immediately that what we're looking at is totally fake. Still, people keep making them, people keep buying them, people keep being fascinated by them.

 

[davejames]

Not able to see it yet, but from the responses so far I'm starting to wonder if Cameron, like Lucas, has maybe been out of the game a little too long...

 

[RobertScorpio]

It's very pretty but could you sit and watch CGI for two hours? Okay one hour?

hey..there's always the misadventures of Flapjack.

Rob

 

[Michael Chris]

After having seen that... not too interested anymore. Did anyone see the article on the sun website that says that James Cameron wrote Terminator 3? That just cracked me up.

 

[davejames]

Well, perhaps. But mostly, I'm reading what you've written. Paintings, everybody knows how they're made, we've seen a million iterations of them before, and we know immediately that what we're looking at is totally fake. Still, people keep making them, people keep buying them, people keep being fascinated by them.

Those paintings are usually depicting our own, familiar world though, and don't require nearly the same level of emotional involvement.

The problem with movies like this (and the SW prequels) is when they try to immerse the audience in a completely unfamiliar and alien world where there's very little for us to relate to. Unless the characters and story are VERY strong, it's very easy to become detached from it all.

 

[tauntme]

This was severely over-hyped. I really hope when the movie comes out, audiences don't go in with too much expectations.

 

[Talosian]

I've always been a proponent of ambitious failures. Critics punish directors for aiming high and succeeding only partially, while they reward those who make minor genre classics. Which is probably why Pixar comparisons are being floated in this thread, as if CG hasn't been incorporated into the broad gamut of movie types for the last decade and a half.

As a technical matter, the effects here are slightly superior to those in King Kong, which were themselves cutting edge. Look closely at the dimensionality of the character's bodies - they look firm and solid. Contrast that with say, the animals from the Narnia films, which were by no means shabbily done.

Moreover, the trailer had a good tempo, and some nice hard sci-fi details thrown in amidst the fantastic elements. Don't know what the devil the complaints are about.

 

[davejames]

Ok, finally saw it. And while I agree the aliens do look and move a bit too cartoonishly, there's still MORE than enough style and imagination in the rest of the trailer to pique my interest.

I may not be blown away, but it definitely looks worth checking out.

 

[Agent Richard07]

I agree with what's been said. After all the hype over photo realism, this trailer didn't seem all that impressive. And yes, it looks like District 9 trumps this thing in the CGI departmant.

Also, I didn't know this was going to be a 3D movie. Could that play a part in the supposed realism? I don't plan to see this or any movie in 3D anyway. I don't want to sit there cross-eyed for 2 hours.

 

[Hunter X]

I think the fact that it's 3D is one of the major selling points, and has been from the start. It's not just supposed to be groundbreaking CGI, it's supposed to be groundbreaking 3D CGI.

Anyways, here's an article that may be of interest to those who weren't impressed by the effects. For the record, I wasn't either, but I like Pixar movies, so I don't have anything against watching a 2 hour cartoon as long as the story is good.

Link

Excerpt

I get that they're trying to follow up on the promises that Avatar looks like nothing ever has, and would rather show off as many flashy scenes as possible rather than ease you into this world. But the Quicktime format is so limiting, especially for a 3D movie, that the impact of all the CGI wizardry is muted anyway. Already people are complaining that Sam Worthington's Avatar doesn't look realistic, that the blue skin looks fake, because they haven't had enough time to see it move like a human, hear it talk, or see it respond to its world. Having seen it in Hall H, I promise it works. It just needs time to settle in, and just by showing one complete scene at Comic Con, they sold the effect entirely. Cutting together all the random scenes in the trailer just makes you more disoriented.

 

[Tom Servo]

Looks excellent.

To all those complaining about the CG as well...this is just the trailer. Im sure the scenes are not fully finished yet, and in this kind of format where an image lasts two seconds on screen, it okay to do that. Im sure everything will be fine by the time the movie is released.

Honestly, its James Cameron. If there is one director that I know will give us a quality story, and a quality film, its that guy.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

Interesting.

But, um, it seems like halfway through it switches to an all CG movie (a la Final Fantasy) because the difference is VERY striking.

I expect this to be improved in the final film, but it shows how dicey mixing live action with CGI can be. This is probably some of the most advanced work done in the field, and still the moment it was all blue people, it felt like a different film. At times it doesn't look much better than videogame cutscenes.

Its James Cameron so I expect it be EPIC though.

 

[tharpdevenport]

So ... this is it? Talk about "hype"...

 

[byron lomax]

Couldn't even make it to the end of the trailer. Just looked totally uninteresting to me.

 

[Trubinator]

The teaser looks very interesting. The first half was really cool, and while the second half could get very dicey with the ALL-CGI approach, I'm still intrigued by the film. Also, isn't the guy standing next to Sam Worthington in one scene an intern on BONES?

 

[FPAlpha]

Very cool visuals but the CGI.. not so much.

I wonder though how much of this is psychology.. we know that these aliens and their world doesn't exist so we may treat the CGI as not photo-realistic and subconsciously reject it.

The same happened to me.. as much as Gollum is lauded as the current pinnacle of CGI live action he still seemed fake to me. Very high quality but still fake.

Doesn't matter though if Cameron delivers a great story that's supported by awesome visuals and i believe he will.

 

[Blue_Trek]

Most of us are posting in this forum because we are interested in this genre of sci-fi, to me if your fan of the genre this movie will be a must see. IMAX 3D CGI at this level hasn't been done before so a trailer on your computer screen can't give you how this movie will look on the really big screen.

IMHO this is the type of movie you must see for yourself before you pass judgment.

Now I am going to go watch it in 1080 HD

 

[NX74205]

My only reaction is....huh?

Well,everyone loved it at Comic-Con and they saw more than just a teaser. I think that this is just a case of a bead teaser. It also may explain why it took so long for Cameron to realease a trailer. If the movie is really revolutionary it is hard to get that fact across using traditional means.

 

[davejames]

Very cool visuals but the CGI.. not so much.

I wonder though how much of this is psychology.. we know that these aliens and their world doesn't exist so we may treat the CGI as not photo-realistic and subconsciously reject it.

The same happened to me.. as much as Gollum is lauded as the current pinnacle of CGI live action he still seemed fake to me. Very high quality but still fake.

Doesn't matter though if Cameron delivers a great story that's supported by awesome visuals and i believe he will.

That's definitely a factor, but even beyond that, the blue aliens still don't move in a very convincing way. They move more like videogame characters who have no real weight to them.