AVATAR Trailer is here!

[BalokINACTIVE]

After watching the teaser here's my prediction, which I fully admit is based on nothing more than a gut feeling:

Avatar will be one of those things that is wildly popular everywhere in the world...except the United States. Kind of like soccer, Mamma Mia and the metric system.

Again, just a gut instinct.

 

[Hyperspace05]

I just don't get the Cameron hate that seems to pervasive on online forums these days. (I guess it must have started with geek backlash to Titanic, or something)

Sure, he's not the best story teller there is, nor the best director ever.
But in the action/adventure/sci-fi genre - if you looked his colleagues? He is *heads and shoulders* above all of them when it comes to the ability direct action and also have compelling characters in his film. There is is IMO no other director out there that matches those qualifications. In the last 30 years, only Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson have gotten close to that level.

I mean, have you looked at his resume recently?? (Terminator, Aliens, T2, Abyss, True Lies, Titanic) - Not a clunker among them, IMO. Yes I think Titanic is great. I know people may quibble about some of those films, but geez that kind of resume is the envy of 99% of hollywood.

That's why I'm excited about Avatar. I don't give two shits if the CG is perfect or not. (Although I know Cameron is the ultimate perfectionist, so it will most likely look great) Because I know that he is the best at doing exactly kind of film, and I know it will be well constructed with compelling and likable characters.

And that's what I go to the movies to see.

 

[Trubinator]

I just don't get the Cameron hate that seems to pervasive on online forums these days. (I guess it must have started with geek backlash to Titanic, or something)

Sure, he's not the best story teller there is, nor the best director ever.
But in the action/adventure/sci-fi genre - if you looked his colleagues? He is *heads and shoulders* above all of them when it comes to the ability direct action and also have compelling characters in his film. There is is IMO no other director out there that matches those qualifications. In the last 30 years, only Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson have gotten close to that level.

I mean, have you looked at his resume recently?? (Terminator, Aliens, T2, Abyss, True Lies, Titanic) - Not a clunker among them, IMO. Yes I think Titanic is great. I know people may quibble about some of those films, but geez that kind of resume is the envy of 99% of hollywood.

That's why I'm excited about Avatar. I don't give two shits if the CG is perfect or not. (Although I know Cameron is the ultimate perfectionist, so it will most likely look great) Because I know that he is the best at doing exactly kind of film, and I know it will be well constructed with compelling and likable characters.

And that's what I go to the movies to see.

Very nicely put. People just need to have a little faith in the man. It's understandable to be skeptical of science fiction these days with all the crap pervading theaters, but if anyone can deliver, it will be him.

 

[davejames]

Considering the absolute ORGASM most of those same scifi fans had over the LOTR movies, which I found to be bloated and ponderous as hell, well... let's just say I don't put a lot of stock in their opinions.

I mean hell, you STILL see adds comparing this or that action movie to Aliens and T2! Cameron's movies are considered the gold standard, and the greatest examples of how to make a mainstream scifi movie that's also got some heart and brains. I'm confident this one won't be any different.

 

[SeerSGB]

Well every "we must take their planet for the minerals/tactical location/colony world" suffers from that problem. Why bother with a long and costly ground conflict when you can just blast away from orbit and move right in unhindered.

If you put your mind to it, it is quite possible to prove that no story should ever be told.

That why it's best not to think to much with this type of movie Motivations versus tactics for taking a planet seldom jive with one and the other.

Had the same problem with Insurrection (Which I enjoyed for the most part): Why mess around with the Federation or for that matter why go to them while the planet still had people on it? Mass beam them out, into a cargo ship or leave them scattered as energy and then call up the Fed and say "hey look what we found".

Considering the absolute ORGASM most of those same scifi fans had over the LOTR movies, which I found to be bloated and ponderous as hell, well... let's just say I don't put a lot of stock in their opinions.

I mean hell, you STILL see adds comparing this or that action movie to Aliens and T2! Cameron's movies are considered the gold standard, and the greatest examples of how to make a mainstream scifi movie that's also got some heart and brains. I'm confident this one won't be any different.

I enjoy about 90% of Cameron's work. The man's got a style that's what I call "cutting edge old school": taking new film making tech and approaching how he uses it from the old school way of thinking in terms of telling the story he wants to tell.

 

[RAMA]

Does anyone have a link that actually works for downloading? None of them seem to.

RAMA

 

[Hyperspace05]

Same here... Apple is doing something new that makes downloading harder. I tried my usual tricks and failed.

 

[Michael Chris]

Just use itunes. You can download all resolutions on there.

 

[melancholymecha]

this is creepy (at least the motion capture will be good)

http://forums.superherohype.com/showpost.php?p=17367248&postcount=7579

 

[broberfett]

Seems like standard Hollywood eco-freakism. Of course the hero will side with shiny, happy, perfect aliens. The aliens will have no negative traits-none at all. The humans will be a big, evil corporation trying to mine the shit out of the planet. When I read a brief description of the movie I immediately thought of the happy-happy underwater aliens in The Abyss. I'm reminded of the Simpsons episode when Itchy and Scratchy are censored for violence and sit around on a porch drinking lemonade-fine in real life but boring as hell in a movie.

The effects are way over hyped. I remember the same shit with the Matrix Reloaded. The CG was supposed to be sooo real. They would look like real people. Then you get there and you are watching the movie and then it turns into a cartoon for 5 minutes. The CG people looked as fake as ever. This will be the same.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Seems like standard Hollywood eco-freakism. Of course the hero will side with shiny, happy, perfect aliens. The aliens will have no negative traits-none at all. The humans will be a big, evil corporation trying to mine the shit out of the planet.

We'll see.

The effects are way over hyped. I remember the same shit with the Matrix Reloaded. The CG was supposed to be sooo real. They would look like real people. Then you get there and you are watching the movie and then it turns into a cartoon for 5 minutes. The CG people looked as fake as ever. This will be the same.

We'll see.

 

[Rii]

Seems like standard Hollywood eco-freakism. Of course the hero will side with shiny, happy, perfect aliens. The aliens will have no negative traits-none at all. The humans will be a big, evil corporation trying to mine the shit out of the planet.

LOTR and Star Wars were black and white too. Unless you have a hovering assault craft in your garage I wouldn't take it too personally.

When I read a brief description of the movie I immediately thought of the happy-happy underwater aliens in The Abyss.

Clearly you didn't see the Special Edition cut.

 

[broberfett]

The big tidal wave wipe out thing? It didn't remove my colossal disappointment. The commercials didn't really show anything, just the title. All I knew was that it would be underwater stuff. Aliens was one of my favorites. I loved Terminator. I was expecting a movie of monstrous kickass proportions. It was E.T. underwater. I like Michael Bien more as a good guy than a wacko also.

 

[trevanian]

I remember the same shit with the Matrix Reloaded. The CG was supposed to be sooo real. They would look like real people. Then you get there and you are watching the movie and then it turns into a cartoon for 5 minutes.

Yeah, colossal disappointment. As near as I can figure, the reason the stuff looked better in the first one is that they used real photographic techniques for the foregrounds (actors) and largely cg basis (mapping photos over geometry) for the backgrounds (which is okay because it is BACKGROUND.) Then for the second one, they used the CG approach of mapping people over geometry for the foregrounds, and essentially took the mushy standard that works for a background and figured everybody would buy off on it, even though that makes no sense and is totally counterintuitive.

I'd be happy to never hear the word trilogy again.

 

[Nardpuncher]

Explosions in action movies are an example of how movie makers don't entirely 'get' the audience.
Here's what I mean: If you are actually on set when the pyrotechnics guys blow up a warehouse for some movie, and the concussive wave from the explosion sucks the air out of your lungs I'm sure it's quite an experience (I myself have fired the Karl Gustav rocket launcher and it actually blows your nose for you) but the audience sitting in the theater is understandably jaded to this. They saw it last week in another movie too.

I think when these guys make their CG movies they must talk about such technical stuff that I couldn't understand and how much faster they can render X as opposed to how long it took only 2 years ago and so forth that they don't tend to stop and back up and really look at it.
I think also that the time they save makes them like it more, though I can imagine they do so many more effects shots that they don't really save time at all.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

Okay, I saw this before Inglourious Basterds, and although the cg looks way more detailed and lifelike in detail on the big screen, it's still a bunch of fake looking cartoony blue cat elf people. I really don't get this. I'm sure I'll change my mind when the movie comes out, but for now, it looks stupid.

 

[Starbreaker]

This is not at all what I was expecting, but I will reserve judgement until after I see the film.

 

[bigdaddy]

I like the blue cat elves thing.

The CGI looks great to me, as long as it's better than King Kong's CGI I think I will be happy. It doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to be good enough so I don't roll my eyes.

I thought this movie was going to be about some stupid Avatar human hunting on some off world, this looks like a load of fun.

 

[davejames]

The big tidal wave wipe out thing? It didn't remove my colossal disappointment. The commercials didn't really show anything, just the title. All I knew was that it would be underwater stuff. Aliens was one of my favorites. I loved Terminator. I was expecting a movie of monstrous kickass proportions. It was E.T. underwater. I like Michael Bien more as a good guy than a wacko also.

The Abyss might have turned into "E.T. underwater" at the end, but up until then it seemed like a pretty intelligent and exciting action thriller to me.

And Cameron already did the evil scary alien thing, so I can't blame him for trying something different for that one. I thought it all worked really well.

 

[davejames]

Okay, I saw this before Inglourious Basterds, and although the cg looks way more detailed and lifelike in detail on the big screen, it's still a bunch of fake looking cartoony blue cat elf people. I really don't get this. I'm sure I'll change my mind when the movie comes out, but for now, it looks stupid.

Yeah like I said before, I think THAT'S the problem people are having. No matter how good the CGI is, ultimately the aliens still look like something that was designed for an animated movie.