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News Corp's UK newspaper The Sun claimed it had the Avatar trailer numero uno. Then again, Apple/iTunes actually had first dibs for a 24-hour window. Now Fox is sending "take down" notices to everybody else. What a cock-up. I'm so sick of all the hype and secrecy. But now we can presume to know why Twentieth Century Fox and Jim Cameron were keeping it under wraps for so long. The Avatar trailer makes it look, um, er, like a Disney movie. I swear Twink was in there. Maybe a Pixar character or two. A lot of you think Cameron caught Lucas flu and express surprise Jar Jar Binks got his own movie. Others fear this is Dances With Wolves set in space. Please, Jim, guarantee us this is not another The Abyss. Or worse.
FIRST LOOK AT 'AVATAR' TRAILER ONLINE
By Nikki Finke | Category: Movies | Thursday August 20, 2009 @ 1:50pm PST
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mega-bomb
Lots of baffled reactions to this today after so much hype. It seems Cameron had a sci-fi Dances with Wolves in mind, but he’s accidentally wound up with a CGI cartoon Ferngully. The cartoon look is especially surprising after Cameron hyped “photo-realistic” CG (rather than the story) for years. With a running time that’ll supposedly stretch past the two and a half hour mark, competing for Christmas weekend against Robert Downey Jr in Sherlock Holmes seems like a rougher prospect than ever.
Hahaa.
Horrible.
Might as well sit through a cartoon.
To all the people bitching and moaning about the CG (ie. fat lazy slob computer geeks playing with themselves to the latest Megan Fox-riddled trailer)… what the hell is he supposed to do? Make it on a soundstage with a bunch of spraypainted plastic reeds being blown around by a ritter fan? Actors jumping around in cheeseball rubber suits? Waste tens of millions of dollars building semi-real sets (aka Peter Jackson, “King Kong”) that end up looking CG anyway after the film has been scanned, CG-augmented, and stuck back on film? If you’re going to make an ENTIRE ALIEN WORLD and IMMERSE THE VIEWER IN IT you have no choice but to use CG. That’s just how filmmaking works today.
The sheer depth, scale and enormity of the visuals will not translate/reduce to a lame Quicktime movie anyway.
JC is no dummy. He is saving the best bits for last — I’m sure the last half hour will OWN YOU just like Titanic did (say what you will about the first 4/5 of Titanic, it’s the last 1/5 that knocks the audience out).
JC is a pioneer in film technology. Name another director who develops his own frickin’ camera system. He would not — and best of all, can **afford** not — to settle for 2nd rate visuals.
I guess my biggest concern is how the whole “big bad military” vs. the tree-hugging, Ferngully, environmental stuff plays. Pray that the inevitable Billy Zane-type character does not get too much screen time.
Looks retarded…I bet it will be a huge hit.
Cameron is directly responsible for the modern tentpole jizz-fest and he has become its latest victim. Fox can’t be happy about this. I guess that is the problem is that when you are King of the World, nobody pulls you aside and says, “look dude, it looks like Peter Jackson playing Final Fantasy on an Xbox. Maybe you should throw a Jar Jar Binks in there or something that screams FUN.”
I don’t know, not only do the CGI characters look CGI, the real actors looked CGI too. While the detail in the landscapes were very nice, it looked too much like a cut-scene in a video game for my liking.
The plot sounds like Dances with Wolves in space, and the preview and production stills haven’t stoked anything in me but concern about this movie turning out to be a big disappointment.
Which is a shame, because I grew up on James Cameron movies in the 80s and 90s.
Well worth the wait. Can’t wait to see the whole thing.
Uh oh.
Looks like Jim may have caught Lucas Flu — he’s exhibiting all the symptoms…
first look? didn’t the trailer come out today?
http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/avatar/
first impression is that it looks like another CGI crapfest, a la george lucas. but i’m hoping there’s a good story in there that will make me want to care about what i’m watching. don’t let me down jimmy c.
Lots of baffled reactions to this today after so much hype. It seems Cameron had a sci-fi Dances with Wolves in mind, but he’s accidentally wound up with a CGI cartoon Ferngully. The cartoon look is especially surprising after Cameron sold the film on the merits of its “photo-realistic” CG (rather than the story) for years. With a running time that’ll supposedly stretch past the two and a half hour mark, competing for Christmas weekend against Robert Downey Jr in Sherlock Holmes seems like a rougher prospect than ever.
Did Jar Jar Binks really need his own movie?
Looks incredible to me. I, for one, cannot wait for this….
1.4B Worldwide. 500M domestic.
I have to say that while I will give the theatrical release viewing experience the benefit of the doubt, with regard to Jim’s “new” CGI and 3-D technology, this trailer does not inspire confidence.
Watching it makes me think I am watching graphics from a computer and/or video game. The Na’avi do not look realistic enough for my taste.
Not interested. And I thought I would be.
Eyes and slow motion still seem to be impacted by the Polar Express effect.
Cameron has trolled us.
This is going to be awful.
I kept waiting for Jar Jar Binks to walk through the frame.
Meh.
That is super cheesy looking 3d graphics. I can only hope James Cameron’s sense of storytelling can elevate this in a way that we couldn’t possibly tell from the trailer. I was annoyed just watching a couple of minutes, and I have stayed away from all other video game looking films that have come out.
Just because something takes forever doesn’t mean it will be epic. Evidence – Chinese Democracy.
Underwhelming considering the uber-hype.
Would rather watch paint dry – looks dreadful
if you watch the 1080p trailer, the level of detail is incredible. its funny tho – cameron has said that it was watching gollum that made up his mind on the feasibility of the project. But his lot really don’t seem to look or move anywhere near as convincingly as gollum
um, nikke, it was on apple’s quicktime pages. what are you talking about.
Some cool stuff … definitely not groundbreaking as promised
It looks interesting but it doesn’t look like anything groundbreaking. It looks like standard movie CGI.
If it’s “Dances with Wolves” set in space, I won’t be too impressed. The noble natives, evil white man thing has been done to death, and it seems like he’s returning to the same ground as Abyss (floaty fairy creatures, nasty military machines and soldiers, etc. etc.)
I’m sure it’ll be good though; just nothing earth-shattering. I do like that the music in the trailer wasn’t the standard Hollywood strings n’ horns bullshit.
Apocalypto + LSD = Avatar
More like ISHTAR!!!
I think you have to see it in the IMAX theater to get the full effect.
Andy,
I remember Gollum fondly as well. He had lots of character and was really a great performance/CG creation in that he had lots of life (thanks to Andy Serkis and the fine animators at Jackson’s SFX house).
All that being said…if you truly look at the results, they’re not SPECTACULAR as so many are prone to say. Take off the rose colored glasses and look at the effects in LOTR for what they are. Gollum hardly matches the water when he’s trying to catch the fish from the river.
This looks better in terms of incorporation into environments (possibly because the environments themselves rely more heavily on CG).
I think the film is being sold completely incorrectly and more importantly just doesn’t have a story with a broad appeal.
Fox was willing to spend $300 million on this but not $150 on Halo?
C’est la vie,
T
Looks like Cameron delved no further than his stash of 70’s Prog Rock albums for the look of this film.
So, they can cross the universe but can’t repair a spinal cord injury? Just saying…
my expectations have been dashed. =(
I’m sorry, I just have a negative reaction to hype. I’m sure the movie is fine, maybe great, but the push and expectation is gross.
Would you really rather watch paint dry, Greg? Your life must be fun.
I can’t wait until this film comes out…
so studios can give up their wet dreams about not having to hire actors ever again. That’s the groundbreaking CGI?
300 million dollars, and the clips of the CGI characters were missing everything the clips of the human characters had going on on their faces just by virtue of them being real people.
Ferngully with guns?
First off, please do not base your opinion of this trailer by watching a “streaming” version on a small or even larger computer screen. Secondly Trailers are specifically designed and targeted to a specific base. This trailer is not designed to inspire the ” fan base” but a broader more titanic type of audience. Personally I do not like trailers in general, but I understand the need. If it were up to me I would have just had a very plain Avatar “Teaser” without showing much of anything. But obviously the studio big wigs would not go for that.
I applaud James Cameron and the studios for creating Avatar and not just rehashing another remake or sequel. I am glad we will have something fresh and new to watch. It is a huge gamble. I am sure that James Cameron has put his heart and soul into this project and I hope that it will do well. I am so sick and tired of rehashed sequels and old movies being redone. Let’s hope originality prevails this year and Avatar kicks some serious butt!
Well I happened to LOVE the Abyss.
This will bomb so bad it’s ridiculous. Nothing can live up to the hype of “ground bread new technology” or “14 years in the making”. If you read the synopsis on Apple trailers, or anywhere else, it says more about Cameron and the time/effort it took to make the movie than about the plot itself. It’s almost as if their trying to dazzle everyone with the technology because they know the story can’t hold up.
Having said that, as most people have pointed out, the CGI isn’t even that great. James Cameron’s legacy is gonna take a hit on this one I think.
Nikke, did you just diss The Abyss? If so, you just showed you have shitty tastes in movies. I am starting to think you have a stick up your ass when it comes to anything “geek”. You should pull it out and you might actually enjoy more things.
I hope the 16 minutes I see Friday changes my mind about the flick. The trailer is bad.
The movie will stand or fall by its story, like every other movie; the level of detail visible in any given frame is neither here nor there.
My reservation about AVATAR has always been that any tale involving remote viewing, virtual reality, dream reality – anything where the protagonist is projected into a world that we know he doesn’t actually exist in – kills any real sense of involvement.
I Still look at this GCI crap and it still looks fake. Even if it is pretty neither the aliens nor the aircraft look like actual objects in space. As far as I’m concerned it still might as well be “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” because those aliens look about as real as Jessica Rabbit.
I’m super disappointed. It looks cartoony that’s for sure. I’m afraid we may be looking at the cinematic equivalent of “Chinese Democracy”, I hope I’m wrong though. I like James Cameron movies usually.
Cameron has yet to make a bad film. And Dances With Wolves in space sounds pretty good to me. Flame on, but this has great potential.
Someone upstream talked about noble-natives-evil-white-people being “done to death.” Really? Examples, please.
I am not impressed with this trailer! It looks like Ferngully meets Finding Nemo in a Tarzan environment. I now understand why this trailer has been under wraps for so long. Good Luck 20th Century Fox; YOU WILL NEED IT after this trailer.
Ah. Its trailors like these that make Facebook execs smile.
Less eyes on the big screen, more eyes on the little screen.
Whatever happened to this so called New World James Cameron would introduce us to?
Guess that world will be, Don’t Spend To Much Money On One Movie.
ROFL expressing hope that it isn’t another The Abyss. If you can name 10 films in that genre that have been made since that are better I’d love to know what they are.
People are willfully stupid and plainly don’t have imaginations anymore. All that matters is this permanent stance of irreverent irreverence and unchallenged internet snark. So much of the kind of moviemaking that built the business is held in contempt anymore that it boggles the mind.
Assholes rip the likes of Lucas, Cameron, Zemeckis with one hand and pray for the lifeblood their risky R&D gives the industry for decades to follow with the other.
So many jerks.
To all you people slamming the trailer, I think you’re old, cynical farts. Were you the same slightly younger old farts that carped how TITANIC was going to sink like its name sake?
I say… Ha.
I saw that trailer and it got me jazzed. This movie – and in 3D, no less – is going to storm the theaters. What a cool world to absorb yourself in.
And those who smuggling say Cameron’s blown it, gone Lucas, and all the crap… eh… how’s your career going?
I didn’t think too much of this trailer, but I was amazed to see you knock THE ABYSS, which is a truly masterful film.
I thought the Abyss was a terrific action movie, with the exception of the rather lame last reel. But this trailer looks absolutely awful!
I remember my jaw dropping during the action and EFX sequences of Terminator 2, it was totally new and different.
But then came the abyss-mal Titanic, once of the worst movies in history… And now this. Perhaps the “king of the world” has finally lost it… or am I missing something??? QT or not, this looks STUPID!
It looks like a more expensive “Battle for Terra.” Yikes.
I have a question if in the movie humanity has progressed to a point where they can travel to a distant planet and apparently transfer consciousness between two different species but they haven’t found a cure for spinal injuries?
So good to know that all these haters will be wrong come December.
People are betting against this based on a teaser trailer (in Quicktime)!! That is the most retarded thing I’ve ever heard.
And just by the way, the only reason people think it looks cartoonish is because of the color palette Cameron is using. Think of other heavy CGI films….even the final 3 Star Wars.
My first thought while watching the trailer: Wow. James Cameron spent $200 million on a video game.
My second thought: In this futuristic society with all its advanced technology the guy in the wheelchair still has to propel himself by using his arms?
Meh.
I was REALLY looking forward to this. Now not so much.
We all know James Cameron to be very smart and creative; that is not the issue here. The issue is that this is genuinely a bad trailer if you compare it to all the hype in cyberspace. It’s just not a good trailer and it doesnt compliment the “so called” buzz we’ve all been hearing. There is nothing unique and different about this trailer and nothing that would make me want to pay $12.00 to see it. A national promo partner would be stupid to sign on to support this film with media.
I will wait for it to make its network premiere on broadcast television.
This is already fun. James Cameron is a wrongly maligned master of modern cinema. He waited 12 years to deliver his next work. I have every confidence that when the dust settles, Avatar will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, and even Titanic as an unequivocal work of art. The fun part, in the meantime, is going to be listening to the Internet peanut gallery malign it at every turn leading up to its release. Anyone else remember when Titanic was an over-budget disaster waiting to happen? Yeah, time does funny things.
The lukewarm reaction does remind me of the bad buzz Titanic had in the months leading up to its release.
However, the difference here is that Avatar seems to have a much smaller profile among casual moviegoers. They’ve got the fanboy crowd, but the most common thing I hear regarding the film is, “What’s Avatar?”
Its genre will also keep it from having the same broad demographic appeal that kept Titanic afloat. Opening weekend is secure, but a film this expensive is going to need some very long legs.
Oh god. A gangly Prince Namor crossed with every lame frigging alien Lucas crammed into the last three Star Wars films? THIS is his vision? Oh god.
All I can say is terrible!
Well there’s always “The Last Airbender” next summer.
Whoever cut this trailer needs to be fired. Huge disappointment especially after Cameron hyped it up at Comicon. Bomb at the box office. The trailer looks like the game my son is playing on his XBOX right now.
Jesus, what do you people want? At the end of the day you’re either going to sit in front of a screen for two hours or you’re not, and you’re either going to like what you see, or be affected by it, etc., or you’re not. I don’t understand the fascination here.
As far as trailers go, I think this is a well edited and very well composed. I also think it’s clever that (what as far I can tell is) the main narrative feature, Sam Worthington acting through the body of an avatar/surrogate, more or less metaphorizes what was unique about the process by which this film was made (namely the heavy use of motion capture).
Again, what’s the hangup? yeah, blue, not photorealistic. whatever.
and WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ABYSS!?!?! SHAME ON YOU!
James Cameron is the only tentpole director whose films make you care about the pole as well as the tent. Go ahead and rank on “The Abyss” or “Titanic,” or carp about this or that in T-1 or T-2, but in every one of his films you know who the characters are, the world they live in, and the motives for their actions; and then you become involved in their fates. So if JC wants to put up a teaser with neat images to draw the attention of the ADHD crowd, let him, ‘cuz when they show up to the theatre they’ll find substance as well as form.
Holy moly – what a pile of intergalatic poo.
I want Arnie to waste all those pointy eared twats with a big gun.
I’m… underwhelmed. We all have seen much better CGI.
Looks like fun but that last shot of the two creatures embracing, that will put a few people off, corny .
I don’t know if Cameron has “blown it” which I think is a bit harsh.
But… the trailer GLOWS too much!!!!
My EYES!!!!
That alone might keep me from seeing the film.
I hope it’s just a technical issue and not the way the whole film will look.
People laughed at Cameron before Titanic came out and in less than 24 hours there’s been about ten times as much ridicule of Avatar and Cameron going on…just like last time he’s going to make the haters look like a bunch of fools and this film will make a mint.
Will it be good? I dunno, but I do believe the cgi will look much better in 3D (not so sure about dvd though). Cameron has made far too many great films (even his worst is far better than the crap made today) for me to doubt him.
I will be seeing the film and GCI aside, what worries the shit out of me is the fact that Cameron’s best Aliens, Terminator 2, True Lies and Titanic were all pictures where he had a story given to him based on a prior film. He basically then built a movies upon these stories with special effects. When he’s had to build one from whole cloth you get The Abyss.
So as with any film, it will all come down to that screenplay. did he have a great story or was it just a shell upon which he had just heaped a lot of mad tech.
This is more exciting than any film he’s made.
All of these criticisms remind me of Beowulf. Perhaps it’s a problem with downrezing the IMAX 3D experience down to a quicktime movie. It instantly makes what is large and spectacular look small, and easy to criticize. Perhaps media meant to be this huge shouldn’t reveal itself AT ALL on the small format world of the Internet. Screw ‘em. Go see it in a theater. Hear about it from your friends. When will Marketing departments grow some sack?
It looks like a videogame. Ugh. I’m definitely seeing this film in the theaters, as well as everyone else commenting on this post, but CGI is nowhere near as good as people in the industry thinks it is. Let hope the 3D is amazing because this looks like, well, a videogame. I love most of Cameron’s films by the way.
Is this trailer a joke to lower expectations?
Gotta be?
FYI – I loved The Abyss. This however… no so much. Too much hype, from James Cameron himself, about how this was going to be a “game changer.” It looks like a run of mill PS3 game. I’m sure it will be a hit either way, but consider my expectations… checked.
It will make a bunch of family-friendly money first week out and then fade really really fast. Waterworld anyone?
i’m 24 and this doesn’t look that terrible to me
Cameron has yet to make a bad film
Um, Titanic anyone?
now, now, nikki and friends….have some faith in the man. Every single person that commented is going to see this film. You know that’s a fact.
Lets try to remember one thing — this guy knows how to make a movie. Maybe this is one of those films you might want to see in the theater first.
Then have a cow…
Three lessons taken from the book of sci-fi:
First lesson: aliens must look cool. When the aliens look garbage, as they do in this, the audience spends half its time thinking about how bad they look.
Second lesson: native technology versus hi-tech rarely works, unless it is done with a light-hearted touch as in Return of the Jedi. Avatar will suffer for this. Sci-fi fans like to see fast dogfights, not cruddy blue aliens riding around on dragons.
Third lesson: live up to the hype. This trailer made me less likely to see the film, so it is clearly not doing its job.
I’d rather watch G-Force. The trailer is a thick slice of cheese.
Oh my gawd! I think I just wet my friggin pants. I have been waiting patiently since 2000 to see the prequel to Battlefield Earth. Is john Travolta in this? I can’t wait!!! I’M STHUPER EXCITED!
I’ve seen buzz for a big film turn so quickly. People’s expectations were ridiculously high. So much so this film was never going to deliver.
The trailer seems to me to suggest this film is aimed at everyone and at the same time no one.
But then again, if GI joe do $50m + it’s opening weekend Avatar should at least have a solid opening. Right?
Haters, choose your words carefully because come this December, you will eat them.
It’s a shitty quicktime movie on your shitty little already obsolete monitor. Look at it this way: if you driver a F1 race car to the corner store to pick up milk, it will be a pretty disappointing experience. But in the right environment, it’s something you won’t soon forget, and could change your life.
See the movie where it’s meant to be seen, and then judge.
‘Ferngunny’?
Was that Derek Jeter at the beginning? And can someone explain to me why the aliens look like a cross between Jar Jar Binks and the Mayan from Apocalypto.
The aliens looks… uhm… weird. Indeed a bit Disney-ish. The teaser doesn’t really give you that holy-shit-feeling everbody was expecting because of the hype and secrecy.
But the film stands and falls with his story and emotions and Cameron has always been good with those, like it or not.
And The Abyss by the way is a much better film (especially the Director’s Cut) then it gets credit for.
Those alien characters remind me of the Frank Oz puppets in The Dark Crystal (1982) – yes, I am that old.
One viewing of the latest trailer for District 9 made me want to see it urgently, but this leaves me cold.
Regular chick from the Midwest who LOVES all kinds of cinema:
Not impressed….
Really wanted to put this on my winter “must see” list….
I guess everyone disappointed probably hates the original King Kong as well. What’s meant for Imax 3D doesn’t blow you away in tiny QuickTime, suprise! People love to hate.
Xena: Warrior Smurf
Ok, just to give it a fair shot, I’ve watched the trailer 3x…
I feel no more joy to watch now as I did yesterday watching it for the first time. And trust me, I came to it with an open mind.
I have read some reviews of the trailer out online-I am not alone….
What kind of a moron predicts the failure of a film based on a trailer? Sure the blue aliens to look problematic, but everything else looks amazing, there’s enormous potential here. I suspect the people predicting doom and gloom are probably the same people who predicted the death of the Bond franchise over the casting of Daniel Craig…get ready to look like a major league schmuck in four months.
The Abyss is Cameron’s best film. But this one looks like it is going to fail. It’ll teach studios not to toot their own horns and over-hype their own projects.
How many trailers wanted you to really see a movie?
I do not know about you, but I think a good majority of trailers SUCK. So Cameron might not be a good trailer director. Who cares. It’s a freaking trailer motivated by studio big wigs and focus groups.
I have faith in James Cameron, he may not be the worlds nicest guy on the outside but he is a freaking genius. He put his soul into this picture and I have faith it will be a exciting adventure well worth the $14 dollars to see it on the big screen in 3d no less and get hours of enjoyment from it. That’s what this is all about anyways.
By the way, since everyone is so quick to knock George Lucas and James Cameron, please show me your work. When you have created .0001 percent of what these visionaries have created then you will have a pedestal to stand on and you might be taken seriously. Until then you are just jealous, bitter, whiners that probably could not even cut a decent 5 minute bar mitzvah video let alone write and direct anything even close to a decent film.
What the….!?!?!?!
That was the 1st couple of words came out from my mouth when I saw the trailer
I like JC and all that but this one..not liking it a bit. It kind of look very Japanese manga and that is never a good thing. The clip makes Ponyo looks like an Oscar winner.
Not good..not good at all. C’mon JC. We certainly not expecting another Titanic but we smell a Speed Racer.