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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.
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Title Studio Gross 1 Dear John Sony $30.5 M 2 Avatar Fox $22.9 M 3 From Paris With Love Lionsgate $8.2 M 4 Edge Of Darkness Warner $6.9 M 5 Tooth Fairy Fox $6.6 M 6 When In Rome Disney $5.5 M 7 The Book Of Eli Warner $4.7 M 8 Crazy Heart Fox $3.6 M 9 Legion Sony $3.5 M 10 Sherlock Holmes Warner $2.5 M 11 The Blind Side Warner $2.5 M 12 Up In The Air Paramount $2.3 M 13 The Lovely Bones Paramount $2.3 M 14 Alvin And The Chipmu Fox $2.1 M 15 It's Complicated Universal $2.1 M 16 The Spy Next Door Lionsgate $0.9 M 17 An Education SPC $0.8 M 18 A Single Man Weinstein $0.6 M 19 Extraordinary Measur CBS $0.5 M 20 Precious Lionsgate $0.5M SOURCE: HOLLYWOOD.COMBox Office Poll
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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.
Sensible people in this town know not to bet against Cameron, this movie is going to be HUGE !
Comment by DH — August 20, 2009 @ 2:43 pm
Give us credit will ya? What makes you think Nikki’s readers are fanboys or geeks only? Many of us here are working adults and paying the full ticket prices.
Reading these comments is sad. What a horde of envious, bitter and frustrated wannabes spilling bile… It boggles the mind how many pathetic haters are out there, foaming in the mouth at their computer screens willing others to fail, trying to belittle others who are doing what they will never be able to do. It seems like this, more than a trailer, is a mirror. Yes, you don’t like what you see. Who would?
Wow, DHD commenters being nitpicking doomsayers toward a high-profile project. It’d be the height of cheeky sarcasm if I said I didn’t see that coming.
It’ll be an uphill battle for the exile-breaking director to win over those who have become so inured to CGI that the very sight of a film which incorporates it intensively makes them recoil. I think there may have been a misconception that the CGI was going to be so photo-realistic that anything rendered would look completely organic to the naked eye. Even though some of the closeups of the indigenous planetary race look startlingly real, the wide shots of aerial battles admittedly have the Star Wars Prequel whiff that’s understandably caused some to roll their eyes and jump to the conclusion that this is a much ado about nothing project with no new ground being broken. I think all such judgment should be reserved until it can be seen in all its 3D glory when the scale of the live action and motion capture elemental blending can be fully evaluated or appreciated. I don’t think anyone could deny that the imagery is strikingly picturesque or that the plot appears to aspire for more depth and complexity than is usually customary with effects-driven flicks, unless they’re determined to take the director down a peg at all costs because of bitterness toward his prior track record of precedent-setting box office success.
Nikki doesn’t do geek as we all know so this film isn’t going to be up her ally. I also fully expect her to dub its release KONG BOMB redux if it doesn’t shatter records in its opening weekend.
Just remember, Titanic opened #2 behind the new Pierce Brosnan Bond movie on that momentous weekend in 1997. James Cameron movies are designed for the long haul both in terms of box office legs and shelf-life rewatchability. If Avatar has the same balance between story and spectacle that made all of his other prior projects so monumentally successful, the film will still be a first-run fixture by the time the snow starts to melt.
This is the same damn thing Fox does all the time. It’s not a real teaser and it’s not a real trailer so it ends up being neither and failing miserably. It shows way too much to be a teaser but with all those shots and nothing to explain them or give them context, it completely fails as a trailer. It’s marketing 101 and those clowns at Fox have their heads so far up their asses, they’ll never get something so basic. They pay those Avatards for that level of incompetence?!
you h8ers are idiots. it’s a 3d movie in a 2d online world. if you feel that strongly, then please don’t go see it in the theaters and STFU. instead keep eating that michael bay recycled crap-of-an-excuse-for-cinema and live your sad little lives without experiencing one of the great movies this silly town has ever created.
thank you JC for having the choad to stick to your vision.
Also, stop with the Jar Jar comparisons. That’s so hack and obvious. He was a sepia-colored comic relief device with huge floppy ears and a phallic, horse-like face. All they have in common is their physical status as computer creations. The Jar Jar stigma is being echoed because people are overeager to make the connection between Lucas and another fanboy-icon director who’s emerging after a self-imposed absence with an envelope-pushing project. It remains to be seen if this time away from the game made Cameron out of touch. I frankly think he’s accomplished enough in his career to deserve the benefit of the doubt.
It’s Delgo-Riffic!
I think this looks great and wouldn’t bet against Cameron. I can’t wait to see the finished movie.
The Abyss was a good film, this Avatar trailer un-sold me on the film. Boring boring boring.
The trailer doesn’t matter. This movie will live or die based on today’s IMAX preview. Fox knows this, otherwise they wouldn’t be holding free screenings. The film is being sold as an experience rather than a tentpole so it’d be wise to reserve judgement until after today (at least for those attending the preview).
Abyss was great
Saw the trailer yesterday, saw the preview today. The trailer is rubbish, the film looks about 57 times better in 3-D. It is probably the best thing I have seen.
I have to add that I’m slightly depressed and a bit jealous as well. But at least I can admit it. The guy’s a genius.
Silly Flatlanders.
I love watching videogames without being able to play them. Thanks, modern movies!
Well, I’ve just had the pleasure of seeing 30 minutes of AVATAR on Imax 3D, and for all you naysayers, you’re totally clueless. You have no idea what is about to be unleashed. This film is going to change the movie business forever. Both Lucas And Spielberg are stunned! Doug Trumbull could only shake his head in amazement.
You’ve no idea how wonderful and groundbreaking this movie is.
I think the posting above that said something to the effect, what was he going to do? put people in rubber suits? – of course it has to be CG.’ may be the true issue here.
Why is this genre of film always going to be CG now? It’s not like it’s saving the studio money. “Enemy Mine” covered this territory very well back in the 80’s. I don’t defend that film’s story-telling but aesthetically, it blows ‘Avatar’ away.
I don’t get how Cameron is a genius…his movies have always been extremely weak on characterizations and reliant on action set pieces…Titanic was pushed over the top by teen girls crushing on Leo, are those celebrating its triumph of $$$ seriously claiming it had any artistic merit? Because it was simply a disaster movie with a massive budget and a hideously adolescent love story
Maybe he is trying to make lighting strike twice, the avatar creature does seem like he was lifted straight from a 14 year old girl’s notebook, complete with horsey features and big sensitive eyes…sorry but I will only see this movie if the evil white villains shoot him to pieces and laugh triumphantly
Titanic did NOT open #2 against Tomorrow Never Dies! Holy shit! Are you kidding me?! http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekend&id=titanic.htm
Apple had a countdown on their trailer site down to the minute. When that last minute was gone, no trailer. Ok, give them a minute or two…30 minutes later nothing. I first viewed the trailer from France MSN! What the hell? Why bother doing a countdown accurate to the minute when you can’t come close to delivering on it? Huge Apple fail. It would be like going to see a Shuttle launch and when the person says 0, nothing happens. My understanding is Apple had the trailer up an hour and a half or so after they claimed they would. Could you imagine waiting for that Shuttle to go up, giving up, packing your crap up to go home, then liftoff! While your back is turned. What the fuck Apple?
For most (if not all) of you who have not actually seen the 3-D film version in a theater, seriously — it is unlike anything you will ever experience.
I, like most of you, watched the online trailer and thought it looked like HORRIBLE video game movie, or worse yet, something that George Lucas would have made.
But I just got out of a 15-minute screening of some of the scenes in 3-D, and let me just tell you: As long as Cameron has anything resembling a story, this movie will be HUGE because of the word of mouth alone. It is an unreal experience.
I don’t EVER post on sites, yet felt compelled to enlighten those on here who are basing their opinion on the trailer.
Trust me — it is unlike anything you have ever seen in cinema. Seriously.
i’m 24 and this doesn’t look that terrible to me
Comment by william
I’m 18 and it looks like shit to me. Since I’m younger that means I’m more right than you– right, asshole?
I am with the dude who said what they can cross the universe and plant a human mind into an alien body but the hero dude is a quadriplegic using 18th century technology to get around?
You lost me right there…
Jim’s movies are great when he’s screwing the producer or one of the actresses, and they border on laughable when he’s not. He screws us instead.
Poor Fox
Everyone who has just seen the demo calls it groundbreaking and spectacular. Nice.
“How many trailers wanted you to really see a movie?”
I’m sorry, but I have always been under the impression that the sole job of a movie trailer is to generate interest in the movie it represents. Otherwise, what’s the point?
Personally speaking, my cash is tight these days. I am going to need this trailer to at least spark a little interest, especially if its intent is to get premium 3D dollars from me. It doesn’t have to be even pitch perfect, but I need it to look like more than a project in beginners’ graphics….
Not trying to hate on J. Cameron–
But I think I’ll just wait for the “District 9″ sequel.
I am with the dude who said what they can cross the universe and plant a human mind into an alien body but the hero dude is a quadriplegic using 18th century technology to get around?
Comment by Aikibu — August 21, 2009 @ 5:01 pm
I know, RIGHT?!!!
Memo to Fox’s PR people currently pushing the “It HAS to been seen in 3D Imax as 2D doesn’t do it justice” meme: I looked at the 720p trailer and wasn’t impressed. Other people have looked at the 1080p hi-def trailer and came to the same conclusions. If a 1080p video looks cartoon bad then this movie is going to die a death in the Blu-Ray/DVD market.
Just sayin’…
I hear everyone talking about how “groundbreaking and innovative” the film is, but unless the story is great, it will be just be another Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Lest you folks forget how much money was invested in that film, which looked visually stunning, but had a very weak premise.
If nothing else, the reports of screenings I’ve read around the web have been very underwhelming. FOX truly bungled the release of material for this film. First, they put up a ticket website that’s prone to crashing (meaning half the people who signed up couldn’t get their tickets). Then, they release a trailer that crashes the Apple server for hours. Now, they have a series of half-attended screenings, where the majority of people who post are saying, “Yeah, the effects are great!”
What I want to know about is the story.
I saw the IMAX preview. Amazing footage. Lots of action. Feels like ALIENS meets JURASSIC PARK in 3D. The 3D is stunning. Very immersive.
The online trailer does this film no justice.
Quick observation: the design of the alien world is heavily influenced by Cameron’s love of deep-sea diving. Bright, colorful, bioluminescent.
Spectacle is the gravy to the meat which is the story.
Studios, Lucas and now it seems James Cameron don’t quite seem to get this simple aphorism.
If Avatar has a simplistic or silly story, no amount of spectacle—be it CGI or practical, 2D or 3D—will save this from being a flop: A huge opening weekend, then a 70% drop off.
Jimmy C, repeat after me:
Spectacle is the gravy to the meat which is the story.
Spectacle is the gravy to the meat which is the story.
Now everybody!
I was one of the people who saw the 16min preview at an Imax in 3D…it was a cartoon.
the opening bits (with sigourney and dude in wheelchair) were a fair enough setup but then it went into video game/ferngully mode.
leaving aside the idea of the story (which – on the basis of what I’ve seen so far – I agree is utterly cliche but I still think would be watchable) – the visuals were entirely unimpressive.
I have seen most every major (and minor
3D feature in the last few years and I will say that the stereo effect is nicely subtle (no spears flying towards the audience etc) – so in that sense it’s a welcome change.
In many instances there was no stereo at all on the main characters (but only on the background/foreground layers). I wonder if this was an issue of rendering speed to prep the footage or if convergence/interocular issues made it preferable that way in camerons opinion.
but anyway – I think the movie will open decently (sci-fi/fantasy epic in 3D at christmas…come on) but this is not the paradigm shift from Polar Express/Beowulf’s performance capture that I think everyone expected – it’s just another cartoon.
bummer.
Give Cameron a special effects Oscar as we all try to remember the robost James Cameron, screenwriter, in his ALIEN days.
It is cool he put together the technicalities of shooting modern 3D.
But the story looks lame.
The trailer looks like Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy was just excruciating as a movie. Maybe James Cameron is banking on the video game sales to offset the losses on the picture?
Can anyone say jar-jar-vatar? How depressing.
Ok, so I saw the 16 minute preview on Friday at a private screening….It’s amazing….If you are basing your comments off of what was online, you really have no frame of reference….the 3-D technology on the bigscreen is unlike anything I’ve ever seen….IF you want to be blown away by something new and creative, GO SEE THIS MOVIE….If you want to sit at your computer screen and trash talk, well then…..GET A LIFE
The trailer in IMAX was spectacular. It will easily gross 300M domestic. Way too many jaded posters here who don’t understand that even a look that veers close to “video game” is becoming increasingly acceptable to mass audiences these days (even though the vfx are stunning in 3D, look like a “video game” from 50 years in the future, and have great tonal depth). Cameron will be laughing last.
#2 all time money maker baby!!
I like checking this site every now and then but this post made my blood boil. I just need to add here that I saw the 15 minute preview and it truly is amazing. It absolutely is “an experience” and it’s quite disheartening to be reading some of these comments after having seen the footage. You guys have no idea what you’re in for. The CGI admittedly doesn’t look right in quick cuts on the compressed video, but it looks brilliant on the big screen. Even when everything you’re seeing on the screen is CG, it feels like you’re watching and effects heavy live-action film. It’s like you’re watching the actors performing with digital make-up. I hope Ms. Finke got a chance to see the footage because if this film can tell the story well, it will be gigantic. Fox clearly are going to have a tricky job marketing this as Ms. Finke’s reaction demonstrates…but one you see it on the big screen in 3D, you cynics will eat your words, trust me.
Gonzalo Lira is right. It all begins with a great character in a great story. Everything else is just gravy.
Oh and another thing – I see someone was accusing people raving about the footage of being studio plants. This is infuriating – I’m no liar. That’s an absurd accusation but of course how the hell can I prove that I’m not? I can’t, but the reason why there are so many people online commenting about it is because tens of thousands of people got free tickets to see this footage.
CGI is like fake logs in a fireplace. The first thing a new owner says is “Don’t it look REAL!?”
Ah… no… it looks fake as hell.
But once agian, they will no doubt make millons diluting our culture by exploiting the underdeveloped tastes of the masses. (see generally top-40 music and current “highly rated” prime-time TV productions)
I’m struck by the similarities between this film and “Howard the Duck”…
…both films designed for pushing the technology of the time, both driven by their mega-powerful creators, and both duds in terms of audience attraction…
The footage in 3D looks great. There’s no question about it. What really creates a whole new set of problems for distribution is actually a deja-vu feeling and writing.
Let’s go first with the marine character. If this is the Dances with wolves, pocahontas, starship troopers character, then his arc should start much higher.
If Neo was picked from the street as a snooty little brat, no one would “accept” him as an avatar in the matrix. That’s why he already starts as an uber hacker, waiting to wake up the god-like persona in him.
This Avatar marine, however, comes across exactly as that little kid, pretty stupid.
Cameron’s heros were always no-bshit characters that took it to another level. But in avatar, the marine just flushed the expected coolness out of the movie. Unless they somehow change that (or take scenes out), they’ve got a problem.
In distribution they will have a problem with getting enough 3D screens, but this movie has to work in 2D first. Without that, you have nothing.
And for the dejavu part. I am not talking about seen before plots, but rather visuals:
http://img.denihilation.com/
If the material had lived up to the hype, this would go to Batman GBO (due to repeated admissions similar to Mamma Mia and 3D prices). But this footage actually made cracks in the aura of Avatar.
Int’l it’ll do well in terrs that like sci-fi. In many others GBO will be limited, unless Cameron pulls off bigger love story than Titanik. It could happen, just not very likely.
It still is pretty far from release though. I think a lot of the shots in the trailer will be much better in 3 months or so. There’s probaly like 200 people working on that now, so I hope it turns out good. Plus the entire thing is in 3d and that will add a lot to it. Making it much more of an experience, and a 3d sci epic at christmas will pull in the crowds. I was very disapointed in the trailer tho.
Hey Charlie, so it looks good. My question is So what?
The Phatom Menace and the Matrix sequels looked pretty too.
The screams you hear in the air are JC ripping into his VFX Producers and technical folks for making his story “look bad”
The silence you hear is all those folks hoping JC looks in the mirror and sees that he needs to do a huge rewrite to keep his latest King of the World Masterpiece from turning into another (as someone presciently mentioned) Howard the Duck.
A few flashes here and there of the Avatars would have been fine but Fox showed way too much, looks like a cross between Thundercats and Ferngully.
I’ll still see it because a Cameron movie is an EVENT picture, but I think Fox marketing fucked themselves over with this one.
The trailer is going to put off a lot of the mainstream public – and for pete’s sakes whats with the ugly ‘Avatar’ font?
So much naked jealousy. Go ahead and root for someone else’s failure since you’ve already cemented your own and it’s the only way left to console yourself.
The similarities between Delgo and Avatar are somewhat striking….
JC better have a serious rabbit up his sleeve.
Thanks Andrej for that link….
I caught the 15-minute IMAX 3-D preview last Friday in San Francisco, after having seen the trailer the night before. I remember, after seeing the trailer, thinking “man, this looks really f&cking lame!” I had this discussion with my friends while we were waiting for the movie to start.
15 minutes later, the communal reaction was “never mind. I’m definitely seeing this.”
Trust me, if you haven’t seen the IMAX preview, then you have no idea what it’s really going to be like. If this flops, I’ll be shocked… the story may or may not end up being lame, but the visuals will leave you slack-jawed the entire time.