http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/avatar/teaserlarge.html

I know it's early days yet and I was watching it on a tiny screen but I was a little underwhelmed by the scenes in the jungle...it all looked a bit 'cartoony' to me.
That said it'll probably look fantastic on the big screen so I'll hold fire till December...

My gut feeling tells me it's foolish to bet against a James Cameron sci-fi movie but, damn, that trailer doesn't inspire a lot of confidence (am I the only one that finds the design of the blue cat people creatures to be a little, well, funny)?

Here's hoping Cameron still has what it takes to deliver the goods story-wise. I really want this to be as amazing as he keeps telling us it's going to be.

Given that they actually show quite a bit, I'm still having a hard time gauging how I feel about what I saw. On the one hand while it looks beautiful, it doesn't look especially 'real', and on the other hand I know it's a James Cameron film and will more than likely be excellent in the end. Time will tell. Either way, it seems unique.

I'm getting a "Watchmen" vibe off of this...there's no way it can live up to the incredible level of hype.

Of course, it's going to come down to whether the story is any good and how the actors' performances are.

When you know a movie is a CGI fantasy, then something in your head refuses to accept the "reality" of the situations. The same problems plagued the new Star Wars movies.

Now I love me some Pixar Films, and they are some of the purest story-telling movies I've ever seen (except Cars, but that's another story) but I never mistook them for reality.

My gut feeling tells me it's foolish to bet against a James Cameron sci-fi movie but, damn, that trailer doesn't inspire a lot of confidence (am I the only one that finds the design of the blue cat people creatures to be a little, well, funny)?


No, you're not.
I was a little underwhelmed by the trailer, but will keep my fingers crossed that Cameron is going to deliver the goods.

I'm confused. I thought this was about "Avatar the Last Air Bender" from the animated series?!!! That was what I was hoping to see!

I'm confused. I thought this was about "Avatar the Last Air Bender" from the animated series?!!! That was what I was hoping to see!

No, Shyamalan is doing that one. Hey, at least it's not another twist-ender.

I'm underwhelmed by the blue people (and the whole look of the film) as well. Imagine the story will carry it, and the 3D will probably be amazing, but I was under the impression that the animation itself was supposed to be the source of the hype...and I'm not seein' it justified yet. (shrug) We'll see.

My other problem with it is that the hardware on show looks like it was designed purely to sell toys.
If you look at the hardware in say Aliens, it looked functional and grounded in reality, the stuff in Avatar looks over-designed and a bit cheesy in places...for instance the huge oversized walker you see as the guy exits the loading ramp seems to have been built that size just so the operator can handle a huge oversized gun...all a bit too Gundam for me.

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii213/jargonking/3.jpg


On another note, the giant floating mountains are a complete lift from Roger Dean's album covers for Yes in the 1970's...if he doesn't get a credit he needs to be contacting his lawyers...

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii213/jargonking/4.jpg

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii213/jargonking/25595.jpg

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii213/jargonking/dean_450.jpg

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii213/jargonking/YesLadder.jpg

I was a little underwhelmed by the trailer as well... But yesterday DreamWorks screened for us 20 minutes of footage, in stereo 3D no less, and I can saw without a doubt this movie looks GORGEOUS. The facial animation on the CG characters has never been done to this level of realism before. Its fantastic! The environments are rich, alien and wondrous. The story looks ok too, but the jury is still out on that.

But I don't think that this would be a waste of anyone's money to go see this.

From what I saw I don't think he will make his money back on what it cost to make.

On another note, the giant floating mountains are a complete lift from Roger Dean's album covers for Yes in the 1970's...if he doesn't get a credit he needs to be contacting his lawyers...[/IMG]
yeah but dean cribbed the idea from rene magritte, and that well into public domain
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~hoyj/jpg/magritte.jpg

I saw the Comic Con footage at Lightstorm--I was put off by the character design at first too (very Dark Crystal) but they are very carefully rendered and performed (Zoe Caldana from Star Trek is superb) and they become quite convincing, as does the environment--it's really immersive. It seemed like Cameron was working too hard initially to make the characters relatable to a contemporary audience--hard to believe that people who are clearly hundreds of years in the future still talk like Will Smith--but I think that may be a red herring or a set-up to throw off expectations. At any rate based on what I saw I'd see it at least twice...

Apparently, Hitler was not impressed with the trailer either. I found this quite humorous and apologize if anyone finds it offensive. That certainly isn't my intent. WARNING: THE FOLLOWING LINK TO THE VIDEO HAS INTENSE, SUBTITLED LANGUAGE!! Please take the necessary precautions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAPyipuT-Jg

Apparently, Hitler was not impressed with the trailer either. I found this quite humorous and apologize if anyone finds it offensive. That certainly isn't my intent. WARNING: THE FOLLOWING LINK TO THE VIDEO HAS INTENSE, SUBTITLED LANGUAGE!! Please take the necessary precautions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAPyipuT-Jg

They used the same Hitler clip with the new Trek movie about how crappy it would be.

I'm not necessarily agreeing with the clip, just thought it was funny. Never knew they did the same thing about Trek, would've laughed at that too though.

Rather than start a new thread, thought I'd bring this one to the top.

NFL on Fox was showing a 3 minute Avatar trailer today (11/01/2009). Can't say I know much about this story, but I would say the trailer did have me more interested than previously.

Looked a lot better and more involving with the recent trailer shown during the game. Actually looking forward to it now.