Cameron's Avatar Trailer Posted 278
graviplana was one of several people to submit that Avatar, James Cameron's 3D Sci-Fi epic has
released a trailer to whet your appetite. There's a lot of very cool visual elements in there but no indication of any actual story. Here's hoping there is one.
Only a little (Score:5, Interesting)
Humans go to another planet, looks like a jungle planet.
They create "avatars" that are either clones, simulacrum, or repurposed native bodies.
One of the humans (the main character) who is brainmapped into an avatar, is a paraplegic in his human body.
The avatars are sent on an exploration or diplomacy mission.
(It obviously wasn't infiltration because they were wearing human clothes and carrying human gear.)
There's some fighting with some dino like things, possibly with the natives as well, although I didn't see any shots showing actual combat with natives, just strung together combat scenes that implied combat with the natives.
Oh, and the main character falls for a native female.
I'm sure somebody paying more attention to it can pick out other tidbits of info, but yeah, it was kinda sparse on data. It's not like the trailers/ads for 6th sense where you can identify all major plot points including the so called twist ending... (so bloody obvious he's one of the dead...)
A few problems with it (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, the CGI is stunning - for most of the trailer, it's hard to believe it's not live action. They have made a huge leap across the uncanny valley, and successfully.
But I have a few problems with it, just like most CGI movies these days:
The robots don't move right. It doesn't "feel" like a robot to me. James Cameron was the guy behind Aliens, and he seems to have forgotten that one of the reasons that was such a believable movie (despite taking place in the future, on an alien planet, fighting aliens with two mouths) was the use of "today" tech. So I would have expected Cameron to make Avatar's robots more like the military robots we envision today. I'm sure 1000 years from now, robots will move identically to a human (as in the movie) but I'd still prefer movie robots today to move more like real robots we have today.
Predators shouldn't announce their presence. There's a scene in the trailer where a dino-thing jumps out of the bushes, roars, and runs after people. I see this all the time in action movies where some large animal is about to attack the hero: the predator rises from the bushes (or from behind whatever), bellows, then rushes to attack. But in that split-second, our hero is able to throw himself behind cover, narrowly avoiding being eaten. Ever watch actual predator/prey wildlife - even a house cat pouncing on a mouse. Predators just don't announce their attacks - they just pounce. If you stop to roar, your prey gets away, and you go hungry.
That said, I'll probably still go see this when it comes out.
Re:no: "dances with wolves" in space (Score:4, Interesting)
Sorry, I prefer to relate new movies to low budget action flicks with people like Van Damme, Segal, or Lundgren.
Men of War
Nick Gunar (Dolph Lundgren) is a burnt-out, jaded and hard-up former mercenary who is having a difficult time adjusting to civilian life. At the end of his rope, he is hired by the Nitro Mine Corporation to strong-arm the natives of a South China Sea island into giving up their rights to its valuable mineral resources. Nick loathes the thought of another mission, but this seemingly easy job will earn him enough money to get back with his estranged family. He recruits some of his former mercenary buddies to help him with the job. The island people refuse to give up their land and Nick decides to help them fight the greedy corporation that hired him. The island and its people bring Nick back to life. He finally finds something worth fighting for and a place to call home. As greed and treachery begin to unravel, Nick's band of mercenaries choose sides. Some are with him and others, still working for the corporation, will stop at nothing to destroy him.
Re:Story? (Score:3, Interesting)
Jake has unwittingly been recruited to become part of this encroachment. Since humans are unable to breathe the air on Pandora, they have created genetically-bred human-Na'vi hybrids known as Avatars. The Avatars are living, breathing bodies in the real world, controlled by a human driver through a technology that links the driver's mind to the Avatar body. On Pandora, through his Avatar body, Jake can be whole once again. Moreover, he falls in love with a young Na'vi woman, Neytiri, whose beauty is matched by her ferocity in battle.
Humanoid aliens. *sigh* I can buy it if the scenario is along the lines of ancient astronauts where the humanoid aliens are actually genetically modified from human stock or something like a Stargate where human life is seeded on other worlds by powerful entities in the past but it does sort of irk me when humanoid lifeforms evolve independently with no other explanation than someone handwaving and saying "Perhaps the bipedal form is the most superior one for earth-like worlds." Bah. I'll only buy it if the explanation is "They don't look like us. We look like them!"
Re:Story? (Score:2, Interesting)
That's the first time I read Avatar's plot summary, and I must say I don't like it at all. The concept - Jake's consciousness in an alien's body is fine, but everything else just reeks of cliches. "Noble savages" for aliens who a have different skin tone, elvish ears and motherfucking flying dragons, greedy white man stealing the alien's natural resources, etc. Uh-oh.
Also, I hope there's a good reason why they can redirect a human's consciousness into an alien, but can't heal partial paralysis. Other than that, the trailer looks good visually... but they have James fucking Cameron directing the movie and the trailer says "From the Director of Titanic"?! If that's their target audience, I think I just might skip it unless the 3D stuff is really kickin' rad!
Meh (Score:1, Interesting)
Love Cameron's work, but this trailer left me going "So what? Big deal." Has my imagination become so jaded by over-the-top CGI that it just doesn't impress me any more? These days I'd much rather see low budget live-action than mega-buck CGI. Computers have ruined movies. Now where do I sign up for that luddite dating service?
is that using 'Papyrus' as a font? (Score:0, Interesting)
that doesn't inspire me with confidence.
as for the rest of it... an aliens/t2 mashup. blue things look like super soldiers, being kept by humans (a la aliens). the ships are the same things from aliens/t2. seriously... get a new idea.
"FROM THE DIRECTOR OF TITANIC"
yeah - the man who used the tragic death of like 1500 people to hang a trite love story. still gives you the hope that in 80 odd years time we can use the 9/11 as a backdrop to another trite love story. perhaps they can be on the roof leaning over like in titanic.