Avatar

[FatuousTwat]

"James Cameron's Avatar tells the story of a planet called Pandora, where humans try to coexist with the local Na'vi race, with some difficulty. The scifi epic filmed in motion capture and stars Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana. The release date is December 2009."

Anyone heard of this? Opinions?

[Trippy]

http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=5870.0

(Project 880 became Avatar and yes they are still making a game based on it too).

[FatuousTwat]

Bleh, sorry.

[Trippy]

It's not a problem, that topic was about the game (well actually it became a thread about the costs to make an MMORPG).

[Velorath]

Anyone heard of this? Opinions?

Cameron is putting a lot of effort into the movie's 3D effects.  The footage he's shown off to other directors and people in the industry has gotten a lot of positive response.

[shiznitz]

The script for this (or at least one of the more recent scripts) was easily available on the internet at some point and I read it one day at work. Reads a bit like a Jurassic Park ripoff, but execution will be everything.

[Velorath]

Comingsoon.net has a report of 24 minutes of footage being screened at an expo in Amsterdam.  Minor spoilers in this rather long article.  Also there's going to be an Avatar panel at Comic Con but I don't know if they'll be showing any footage or not.  They need to start looking at ways to get word of mouth out there since Final Destination 3D is the only non-kids 3D movie coming out for the rest of the year, so it would be their only possible way to get a 3D trailer out there before the movie hits.

[Krakrok]

Trailer

Looks pretty awesome.

[Engels]

Trailer

Looks pretty awesome.

Typo in your URL, and I think it may be region blocked, because I'm not seeing a trailer, or link to one on the co.uk site.

[Vash]

Working Link  (bleh, needs Quicktime)

Streaming Link

[Engels]

Thanks Vash. Looks pretty nifty. They had me at 'scantly clad blue skinned elf women riding flying lizards'.

[NowhereMan]

What is this I don't even.

Seriously, this trailer looks like the most confusing bizarre thing ever. At the same time it looks like it could be awesome.

[DraconianOne]

Thanks Vash. Looks pretty nifty. They had me at 'scantly clad blue skinned elf women riding flying lizards'.

James Cameron has made a Warcraft film with Night Elves in Nagrand. With special guest stars, the Starcraft Terrans.

[Evildrider]

Looks like.. Humans want planet, so they make up these replica aliens, and transfer the minds of soldiers into them.  They use these "avatars" to scout out the planet before invasion.  Obviously one of the avatar/soldiers objects and helps the aliens.

[Velorath]

I was hyped for this until the trailers came into my theater yesterday.  I'm really, really, really not liking the CG for the aliens right now.  Haven't had a chance to watch the 3D version yet, but probably will tonight.  We're going to be playing it in front of some 3D X-Games movie that's opening tomorrow.

[WindupAtheist]

Yeah, I have a bad feeling.

[DraconianOne]

Yeah, I have a bad feeling.

Of course you do. It's full of mechs.

[Oban]

Aye ya... somehow this is related to such stellar movies as Spy Kids 3-D and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D.

[MrHat]

I wish I hadn't watched the trailer.

[angry.bob]

The trailer reminded me of Dances With Wolves.

[Brogarn]

Ya, I'm in the same "I was looking forward to this but now am not so sure" crowd.

[Mattemeo]

Since it's another full quarter till any of us get to see Avatar in its final release form, I'm not going to delve too deeply into the trailer. I've had reservations since I first heard of the project, because I am rather anti mo-cap. I just don't think it's ever been used truly successfully - its high-point being Gollum in Jackson's LotR trilogy (and even then he gets more of a reprieve by dint of not being human-enough for the uncanny valley effect to kick in). The worst that I've seen was Beowulf, which could have been twice the movie if it had been actually animated.

I'm hoping that overall, Cameron's use of mo-cap will work because of the Navi's obvious non-humanity. At the moment, I do get the sort of overriding feeling that this is Jim saying 'Ok, George, you've had your fun, but it's my turn now'. I think it could still be a good thing.

[Lucas]

I have a Gungan feeling about this :P. But hey, hope it's good.

[Lakov_Sanite]

It looks like a kids cartoon.  Now that's not to say the CG is bad but it doesn't mesh well with live action added and it doesn't lend itself to be something I could take seriously.  It reeks of immaturity in its art direction, lending more towards pretty eye candy cisuals than any sort of realism.

[ahoythematey]

Hrmmm.  The trailermusic was okay...

[Chimpy]

For some reason, the trailer struck me as some weird Blizzard retcon fest. You have naked draenei/nightelf hybrids versus Starcraft terrans in the new battle of mount Hyjal from Warcraft III.

Looked like it might be cool none the less, but then again, this is from the guy who made Titanic.

[WindupAtheist]

Uh, also some little films called Aliens and Terminator. And anyway, aside from the very fact that it was a period romance and not a sci-fi action movie, what was wrong with Titanic? It was an exceedingly well-made movie and god forbid a director show a little bit of range.

[ghost]

Uh, also some little films called Aliens and Terminator. And anyway, aside from the very fact that it was a period romance and not a sci-fi action movie, what was wrong with Titanic? It was an exceedingly well-made movie and god forbid a director show a little bit of range.

Yeah, Titanic probably doesn't deserve the rap it gets.  I saw it the other day again and the better Di Caprio gets the more Titanic seems to be appealing to me.  He has turned into a pretty solid actor.

[DraconianOne]

Uh, also some little films called Aliens and Terminator.

Let's not forget "Piranha 2: Flying Killers".

[gryeyes]

I dont think anyone has to champion Titanic, it won more awards than Jesus and generated 10 zillion dollars. You might not be preferential to romantic dramas, but it is far from a horrible movie. Don't besmirch the mans credentials, he created The Terminator,Aliens and Abyss for fucks sake. Almost every movie he writes and directs ends up excellent.


Edit: That would be Piranha 2: The Spawning  

[Lucas]

Heh, I even loved "True Lies" (beside the Terminators, the best Schwarzy movie by far, IMO. It was really hilarious and action was nice). And let's not forget he also wrote "Strange Days".

[01101010]

A buddy of mine saw this in a sneak preview the other night. In his opinion: "It wasn't bad. Not great, but not bad. I think that if you want to make a CGI heavy movie you should make it ALL CGI, but I was pretty impressed with the animals on Pandora.... Not the cheesy looking big blue aliens, but the animals, yes. And the bioluminescent forest at night was absolutely beautiful. Beautiful! But the aliens looked ridiculous"

Now this is a guy who is a pretty good judge of movies. He is the go-to-guy for movie info and recommendations which I believe are spot on. That said, I commented to him that it looks strikingly similar to the ants, from the movie Ants, in the face with additional collagen. meh..i'll wait for the PPV.

[Tale]

Uh, also some little films called Aliens and Terminator. And anyway, aside from the very fact that it was a period romance and not a sci-fi action movie, what was wrong with Titanic? It was an exceedingly well-made movie and god forbid a director show a little bit of range.

Yeah, Titanic probably doesn't deserve the rap it gets.  I saw it the other day again and the better Di Caprio gets the more Titanic seems to be appealing to me.  He has turned into a pretty solid actor.

Titanic is an indescribably awful piece of schlock. It deserves to be mocked harder.

Down the ballroom staircase flows the syrup onto the treacle. If you're not throwing up by that stage, you're not alive. I hope all you Titanic apologists are tortured with Celine Dion for your lack of taste.

[DraconianOne]

Edit: That would be Piranha 2: The Spawning  

Not if you're outside the US it isn't:

[ghost]

Uh, also some little films called Aliens and Terminator. And anyway, aside from the very fact that it was a period romance and not a sci-fi action movie, what was wrong with Titanic? It was an exceedingly well-made movie and god forbid a director show a little bit of range.

Yeah, Titanic probably doesn't deserve the rap it gets.  I saw it the other day again and the better Di Caprio gets the more Titanic seems to be appealing to me.  He has turned into a pretty solid actor.

Titanic is an indescribably awful piece of schlock. It deserves to be mocked harder.

Down the ballroom staircase flows the syrup onto the treacle. If you're not throwing up by that stage, you're not alive. I hope all you Titanic apologists are tortured with Celine Dion for your lack of taste.

Yeah, it really isn't that bad.