James Cameron's 'Avatar' - The next gen of cinema

NickK · 15 Nov 2009 at 11:10

Sounds to me, looking at the later trailer, that it's a political statement:

US Army vs indigenous species (pick a country) about a material resource (Oil).

Let me guess, the grey rock is actually part of the indigenous species (ancestors) etc..

AGD · 15 Nov 2009 at 16:01

Really looking forward to this now. Got tickets to see it at the Imax at christmas.

Kenai · 15 Nov 2009 at 16:09

Dances With Smurfs

Mr Jones · 15 Nov 2009 at 16:11

Saw the trailer and now I want to watch it!

neoboy · 15 Nov 2009 at 16:48

Looks good but very cartoonish as well to me.

Eliot · 16 Nov 2009 at 19:31

i just dont get the appeal of this film. its 3d....wow so is monsters and aliens, the hypefactory on this film is unbelieveable people are going off a few minutes of footage and throwing around phrases like gonna be the best movie for years , gonna reinvent cinema HUH?
dont get me wrong im gonna watch it cos it looks GOOD however it aint AMAZING till youve seen it and until then its just a 3d blockbuster

NeilF · 16 Nov 2009 at 19:39

Eliot said:
i just dont get the appeal of this film. its 3d....wow so is monsters and aliens, the hypefactory on this film is unbelieveable people are going off a few minutes of footage and throwing around phrases like gonna be the best movie for years , gonna reinvent cinema HUH?
dont get me wrong im gonna watch it cos it looks GOOD however it aint AMAZING till youve seen it and until then its just a 3d blockbuster

The interest is, one of the best action directors/writers + one of the best software effects houses + purpose created from the ground up 3D filming techniques...

It may work well, it may not... But what we're seeing is a $200M+ technology experiment

Personally I'm concerned Cameron has lost the edge he had in the 90s, but his epic history of previous action films, in combination with his continued development of cutting edge filming techniques is enough to instill some interest in me.

If this was for example Emmerich or Bay, I'd wouldn't be so interested. But this is CAMERON... There is still a flicker of hope for something different, intelligent and interesting

We'll know fior sure in a month...

And let's remember the feedback from 3D showings of this film so far have been +ve at least on the new technology.

L1ght · 16 Nov 2009 at 19:51

I wish the aliens were a bit more darker and not so elfish. But hey he's one of my favourite directors...it'll be good im sure.

NeilF · 16 Nov 2009 at 20:08

L1ght said:
I wish the aliens were a bit more darker and not so elfish. But hey he's one of my favourite directors...it'll be good im sure.

I agree, but we'll see

I suspect we need to empathise with them so they couldn't be too 'dark'...

Hen_Dawg · 16 Nov 2009 at 21:36

Eliot said:
i just dont get the appeal of this film. its 3d....wow so is monsters and aliens, the hypefactory on this film is unbelieveable people are going off a few minutes of footage and throwing around phrases like gonna be the best movie for years , gonna reinvent cinema HUH?
dont get me wrong im gonna watch it cos it looks GOOD however it aint AMAZING till youve seen it and until then its just a 3d blockbuster

Everything being reported about the 3D on Avatar is that it's way more advanced technology than any current 3D film to date

Hen_Dawg · 17 Nov 2009 at 20:37

1st Post updated with a new short clip, better quality version coming in couple of days

Nitefly · 17 Nov 2009 at 21:02

Haha, that monster sounds like the T Rex in Jurassic Park

Chimerical · 17 Nov 2009 at 23:52

L1ght said:
I wish the aliens were a bit more darker and not so elfish.

Doesn't this become samey though? There are too many 'dark' movies around nowadays and anything bright and colorful tends to be aimed at kids. Although I'm not entirely sure if you're talking specifically about the color of the Na'vi's skin or the movie's visuals as a whole.

However, I like the fact that Avatar has Pixar type visuals yet is about the slaughtering of a planet's native population.

Demoniser · 18 Nov 2009 at 01:39

I think the fact that the Na'vi being vibrant and colourful in design along with every other alien creature in the film is kind of the point. Pandora is supposed to be a rich jugle paradise that brimming with life, untouched and undisturbed by outside forces. The local population isn't exactly going to be dark is it so they won't be like the worker class prawns portrayed in district 9 or hr geiger esque xenomorphs.

Looking forward to the film and im crossing my fingers it will turn out to be top stuff.

Chimerical · 18 Nov 2009 at 02:34

Hen_Dawg said:

I'd make inter-species love to that any day.

Nix · 18 Nov 2009 at 03:35

I just watched the trailer. At first it looked so promising (when they come off of the space-ships), but it soon becomes clear that the story/plot itself just seems predictable and insincere. I could well be wrong about this, and I think I'll be watching the movie all the same, but unless it pulls out a few surprises akin to District 9, I honestly think the story/plot will be this movie's downfall.

drunkenmaster · 18 Nov 2009 at 06:13

Am I missing something obvious in Cameron's history of film making, T1/T2, Aliens, Titanic are his success's? I do like the first two Terminator films, heck I even like True Lies, but not a huge fan of Aliens, Titanic was, well, gay. Since then he's done, T3, which is blooming horrific and he's done very little to make me think he's into anything but the technology for the past decade. The film industry is more interested in making new effects than a great story and actual film behind the effects. Dozens of past great directors have made new piles of turd with fancy, yet still completely underwhelming effects, Lucas being a prime suspect, aswell as Cameron himself in terms of T3.

I don't know, I don't think he's certainly crap, but considering the films he's been involved with or writen in the past decade, infact, True Lies, the last decent script he did, was 94, its been 15 years since he did anything good and this just looks like a advert for new film techniques.

Lucas, don't mind the film, we have a completely CGI character you'll love to hate to distract you from the money making exercise this is. Likewise so far all I see from Avatar is a film saying "keep your eyes on the 3d aspect of this film, because then you might not notice the lack of story behind it, woo woo".

I hope it will be a great film, I honestly couldn't give a monkeys in the slightest about it being 3D, I don't have trouble judging depth or any issue with 2d films that make me wish any film I'd ever watched was 3d, its completely unnecessary. I just don't get the "its Cameron so you know it'll be good" sentiment. If that always worked, Ep 1-3 by Lucas would have been the best 3 films of the past decade..........

matt0r · 18 Nov 2009 at 06:46

drunkenmaster said:
Snip!

While i agree with some of what you said, Cameron had nothing to do with T3 (terminator 3, i presume?) other than being credited with the characters.

Chimerical · 18 Nov 2009 at 07:26

drunkenmaster said:
I hope it will be a great film, I honestly couldn't give a monkeys in the slightest about it being 3D, I don't have trouble judging depth or any issue with 2d films that make me wish any film I'd ever watched was 3d, its completely unnecessary. I just don't get the "its Cameron so you know it'll be good" sentiment. If that always worked, Ep 1-3 by Lucas would have been the best 3 films of the past decade..........

But Lucas only directed one of the original Star Wars movies. His work as a director is miniscule compared to what he's done as a producer and writer. Plus, he directed nothing inbetween Star Wars (1977) and Phantom Menace (1999).

Cameron also originally wrote the script for Avatar about fifteen years ago and has been working on it for four years so the gap between this and Titanic really isn't the same.

NeilF · 18 Nov 2009 at 09:13

drunkenmaster said:
Am I missing something obvious in Cameron's history of film making, T1/T2, Aliens, Titanic are his success's? I do like the first two Terminator films, heck I even like True Lies, but not a huge fan of Aliens, Titanic was, well, gay. Since then he's done, T3, which is blooming horrific and he's done very little to make me think he's into anything but the technology for the past decade. The film industry is more interested in making new effects than a great story and actual film behind the effects. Dozens of past great directors have made new piles of turd with fancy, yet still completely underwhelming effects, Lucas being a prime suspect, aswell as Cameron himself in terms of T3.

I don't know, I don't think he's certainly crap, but considering the films he's been involved with or writen in the past decade, infact, True Lies, the last decent script he did, was 94, its been 15 years since he did anything good and this just looks like a advert for new film techniques.

Lucas, don't mind the film, we have a completely CGI character you'll love to hate to distract you from the money making exercise this is. Likewise so far all I see from Avatar is a film saying "keep your eyes on the 3d aspect of this film, because then you might not notice the lack of story behind it, woo woo".

I hope it will be a great film, I honestly couldn't give a monkeys in the slightest about it being 3D, I don't have trouble judging depth or any issue with 2d films that make me wish any film I'd ever watched was 3d, its completely unnecessary. I just don't get the "its Cameron so you know it'll be good" sentiment. If that always worked, Ep 1-3 by Lucas would have been the best 3 films of the past decade..........

As already pointed out, he had nothing to do with T3...

And I don't think you'll see anyone here saying "it's Cameron so you know it'll be good." But instead "it's Cameron so you know how good it might be."

I fear he's lost the edge he had in the 80/90s... But in 4 weeks we'll see. and even if Avatar doesn't live up to our hopes, he's back in the directors seat for at least another couple of projects, so hopefullt those may show some of his old magic!