After a tirade of technical issues which blighted what should have been the pain-free debut of
Avatar, the last big movie spectacle of the decade and
James Cameron's first feature film since
Titanic, you can finally watch the trailer hitch free. But honestly, you are set for dissapointment. It's available at
Apple or
HERE and
HERE. Just remember you can't ever go back from this moment. You will forever think of
Avatar the way this trailer depicts it. Good luck! You may have to forgive me for being a little harsh on Jim but for months on end he has been using phrases such as "game-changer", "cutting edge" and the "future of film-making" when referring to
Avatar but really, it just ain't all that, is it? Based on this evidence it's not going to radically change anything when it opens on
Dec. 18th.
Sure,
Avatar looks (and remember that's mostly all we have to go on here because the trailer contains only one line of dialogue and no explanation of the plot/world we are witnessing) to me like I will get my money's worth and compared to the rest of what Hollywood is spending money on these days it looks like a fine effort but when Cameron has gone on and ON and ON and ON about this new age of "photorealism"; when it finally came down to showing his cards, he just didn't have a big hand. At the moment, he wins but only because we folded way early and all believed he was about to deliver the second coming.
Avatar looks like an excellent video game cutscene with an impressive cartoon character or two but it's not like the first time I really believed dinosaurs could exist (
Jurassic Park), or the feeling that
Lord of the Rings gave me when I first saw footage, that maybe - just maybe, their could be something out there which would rival
Star Wars. Of course those are high expectations but when Cameron has been acting the way he has been for the past three years, what did he really expect from us? The problem with
Avatar is it just doesn't look believable enough to suspend disbelief and get caught up in this world. I'm not going to argue the fact that it
looks a marked improvement from the Jar Jar Binks CGI days of old Lucasfilm but honestly, I don't know if it's enough to justify it's hype. When it works - yeah it works. But the larger you watch this trailer (seriously, widen that trailer out to fit your WHOLE screen), it still looks like CGI. Good CGI but CGI nevertheless. I'm not dismissing this project, I just think Cameron has made us expect the world and maybe he could never deliver on it? The trailer is also a big eye-opener coming out during the first week of release of
District 9 which more smartly used CGI to make aliens believable in the world we exist.
District 9, made for a blockbuster less by a first time commercials director, hits the sweet spot that I'm not sure
Avatar delivers so far. I would love to hear you thoughts on the
Avatar trailer...