So … I watched the trailer for the long-awaited new movie by James Cameron called “Avatar”. After giving us the awesome Space Marine action of “Aliens” and the quicksilver T-1 action of “Terminator 2″ and the insane ship-cracking action of “Titanic”, Cameron sends us to a world filled with blue cat people somehow taking on hardened military vehicles with wooden spears.
To say it was underwhelming would be an understatement. And now, word from the set of the upcoming “Clash of the Titans” remake (ARRRGH) is that Cameron MEANT for us to not like the trailer. YeahbuhWHAA?
Sam Worthington, who plays the lead in “Avatar”, as well as the role of Perseus in the “Titans” hooha, claims that Cameron released the trailer online first, and then in IMAX theaters simply to make the point that it has to be seen in IMAX to be properly appreciated. “That’s obviously going to get people to think and go, ‘Damn right, I’m going to see this at the cinema.’ That’s what Jim’s always said to me, that he wanted to bring people back to the movies, and he’s a smart enough man to be that tactical.”
Yeah. Except for the part that I don’t want to see it in IMAX because it just doesn’t look interesting.
Look, Jim — can I call you Jim? — you’re trying to pull people into your movie on the basis of technology, and that never works. People don’t give a shit if you filmed this thing using cybernetic ocular implants from the future; if it doesn’t look like a good movie, people won’t want to see it. It’s got nothing to do with fidelity or resolution or any of that other crap you seem to be really into.
And another thing going against you is the Uncanny Valley effect. Your cat people look okay for CGI, but they still look like CGI … even worse, because their eyes are just slightly too far apart to be comforting. And why should we care? Are we meant to cheer for the aliens ’cause they’re cute (’cause they’re not)? Or do we root for the humans, ’cause that’s the race of your main character (which won’t work because they’re clearly invading the land of these aliens and destroying their lifestyle)?
None of this was worth the wait, Mr. Cameron. As always, I’m going to wait until someone whose opinion I trust has seen this, but I’ll tell you right now: none of those trusted people are even a bit interested in “Avatar” yet. Give us a better trailer — yes, one that works on the Internet, you celluloid elitist — and then we’ll see if you can still write a good story.
Comments
Shc
August 25th, 2009 - 9:26:59 PM
Watch the IMAX 15 minutes preview, it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!! Trailer was bad though I admit.
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