This Week in the Mercury
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Film Avatar Trailer.
Posted by Erik Henriksen on Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 5:47 PM
- "Holy shit! James Cameron wasn't lying about this movie actually existing!"
If you scored tickets to Avatar Day tomorrow, I'd recommend holding off on watching this until you can see this shit in 3D.
But if you didn't? Have at.
2
This trailer appears mainly to be causing the Avatar cult to have to spend their entire day posting "no, seriously, don't worry, the CGI doesn't actually look as shitty as this".
3
@ Marq: After much hair-pulling and anger, yeah, the website worked for me. (Or, more accurately, a work-around posted in the comments on Blogtown did.) That said, Comic-Con worked better.
@ b!X: While there's no doubt this is CG--this isn't quite the quantum leap in technology that I think we all were anticipating it to be--I'd wait until you see this on a real movie screen and in 3D before smack-talkin' it. It looks far better there than it does on a computer monitor. And regardless, the thing that strikes me about this thing isn't the tech involved, but the sheer WTF-weirdness of it: Tonally and visually, this is bizarre, bright, out-there sci-fi like cinemas haven't seen in a while (if ever) and I'm curious to see how mainstream moviegoers react to it, regardless of rendering passes or photorealism.
(I don't mean that as a cop-out, I swear.)
@ b!X: While there's no doubt this is CG--this isn't quite the quantum leap in technology that I think we all were anticipating it to be--I'd wait until you see this on a real movie screen and in 3D before smack-talkin' it. It looks far better there than it does on a computer monitor. And regardless, the thing that strikes me about this thing isn't the tech involved, but the sheer WTF-weirdness of it: Tonally and visually, this is bizarre, bright, out-there sci-fi like cinemas haven't seen in a while (if ever) and I'm curious to see how mainstream moviegoers react to it, regardless of rendering passes or photorealism.
(I don't mean that as a cop-out, I swear.)
4
Mainly I'm just annoyed the the already-extant Avatar cultists who are shrieking that anyone's daring to criticize the trailer. And while in no way will the criticisms prevent the movie from making a bazillion dollars, when your first piece of mainstream promotion mainly prompts fans of a movie they haven't seen to start getting defensive, there's a problem.
The movie itself might be utterly astonishing. But the trailer doesn't communicate that, given that all the hype was about the movie-making technology and the CGI isn't hype-worthy. When people point that out, it doesn't make them cretins. This movie is already accumulating dittoheads that piss me off as much as Twihards.
The movie itself might be utterly astonishing. But the trailer doesn't communicate that, given that all the hype was about the movie-making technology and the CGI isn't hype-worthy. When people point that out, it doesn't make them cretins. This movie is already accumulating dittoheads that piss me off as much as Twihards.
5
Looks like every moronic video-game-as-a-movie made in the last ten years, with added faerie goofiness.
It's weird that 'Terminator 2,' 'Jurassic Park,' hell, even 'The Abyss' all blended CG more convincingly than contemporary movies. I guess it's because these days you're more often than not talking majority CG, small minority physical reality in any given scene. Nobody seems to be willing to sacrifice the hyper-detail they can achieve to anything--grit, grain, realistic focus, slightly believable camera movement, etc.--that would make the sum total actually more realistic. (Except, ironically, something like the first half of 'Wall-E,' entirely CG-made, for kids).
It's weird that 'Terminator 2,' 'Jurassic Park,' hell, even 'The Abyss' all blended CG more convincingly than contemporary movies. I guess it's because these days you're more often than not talking majority CG, small minority physical reality in any given scene. Nobody seems to be willing to sacrifice the hyper-detail they can achieve to anything--grit, grain, realistic focus, slightly believable camera movement, etc.--that would make the sum total actually more realistic. (Except, ironically, something like the first half of 'Wall-E,' entirely CG-made, for kids).
7
@ b!X: Yeah, true. But just as it's dumb to defend a movie one hasn't seen yet, it's also dumb to criticize a movie one hasn't seen yet. Sure, it's silly that there are already Avatar die-hards (maybe we should call them Avatards?), but I also find it weird that there seem to be so many people who're eager to talk shit about it, too.
Ultimately--and despite all this "Avatar Day" business--it's just a goddamn trailer. Personally, I'm stoked that people seem to be reacting strongly to it at all; most trailers are greeted with shrugs of indifference. If people are going to stubbornly insist on judging films by their advertising campaigns, at least the stuff that's being shown from Avatar is distinct enough for people to flip out about, one way or the other.
Ultimately--and despite all this "Avatar Day" business--it's just a goddamn trailer. Personally, I'm stoked that people seem to be reacting strongly to it at all; most trailers are greeted with shrugs of indifference. If people are going to stubbornly insist on judging films by their advertising campaigns, at least the stuff that's being shown from Avatar is distinct enough for people to flip out about, one way or the other.
8
The thing is, people aren't reacting strongly to the trailer. People have been pretty vocally "meh" about the trailer; most of the passionate responses has been toward the hype surrounding the film.
I think it's unfair to just dismiss this as "judging a book by its cover". A massively big-budget marketing campaign is an entity in and of itself, and there's nothing disingenuous about saying, "wow, this is fucking fail PR".
On the other hand, I have passes to both screenings tonight and can't stop squeeing. We'll see how it pans out.
I think it's unfair to just dismiss this as "judging a book by its cover". A massively big-budget marketing campaign is an entity in and of itself, and there's nothing disingenuous about saying, "wow, this is fucking fail PR".
On the other hand, I have passes to both screenings tonight and can't stop squeeing. We'll see how it pans out.
12
A Cat, you should've said hi! We were pretty conspicuous in the press row, and we saw both screenings too.
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