_Avatar_, directed by James Cameron

I would pay money.

Avatar... the Nickelodeon show has been on since Feb 05. Dibs.

We can do better than that.

I had forgotten I'd started this thread. Which article of ultrahype/'will change movies forever!' has amused you most?

http://origin.aintitcool.com/images2009/avatarship.jpg
http://origin.aintitcool.com/images2009/avatarwaterfall.jpg

This movie will change the way I view 3-D James Cameron movies entitled Avatar, that I'm sure of.

i'm off the Sam Worthington train if this is terrible

Comic-Con bits:

The audience, many of whom camped alongside the “Twilight” fans for the privilege, were treated to a sequence of scenes condensing the tale: Jake Sully is a paralyzed Marine who volunteers to become an Avatar -- a genetically engineered human/Na’vi hybrid. He suffers several brushes with some dinosaur-types, a violent flirtation with a Na’vi princess, and an even more violent Na’vi rite of initiation.

Cameron will get to test-run the film on an even bigger crowd on Aug. 21, which he’s declared "Avatar Day." The filmmaker announced he’ll be taking over IMAX and 3-D theaters around the world to screen 15 minutes of the film for moviegoers for free.

In introducing the film, Cameron said it was made “for the 14-year-old boy that is very alive and well in the back of my mind.”

But don’t expect a film for kids. In fact, I'd wager “Avatar” is going to be kind of heavy.

“I don’t want to say it’s important, because then it sounds like you’re making a documentary,” Cameron said. But it’s “something with a conscience. In the enjoying of [the film], it maybe makes you think about the way you interact with nature and your fellow man.”

After the screening, it was clear cast members Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana and Stephen Lang had become as immersed and invested in Pandora as the filmmaker himself, speaking of the Na’vi as though they were a historical fact.

A professor at USC worked two years on develop their language, and Saldana said all the actors had to take movement classes to “de-humanize” themselves. She also trained in Wushu, horseback riding, archery and weightlifting to play Na’vi princess Neytiri.

Said Cameron: “We know the oncology and composition of the atmosphere, the geography and species of plants, the culture and the history of the Na’vi people.”

Dehumanize yourself, via all these human activities.

Plus more geekery via Nikki Finke's cohorts.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eJ_G3PHZ_6I/Rzgb8QqE1QI/AAAAAAAAAdw/ewzinJgfbfM/s400/black-sabbath-dehumanizer.jpg

TRAILER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYBRFJ9RArc

I'd go.

Avatard

A bit disappointing, really.

Lulz at "Avetar"...

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/avatar/hd/

maybe corny

the cgi blue "people" look pretty cgi

duh i guess. some nice visuals otherwise.

funny how District 9 which cost maybe a 10th of what this cost still has better looking cgi characters.

cgi cgi cgi

So much for the "revolutionary" CGI. Looks like one big video game cut-scene

AVATAR takes us to a spectacular new world beyond our imagination, where a reluctant hero embarks on a journey of redemption and discovery, as he leads a heroic battle to save a civilization. The film was first conceived by Cameron 14 years ago, when the means to realize his vision did not yet exist. Now, after four years of actual production work, AVATAR delivers a fully immersive cinematic experience of a new kind, where the revolutionary technology invented to make the film, disappears into the emotion of the characters and the sweep of the story.

Every time I see this title I think it's that Bruce Willis Second Life spoof.

cue ishtar joke?

wow does this ever (unexpectedly) look like one of those cheap direct-to-video super-scifi cheap CGI thingies.

no sign of the "whole new world of real-feeling characters thing". seems way more Polar Express than gollum...

will the .1 of 5.1 be used to immerse us in this bold, new vision???

Kind of gives off a Matrix sequels vibe too. Maybe it's the dreadlocks

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_uFjeiKOmMxQ/SnpLPhyv-II/AAAAAAAABHk/KYSRmzX773E/s400/Avatar+Action+Figure.jpg

http://cache-foo-02.gawkerassets.com/gawker/assets/images/8/2009/08/504x_Avatar-48.jpg

this looks so fruity

http://www.cultflicks.net/wp-content/uploads/finalfantasythespiritswithin2001.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_9LW53BBFuek/So2komr4tlI/AAAAAAAAAag/evAEh5rADxI/s400/Avatar001.png

lol roger dean

Best summary of the trailer I've read so far: "Ferngully with guns."

hahahaha otm

Preview reminds me of the slow build-up that worked so well in Aliens and (yes) Titanic. Second half looks like a '69 Nam hookah trip.

This ... looks terrible.

The preview is unpromising, but I wouldn't mind being proved wrong. At least it seems ambitious, which after a long summer of nothing-but-sequels as far as mainstream Hollywood big budget, high concept stuff goes, is kind of refreshing.

I'm with you on that, sciolism - watched the trailer quite a few times and I've gone from initial "meh", to thinking this might actually be pretty cool. It also feels a bit premature to dismiss it from a 2 minute trailer on a 19" computer monitor when it's been made to be watched in IMAX 3D.

i just hate the quasi-furry design of the characters..gross gross gross

like the part where the main dude is grinning in the lab says "this is great"...it's ugh ugh ugh uncanny valley creepy to the max (plus mongoloid eyes and stupid fantasy kangaroo ears)

amazing how far we have progressed since this

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TA56OMBmFyA/Sbjg_5jSgdI/AAAAAAAAAJA/XvsLJ08COZg/s400/232980-jar_jar_binks_large.jpeg

I mean, I could easily torrent some old shitty Thundercats episodes if I had some burning need to see anthropomorphic tiger-people shoot bows and arrows at each other.

Cameron's done some cool stuff with creatures...the aliens in The Abyss were neat!

Why does this shit have to look so much like a lame-ass fantasy novel cover?

Bleaurgh.

Bleaurgh.

Bleaurgh!

"If we make money, I guarantee there will be more," Cameron said. "If we don't, we'll pretend it never happened."

it may be two years old, but I still love this touching display of pride in yr work.

http://img.denihilation.com/delgovatar.html

what the hell is delgo

i think your question answers your question

they do reminds me of the Mission To Mars alien a bit :[

Lol, Neanderthal.

did roger dean ever get paid for any of this?

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/znJTFDTemj3st5vMC9KxnB-1024-80.jpg

ans = no: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/james-cameron-vanquishes-artist-in-avatar-copyright-lawsuit-111514

this shd be the next ALAB podcast

These sequels will never come out, won’t they?

They've just announced the release date of the first (December 16th), which is why anyone's talking about them - and the trailer will be in cinemas with the Doctor Strange movie next week

maybe they can combine it with the movie Anvil and make it Anviltar

james cameron give the (trans) people what they want... a battle angel sequel

I would watch the heck out of Anviltar tbh

And I’ll probably watch these sequels, actually

So you're the guy

it took me what, 13 years to see this? idk why except that ppl were like “it’s an incredible spectacle with pretty much nothing beneath it” and i was like “i don’t need another cameron film like that”

but at this point i’m pretty down with a movie that suggests we need to connect to the lifeforce that binds us to the earth and to each other to destroy all colonists

gimme avatar 2

I love avatar unabashedly

me too. some folks I know IRL (who think Wes Anderson is the GOAT and sneered at this film) did a lot of mental gymnastics to hold this film to different standards than other action movie spectacles.

(the discourse was much better ITT). also lol at jjjusten takedown of Shakey and Dan rejoinder upthread.

I refuse to believe any of you are excited about this. I mean, I believe it, but at the same time, I refuse. Love me some Cameron, hate that he's wasted his time with these Smurfs.

I'm excited for the new one too but I can look at enormous CGI trees and characters jumping on floating rocks all day. I understand 200% why people would get nothing out of this franchise

I enjoyed the first one fine at the time but have barely thought about it since and can’t imagine spending an entire career on this thinly imagined nonsense.

the coded racial stuff felt v icky & outdated to me in 2009, its hard for me to imagine it playing any better in 2022

My wife hadn’t seen Avatar and we started watching it together recently. After an hour she didn’t understand why she was watching a boring film that looks like a video game without the fun of being able to play it and decided to stop watching – and I totally got her point.

xp

I mean it’s not particularly sophisticated in its deployment, but ‘industrialized colonists v. naturist natives’ is kind of an archetype and I’m not sure what coded racial stuff is in there that’s particularly icky? Seemed intentionally broad. Unless you’re referring to something specific that I’m forgetting.

I liked Avatar. I mean a lot’s been written about how it made a bazillion dollars yet made absolutely minimal cultural impact considering. It did evaporate off of me almost immediately. But, y’know, had fun seeing it in IMAX, good spectacle, action set pieces were solid.

I’m actually kinda stoked for Part 2. I’m a sucker for underwater shit.

I rode the 3D Avatar ride at Disney World in February and it was awesome. It made me want to see another Avatar movie. (Because it would be a lot cheaper than going to Disney World again.)

Avatar: The Way Of Holding Your Water:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/avatar-way-of-water-runtime-1235251391/

Film expert Gregg Turkington (as seen on AMC) just called this the greatest movie of all time

nonsense. that would have to be either The Greatest Show on Earth or The Greatest Story Ever Told.