James Cameron's Avatar - news, rumors, castings..

[The Bus]

Originally Posted by devilshalo

I'm still not finding the appeal to general audiences who will say, "I've seen this before in Star Wars."

You're right. I don't know what James Cameron thought making a movie with aliens and robots. He's got no track record with that.

[devilshalo]

Originally Posted by The Bus

You're right. I don't know what James Cameron thought making a movie with aliens and robots. He's got no track record with that.

Those films had practical effects work...

You can't tell me this doesn't look like the drop ships on Naboo and the battle on Geonosis.

[RichC2]

Originally Posted by devilshalo

Those films had practical effects work...

You can't tell me this doesn't look like the drop ships on Naboo and the battle on Geonosis.

It actually looks nothing like Star Wars to me.

But in that regard, I was never a huge fan of the 'Wars (New Hope and Empire were good, Jedi was a joke as were all 3 "prequels").

I honestly made no connection between the two.

[hapgilmore]

This movie looks awesome!

[Deftones]

Looks interesting. I think the weakest CGI are the alien characters. They just look "off". Everything else looks awesome.

[FinkPish]

Originally Posted by Deftones

Looks interesting. I think the weakest CGI are the alien characters. They just look "off". Everything else looks awesome.

I think this film will suffer from the same complaints that came up for the first Hulk film's CGI. Since there is no frame of reference from anyone's experience for a 10 foot tall over-muscled green man (or an 8 foot tall blue alien, in this case) it is always going to look "off". We all know what a human should look like and how they should move, but pulling off a humanoid character that really isn't human is really difficult to make look totally believable.

[Deftones]

it's only "off" because of the movements. sure, it's probably a perception thing since they don't seem to move like humans, but if you are going use a human-like body, then make them move like that.

[devilshalo]

Originally Posted by Deftones

it's only "off" because of the movements. sure, it's probably a perception thing since they don't seem to move like humans, but if you are going use a human-like body, then make them move like that.

It's performance capture... for 80% of the time, the actors are moving "like that".

[Nick Martin]

Download link for the 1080p Quicktime version (166MB)

http://images.apple.com/movies/fox/a...tsr_h1080p.mov

[Terrell]

The film looks interesting, that's for sure. I don't know who is doing the effects work for the film, but they are falling well short of Davy Jones, who is the benchmark in my opinion. It's beautiful to be certain, but like the Star Wars prequels, whose effects work was first rate, it has a certain artificial look to it. But when you use this much CG in a film, it doesn't matter how good it is, it's always going to look a bit artificial.

That's why Transfomers 2 did so shitty at the box office.

That's not really an accurate comparison. The amount of CG in Transformers 2 pales in comparison to the amount of CG in the prequels. It's box office take is irrelevant too.

[Ash Ketchum]

Originally Posted by Solid Snake PAC

Damn...sure looks original. Some CGI looks a bit rough atm, specifically the mech suits, but I'm hoping this is still being fleshed out

I'm also nothing that while the trailer addict trailer isn't full HD, I just saw the Apple quicktime trailer in HD...THERE'S A HUGE ASS DIFFERENCE. The only way to truly appreciate this thing is in HD. Here's the link to apple..

Thanks for posting the link to the HD trailer. It only confirms what I've long suspected. This looks terrible. I mean, there's nothing in that trailer that arouses any curiosity in me about the story, the characters, the effects, anything. I didn't see anything in it that was particularly fresh or imaginative or innovative. I've seen tons of Japanese animated sci-fi that's far more visually exciting to me than anything in that trailer. If the title that came up on the trailer was G.I. JOE 2 or TRANSFORMERS 3, then I'd say, hmmm...that could be interesting, because my expectations would be much lower. But after all the hype over AVATAR and the huge budget and state-of-the-art 3-D effects I expect him to deliver more than stale goods. What are you guys seeing there that's so special? Those blue-skinned creatures? Edgar Rice Burroughs' "John Carter of Mars" series did that already to great effect. Why didn't Cameron just adapt one of those novels to try out his 3-D on?

[AnonomusBob15]

Looks like a balls to the wall adventure/sci-fi film. It's the only thing Cameron can do and he does it well.

[Deftones]

Originally Posted by devilshalo

It's performance capture... for 80% of the time, the actors are moving "like that".

even still, it looks herky jerky like some of the early CGI we got in some movies.

[The Bus]

I have my reservations but I think we're past the point where special effects make or break a movie.

I do agree that, for what it's worth, the Pirates series and Lord of the Rings seems to be a more "real" world than the minute or so I saw in Avatar.

The scene ~33 seconds in with the floating islands was completely unreal.

[CertifiedTHX]

I love James Cameron, so I'm sorry to say that nothing here blew me away. Very ho hum, actually. I was under the impression that Avatar was supposed to be some sort of technological leap, but this is nothing I haven't seen before, and the CGI is just average.

Of course, a CGI fest without a compelling story is pretty boring, as George Lucas once said, so maybe the next trailer will reveal more of what this thing is about.

--THX

[chris_sc77]

I cant believe some of you guys think this looks good.
This is what Cameron gives us after 12 years waiting! I kinda kind this offensive on some levels. LOL at everyone saying this will revolutionize cinema. They certainly fooled me good.

Nevertheless its James Freakin Cameron so I have to give it a chance once it hits theaters. I have such a hard-on for his movies and have since I was little. I am just so disappointed. I was hoping to show the trailer to friends and fmily saying how cool this is gonna be but now I am embarrassed to see even this trailer with them.

[anomynous]

I think it looks great



Of course people are going to be disappointed when it's not the 2nd, 3rd, & 4th coming of Christ like they were thinking it was going to be.

[B.A.]

I'm not digging the look of the aliens - other than I thought it looked good.

[Zen Peckinpah]

All I can say is bring this motherfucker ON!!!!!!!!

Looks pretty goddamn great. This is the first time Cameron's tackled sci-fi since T2, if it's even half as good as that we're in good hands. CGI doesn't look too cartoony at all, just as good as Dr. Manhattan and the Prawns looked. Though Worthington's avatar looks a like a cross between Vincent Cassel and a Smurf.

Just found out the school I'm transferring to has an IMAX 3D theater just miles away, and I'll be there at midnight!

[Boba Fett]

The alien designs look cartoonish and make the CGI stick out like a sore thumb.

Everything else looks pretty solid.

[ChineseCheckers]

Anyone know what the estimated budget for this movie is? IMDB says its 190million but I could have sworn that I heard it being much higher than that.

[NoirFan]

Agreed - the aliens look like something out of a little kid's video game. When the main one (?) grins "This is great!" I actually laughed. Still, I'll certainly give Cameron the benefit of the doubt.

[Blu Man]

Originally Posted by Ash Ketchum

Thanks for posting the link to the HD trailer. It only confirms what I've long suspected. This looks terrible. I mean, there's nothing in that trailer that arouses any curiosity in me about the story, the characters, the effects, anything. I didn't see anything in it that was particularly fresh or imaginative or innovative. I've seen tons of Japanese animated sci-fi that's far more visually exciting to me than anything in that trailer. If the title that came up on the trailer was G.I. JOE 2 or TRANSFORMERS 3, then I'd say, hmmm...that could be interesting, because my expectations would be much lower. But after all the hype over AVATAR and the huge budget and state-of-the-art 3-D effects I expect him to deliver more than stale goods. What are you guys seeing there that's so special? Those blue-skinned creatures? Edgar Rice Burroughs' "John Carter of Mars" series did that already to great effect. Why didn't Cameron just adapt one of those novels to try out his 3-D on?

This is just a teaser trailer. It's goal is not to establish the story or the characters, but to give us a feel for the movie. I'm sure in the next trailer there will be a narritive explaining the films plot and setting up the characters. Your judgeing a 3 hour movie's plot based on a 2 min teaser. Just calm down and wait to see it before your right it off.

[Jaymole]

Looks interesting but like the others have said the aliens are disappointing...they seem to be straight out of a childrens animated film.

[visitor Q]

Originally Posted by Boba Fett

The alien designs look cartoonish and make the CGI stick out like a sore thumb.

Everything else looks pretty solid.

100% agreed!

This is the reason why rubber/prosthetic enhancements and camera trickery in the hands of a capable crew will never be surpassed by CGI. Lord of the Rings / Pan's Labyrinth as two examples.

But as you said, the CGI world set design looked great!