Avatar Trailer
I had been holding off from actually watching anything Avatar related, with the toxic ‘meh’ buzz coming off the internet I really wanted to see this IN a cinema at least if not in the full 3D effect. Well, I relented today and watched the HD trailer from Apple.com and I can sort of understand why it’s not affecting people like James Cameron had hoped. The problem is that the 3D is good enough that it doesn’t jump off the screen and make itself apparent but not good enough to actually feel real, there is a decidedly animated feel to the whole experience. Now I am prepared to believe that this is as a result of seeing the film flat, that the 3D effects of the film will lend a life to the experience but unfortunately for Fox and James Cameron, that is an experience almost impossible to communicate in traditional mediums.
Other problems stem from the subject matter, watching the 7pm Project the other night one of the women on the panel said that the teaser did ‘absolutely nothing for her’ and I can completely understand that feeling. The other comment that came out straight away was that it was all very ‘Jar Jar’ which is the other problem, the creature design doesn’t really push any buttons, at least not any positive ones. Having recently watched District 9 and loved the character design and the amazing work that the WETA team did with the Prawns these tall blue people are just a little bit lame, sort of Star Trek Voyager style aliens as opposed to big screen aliens.
Well, that was a bit of a rant and not particularly coherent but I’m sure that when it comes out I will go and see it, it’s everyone else I wonder about. I do worry that the movie doesn’t have what it takes to grab people across genre lines like recent blockbusters like The Dark Knight have been able to. People who get exciting about a James Cameron Sci-Fi will see it, people who like Science Fiction will see it but I’m not sure that anyone else will much care…
Eww, just eww.