Monday, November 9, 2009

2 trailers sometimes really are better than 1

Ah, brothers and sisters, the passing of time brings many changes. The second Avatar trailer has finally been released, and I'm happy to report that it looks infinitely more interesting than the teaser did. As you might remember, I took some flak for pointing out that the big blue guys just didn't look so realistic. Fortunately, while they still don't resemble the finest CGI these eyes have ever seen as Cameron may have hoped, they look pretty good.

The story seems to have legs too. Although seeming somewhat cliched (Star Trek: Insurrection, anyone?), Avatar seems to have a fairly compelling narrative conflict. This wasn't evident from the get go, and I know that Megan and I both expressed our concerns that the film would be all gimmick and no guts. However, that's kind of an inherent problem with teaser trailers in general. Unless the visuals are flat-out incredible/trippy/weirdly compelling, the teaser doesn't necessarily accomplish its main goal, which is namely to get your butt in a seat in the theater, preferably on opening weekend.

That said, I still have a few questions.

1. How does the blue girl know English? Pretty convenient, huh? Maybe they'll explain it with one of those "Oh, the avatar software comes with a universal translator so that you'll be able to talk to the natives."

2. Why don't the bad guys just unplug the machine Jake's hooked up to so that he can't control his avatar? That said, this'll probably be handled in one of two ways. Either he'll get the machine off the ship (Sigourney Weaver would probably help with this) or it'll turn into a subplot as the bad guys race to disconnect the machine. Or what about this: Sigourney Weaver might lock them out of the area of the ship where the machines are and it becomes a race-against-the-clock as they try to break through before he can lead the natives to victory on the planet surface.

All jokes aside, I just hope this movie is close to being as good as it wants to be. I'll be there opening weekend for sure. Cameron, if you're reading, please please PLEASE make it worth my while.

Oh, and keep your eye on a movie called An Education come Oscar time. Good stuff. The star, Carey Mulligan, is going to get a Best Actress nomination. Yep, that's my first Oscar prediction. We'll see how THAT goes.

4 comments:

Chris W said...

I say wait till you actually SEE the movie to judge it. Glad you liked the 2nd trailer better than the first teaser. I will admit 30 seconds worth of footage compared to 3 1/2 minutes of it is a big difference. I do love teasers though just because sometimes they can be real interesting and unique but I think AVATAR definitely needed to show more to get people on board. I read somewhere today that between the cost of the production itself and the marketing the film will probably cost the studio about half a BILLION dollars. That is A LOT of money they need to recoup. I've heard great things about AN EDUCATION and would like to see it. While there have been very few definite Oscar nom front runners so far I think you're right about her. EVERYONE is raving about her performance.

Adam said...

I should wait until I see the movie until I judge it? With respect, this is rich advice coming from you, good sir. I would bet money that you're going to write rave reviews of both Avatar and Sherlock Holmes, because you've already predetermined that they're going to be great.

Chris W said...

Don't get me wrong I'm hoping and thinking they will be awesome but I do what I can judge a book by it's cover once I've read it. The odds are in both of those film's favor but there have been plenty of movies I've looked forward to that have disappointed, TRANSFORMERS 2 and FUNNY PEOPLE are just two that come to mind within the last 6 months.

Anonymous said...

I see elements of Platoon and The Last of The Moichcans (sp?) from the trailer so the plot seems to come from well trodden ground already.

This one has a lot to live up too but Cameron has a good track record thus far with me.