Avatar - I really wanted to like this one, too...

[weatherc]

I saw the trailer for James Cameron's upcoming film Avatar, and I must say I'm a bit disappointed. If I can find this many issues in just the teaser trailer, it doesn't bode well for the rest of the film.

• Giant floating rocks. I thought this was supposed to be a science fiction film, not a fantasy film. While I might accept giant floating rocks in a Dungeons and Dragons type of setting, in a serious science fiction film it's just laughable. Somebody needed to tell Mr. Cameron that this was just a dumb idea. I mean, really, giant floating rocks? Seriously?
• The blue guys. While I can accept a bit of a humanoid appearance, the blue aliens still look just a little too human. The females even have human-style breasts, for crying out loud, a feature not even found on most species on earth. There's also a scene in the trailer that shows a blue alien female crying tears of sorrow. As far as I know, there is only one species we know of here on earth that sheds tears for emotional reasons, and that's us. I'm supposed to believe that an alien species happens to show grief in exactly the same way as us, when countless species on earth don't?
• The lead's wheelchair. If the humans possess the technology to have big mecha/gundham things walking around, why would the main character need a wheelchair? Wouldn't the technology be available to hook him up to a mini-gundham to walk around with?
• Where have I seen this before? The big beastie in the woods bears more than a passing resemblance to the beasties from the movie Hellboy to me.

I'll probably still rent this one, but I was hoping for better. I thought Cameron's attention to detail would make for a better science fiction film than this, but I guess I was wrong.

[M311]

I saw the trailer for James Cameron's upcoming film Avatar, and I must say I'm a bit disappointed. If I can find this many issues in just the teaser trailer, it doesn't bode well for the rest of the film.

• Giant floating rocks. I thought this was supposed to be a science fiction film, not a fantasy film. While I might accept giant floating rocks in a Dungeons and Dragons type of setting, in a serious science fiction film it's just laughable. Somebody needed to tell Mr. Cameron that this was just a dumb idea. I mean, really, giant floating rocks? Seriously?
• The blue guys. While I can accept a bit of a humanoid appearance, the blue aliens still look just a little too human. The females even have human-style breasts, for crying out loud, a feature not even found on most species on earth. There's also a scene in the trailer that shows a blue alien female crying tears of sorrow. As far as I know, there is only one species we know of here on earth that sheds tears for emotional reasons, and that's us. I'm supposed to believe that an alien species happens to show grief in exactly the same way as us, when countless species on earth don't?
• The lead's wheelchair. If the humans possess the technology to have big mecha/gundham things walking around, why would the main character need a wheelchair? Wouldn't the technology be available to hook him up to a mini-gundham to walk around with?
• Where have I seen this before? The big beastie in the woods bears more than a passing resemblance to the beasties from the movie Hellboy to me.

I'll probably still rent this one, but I was hoping for better. I thought Cameron's attention to detail would make for a better science fiction film than this, but I guess I was wrong.

Who said it was going to be a hard core Science Fiction based on known physics?

Its official classification so far (Its still in production) is, Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/

Just put your pre-conceptions aside, wait until it its actually released, go watch it with an open mind ... you might just enjoy it.

For me ... I'm avoiding the trailer and looking forward to seeing it on the big screen.

[Tuckerfan]

Meh. I don't see anything in the trailer which has my alarm bells pinging that it'll be a total suck job and I am not a huge Cameron fan by any stretch of the imagination (I think that T2 was lame and cliched, I preferred The Abyss when it was called 2001: A Space Odyssey, never saw the boat movie, and think that Alien 2 is over-hyped.), I am a bit concerned by the fact that there's only one line of dialogue in the trailer, since that's what Cameron's really bad with.

[timb]

Who said it was going to be a hard core Science Fiction based on known physics?

Its official classification so far (Its still in production) is, Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/

Just put your pre-conceptions aside, wait until it its actually released, go watch it with an open mind ... you might just enjoy it.

For me ... I'm avoiding the trailer and looking forward to seeing it on the big screen.

Why pay to see rubbish?

[peter eldergill]

Alien 2 (Aliens) is on Spike TV right now. I'm guessing due to hype over Avatar?

Pete

[matthewota]

I wish they would make movies like they used to, with more emphasis on plot, character, and interaction instead of quick cut flashy special effects.
Too many action movies are out. But I guess that is what the 16-30 demographic wants.

[novaderrik]

I wish they would make movies like they used to, with more emphasis on plot, character, and interaction instead of quick cut flashy special effects.
Too many action movies are out. But I guess that is what the 16-30 demographic wants.

yeah, and what's with all this fancy "sound" and "colors" that all the kids these days want to see in their moving pictures..

[Rift]

Jame Cameron's a bully. He told Nickelodeon that he would sue the live action movie "The Last Airbender" based on the cartoon "Avatar: the Last Airbender" or aka "Avatar: the Adventures of Aang", when Nickelodeon clearly had the rights because name for Avatar the cartoon was around about six years before James Cameron even named his stupid movie.

It was a case of 'who blinked first', and money always wins out on those situations.

Not that I'm going to waste money to see either movie... (And I'm a huge Avatar: The Last Airbender, i just prefer cartoon to lame CGI and lamer casting choices)

[Paul Beardsley]

I knew nothing about Avatar until I saw the trailer on the news yesterday (I think) when I caught the end and rewound it to watch the whole thing.

Clearly it isn't hard SF. My overriding impression was that the ground-based scenes are from a dreamy fantasy and the spaceship scenes are from an unrelated project (though I quickly realised I was wrong about this). Anyway, the upshot of it is that it shouldn't be watched as hard SF. It's a film about imagery that can be made to work with the available 3D techniques rather than a film based on the latest speculations about ET life.

Enjoy it as a dreamy fantasy with spaceships, or not. Thanks to the trailer, Cameron is playing fair with the audience. He might think he's made his own 2001, but he's demonstrated that he's actually made his own Star Wars.

[HenrikOlsen]

Clearly it isn't hard SF. My overriding impression was that the ground-based scenes are from a dreamy fantasy and the spaceship scenes are from an unrelated project (though I quickly realised I was wrong about this). Anyway, the upshot of it is that it shouldn't be watched as hard SF. It's a film about imagery that can be made to work with the available 3D techniques rather than a film based on the latest speculations about ET life.

I first though the spaceship scenes were screen captures from an X3-reunion game played on a sub-par machine until I realized they're supposedly state of the art CGI.
I'm going back to wasting time with X3 rather than waste time on that movie, it's more fun and I get to be the one to blow up capital ships with a fighter

[jokergirl]

For a second I thought this was about the upcoming Cartoon-to-Film adaptation Avatar-the last Airbender, which I also would have liked to like but was utterly destroyed by the casting already (making a purely ethical cast purely white).
But that explains the Avatar announcements with the blue-skinned guys at least, I didn't remember those from the cartoon.

[Tuckerfan]

For a second I thought this was about the upcoming Cartoon-to-Film adaptation Avatar-the last Airbender, which I also would have liked to like but was utterly destroyed by the casting already (making a purely ethical cast purely white).
But that explains the Avatar announcements with the blue-skinned guys at least, I didn't remember those from the cartoon.

So, having M. Night Shamalamadingdong (or however you spell his last name) direct wasn't a deal breaker for you? I've never seen any of his movies, but the word "trite" comes to mind, based on the comments I've heard from people I trust, who've seen his movies and found them to be lacking.

[jokergirl]

So, having M. Night Shamalamadingdong (or however you spell his last name) direct wasn't a deal breaker for you? I've never seen any of his movies, but the word "trite" comes to mind, based on the comments I've heard from people I trust, who've seen his movies and found them to be lacking.

Not really. He's done OK movies as well.

Back on the topic of the other movie though, I'm not quite sure what I should think about the plot - humans fighting against indigenous aliens? Isn't that somehow politically incorrect?

[Doodler]

So, having M. Night Shamalamadingdong (or however you spell his last name) direct wasn't a deal breaker for you? I've never seen any of his movies, but the word "trite" comes to mind, based on the comments I've heard from people I trust, who've seen his movies and found them to be lacking.

Shammalamma's got a gem or two in the collection. I thought Unbreakable was a fantastic twist on superhero origin movies.

[KaiYeves]

For a second I thought this was about the upcoming Cartoon-to-Film adaptation Avatar-the last Airbender, which I also would have liked to like but was utterly destroyed by the casting already (making a purely ethical cast purely white).

Purely white? But shouldn't the waterbenders be Inuit or something, seeing as they live at the poles?

[jokergirl]

Purely white? But shouldn't the waterbenders be Inuit or something, seeing as they live at the poles?

Yes, they should. But they somehow morphed into a blonde girl and an equally white guy.
(I don't mind Aang and Zuko so much as they could go either way for me - but the waterbenders should definitely be Inuit!)

[Cruithne3753]

Good to see I'm not the only one underwhelmed by it. Blue magick pixies? Meh.

[SkepticJ]

Well, I, for one, will be seated fourth-row opening night at the IMAX.

I know Cameron is a hack writer/director, creator of such schlock-fests as The Terminator (and its even more pathetic sequel), Aliens, The Abyss, True Lies and Titanic, but I just can't help myself.

I mean come on, the highest rating the man's movies can manage is "100% fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes. If this doesn't show him to be the incompetent he so clearly is, I don't know what can.

[KaiYeves]

Yes, they should. But they somehow morphed into a blonde girl and an equally white guy.
(I don't mind Aang and Zuko so much as they could go either way for me - but the waterbenders should definitely be Inuit!)

It's a whole world. It has climate zones and biomes. People live all over it. They're going to have different skin tones!

[SimK81]

Hi guys, this is my first post here. I pretty glad to have found a forum with people that actually give a crap about science. I love science first, and my interest in science fiction is born of that, but it drives me insane that I have to sit through the dumbest non-science "very small rocks float" logic in hollywood sci fi movies... but enough venting.



I'm a big fan of James Cameron's movies, so I've been keeping a close eye on the progress of this movie.

Giant floating rocks. I thought this was supposed to be a science fiction film, not a fantasy film. While I might accept giant floating rocks in a Dungeons and Dragons type of setting, in a serious science fiction film it's just laughable. Somebody needed to tell Mr. Cameron that this was just a dumb idea. I mean, really, giant floating rocks? Seriously?

Yeah I had a definite WTF? moment myself. I read the extreme human interest in Pandora's resources has to do with some form of exotic mineral ore, so I suspected the giant floaty rocks had something to do with it, turns out I was right. I just read today in a video game magazine that the "mineral" is some kind of exotic monopolar magnetic material called funnily enough "Unobtanium" LOL. I gotta admit I love the name as it is a reference to a form of handwavium tech that may never be possible. So in other words, it's a potential source for "antigravity". No more "dumb" really, and somewhat more realistic than "spice" or "dilethium" crystals ; ).

The blue guys. While I can accept a bit of a humanoid appearance, the blue aliens still look just a little too human. The females even have human-style breasts, for crying out loud, a feature not even found on most species on earth. There's also a scene in the trailer that shows a blue alien female crying tears of sorrow. As far as I know, there is only one species we know of here on earth that sheds tears for emotional reasons, and that's us. I'm supposed to believe that an alien species happens to show grief in exactly the same way as us, when countless species on earth don't?

The good news is that Wayne Barlowe did the conceptual designs for the aliens! I would go see this movie just for that. A far as the humanoid aliens go, the movie is love story told mostly from their perspective as victims of a human invasion (think ID4 in reverse) so they had to be very humanoid for the audience to be able to relate. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to see a love seen with the aliens from D9 LOL Plus it's far more important to me that the aliens look like they could have actually evolved, (which they do) which means they are possible, albeit an EXTREMELY unlikely case of highly (and I mean highly) convergent evolution.

BTW you missed one. They have very human chins, something that is largely unique to H. sapiens.

The lead's wheelchair. If the humans possess the technology to have big mecha/gundham things walking around, why would the main character need a wheelchair? Wouldn't the technology be available to hook him up to a mini-gundham to walk around with?

Or better yet, wouldn't they use that extremely advanced neuroscience to create a new spinal cord? I'm going to hope he was freshly injured and he doesn't have health insurance due to it being a preexisting condition lol.

Where have I seen this before? The big beastie in the woods bears more than a passing resemblance to the beasties from the movie Hellboy to me.

That's because Wayne Barlowe designed both of them = ) Good eye!



BTW I'm surprised the Hard-SF guys didn't noticed the only realistic starship (and dropship) I've ever seen in the beginning of the trailer. BTW 2001 doesn't count since it wasn't a FTL starship.

I wish they would make movies like they used to, with more emphasis on plot, character, and interaction instead of quick cut flashy special effects.
Too many action movies are out. But I guess that is what the 16-30 demographic wants.

From what I've read the movie will have a pretty good plot with the focus on character, hence the overly humanoid aliens.

yeah, and what's with all this fancy "sound" and "colors" that all the kids these days want to see in their moving pictures..

LMAO

Jame Cameron's a bully. He told Nickelodeon that he would sue the live action movie "The Last Airbender" based on the cartoon "Avatar: the Last Airbender" or aka "Avatar: the Adventures of Aang", when Nickelodeon clearly had the rights because name for Avatar the cartoon was around about six years before James Cameron even named his stupid movie.

I like the cartoon too, but I think Cameron had the script written 14 years ago, long before Avatar ever came out.

I knew nothing about Avatar until I saw the trailer on the news yesterday (I think) when I caught the end and rewound it to watch the whole thing.

Clearly it isn't hard SF. My overriding impression was that the ground-based scenes are from a dreamy fantasy and the spaceship scenes are from an unrelated project (though I quickly realised I was wrong about this). Anyway, the upshot of it is that it shouldn't be watched as hard SF. It's a film about imagery that can be made to work with the available 3D techniques rather than a film based on the latest speculations about ET life.

Enjoy it as a dreamy fantasy with spaceships, or not. Thanks to the trailer, Cameron is playing fair with the audience. He might think he's made his own 2001, but he's demonstrated that he's actually made his own Star Wars.

once again, humanoid aliens and flying rocks aside, the alien wildlife is supposed to be very alien. Check out the critters show in the game > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5LA9rc0ZVs

Good to see I'm not the only one underwhelmed by it. Blue magick pixies? Meh.

They looked like 10 foot tall cat people to me :shrugs:

[SimK81]

That's the whole point really. Considering human history, I think it's a pretty realistic guess to how we would interact with a less advanced alien culture if it happened to be in the way of an important natural resource. Makes me think of a recent war in fact....

[jokergirl]

That's the whole point really. Considering human history, I think it's a pretty realistic guess to how we would interact with a less advanced alien culture if it happened to be in the way of an important natural resource. Makes me think of a recent war in fact....

Sure, but don't expect me to root for the humans, then.

[HenrikOlsen]

[*]The lead's wheelchair. If the humans possess the technology to have big mecha/gundham things walking around, why would the main character need a wheelchair? Wouldn't the technology be available to hook him up to a mini-gundham to walk around with?

Because the pilot controls them with limb movements, arms linked to arms, legs linked to legs. Like the loader Ripley used in Aliens. At least that's always been the only way I've been able to consider the controls for such a beastie.
A cripple couldn't use such controls.

[KaiYeves]

Back on the topic of the other movie though, I'm not quite sure what I should think about the plot - humans fighting against indigenous aliens? Isn't that somehow politically incorrect?

Aliens are the recourse for stories it's politically incorrect to tell using people now.

[novaderrik]

Aliens are the recourse for stories it's politically incorrect to tell using people now.

aliens have always filled in for some group of humans. it's kind of the main point behind science fiction- to talk about things on earth using places and creatures from somewhere else.

[Delvo]

Where did the idea come from that the blue characters are aliens? Did someone connected to the movie say that? The trailer indicates pretty clearly that they're humans with modification, and the title goes along with that...

[SkepticJ]

Where did the idea come from that the blue characters are aliens? Did someone connected to the movie say that? The trailer indicates pretty clearly that they're humans with modification, and the title goes along with that...

You know, that's a really good point, there.

The only indication I know of that they're supposed to be aliens is something I read awhile back on the movie that the movie is about a conflict between humans and the indigenous inhabitants of a planet. Indigenous doesn't necessarily have to mean they originated there. Australian Aborigines are indigenous to the Land Down Under, but their ancestors came from elsewhere, of course.

Maybe the "aliens" are just the descendants of people who wanted to play World of Warcraft for real.

[SimK81]

The Na'vi are the natives of the planet/moon. The one you see in the tank is actually a na'vi human hybrid. The true na'vi have thinner bodies and four fingers and toes. I really don't see the problem with them, since they could evolve, it's just very unlikely they would end up looking so much like us. Unlikely does not = impossible. let's put it this way, what if out of a million different sentient species in the galaxy, they just happen to be the most humanoid? Where it would be bad is if the movie had dozens of fugly headed english speaking huma... I mean aliens. I'm looking at you Star Trek.

[novaderrik]

Star Trek has the Universal Translator. apparently, everyone from every species is issued one.

[SimK81]

That instantly teaches them perfect English, even to species that may have completely different vocal cords lol. Actually in this movie they designed an entire language for them and some of the na'vi have learned to speak very broken english. I also like how they pulled it off in D9. I for example can understand more Chinese than I can actually speak, so it makes sense that they could understand each other's language but not speak it.

BTW Star Trek would be great if in the reboot they explained that all the humanoid races come from early humans taken from Earth 200,000 years ago OR if it took place 10,000 years in the future and they were all descended from us. Actually suggested the idea to some Trekkies on the Trek forum.... they hated it.