Avatar: The Way of Water

[Wor-Gar]

Some greenish indigenous natives as well (amphibious maybe?), so probably just a slightly different take on the greedy invader story.

I think its Gungans and Nabooians all over again.

 

[The Buffinator]

I think its Gungans and Nabooians all over again.

Meesa gonna pass...

 

[Wor-Gar]

Between this and Snyder's Rebel Moon, I feel like there's a lot of "I can do Star Wars too" going around.

 

[matticus]

 

[Wor-Gar]

This is precisely what I feared this would be -- the usual Cameron blue-collar nonsense.

Like with Lucas, we shall see what happens with a visionary when he can literally control every frame of his 'vision'. The petty obsessions ooze...

 

[choombaz]

Enjoyed but was never a big fan of the first one and this just looks like more of the same thing. You would think after all this time there would be more too it than just better texture rendering but we will see I guess.

 

[Alatar]

Between this and Snyder's Rebel Moon, I feel like there's a lot of "I can do Star Wars too" going around.

Just using Wor-Gar’s comment as a jumping off point.

Avatar has huge potential to create a mythos that has at its heart to be responsible stewards of the land, to be good caretakers of the natural ecology. I’m all for that at the deepest level. I recoil from the identity politics level on both sides, but I have a deep love of the natural world and with our great technological power comes great responsibility. I’m cool with the message that we need to get our **** together In that area.

Obviously this is not the mainstream opinion/taste that I have, but for me Star Wars for the most part is corny as hell. I want to see a more sophisticated adult take on a universe that melds sci-fi and magic.

I loved what is now called ANH when it released in 1977. Obviously it was fresh then, and the special effects were at the time the best we’d ever seen (with the possible exception of 2001: A Space Odyssey). ANH was the least conspicuously derivative of other sources in myth, for me anyway. But that was mainly because the first film was just establishing the mythos that Lucas was cobbling together from various traditional sources. Anyway, I particularly liked how what seemed to be ”sorcery” roughly as, say, Carlos Castaneda had detailed it in the 60s and 70s, was being adapted into a sci-fi setting.

But even with ESB it began to feel to me as though the franchise was drawing heavily from well established tropes in the various fantasy-adventure genres. To make an analogy, in music this is like stringing together licks versus playing what one hears in one’s inner ear. And while the original trilogy worked well commercially by the time the prequels came along it became kind of hopelessly mired. And the more recent reboot films to me failed to capture the special something that very first film achieved.

Now, that being said, I also feel that the Mandalorian is great! It revived the Western genre by placing it in the SW mythos. That felt fresh and so far it has been superbly done. So I am a fan of that although I haven’t watched spinoffs such as Book of Boba Fett. And i would add that success of the Mandalorian does make me somewhat hopeful for the Obi Wan Kenobi origin series. I’ll probably give it a look.

Anyway, I think there’s room for what Star Wars was aiming for originally to be done way better than what the franchise managed to produce. For me there are the exceptions I have noted (i.e., ANH at least was fresh and innovative at the time, and Mandalorian is excellent).

Dune is an already established setting, so for me the question is how faithful can Villenous be? And right out of the gate, already, for me, Timothy Chamelet is not at all who I have always pictured in my mind’s eye as Paul Atreides! I don‘t like that casting. So I can’t be hyped for Villenous’ Dune trilogy. Villenous does not seem to care much about making emotionally relatable and likable characters. I’ll watch the Dune trilogy because it’s Dune. But I do not expect to be hyped by how it develops.

To me Rebel Moon looks very promising. As long as Deborah Snyder and some other creatives help keep Zack relatively grounded to create a world that the mainstream theatergoer will be eager to eat up with a great big spoon, I am actually really hopeful for that franchise. Snyder’s fascination with deconstruction that he showed with Watchmen, MoS, and BvS (and still commenting on deconstruction in ZSJL although that is basically a reconstruction) seems to be sated. I think he’s ready just to tell some grand stories now. And he is an undeniable master of casting, cinematograph, and choosing great composers. It worries me a bit that he’s decided to be his own DP for RM, since his greatest results have been achieved with Larry Fong. But I think RM will nevertheless still look amazing.

I also think that Snyder has the opportunity to hire a team of writers that will do a better job than Lucas did to work with Joseph Campbell hero’s journey themes.

 

[davejames]

Always thought the original movie was hugely underrated, but gotta say the teaser trailer for this one did absolutely nothing for me. Being a Cameron movie I really expected a more exciting buildup towards revisiting this world and characters after 13 years, but instead we just got a boring montage of images and CGI that we can see in any scifi movie or TV show these days.

 

[Wor-Gar]

The planning and shooting (mostly) of 4 sequels to a 13 year old film that does not have much of a following is beyond ambitious. It is either incredible foresight or singular ego. Cameron has both in spades.

I'm sure the spectacle will drive people to the cinema, particularity in places where this is all still very new. But I just can't see it sustaining a #3 and #4 and #5.

I hope I'm wrong; I would love to have another franchise to be excited about and would love to see the MCU's domination of the action/adventure/fantasy genre give way to something new.

 

[matticus]

Cameron said you have to replace your eyeballs with new cyborg implants in order to experience the visual spectrum he created with this new film.

 

[nexus]

Looking forward to Avatar: WotW. The first movie was a fun, action-packed story, a brilliant exercise in world-building, and an amazing technological achievement.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Trailer looks pretty great. I am expecting a lot of negativity after posting it

First poster:

 

[jye4ever]

Felt nothing.

The 2 trailers for the first movie were actually pretty epic.

This trailer seemed like it was embarrassed to be Avatar.

 

[ScoutingForToys]

Trailer didn't really do anything for me either. Looked pretty but I don't get excited for special effects.
The first one, for me personally, had a pretty meh story.
The entertainment I got from it was the 3D and visuals.
This looks like more of the same and it will need more than pretty effects and 3D to get me to go see it.
All these years later, we're used to impressive visuals and 3D.
I think that's partly why so many call the first Avatar overrated.
Once the awe of 3D and the visuals wore off, on subsequent viewings, especially watching it at home, suddenly the film had to rely on its story and script and frankly, take away the jangling keys of the 3D and visual effects, Avatar 1 is a mediocre movie.
It success was down to the 3D and visuals over a story that was just not bad but just ok.
Now we're used to it (visuals and 3D) this movie is going to need a better story than the first. I don't think it will be able to rely on the 3D like the first one could.

 

[greygoose]

I'm definitely interested in this. I was always a fan of the first film, haven't watched in in years though.

 

[jye4ever]

Trailer didn't really do anything for me either. Looked pretty but I don't get excited for special effects.
The first one, for me personally, had a pretty meh story.
The entertainment I got from it was the 3D and visuals.
This looks like more of the same and it will need more than pretty effects and 3D to get me to go see it.

The first movie story is pretty generic and boring however there were some decent action set pieces and a decent villain but I don’t ever rewatch it.

 

[ScoutingForToys]

The first movie story is pretty generic and boring however there were some decent action set pieces and a decent villain but I don’t ever rewatch it.

I agree with your comments on the first movie.
I think this new Avatar either needs to take a huge step up story wise and/or bring some groundbreaking effects, to reach the heights of the first one.

I hope Cameron can pull it off and do something great with this movie but personally, I've seen nothing so far that interests me.

 

[chrisstbh]

1080p trailer for a movie that has nothing going for it but the visuals (which aren’t even anything special these days).

 

[The Buffinator]

Cameron said you have to replace your eyeballs with new cyborg implants in order to experience the visual spectrum he created with this new film.

Maybe that's his way of saying he's going to delay the release again until we're capable of seeing/appreciating his artistic vision. Fine by me!

 

[Otomofan]

It's a perfectly cromulent cartoon or video game, but nothing about it looks like an actual movie to me.