Friday, August 21, 2009

Avatar

I'm going to see the first fifteen minutes of Avatar today. I had to enter a competition to win them, but seeing as I know a couple of people who have also 'won' tickets, I reckon that it's all a clever marketing ploy to stir up excitement.

Which is good right? It's nice to feel excited. It should be akin to what people felt going to see the original Star Wars (which I haven't seen), or Jaws or similar.

I'll tell you what's not exciting though - The Avatar trailer. Again, they stirred up some anticipation with a countdown to the trailer's release. 5 days to go! 2 days! 3 hours! 5 mins...... and.... it looks a bit shit. Average plot. CG still looks like CG, and naturally it's criminally overused. But if you think about it, how good can it look, in a little computer window, in 2d? Hence the unprecedented (as far as I know) ploy of bringing people into the cinemas, so that they can experience the real selling point for this film - the 3d.

Lets not make any mistakes here. This is not going to be a filmmaking masterpiece. This is the guy who directed 'Titanic'. It's not even going to be a blockbuster in its own right. Titanic was huge because it was a story that appealed to a huge variety of audiences. Avatar is a sci-fi film. It can't possibly attract as wide an audience. What the success of the film rests on, is what some people call a gimmick, and what others call the future of cinema. In other words, the 3d better look pretty fucking amazing.

Do you know what's really offputting? Cameron is comparing Avatar to the Matrix. What the hell? Surely he could set his sights higher than that....

Anyway, lets see what the first 15 minutes look like...