I saw the new Avatar trailer this weekend and felt like I had just witnessed a three and a half minute epic. We have got a big blue alien race, valuable minerals, an exotic new planet, military hardware, and a conscience inspired rebellion. Looks like District 9 (while still very good) was only a warm up. I have complete confidence in Cameron. This is a director notorious for betting the bank on epic projects, and he always comes out on top both critically and commercially. I like to think of him as Michael Bay with talent. Much like the recent trailer for the Coen brothers A Serious Man there is a rundown of Cameron's past projects: The Terminator, Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, True Lies, & Titanic (all awesome). With a track record like that and Twentieth Century Fox in desperate need of a hit I really hope they have one here.
I also must note that I spent a good deal of this weekend watching the little indie thriller Paranormal Activity work its magic on hundreds of people as it finally made it's way to theatres in town. Knowing full well what was going to happen on-screen (I snuck in several times at about the final reel) I found the real show was watching the masses freaking out with fear. Seeing about 250 people jump in unison, and hearing them scream at the top of their lungs is pretty funny stuff. People walked out shaking as if they had just witnessed their mother getting hit by a car.
I pleases me to see that the Saw franchise seems to be running out of steam. Audiences are now more interested and terrified by shadows, wind, and footprints as opposed to mindless slaughter and gore. There might be hope for horror films yet... until Paranormal Activity 2 that is.
2 comments:
I was hopeful about this one, too, but, based on the trailer, I don't think that Cameron has crossed the uncanny valley any more than anyone else has. I'll still see it.
You are right about the uncanny valley. I assumed that for 200 million they could have made the aliens look a little less like CGI effects.
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