taksraven Posted August 21, 2009 Posted August 21, 2009 IMHO, they're right at "uncanny valley" of weirdness as they are----they're so human, it's freaky. They even have human hairlines! I'm sure one will have male pattern baldness and sideburns. Actual "aliens" would work/look much better. Best examples of that in a while IMHO are Mass Effect----turians and krogans. Very alien, but still "humanoid" enough to empathize with. Lets be honest though, true "aliens" would not be humanoid, in fact it is unlikely that they would have any features that a human could recognise. I think that "The Masters" in the Tripods TV series were a really good attempt at an alien creature with few, if any, recognisable features (apart from "legs and arms" if you can call them that"), especially since they were achieved with a TV budget...... Taksraven
eugimon Posted August 21, 2009 Posted August 21, 2009 Lets be honest though, true "aliens" would not be humanoid, in fact it is unlikely that they would have any features that a human could recognise. I think that "The Masters" in the Tripods TV series were a really good attempt at an alien creature with few, if any, recognisable features (apart from "legs and arms" if you can call them that"), especially since they were achieved with a TV budget...... Taksraven obviously you missed this bit of news... http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20090817/sc_...ockfoundincomet
taksraven Posted August 22, 2009 Posted August 22, 2009 obviously you missed this bit of news... http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20090817/sc_...ockfoundincomet OK, sorry about that. (Yes, I did notice that story during the week) I was going to suggest that you go out and make a great film about molecular sized aliens but then I realised its already been done.... Taksraven
EXO Posted August 22, 2009 Posted August 22, 2009 True aliens? *Wraps foil around head* It's kinda sad because everyone and their Terminator mother has been waiting for a new Cameron film. A friend told me that the creatures look like ass in the movie and I refused to believe it. When I finally saw it, I was thinking... well it's looks more like a zebra than an ass but I see what you're saying. It's hard to believe that this is the guy that insisted so much on getting the look of the Alien Queen, the Sulaco and the drop ship so right that he ended up drawing them himself. It looks like he went to the dartboard for the approval process this time around. Everything else looks great to me and I'm hoping that the story will be good. But no matter how good the story is I can't help but think that we're finally gonna get what I hoped for back in 2001, a neat little CG feature by a video game maker.
eugimon Posted August 22, 2009 Posted August 22, 2009 so if it was called Final Fantasy: Avatar, we'd all be happy?
EXO Posted August 22, 2009 Posted August 22, 2009 so if it was called Final Fantasy: Avatar, we'd all be happy? I think we'd all be a lot happier than when we saw "James Cameron's Avatar"... but then again this is MW... how long does that happiness last?
electric indigo Posted August 22, 2009 Posted August 22, 2009 Aaaand - we have toys: http://www.sideshowtoy.com/?page_id=4489&sku=300032 I'm not watching the toy market in general, but it seems like Sideshow broke the sound barrier with the pricing.
electric indigo Posted August 22, 2009 Posted August 22, 2009 The detail on the miniature from Sideshow is impressive - look at the closeups from the cockpit. I'm not hating the design as much as I did before, but it still lacks a certain degree of badassness. Someone saw a 15 minute preview of Avatar and was not impressed (after seeing D9 before): http://nznoldor.blogspot.com/
eugimon Posted August 22, 2009 Posted August 22, 2009 true, it's an impressive sculpt, tons of details and pretty huge. I guess the price just throws me off since I'm not particularly impressed with the design... oh well, I'm sure it will make some fan very happy.
EXO Posted August 22, 2009 Posted August 22, 2009 That's BS... that's like the price of a limited run resin kit. How much was the Hot Toys Batmobile again?
Gui Posted August 22, 2009 Posted August 22, 2009 (edited) parts of it look amazing... but I dunno, the whole alien native thing doesn't track for me, reminds me of some bad saturday morning cartoon. Remove the name of the director and you'll think it's a trailer for the next Pixar (which I do respect a lot, but I go see their stuff to find back parts of my childhood, not serious SF) And the mecha design of their AMP or whatever thingie is 25 years old at best: even VOTOMS look more modern. And what is this habit to make the pilot apparent from the outside? The Wachowski retards already did this in Matrix: do they really want their pilots killed by lost bullets or what? C'mon guys: the armor of your mech' is supposed to protect the pilot... 10 years of waiting for this... Edited August 22, 2009 by Gui
eugimon Posted August 22, 2009 Posted August 22, 2009 If only it did remind me of Pixar... at least then it would fill me with a sense of wonder and excitement. Instead of just "meh".
ntsan Posted August 22, 2009 Posted August 22, 2009 Well most people find the 15 min preview complete mind blowing compare to trailer.
Gui Posted August 23, 2009 Posted August 23, 2009 Oh, I'll go see it anyway: it'll not be worse than any other SF movie anyway but still, from Cameron, this looks very disappointing...
taksraven Posted August 24, 2009 Posted August 24, 2009 Is it just me or is the buzz and hype surrounding this film starting to sound like the hype for Titanic b4 it was released? Taksraven
the white drew carey Posted August 24, 2009 Posted August 24, 2009 MW helps me out again. I had heard some time ago about Cameron doing an 'avatar' movie and I just assumed it was the airbender story. I am now informed. He is my favorite director (of course) and I'm pumped about this movie. Found this link: http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/06/08/everyt...amerons-avatar/ Sounds like James Cameron lifted a bit from Ferngully if you ask me.
eriku Posted August 24, 2009 Posted August 24, 2009 (edited) I saw the trailer before Inglorious Basterds. As someone who isn't a follower of James Cameron's work, hasn't been eagerly anticipating Avatar and in fact didn't even know about it until I saw the trailer, I thought it looked mildly interesting at best. I could tell the trailer was designed to "fill the viewer with wonder and amazement" but I didn't really see anything that stirred me. To be honest when I combine the trailer I saw with all of the hype I've been reading, I get a Waterworld sort of feeling. Not that I wish any kind of Waterworld failure upon the movie or anything. Maybe they just did a poor job putting the trailer together. Frankly the other Avatar looks better, but only marginally so. Sort of like when there are two shows on at the same time and you can't decide which one to flip to between commercial breaks of the good show that you're watching and ultimately you decide to flip to neither, mute the commercials and just wait. :/ Edited August 24, 2009 by eriku
DarrinG Posted August 24, 2009 Posted August 24, 2009 With the aliens looking so human they would have been better off doing the whole thing in costumes and use CG to enlarge them throughout the movie. This looks very fake. We're all seeing it on this thread and even my office mates who are not sci fi fans are saying the same. Hmmm - I imagine Cameron has taking serious note of District 9. I bet its success has not made him feel the most secure about his own approach here. Then again, there may be such a huge ego (or extreme confidence?) going on (lucas?) that second guessing at his level just doesn't happen anymore . . .
David Hingtgen Posted August 24, 2009 Posted August 24, 2009 If the "very human looking" aspect is due to studio interference, perhaps it'd have been better if Lucas did it? He's got enough money to do things EXACTLY how he wants. You've gotta admit, Lucas has no qualms about prominently featuring ugly, inhuman aliens.
Mr March Posted August 24, 2009 Posted August 24, 2009 Looks interesting and it's Cameron, so I'm intrigued. I think all the "controversy" is because people bought into Cameron's pre-release hype for the last year now and have experienced something of a prequel-syndrome (read Star Wars). Expectation has gone beyond what it should, so of course the trailer isn't living up to it. I think Cameron's days of zeitgeist-capturing cinema are in the past, but this looks like a very interesting sci-fi film. I'm certainly excited by what I've seen. Given that 2009 has been a watershed year for fun and engaging science fiction cinema (Star Trek, District 9), I'm definitely willing to risk my dollars on Avatar.
nugundamII Posted August 25, 2009 Posted August 25, 2009 This is a career breaker. It looks cool but too cgish. They could have pulled off something decent by doing something like Appleseed/Final Fantasy both versions for a lot less money 200 million is a waste of good money that could feed new biotechnologies. This to me looks like a collage of Delgo+ Dragon Hunters (thinking of all the floating islands) and dinosaur hunter. AND its 3-D which I Personally hate cause wearing glasses in a theater is fartin stupid! 2-D all the way unless its a Holodeck Now there are two Avatar films which is confusing Anybody else think the blue chick is hot Oh and I forgot to add that the story is very similar to Terra http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0858486/
kaiotheforsaken Posted August 25, 2009 Posted August 25, 2009 I'm not sure whose career it'd break. Cameron has basically secured his legacy in film, this isn't going to change that. The dude from Terminator: Salvation was well...in Terminator: Salvation, so he couldn't fall too much more off the radar. I think Sigourney Weaver is in this too, but again, she doesn't do much anymore and she has secured her film legacy. I'm intrigued by this and with the good Sci-fi we've gotten this year I have high hopes.
Mr March Posted September 3, 2009 Posted September 3, 2009 Yeah, saw that on the IMDB hit list a few days ago. Quite good
sharky Posted September 3, 2009 Posted September 3, 2009 Lets be honest though, true "aliens" would not be humanoid, in fact it is unlikely that they would have any features that a human could recognise. I think that "The Masters" in the Tripods TV series were a really good attempt at an alien creature with few, if any, recognisable features (apart from "legs and arms" if you can call them that"), especially since they were achieved with a TV budget...... Taksraven Interesting point you bring up. I wonder about that myself. What is the likelihood that a real alien would be humanoid? The way I see it there are 2 schools of thought. Creation vs evolution. In the case of a creation theory an alien would be made in the image of God as we Earthlings are. In the case of an evolution theory the best possible form would go on to survive and thrive. In our own example of Earth, our humanoid form seems to be the best design for long term survival. But, that is due to Earth's environment. So, I like to think that if a planet is similar to Earth then the aliens would be humanoid in nature. If the life form is capable of surviving on a very different planet where Earthlings cannot survive, then I would think that the alien would take on some strange form that is possibly very un-human like.
EXO Posted September 3, 2009 Posted September 3, 2009 I'm not sure whose career it'd break. Cameron has basically secured his legacy in film, this isn't going to change that. The dude from Terminator: Salvation was well...in Terminator: Salvation, so he couldn't fall too much more off the radar. I think Sigourney Weaver is in this too, but again, she doesn't do much anymore and she has secured her film legacy. I'm intrigued by this and with the good Sci-fi we've gotten this year I have high hopes. Yeah, if Lucas, Spielberg and Ford can survive Indy 4, I'm pretty sure Cameron can survive Avatar. Besides, Cameron can just turn around and say... " No no no... mine was the one with the bald headed kung fu kid... M Night did the blue aliens one... remember Signs?"
taksraven Posted September 3, 2009 Posted September 3, 2009 Yeah, if Lucas, Spielberg and Ford can survive Indy 4, I'm pretty sure Cameron can survive Avatar. Besides, Cameron can just turn around and say... " No no no... mine was the one with the bald headed kung fu kid... M Night did the blue aliens one... remember Signs?" I quite enjoyed Signs. I also enjoyed Contact as well. Guess I like films that a lot of others don't. Taksraven
taksraven Posted September 3, 2009 Posted September 3, 2009 Interesting point you bring up. I wonder about that myself. What is the likelihood that a real alien would be humanoid? The way I see it there are 2 schools of thought. Creation vs evolution. In the case of a creation theory an alien would be made in the image of God as we Earthlings are. In the case of an evolution theory the best possible form would go on to survive and thrive. In our own example of Earth, our humanoid form seems to be the best design for long term survival. But, that is due to Earth's environment. So, I like to think that if a planet is similar to Earth then the aliens would be humanoid in nature. If the life form is capable of surviving on a very different planet where Earthlings cannot survive, then I would think that the alien would take on some strange form that is possibly very un-human like. Not sure if I would consider Creation as a "School of thought". It is interesting to think about though. In the original version of War of the Worlds, the Martians were described as a "bulky, octopus-like creatures the size of a bear", to quote Wikipedia, and this was explained as clearly the best form for surviving on Mars. Its a pity that most filmed versions have made the creatures much more humanoid in appearance, but visual Sci-fi generally prefers to have humanoid aliens. Taksraven
Vepariga Posted November 1, 2009 Posted November 1, 2009 - Trailer 2 New AVATAR Trailer got released last night, i must say its looking great and a very entertaining film even tho it reminds me of a 'Space Pocahontas' lulz,but still looks cool ill be seeing it for sure!
mospeadamacrosstech Posted November 1, 2009 Posted November 1, 2009 True aliens? *Wraps foil around head* It's kinda sad because everyone and their Terminator mother has been waiting for a new Cameron film. A friend told me that the creatures look like ass in the movie and I refused to believe it. When I finally saw it, I was thinking... well it's looks more like a zebra than an ass but I see what you're saying. It's hard to believe that this is the guy that insisted so much on getting the look of the Alien Queen, the Sulaco and the drop ship so right that he ended up drawing them himself. It looks like he went to the dartboard for the approval process this time around. Everything else looks great to me and I'm hoping that the story will be good. But no matter how good the story is I can't help but think that we're finally gonna get what I hoped for back in 2001, a neat little CG feature by a video game maker. Movies are a means to temporarily escape our own world and reality. Sadly, the industry is so inbreed and regurgitated from previous endeavors, that it almost never succeeds in that simple task. I have heard so many people bash Avatar. Or think little of it. I think part of this has to do with the fact that it's James Cameron. The mastermind who brought us the Abyss. Aliens. Terminator. And yes, Titanic. I think we have such high expectations for Avatar, that we're not really giving it a chance. Another thing to consider is the few breadcrumbs we've seen of this (no thanks to Fox's atrocious ad campaign) does not portray this film in the proper light. Keep in mind, this film was made exclusively for the 3D median. Not too many have had a chance to see the footage in a good 3D theater. Trust me. Once you see this in 3D, it makes all the difference in the world. You will take off your shoe, and put your foot in your mouth. Avatar will be brilliant. It will dazzle you, and do what so rarely happens anymore: take you to a place you have not been before... Even if you don't like some of the creature designs. I think after you see the film, you will feel different.
anime52k8 Posted November 2, 2009 Posted November 2, 2009 Even if you don't like some of the creature designs. I think after you see the film, you will feel different. and if I don't should I come knocking on your door first demanding my money back, or should I just go strait to Mr. Cameron?
mospeadamacrosstech Posted November 2, 2009 Posted November 2, 2009 and if I don't should I come knocking on your door first demanding my money back, or should I just go strait to Mr. Cameron? This isn't Micheal Bay we're talking about. James Cameron is talented, and won't let us down. Have some faith.
derex3592 Posted November 2, 2009 Posted November 2, 2009 (edited) This isn't Micheal Bay we're talking about. James Cameron is talented, and won't let us down. Have some faith. Yeah....I watched the 3-minute trailer before the Cowboys game today.....looks MILDLY interesting at best........I'm trying to get pumped up about this...... Edited November 2, 2009 by derex3592
macrossnake Posted November 2, 2009 Posted November 2, 2009 Even if you don't like some of the creature designs. I think after you see the film, you will feel different. It looks a little better(by adjust the satruation) and interesting, than the first trailer. But the alien still looks like Thunder Cat to me.
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