Are you excited for James Cameron's Avatar? You better be, or he'll CRUSH YOU

The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.

0 comments

Are you excited for James Cameron's Avatar? You better be, or he'll CRUSH YOU

POSTED: Tuesday, October 20, 2009, 2:00 PM

Filed Under: Movies trailer!

New York Mag's excellent Vulture blog has a hilarious dissection of Dana Goodyear's New Yorker profile of uber-director James Cameron, where they break up the piece a la Chuck Norris Facts. It works surprisingly well. My favorite is this one:

' James Cameron signs all correspondence "Jim out."

I haven't read the New Yorker piece yet, but Goodyear is characteristically excellent and I love James Cameron (he can't write for shit ' hello, Titanic ' but you can't argue with the dude's vision) so I look forward to it. But it all got me thinking about Avatar, Cameron's impending epic, which opens nationwide on December 18, just in time to score that visual effects Oscar (although, Where the Wild Things Are will certainly give it a run for its money).

Cameron is known for essentially creating new technology in order to realize what he sees in his head and I still think Terminator 2: Judgment Day looks amazing, despite being made some 18 years ago.
But what about Avatar? Reports had the budget ballooning to $300 million so Cameron could create the necessary technology but when the trailer was released a couple months ago, the Internet blew up with a lot of "WTF? Cameron's first narrative feature post-Titanic is this?" Judge for yourself below:

I gotta agree with the Internet on this one. What's up with the cat people? Granted, most of us are viewing this on computers and a big screen experience means it will look different but this is no plasma-people like T2 or no epic proportions, like Titanic. In short, it looks stupid.

What worries me most of all, though, is that Avatar seems as if its one of those Cameron movies that lacks his trademark wit (to say it once more, Titanic) and half of Cameron's affability comes from his humor (i.e. the glory that is True Lies). But on the bright side, Sam Worthington was the only reason to see McG's godawful, decidedly humor-less Terminator: Salvation.

Still ' cat people '

What do you think about the Avatar trailer? What do you think about Cameron in general? Hate him and want to go to toe-to-toe with me on it? Love him and want to discuss how you always have to watch True Lies when its on TV (cough, cough)? Post your thoughts in the comments.

Molly out.

Tom Hartman

Posted 2009-10-20 23:36:11

Love Cameron, have no idea what you are talking about with "Titanic." It was extremely well written, it just isn't for those who have no room in their lives for anything sentimental.



Re Avatar, well....have to admit I am less than knocked out...got a SHREK vibe to it. This one may have a lot of trouble equally "Titanic" at the box office because it sure doesn't seem to be a mass appeal movie. This one is going to be for the Matrix crowd, not everyone, like the big ship movie. 



Reserving judgment until Dec., but fairly leery at this point...my gut is that he will need a comeback film after this one...



TH

Bill

Posted 2009-10-21 02:06:05

Avatar looks amazing. It's way too early to judge the story.

Johnny

Posted 2009-10-21 02:51:41

EVERY response I've seen to the "Avatar Day" IMAX screening was nothing less than enthusiastic. Even people who claimed to be "underwhelmed" by the trailer were impressed.



I have no reason to believe that Cameron will deliver a sh*t movie ... he's not George Lucas, even if, in parts, Avatar reeks of the Star Wars prequels.



And BTW, Titanic had an excellent screenplay. Sure the dialog was hit or miss, but it was structured brilliantly...

Chris

Posted 2009-10-21 08:50:42

What's up with the cat people?  What an intelligent question/critique!

Brian

Posted 2009-10-22 02:47:50

Can't write for shit, eh? *Cough! T2, Aliens, The Abyss, COUGH!!*

Posted by Molly Eichel @ 2:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

0 comments

Comments (0)

PHILLY LOVE NOTES: An ode to Spruce Street
Q&A with SHARI SOLANIS: "The goal isn't pornography"
ICE CUBE: In Memoriam: Joe Tartaglia
CONCERT REVIEW & PHOTOS: James Blake @ TLA 5/11
SEXY TIME Q&A: I've never had an orgasm during sex with a man — and I'm 30!
Coming soon to Philly: Two cockamamie movie promotion schemes
What we're trying to do this weekend
Q&A with Tony Goldwyn: "Life is gray, and relationships are, too"
CONCERT REVIEW: Primus (3D & quadraphonic sound) @ The Tower 10/17
CITY PAPER WRITING CONTEST 2013: Send stories! Send poetry!

About this blog

Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

Follow Critical Mass editors Patrick Rapa and Emily Guendelsberger on Twitter:

@mission2denmark | @emilygee

Search this blog:

Topics:

Blog archives:

May
April
March

February
January

Past Archives: