In case you missed it, the debut trailer for James Cameron's Avatar is now online, showing off what is - already in trailer form - one of the most impressive looking sci-fi/fantasy films ever made.

To accompany the debut trailer for the movie, we also have a few screenshots from the game that will ship when it launches this December 18, from Ubisoft Montreal, check them out below.

http://www.ausgamers.com/gameres/4742/images/230/AVTR_SCREEN_Helicopter_Sturmbeest_Hunt_light.jpg http://www.ausgamers.com/gameres/4742/images/230/AVTR_SCREEN_NG_Helicopter_Flyover_light.jpg http://www.ausgamers.com/gameres/4742/images/230/AVTR_SCREEN_NG_Thanator_vs_Ampsuit_light.jpg

We also have an interview session, hosted and filmed by Ubisoft with both the film and game's producers you can view here.

They link to Max Payne 3 screenshots?

fixed

that looks pretty cool. might have to go see that one

omg just saw this on sbs news and wet my pants!

All hail Cameron, exciting times my friends..

i dropped a cjay avatar on my monitor!

cinema history?

Looks great.

This movie looks amazing. The CGI is incredible!

Is there a book for this?

Judging by the trailer it looked really crap... sorry James and all you nerds but it just doesn't grab me at all. How can he take this long to make this average looking film?! Is this the same James Cameron!?@

Yeah I didn't get it either opec, not terribly impressive at all.

Yeah you have to read somethinh like wikipedia first coz they dont explain the srtory really.

Anyone know how to get a direct link to the 1080p trailer on apple's website.
I don't want to use Quicktime.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_%282009_film%29

The story’s protagonist, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), is a former Marine who was wounded and paralyzed from the waist down in combat on Earth. Jake is selected to participate in the Avatar program, which will enable him to walk. Jake travels to Pandora, a lush jungle-covered extraterrestrial moon filled with incredible life forms, some beautiful, many terrifying. Pandora is also home to the Na’vi, a sentient humanoid race that humans consider primitive, yet are more physically capable than humans. Standing three meters tall, with tails and sparkling blue skin, the Na’vi live in harmony with their unspoiled world. As humans encroach deeper into Pandora's forests in search of valuable minerals, the Na’vi unleash their formidable warrior abilities to defend their threatened existence.

Jake has unwittingly been recruited to become part of this encroachment. Since humans are unable to breathe the air on Pandora, they have created genetically-bred human-Na’vi hybrids known as Avatars. The Avatars are living, breathing bodies that are controlled by a human "driver" through a technology that links the driver's mind to their Avatar body. On Pandora, through his Avatar body, Jake can be whole once again. Sent deep into Pandora's jungles as a scout for the soldiers that will follow, Jake encounters many of Pandora's beauties and dangers. There he meets a young Na’vi female, Neytiri, whose beauty is only matched by her ferocity in battle.

Over time, Jake integrates himself into Neytiri's clan, and begins to fall in love with her. As a result, Jake finds himself caught between the military-industrial forces of Earth, and the Na’vi, forcing him to choose sides in an epic battle that will decide the fate of an entire world.

Except for the "sci-fi part, it sounded just like he ripped it off from Dances with Wolves (which, IMO is a great film). It sounded so corny and predictable and story line still doesn't grab me... I think it's just over hyped. It might make a great game, however as a "movie" I think it misses the mark for me.

Lynx: Read this:
http://www.hd-trailers.net/blog/2009/08/20/direct-download-links-from-apple-are-not-working/

I haven't seen Dances with Wolves, but regardless, its JAMES MOTHERf***ING CAMERON.

I debated long and hard about watching this trailer; I am so keen to see this (in the vague hope that its going to be a movie that I'm going to watch and it's not going to make me want to weep tears of blood at the state of the movie industry) and didn't want the trailer to do the usual thing it does and spoil it. I found it set the scene and story really well - really subtle but it's pretty clear what's going on story-wise

I have to say, I'm excited about seeing a good film from James Cameron... but even he doesn't have the ability to make over use of CG appealing. The T1000 was revolutionary... but the best part was how infrequently we saw it in action. This looks overdone... but hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Sadly, like all CG-reliant movies, this just looked like watching a computer game, which, really, it is.

Unfortunatly billy its people like yourself (this is not an insult) who dont know what it takes to produce a full CG movie to the calibre that Avatar is shaping up too be.

It really is something awesome

Unfortunatly billy its people like yourself (this is not an insult) who dont know what it takes to produce a full CG movie to the calibre that Avatar is shaping up too be.

It really is something awesome

how come that's unfortunate? If a CG movie looks silly or stupid or just plain sucks because it has a stupid story, even if it took thousands of people millions of hours to make and using all their skill, you still shouldn't feel like you have to like it just cuz it was hard to make, surely

I think what Eds is saying that he appreciates the technical difficulty as much as people who only enjoy a movie for the overall plot/storyline.

I'm consistently surprised at peoples inability when they encounter a plothole or some minor prob with a movie, to invent some filler material for themselves which allows the story to flow on and get more out of it instead of being "s*** story, massive plot hole" and leaving disgruntled.

That said, there are some movies can't be saved by doing so, fortunately I'm pretty good at this so I don't often get disappointed. Sure it's nice to see a movie where they get the whole lot together an just do it right. Unfortunately, there aren't that many talented producers/directors out there that can, even high profile ones.

Pretty much what hermi said.

I see it from a different light, my brother works at weta, worked on the movie and Iv seen a lot of it coming along from a while back and the technology and systems involved to make it is rather impressive.

I am no expert, but after working at Pandemic for 3 + years and being exposed to Weta a lot, I have a keen interest in this sort of thing.

The unfortunate part was, They have made this amazing CG movie, and only people who are interested in the technical side may really enjoy it, people looking for a story and dont care may not, I dont know yet but that is what I was refering too

its james cameron ffs. of course its gonna have an awesome story.

Has Sam Worthington been typecast already lol...

p.s. that cg looks like a mixture of really good and really s*** (fingers crossed for good story).

Yeah, I dunno about this, its been so hyped up to be something amazing and revolutionary and really the trailer just looked like any other sci-fi movie to me. I was hoping it would have the potential to be as badass as Aliens, but from the trailer it looks very colourful and happy and family friendly, so its kind of turned me off. And the CG, while its very impressive and I'm sure a lot of people worked very hard to make it, just has the same fake, too perfect, too clean, too smooth, too shiny look that all the CG they made for the new Star Wars prequels had.

I haven't seen Dances with Wolves, but regardless, its JAMES MOTHERf***ING CAMERON.

Ok I don't know if it's a coincidence but just today I posted a wow collectors edition to a person named James Cameron.

The guy plays wow.

That video interview is horrible, the two guys keep jerking each other off. Ubisoft is the best! Nothing about the game, more about how it was made, more about how they've jerked each other off. Hi can I get more info on the game. on top of that, the interviewer is annoying as hell.

last edited by greazy at 23:23:06 25/Aug/09

Pretty much what hermi said.

I see it from a different light, my brother works at weta, worked on the movie and Iv seen a lot of it coming along from a while back and the technology and systems involved to make it is rather impressive.

I am no expert, but after working at Pandemic for 3 + years and being exposed to Weta a lot, I have a keen interest in this sort of thing.

The unfortunate part was, They have made this amazing CG movie, and only people who are interested in the technical side may really enjoy it, people looking for a story and dont care may not, I dont know yet but that is what I was refering too

yeh I sorta know how you feel; I find it hard to think about games as anything other than discrete chunks of technology for delivering content to users now (rather than, say, something you do to enjoy).

@Hermi

Pretty much! I often enjoy films even if they weren't spectacular. I find out if a movie has been given some good reviews first to make sure I'm not seeing a flop, but other than that, I don't go into the cinema looking for bad parts of a movie, I go into to hopefully enjoy it and usually do. That being said, I tend to only see the widely praised movies, which probably helps.

@Khel

Yeah but the Star Wars prequel CGI was pretty s*** (impressive but terribly overpolished) :P But the worse thing is that he f***ed up the story in regards to the sequel saga! TSK TSK

No he didn't

I see it from a different light, my brother works at weta, worked on the movie and Iv seen a lot of it coming along from a while back and the technology and systems involved to make it is rather impressive.

I am no expert, but after working at Pandemic for 3 + years and being exposed to Weta a lot, I have a keen interest in this sort of thing.

The unfortunate part was, They have made this amazing CG movie, and only people who are interested in the technical side may really enjoy it, people looking for a story and dont care may not, I dont know yet but that is what I was refering too

Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate the effort that go into something like this after all I am also a tech minded person but you can still spend a lot of efforts to make a "flop", perhaps too over worked, over loved or you're just basically blinded by your own bias because it's your "baby".

Basically you've made something which you (or very few) can truely appreciate - which is fine if that's your goal or you're making an art house film but, this is supposed to be a blockbuster movie and it's meant to make a s*** load of cash so it has to appeal to people like Billy (for example).

I personally don't really care if it's CGI or real or whatever as long as the plot is good but, damn from the small chunks that I lifed from Wiki it is just well pretty lame for a "James Cameron". I guess everyone's allowed to make a mistake every once in a while, even if you're James Cameron.

Like I said the "movie" part might be a flop but the game will probably sell really well.

No he didn't

Well maybe not f***ed up, but it was inconsistent with the original saga. For one, Anakin met Obi Wan as a star pilot (one of the obvious differences).

@Opec

This may be true, but you haven't seen the movie yet, nor have I. So I'll pass judgement once its out. Too me it looks like it could be quite good.

too early to call imo. i'll wait till i see it before i bag it or give it props... but personally i thought the trailer looked pretty epic. :D i have no idea what the story is about yet tho... don't wanna know till i see it.

it puzzles me how people knock good cgi as 'too clean n shiny'...maybe they should use fkn muppets like the original star wars huh? ;p yeh that was just so awesome. heh

@Opec

This may be true, but you haven't seen the movie yet, nor have I. So I'll pass judgement once its out. Too me it looks like it could be quite good.

Hence the:

I personally don't really care if it's CGI or real or whatever as long as the plot is good but, damn from the small chunks that I lifed from Wiki it is just well pretty lame for a "James Cameron". I guess everyone's allowed to make a mistake every once in a while, even if you're James Cameron.

So yeah I guess at this point it already doesn't grab me so.... I'll wait to watch it on Blu-ray :):)

It will be interesting too see how it looks finished considering the deadline issues they are having on the film at the moment as well.

Which explains where there is a mix of good and bad CG

a lot of people seem to be forgetting that its the 3d thats supposed to be revolutionary, not the CGI.

after reading peoples opinions of the 15min preview last week, i cant f***ing wait to see it in 3d.

@torgles: Historically a lot of stuff is valued because of how hard it was to do above a lot of other criteria.

Take a look at the pyramids. They're just big piles of rock, right? If someone started building them today there wouldn't be a lot of excitement, and yet they are one of the wonders of the world! Their value is almost entirely due to the context of their building, the accompolishment, time and effort etc.

Art (especially realistic portraits) are obliterated by photography in terms of ease and correctness. And yet a good portrait can still be worth many thousands of dollars, even though it is technically inferior to a photograph, Primarily because of the skill and time involved.

Now all that said a popular movie really has to be entertaining above all else, even though people who appreciate the craft involved might be excited about technical aspects. This isn't a tech demo :)

No one ever said it was. It was merely said that while some people can appreciate it for its tech, I felt it was a shame people who might not like the story couldnt appreciate that because they will feel it was rubbish as a whole.

it puzzles me how people knock good cgi as 'too clean n shiny'...maybe they should use fkn muppets like the original star wars huh? ;p yeh that was just so awesome. heh

Or they could use a lot more 'real' props and actors and stuff, like they did with Lord of the Rings. I got no problem with CGI, but when you start fully making characters in CGI and then placing them into a set which is made with CGI, it just starts becoming hard to swallow and looks a bit too wrong for my liking.

Or they could use a lot more 'real' props and actors and stuff, like they did with Lord of the Rings. I got no problem with CGI, but when you start fully making characters in CGI and then placing them into a set which is made with CGI, it just starts becoming hard to swallow and looks a bit too wrong for my liking.

See I quite enjoy pure CGI flicks, but that's more in the way of appreciating animation than anything else. They are often quite visually stunning.

a lot of people seem to be forgetting that its the 3d thats supposed to be revolutionary, not the CGI.

after reading peoples opinions of the 15min preview last week, i cant f***ing wait to see it in 3d.

Agreed, I think a lot of the angst is misdirected. I'm reserving my opinion until I get to check it out in full 3D glory.

Personally I will be happy if I get to see some blue penis.

You musta loooved Watchmen then eh?

^
Surely the penis comment was a plant for Watchmen response.

Nobody could ever watch that movie and not think of it when "blue penis" is mentioned, ever again.

Take a look at the pyramids. They're just big piles of rock, right? If someone started building them today there wouldn't be a lot of excitement, and yet they are one of the wonders of the world! Their value is almost entirely due to the context of their building, the accompolishment, time and effort etc.

Well, yeh, I think that's why people aren't excited about the CG in avatar in this thread - cuz it's all relative, and relative to everything else, it's just another CG movie in an ever growing pool of CG movies.

That being said, its not often a serious and lifelike CG movie is done (such as FF spirits within).

Looks like a really good video game trailer.

Maybe that's what JC should have done - make Avatar an Interactive Game.

Available on PC, Xbox360, PS3 just not at the movies.

They are...

That's how derailed this thread is.

People have started thinking it's about the movie.

Well the trailer in the original post is the trailer for the movie

Well the trailer in the original post is the trailer for the movie

OR IS IT! Maybe the game looks exactly the same as the movie.

Id just like to say, 1st of all, it isnt "just another CG movie" maybe try viewing another higher rez trailer.
2nd of all, one of you lads put up the basic plot to the story line. I read it it doesnt really enspire me either just from reading that. Ever read any Scifi/fantasy books? Cuz on the back of the cover there is usually a brief explanation of the story (plot) And they are always the same!

Good guy, bad guy.....bad guy wants to kill good guy and the chick that good guy rescued, who good guy soon discovers he's actually in love with said chick. Will Good guy stop bad guy save the world from tyrranny and save the chick he loves....

They are all the same basic discription of the fkn book!
My point being, dont judge a book by its cover. In this case the "plot" on the back. Its not the plot that makes the story, its the journey that gets you there that makes the story. I mean I think its a safe bet to say that at the end of Avatar they all live happily after. Predictable! but its what happens between the start and the end that matters and being old mate Camerons movie, im sure it will be a hell of a ride.

Bump, but I laughed:

some pics from the game movie

this first one blew me away.



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v338/2122/cinepics05a.jpg


http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/9251/cinepics06a.jpg


http://i25.tinypic.com/10yj8y0.jpg