James Cameron's Avatar

Trailer.

Looks cool, but not like the second coming like Cameron's been gushing. Beautiful visuals, but the aliens/characters look a little goofy IMO.

Jury's out for now, but it looks like Cameron may have gone Lucas on us. Please Jim, no...

Kinda looks cool, kinda looks like fucking Delgo, reserving judgement.

Cameron kinda went to shit starting with Titanic.

I don't buy that argument. Cameron won the "making money" game with Titanic. He's a smart man. Make a billion dollars, release your vacation films on IMAX.

Also, this isn't based on the avatar TV series, that makes me unhappy.

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Originally Posted by YellerDog

I don't buy that argument. Cameron won the "making money" game with Titanic. He's a smart man. Make a billion dollars, release your vacation films on IMAX.

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Sure, but he used to actually make good films, and still made a lot of money as well.

Sweet jesus, M. Night Shamalaminaminam is doing the fucking Avatar TV series based movie.

Well that kills all hope I have for that as well... I wonder what TWIST he'll come up with for this one.

Aliens, Terminator, True Lies, Abyss, Terminator 2, and Strange Days (countin' it) don't just magically go away because of Titanic.
He's alright. I figure this will be ok, and Battle Angel should be rad. I'm willing to give this a pass if it gets him back into making movies full time.

I don't really get Shamalamadingdong though.

Bruce Willis dies in the first scene.

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Originally Posted by YellerDog

Kinda looks cool, kinda looks like fucking Delgo, reserving judgement.

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Its creepy that I wasn't the only one thinking that.

I could have worked on Delgo. They were right down the road.

This happily was not the case.

Oh man, you should have worked on Delgo. That would have been awesome.

I'd have spent all my time hiding shit in backgrounds.

I dunno, the CG is just not impressive at all. The environments look neat but the blue aliens and creatures don't gel with the live-action stuff at all. It looks like old-school plastic CG. Pixar stuff looks much better.

The environments are really cool, the aliens are straight Delgo.

I don't know though, they seem to move and emote pretty well, but they definitely have a plastic quality to them.

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Originally Posted by Dolemite

I dunno, the CG is just not impressive at all. The environments look neat but the blue aliens and creatures don't gel with the live-action stuff at all. It looks like old-school plastic CG. Pixar stuff looks much better.

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Glad someone thinks the same. The aliens look way too CG. They pop from the more realistic elements. Their skin is plastic and their eyes seem completely uniform. These guys should have taken another long look at Gollum, and better that. Because this is pretty weak.

Fuck, the power loader puppet in Aliens looked more realistic than the battle suits in Avatar.

There HAS to be more to Avatar than this. When Cameron showed footage at Comic-Con the media reportedly lost their minds. wtf.

That's because they were hoping for SWAG!!!

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Originally Posted by Dolemite

Fuck, the power loader puppet in Aliens looked more realistic than the battle suits in Avatar.

There HAS to be more to Avatar than this. When Cameron showed footage at Comic-Con the media reportedly lost their minds. wtf.

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Someone put up a shot of them next to the mechs from Matrix Reloaded, and the ones in Matrix were a lot more detailed. Blur isn't helping Avatar any either.

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Originally Posted by bbobb

Sweet jesus, M. Night Shamalaminaminam is doing the fucking Avatar TV series based movie.

Well that kills all hope I have for that as well... I wonder what TWIST he'll come up with for this one.

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I wouldn't worry about it, the 2 creators of the show wrote the script with him. I dig him as a director and I think the creators will keep him away from his cliche.

This looks like the kind of thing that will be a hoot to see in IMAX 3D, but I don't have expectations for it beyond an entertaining ride.

The CG does look like CG, but I sort of don't care, because there's so much of it, the live action is more jarring than the CG

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Originally Posted by Frogacuda

the live action is more jarring than the CG

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The live-action is more jarring BECAUSE of the CG.

SEMANTICS.

OH MY GOD ALL OVER MY FACE

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Originally Posted by YellerDog

Aliens, Terminator, True Lies, Abyss, Terminator 2, and Strange Days (countin' it) don't just magically go away because of Titanic.
He's alright. I figure this will be ok, and Battle Angel should be rad. I'm willing to give this a pass if it gets him back into making movies full time.

I don't really get Shamalamadingdong though.

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I like Strange Days, but I wouldn't credit it to Cameron too much, he just co-wrote it. But yeah, none of those movies go away, I just want more of those is the problem, and it seems we aren't getting it. Battle Angel SHOULD be rad, but hell, so should Avatar and that trailer ain't doing much for me.

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Originally Posted by Rumpy

I wouldn't worry about it, the 2 creators of the show wrote the script with him. I dig him as a director and I think the creators will keep him away from his cliche.

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Nope, Shyamwow is writing, directing and producing it. The creators have nothing whatsoever to do with the movie script.

hollywood is so stupid. Why won't they let the people that make stuff good, help make other stuff good?

"we're the writers for the show. Everyone loves our writing" "to bad"

The problem with movies like this is that when you take a fantastical creature, and give it a full range of movement impossible to do with animatronics, it will always look fake to people. Since there is no point of reference in reality for you to say "this looks real", it will always look fake to you because you subconsciously know it HAS to be CG.

If Cameron had hypothetically bioengineered one of those pterodactyl things, for example, and the footage of them was real, it would still look like CG.

Yeah, no. It's not the movement that makes them look fake, it's the shiny lack of detail of the CG that makes them such.

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Originally Posted by bbobb

Yeah, no. It's not the movement that makes them look fake, it's the shiny lack of detail of the CG that makes them such.

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Actually yes, the movement IS what makes them look fake, because its too lithe and quick to be animatronic, and too "alien" to fit in an existing frame of reference. This is part of my point. Thats kind of a stupid point to argue though, since neither one of us can give a legitimate argument for what those things should really move like.

The shiny lack of detail I leave up to opinion, I certainly don't see any shiny lack of detail an anything in the trailer where you can possibly SEE detail to begin with.

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Originally Posted by Dolemite

The live-action is more jarring BECAUSE of the CG.

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Yes, I undestand this, I'm just saying that this is Roger Rabbit to me (or maybe more accurately Song of the South, where the live action guy is walking around the cartoon). It doesn't bother me that much.

I thought it looked pretty cool, at least a high res trailer did. Not mind blowing, and yeah full of CG looking things, but cool nevertheless. I'm game.

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Originally Posted by bbobb

Nope, Shyamwow is writing, directing and producing it. The creators have nothing whatsoever to do with the movie script.

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Looks like they're on as Executive Producers. Still, it's not his world, I don't think he'll really try any weirdo twist element.

Anyhoo, Avatar looks neat. I'm sure it'll really pop in IMAX 3D.

1. The film is in 3-D. And as far as I have heard its in 3-D only. So the trailer is not at the true visual prowess.

2. The rumor that was circulated around the time of Comic-Con was from Tom Arnold (posted in Variety Magazine). He got a call from James to save time around November ... They start shooting True Lies 2.

3. The Battle Angel film is under development. They won't greenlight it until they see the results of Avatar.

True Lies 2? Everyone from that movie is like a zillion years old. And what about the Governator's schedule?

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Originally Posted by Melf

True Lies 2? Everyone from that movie is like a zillion years old. And what about the Governator's schedule?

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What about it? November is election time and he's not running.

Ah, ok then.

I just hope we don't have to see Jaime Lee Curtis in her underwear. I really don't think she could pull it off now. :p

I also forgot about this movie.

This will also use the new sound seats in certain theaters. Basically, the seats will move and vibrate with the action. Kinda like those moving rollercoaster video things.

All I can say after watching the trailer is wtf? This looks really really gay. The Hornet from Halo 3 is in this movie though. Speaking of Halo, this shit got a huge budget but studios got cold feet for a Halo flick? Jesus.

embed that shit

I like the quicktime better. Now that firefox can play it on a webpage, instead of launching the player.

God, that trailer made the movie look generic. There's absolutely nothing in there we haven't seen a million times before. Avatar will come out, do ok for itself, and leave a lot of studio execs wondering why it wasn't Mega-Blockbuster.

James

I had never heard of Delgo until now...some obscure CG film, with a bunch of known voice-actors, that didn't even break 1 million while costing 40? Ouch.

This Avatar movie is not at all what I had expected but looks entertaining. Live action does look a little lame compared to all the CG, but it may transition more naturally during the course of the story. I haven't been impressed with these 3D movies yet and will just wait to see it some other way if it will only be played in theaters in 3D.

Yeah, really disappointed. Not only does the CG fail to convince, I haven't seen anything in the trailer that demands the aliens be completely CG-rendered. Not what I expected from Cameron, who's demonstrated in the past how to keep special effects from being a spectacle or distraction. Also, the plot appears incredibly derivative, aside from the actual Avatar premise.

I only want this to succeed, so nothing else gets in the way of Battle Angel's production.

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Originally Posted by Advocate

1. The film is in 3-D. And as far as I have heard its in 3-D only. So the trailer is not at the true visual prowess.

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Gimmick Gimmick Gimmick Gimmick

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2. The rumor that was circulated around the time of Comic-Con was from Tom Arnold (posted in Variety Magazine). He got a call from James to save time around November ... They start shooting True Lies 2.

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This was refuted by Cameron on AICN. There are no plans for True Lies 2, Tom Arnold is just... being Tom Arnold.

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Originally Posted by JoBlo.com

Weren't wowed by yesterday's AVATAR trailer? That might be because you saw it on 2D on your computer instead of in a theater in 3D as it was intended. Fox and James Cameron seem keenly aware of that and realize that even after Avatar Day, there will still be plenty of people they need to win over. How do they plan to do this?

Fox has partnered with Panasonic for an aggressive marketing campaign that will have the 3D footage coming to YOU. How exactly? Panasonic will be taking a number of their 103" 3D compatible HDTVs and creating an AVATAR roadshow, if you will. They'll be installing the TVs inside rather large luxury tractor trailers and heading out on a tour or US and Europe. The truck would presumably stop at your mall or local movie theater and you can head inside to be brainwashed treated to "full HD 3D assets" from AVATAR.

It's unclear when exactly the tour will begin (the press release states simply "this fall") or where it will stop along the way but expect more details soon. This is the one time that it's OK if you a stranger asks you to come inside their truck to see something really cool...

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Originally Posted by C.net; May 20th, '08

REDMOND, Wash.--Filmmaker James Cameron sees the world in stereo. So does everyone else, though, and that's exactly his point.

"When you are viewing in stereo, which is what we do," Cameron said, "more neurons are firing. More blood is pumping through the brain."

Cameron has been a big proponent of making movies in 3D, but he said that the digital projectors going into movie theaters are capable of showing more than just movies. Cameron's talk came as part of Microsoft's Advance 08 advertising conference, which runs through Wednesday.

"That digital image can be live," Cameron said. "That digital image can be 3D."

He suggested such locations can show live sports and events, alongside impressive travelogues and other content.

"We're not quite there but we are on the cusp of that and people need to have a strategy for it," he said.

More than 1,000 theaters in the U.S. already have stereoscopic (3D-capable) projectors, while Cameron hopes that there will be 5,000 such facilities by the time his 3D movie Avatar debuts next year.

3D movies have often generated much more revenue than 2D versions of the same film, a potential boon to the entertainment industry. Retrofitting theaters with 3D technology is expensive and difficult, though, and some 3D advocates are unhappy with the pace of adoption.

"I feel as though things have dragged along, and it's been pretty disappointing," DreamWorks Animation SKG Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg said in April, according to Reuters.

3D isn't just for theaters. The real revolution, Cameron said, comes as games and television also start appearing in three dimensions.

"Stereo production is the next big thing," he said. "We are born seeing in three dimensions. Most animals have two eyes and not one. There is a reason I think."

He noted that games, in particular, stand to benefit. First-person shooters become true first-person experiences, he said.

"You are in the game," he said. "This is the ultimate immersive media."

He noted that Ubisoft, which is making the game version of Avatar, already has a stereoscopic game up and running using a standard Xbox 360 and 3D glasses.

Cameron said that displays for laptops, phones, and Zunes can be made stereoscopic even without needing special glasses.

The Windows operating system, Cameron said, should be viewable in 3D.

"They should be talking to their various partners," Cameron said.

Earlier in the day at the conference, Microsoft announced a new "Microsoft Advertising" brand to try to unify its disparate tools for advertisers and publishers as well as an effort to start selling display advertising on mobile phones.

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Might be a gimmick, but he's been planning this gimmick for a LONG time.

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Originally Posted by Advocate

1. The film is in 3-D. And as far as I have heard its in 3-D only. So the trailer is not at the true visual prowess.

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3D doesn't magically improve visuals. I've never seen a movie that looked BETTER in 3D...only worse.

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2. The rumor that was circulated around the time of Comic-Con was from Tom Arnold (posted in Variety Magazine). He got a call from James to save time around November ... They start shooting True Lies 2.

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James Cameron himself debunked this rumor on AICN a month ago. He said there's no plans to make TL2 and he has no idea what Tom Arnold is talking about. *EDIT* I see Mr-K beat me to it.

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Originally Posted by bbobb

Yeah, no. It's not the movement that makes them look fake, it's the shiny lack of detail of the CG that makes them such.

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Agreed. Avatar reminds me of when WALL-E would switch from the cartoony CG people/robots and the live-action people in the B&L ads and the President's videos. Of course, Pixar did that on purpose as a gag, whereas Cameron's being serious. It just looks goofy.

I disagree. Coraline had a really nice depth of field thing going on.

Coraline looked nice in 3D, yes (so did Pixar's Up). But there was some minor blur when things moved due to the 3D that wasn't present in the 2D version.

I didn't have that problem with Coraline, but it was a HUGE ISSUE with Nightmare Before Christmas. lol i really don't like that movie anyway

Remember when 3d was the NEXT BIG THING back in the 80s?

Yeah.

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Originally Posted by bbobb

Remember when 3d was the NEXT BIG THING back in the 80s?

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Remember when that ballsack at Sony claimed that you'd be able to jack your brain into the Matrix through your PS2?

I do actually. You mean you didn't get that version?

I know, let's hype up 3D so people will think it's the next big thing even though we're only doing it to cut down on cams and jack up ticket prices.

Fuck off.

Cost 200 million. The same price tag as TF2.

From Wiki:

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Originally Posted by Wiki

Avatar, previously known as Project 880, has an estimated budget of over $200 million, is a 3D film currently set for a December 18, 2009 release, and will mark his first feature film since 1997's Titanic. It will be composed almost entirely of computer-generated animation, using a more advanced version of the "performance capture" technique used by director Robert Zemeckis in The Polar Express. James Cameron wrote an 80 page scriptment for Avatar in 1995 and announced in 1996 that he would make the film after completing Titanic. In December 2006, Cameron explained that the delay in producing the film since the 1990s had been to wait until the technology necessary to create his project was advanced enough. The director is planning to create photo-realistic computer-generated characters through motion capture animation technology using his new virtual camera system. The film was originally scheduled to be released in May 2009 but was pushed back to December 2009 to allow more time for post production on the complex photorealistic CGI and to give more time for theatres worldwide to install 3D projectors.

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photorealistic CGI

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I didn't see any in that trailer.

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Originally Posted by Dolemite

Trailer.

Looks cool, but not like the second coming like Cameron's been gushing. Beautiful visuals, but the aliens/characters look a little goofy IMO.

Jury's out for now, but it looks like Cameron may have gone Lucas on us. Please Jim, no...

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Completely agree with your assessment. Thought it looked pretty good but the alien design looks kinda meh.

I'm just reporting what I am hearing and getting from various sites.

Trailer was not what i expected.

My expectations went from HYPE HYPE HYPE to hype?

Well tonight they had a 15 minute extended trailer and to me it looks like it's going to be Dances with Wolves in outer space. It had nice cg but goofy looking characters. The 3d was nice. I think I'll like the movie.

I went to an IMAX 3D screener of this, it looks alright but the characters look wierd, was this an anime or something before hand?

To me, this does not look like something I will watch in the theaters.

Personally, I'm not interested in it.

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Originally Posted by Tracer

as this an anime or something before hand?

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No, though people have been comparing the alien designs to Delgo.

Remember when it was the next big thing in like the 50s?

yeah

Yeah, I agree IP.

Until I see the trailer in 3D I won't make the judgement call yet, cause I hear this ....

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Originally Posted by LatinoReview; written by Ron Henriques

The 3-D presentation works rather well. Unlike traditional 3-D using polarized lenses, I didn't feel like images in the foreground were popping through the screen and into my face. It wasn't distracting like that. Here, the image is crisp and clean appearing almost as if I was looking through a large window and seeing three dimensional images on the other side of it. I am curious as to how this film will look in standard 2-D. Right now we just have the regular trailer in that format and though I can take Quicktime videos, export and watch them in full high definition on my 110 inch home theater screen through my Playstation, it still doesn't beat the resolution of film. Its tough for your eyes to get a grasp of the texture and detail in 3-D which is why I want to check out 'Avatar' in both formats when it opens. I was also surprised by how much of the footage was artificial, meaning it consisted solely of computer generated imagery. Though the first two scenes and the montage featured live action as well as a marriage of it with CGI, I'm curious as to how a simple scene between two real people plays.

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More from this report.

http://www.latinoreview.com/news/a-l...transcipt-7797

http://www.slate.com/id/2215265/

The furries will be out in full force for this one.

http://img.denihilation.com/delgovatar.html

Jeezus

The more I look at Avatar, the more I am repulsed by it.

Me too, kind of. I'm pretty disappointed all around, I didn't know what to expect. Still, lesson learned here, never hype up anything as much as Cameron has hyped up Avatar.

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Originally Posted by Mr-K

http://img.denihilation.com/delgovatar.html

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Whoo, boy. Not only does Avatar look like a cheesy 10-year old Dreamworks CG flick, but it's a rip-off as well.

The worst thing happened to James Cameron...middle age.

It looks OK, IMO. There was a lot of hype behind it it's not exactly living up to. But we'll see. Reminds me of Peter Jackson's King Kong (which I loved, despite being a bit long) and I like that kind of CG blend between real and fantasy.

It's funny it bears so many similarities to that Delgo story.

the project is too ambitious imo

technology still hasn't caught up to whatever vision Cameron had for this project.

but, i'll reserve judgement until we see how it looks in 3D.

I doubt James Cameron has even seen Delgo...you guys keep bringing it up like anyone has ever heard of it.

Avatar will probably be a fun movie to watch but obnoxious when analyzed.

Fathom Studios, the studio behind Delgo, released a press release hinting at possible legal action:

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From what we have seen, we are amazed by the visual similarities between the two films and we are reviewing what legal options may be available to us.

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Hahaha they've GOTTA try to make some money back, somehow.

Nice!!! lol Delgo

Why rip off Delgo? That movie looked like shit too.

Avatar doesn't look like shit it just looks like... well..


Hm...

I have never heard of Delgo before, but the poster from a quick search makes me think the characters all look like Land Before Time: 20XX.

I think Avatar looks decent, though I'm more concerned that it does well enough to get Alita off the ground.

Hey, it's MechDeus.

Delgo reminds me more of Twinsen's Odyssey than it does Avatar.

I have a feeling this thing is going to be a bomb. No way in hell it makes $200million +.
3d is just doesn't give me wood. Why is it suppose to be the next big thing anyways??


Though 3d was done right in Up IMO.

Did you write that post in another language and translate it into english?

Intrigued by your idea, I used translation party and got this:

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I do not need to respect the bomb. No way in hell, the dollar 200000000 +.
I wood, please do not three-dimensional. Next: 1,111,111,111,111, or to enter a large Nago what?

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If we count DVD/blu sales, Avatar will make back its budget and more, though I don't see it being a major hit unless it has a much broader appeal than I expect.

Hitler doesn't like Avatar.

The CG in the Final Fantasy movies looks better. OMG THIS SUCKS FOR BATTLE ANGEL BOOOO :(

The full trailer's out. Looks just as "meh" as the teaser.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/42818#

Well, those were taken down quick.

SHITTASTIC

I hope this movie gets leaked.

They just started advertising this movie on TV. I was all into the commercial before they show the effects. Holy shit this movie looks bad. It could pass for an Eidos game.

Hate Hate Hate

I saw HD version of trailer 2 and it looks fantastic. Its being overhyped, though.

Caught the new trailer during a football game. Looked pretty awesome till it turned into nothing but gay blue faggy aliens.

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Originally Posted by SamuraiMoogle

Caught the new trailer during a football game. Looked pretty awesome till it turned into nothing but gay blue faggy aliens.

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yup

Like I said, Cameron went all George Lucas on us.

BTW, when you have Despair as your film's lone defender, you know you've got problems.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2Z3q6wkd9w

This movie does nothing for me. In fact, I thought the 3 minute trailer is too long.

This movie looks horrible. The designs of the aliens just do not work for me in anyway.