So the trailer for Avatar has finally been released on to the web (after a very funny "leaked" spoof version I should add).  It's here for you to see:

Now to my thoughts... I watched it the first time and immediately twittered that it "looks like a Final Fantasy game cut scene."  I think I was both spot-on and being a bit disingenuous.  You see, this film is being hyped up by many Cameron fanboys as being the holy-grail of Sci-Fi, that somehow Jim is returning to save the science fiction movie!!!

I hope so.  I really do.  At least the first few shots of this movie do look like Aliens / Starship Troopers alright... but then the big blue fuzzy aliens appear.  This does not look so good.  When the Fanboys pronounce that Cameron is back, what they really want is dropships, load-lifters, phased plasma rifles in the 40-watt range, all that.  What they might be getting is a Jim Cameron-penned love story.

This could be Cameron's "The Phantom Menace".  Just as 10 years ago we had an extremely eagerly awaited Sci-Fi movie (with one of the all-time great trailers, I should add) which ended up actually being one or two memorable action scenes interspersed with a bunch of racial sterotypes arguing over trade agreements.  And as in 1999, this year we have a small independent sci-fi movie in the wings winning plaudits all over and completely outshining the incumbent.  Then it was "The Matrix", this year it's "District 9".

Honestly I hope I'm wrong.  Watching the trailer again I begin to think that it will probably look astonishing in 3D.  But shiny visuals are not the be-all-end-all for movies (at least not for me any more, as my friends will attest when they were going on about Transformers et al) - there has to be something compelling there.  Cameron has already publicly stated that this is more like "Dances with Wolves" in space.  Centainly a great pinnacle to hold your work up against, but not likely to impress the fanboys who just want more "Aliens".

We shall see in December.

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