We were pretty outspoken about our disapproval of the abysmal first “Avatard” —*cough* sorry — “Avatar” trailer, so much so that the New York Times quoted us on it. (Not to toot our own horn but hell, toot.) /Film may have received a report from some random nerdlinger reader, but us? We PERSONALLY got our eyeballs raped (to use the popular “Avatar” expression) this afternoon. Jealous? Yeah you are. Take off your Chewbacca mask long enough to read this post, won’t you?
Well, first and foremost we’re happy to report that this doesn’t look like the colossal disaster that the first teaser made it out to be. There are a couple of reasons for this, and we’ll run them down below:
1. We get a rundown of what the plot is. Basically, in so many scenes, they describe that Earth is running out of energy and there’s a substance on the pre-production design-looking planet Pandora that could cure all our woes. So a team of scientists, as well as some asshole marine with a scars all over his face (Stephen Lang) vow to go to the planet and exploit its natural resource. Our hero (Sam Worthington) becomes a sort of alien spy, with his consciousness being transported to an alien body. Lang says something like “If you pull this off, we’ll give you real legs back” or something to that effect, although this begs the question — technology has moved to the point where you can be transported into a half-alien/half human hybrid body and space marines are running around inside of giant robots — uhhhh… couldn’t they have just given this dude back his legs to begin with?
Something tells us this isn’t going to be the most narratively sound movie ever made, so let us move on.
Anyway, Worthington (in alien form) falls in love with a smokin’ hot alien warrior (“Star Trek” scene stealer Zoë Saldaña), realizes that the rape and violent disembowelment of a peaceful world is a bad thing, and hooks up with the aliens and various other monstrous life forms (there’s a striking shot of this giant beast charging at one of the marines in their robot suit) to kick the marines’ ass.
The decision to focus on these plot elements moves it away from the limp-wristed romanticism of the previous teaser, giving us something concrete to root for and engage in. At different points, it looked like it was conjuring forth a kind of “Braveheart”-with-monsters vibe, with the natives (and Worthington’s Avatar) kicking ass. At some point a character says something about how all they’ve got are arrows and whatnot, while the marines have robots and flying ships and all sorts of whiz-bang technological wizardry.
2. We get to see the cast finally. At various points in the trailer we get to see, in addition to Worthington, Saldaña, and Lang, speaking bits from Giovanni Ribisi, Dileep Rao (from “Drag Me to Hell”), Michelle Rodriguez, and Sigourney Weaver. They all seem to be either marines or scientists, and we imagine a central conflict of the movie will be whose side they come down on — the planet or the marines.
3. An interesting facet of this trailer is its extreme emphasis on DIRECTOR JAMES CAMERON!!!!!!! At one point, there’s a title card that says “From Director James Cameron” then another card that says “Director Of” and then MORE cards (keep in mind there is frantic trailer action and then cut to these cards – white font on a black background) – “Aliens,” “Terminator,” “Terminator 2,” “True Lies” and (finally) “Titanic.” (We’re not sure if they mentioned one “Terminator” movie or both.) The point being: this is going to be a kick ass action movie, and if you need to bring your girlfriend, this guy also did “Titanic.”
4. Another striking thing about this trailer is that very little, if anything, from the previous teaser is present. There’s no moony love eyes being made between species, or glowy, “Legend of Zelda” style horseback rides. This is one intense trailer and in that respect, it seems like Fox might be getting a little desperate. After all, they’ve got a shitload of toys to sell.
While this trailer was lightyears better than the previous trailer, we’re still not entirely sold. Does Worthington possess consciousness in both his human and avatar body? Can he swap back and forth — leaving his avatar body and returning to his human form? Is there a softdrink or plushy doll involved at some point? These are the kind of niggling science fiction questions that can take a whole lot of time to explain and be a real pain, in terms of slowing down a movie to tell the story. But it does make us confident that the muscular filmmaker behind “Aliens” and “Terminator 2” still has some juice in him. — Drew Taylor