I haven't seen Avatar fully and I still get confused about it. I choose to have to have it that way because these types of film have never been my thing. Something about it just turned me away. Although the film-work and editing was genius I felt like I knew this story, even though I haven't seen it. I guess I should knock it until I see it. I’m torn because James Cameron is very talented at what he does- I just can’t decide if it’s corny or not!
I want to read the trailer. It says a a lot about movies and for Avatar is show what kind of scenes you will see (this goes for pretty much every other movie too). And it shows so of the more powerful things to suck you in. For this movie the music obviously effects how we feel about it- and this specific music for the trailer is building our curiosity and it feels like it is pushing us to the ending and then it kind of leaves us hanging.
It seems to show lots of the coolest shots visual parts of the movie- things like the floating mountains and when he sees his avatar- its very crisp and appealing. The trailer also sets up why he is going (for the rocks that are worth a lot of money) and it reveals that if he does something he will get the use of his legs back and the audience obviously want to know why! Pandora is set as a mystical place where this man goes and it hints at a love story. The trailer also showed the name of all of James Cameron’s previous successful films.
Trailers are all about the people who want you to buy the tickets to show you the goods so the film is successful.
I felt what you are feeling before I spent 16 or 17 dollars on the ticket. Yes, The story is corny but still, it is so worth to watch the film in theater, the visual work is just incredibly outstanding and breathtaking. When I first saw Pandora in the film, I was shocked because I couldn't believe I could ever seen such beautiful visual work in film form. I have seen a lot of CGI films in theater and none of them made me struck. From my perspectives, you can only see the "real" pandora in theater, not on laptops nor even TV.
ReplyDeleteBefore I gave this comment, I watched the trailer again and I have to agree with you that the background music I heard from the trailer already moved me and made me wants to watch it again. Without that background music, it surely will lower my interest. But without huge screen and the technology of 3D, Avatar is no longer Avatar, I think.
I'm in the same boat as you due to the fact I have never seen the movie, just the clips in class. At first I was really confused as well, especially with the majority of the room having seen Avatar and being able to chime in about the scenes. However, as I watched more clips, I was able to develop more of an understanding of what the overall theme was and I began looking forward to watching more and more. The more I saw, the more engrossed I was not so much by the plot (since there are missing pieces to me) but by the visual components as you mentioned. This proves how even a lackluster storyline can attract large audiences simply because of the incredible ways in which the senses (eyes and ears) are stimulated.
ReplyDeleteI saw the movie but I definitely agree with you. The story, as we have discussed in class, seems to be an outline to numerous other films. It shows how vulnerable we are as people to think that any movie with aesthetically pleasing visual effects can be argued as a good movie. Look at how many movies come out in 3D now and because of this I think we could argue that this takes away from the real content of the film to win people over. In the future I see a world where all films are judged on special and visual effects, how many explosions there are, and how great it is in imax or 3D or the combination of the two. Its a sad downward spiral for film.
ReplyDeleteI saw the trailer before went to see the movie, and walked out with a little bit disappointment, because the movie is really different than what I was expected after I have seen the trailor.
ReplyDeleteI agree with u that the trailor only shows the background and some special effects of the movie, but it never tells you the story. Those scenes makes people really want to see because they thought the movie will be just like the trailor.
The story of Avatar just like other BIG movies, not many surprises to me.