Originally published at: Papyrus typeface absent in Avatar 2 trailer | Boing Boing
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Came here to post this. Glad that was already the first comment as It needed to be here.
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It will be interesting if anyone cares enough about the franchise to make this sequel a success, let alone the three(!) additional sequels Cameron has planned after this. I liked the first movie, which was beautiful and another good example of his pushing the limits of filmmaking technology. However, I’m not really sure who’s pining to see a follow -up to “Dances with Wolves – in Space!”.
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But what about a sequel to The Abyss? (You know, that movie in which humans working for a corporation have established themselves in a hostile, alien environment to extract mineral resources, but when they run into problems with the local bioluminescent aliens someone tries to rig up an explosive device to take out their community, only to be stopped by the brave protagonist human, who very nearly suffocates in the process.)
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I can’t unsee the kerning between the A and R at the end of the title. It’s bad, and someone in production should fix it.
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Oof. I didn’t notice it until I saw your comment and then you made me look and now it’s going to bug the hell out of me for the rest of the day, probably. 
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Well he already shot the 3rd one so they better.
It’ll probably do well, particularly since the first one made almost three times as much money on the international market.
But I’m not so sure how dominating it’s going to be given how much of the first films popularity was based on raw spectacle, the major use of 3d and new, broader availability IMAX formats.
I don’t think I’ve ever even seen the whole thing, I can’t really do 3d showings and it was 3d only. And it doesn’t really seem all that compelling on a TV screen.
There’s a lot less interest in 3d these days, and there’s this grade and quality of CG spectacle coming out 3 times a year from Marvel. Among other things.
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I think it’s intentional, to set the two larger characters apart from the smaller middle ones. I agree it doesn’t work well, but it does seem intentional, for whatever that is worth.
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They clearly modified it - but it wasn’t enough!!
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Hopefully this guy is going to be able to sleep at night now.
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Yeah when I watched the new preview one of the things that struck me was how ordinary it all felt. The CGI effects looked fine but they hardly felt revolutionary. Given that the first movie largely coasted by on its visuals more than its story it’s hard to imagine the sequels are going to generate the same kind of excitement from audiences.
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If it doesn’t live up to expectations Cameron only has himself to blame for setting the bar so high.
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You also have to remember Cameron said that back in 2014, when one of the top-grossing movies of the year was an adaptation of a 1980s toy commercial about robots that could transform into dinosaurs.
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The 'rebirth of a stranger in a strange land ’ plotline more or less continues to be a winning one. Why? The concept is mythic… and always ‘marketed’ to males. For me, the best version is the book Shogun by James Clavell. Eight-hundred and two pages of page-turning excitement and education.
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Yeah it’s probably not helped by it being a YouTube video. But I was just thinking that it looked more like a modern animated film than the realistic CG we’re constantly exposed to.
Also that those Navi designs are and were remarkably unpleasant.
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It just occurred to me that if the gap between the first two Star Wars movies was as long as the gap between the first two Avatar movies then The Empire Strikes Back would have been competing against special effects blockbusters like Total Recall and Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
Not only would the visuals seem ho-hum compared to the state of the industry but the audience would have largely lost interest in the story by then. There are literal teenagers walking around who were born after Avatar was released.
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Yeah you think about it.
Avatar came out before the Avengers, when there were only 2 MCU films out (Iron Man and Incredible Hulk).
Before the entire new Star Wars release cycle.
Before release in China was as common as it is (or was for a while).
Before “cinematic universe” was a concept.
While 3d tvs were still on the shelf. Before Game of Thrones.
Global hits look a lot different. Flashy media technology looks a lot different. The Zeitgeist is elsewhere entirely.
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Unpleasant how? Uncanny Valley stuff? I ask because I don’t find the designs particularly off-putting, but I also seem to not be subject to the Uncanny Valley effect, so it may just be me.
