Babel Clash
levgrossman

re: Avatar and Wolfman Trailers

by levgrossman on Aug.24, 2009, under Lev Grossman

I’ve never been able to get excited about wolfmen. I don’t know what it is, You’ve got a guy. He turns into a big dog. He does it on a regular basis. Sure, it’s a problem. It just doesn’t grab me.

As for this particular incarnation of same, it’s looking pretty bog-standard. Which is to say that if I liked werewolves, I would like this. As it is the only thing that really speaks to me is the bit at 1:39, where Anthony Hopkins is all, “you’ve done terrible things,” and he’s kinda smiling, creepily, as if he’s glad Benicio del Toro has done terrible things …

As for Avatar, I’ve weighed in on this elsewhere at greater length, so I’ll just say two things here. One, the movie itself looks pretty not-great — big and sentimental, like a mega-budget FernGully remake with borderline-cliché exotic aliens. But two, it’s a tech demo for what will be a really unbelievably great movie that somebody else is going to make. It really moves the chains on what CGI can do. Seriously, you have to see it on the big screen, in 3D. It doesn’t look like anything else.

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