I figured it out! I figured out why people have been so standoffish about supporting this movie. It’s the Uncanny Valley. I won’t pretend that I knew much about this crazy theory, I heard about it in a 30 Rock episode. It essentially says that humans are ok with robots, cartoons, and some CGI, but there’s a point when we feel a subconscious dislike for something that appears real but isn’t. Here’s how it was explained to me:
Tracy: Tell it to me in Star Wars.
Frank: Alright. We like R2D2 and C3PO.
Tracy: They’re nice.
Frank: And up here, we have a real person like Han Solo.
Tracy: He acts like he doesn’t care, but he does!
Frank: But down here we have a CGI Storm Trooper or Tom Hanks in the Polar Express.
Tracy: I’m scared! Get me out of there.
I think that Avatar is stuck down in the uncanny valley. But don’t worry, you can overcome your natural dislike for realistic unreality… right?
But let’s discuss this trailer. It incorporates a lot more of the story and appears to be quite complicated. I don’t fully understand who’s on which side or what Sigourney Weaver’s job is. But we shall see. By the way, who wasn’t impressed with John Cameron’s career? I always forget about how many successful movies he’s made. Not that I actually like his movies, but he must be extremely rich.
Sorry about the strange picture, but there are only two posters for Avatar, and I already used the good one. Click on this oddly shaped picture to watch the trailer.
From Yahoo. (At the time of posting this site wouldn’t allow Canadian’s to watch the trailer. I don’t know why it isn’t working, but it makes me mad. That’s racism.)
Or try Trailer Addict. (Sorry about the Thai subtitles.)
Or try Empire.
- izi
