Sunday, November 13, 2011

Avatar's trailer

Apparently one becomes something of a leper when they don't keep up with pop culture, and so, being someone who has never seen Avatar, I find it difficult to pick a specific scene to analyze, instead, I chose to examine the trailer.


The trailer starts with a shot on a man in a wheelchair being invited to join the military on a distant planet and experience a good way to help the cause. It definitely gives the watcher a comforting feeling with this character being drawn into such a state of adventure, it more easily lets the watcher sink into the illusion that they themselves might be able to experience something similar. It then goes into the military camp on a brand new world and goes into the why they are there. Clearly building a solid antagonists with the way the military is portrayed. Whenever any military side is shown they always seem to be either yelling, or destroying something. Then, as the navvi, or whatever they are called, are introduced, the viewer gets a sense of calm. The music that overlays the entire trailer definitely supports all of these emotions as well. The music starts rather flowing and free towards the beginning, trying to draw the viewer into this amazing fantasy. Once the trailer brings up the actual reason for the military's involvement, namely, acquiring some rare stone that sells for absurd amounts of money, that the navvi just happen to live on top of, the music becomes very staccato and quick, giving the viewer a sense of danger along with clearly establishing the central conflict of the movie. As the paraplegic protagonist is then given an "avatar" to embody, the music shifts again to a more epic feeling melody. The different cuts then tend to shift very quickly while this music is playing, clearly trying to engross the viewer within the beauty of the shots, rather than the actual story line. There is truly no build of story line other than the conflict of the navvi and humans being actually violent, while random scenes show off how pretty the film is. Then in the middle of this the director's name is brought up, and they name drop several of his other movies, to try and snag the viewers that might not be convinced with just the visual spectacle that is unfolding before their eyes. As this ends the music comes with a giant crescendo that ends on one very big note as AVATAR suddenly explodes across the scene. The entire second half of the trailer feels like it is trying to build anxiety for the viewer by showing them attractive clips with building music.

1 comment:

  1. Having seen Avatar, I re-watched the trailer like I haven't seen the movie before. But, I really didn't have to do that because the trailer gets me so pumped up I could scream every time. It's the basic "good vs. evil" archetype where in the end someone saves the day. The music is so powering and never gets old when watching the trailer. After reading your post, I didn't even realize that every time the RDA fleet is shown, they are trying to accomplish something with their artillery. This sets up the mood and view of the military for the entire movie. You also start to see the relationships that are formed throughout the whole movie in just one clip. This "sneak peak" type trailer really gets me in the mood to watch it over and over again.

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