Sure the CGI still that I saw of Worthington’s character was pretty amazing and looked real, but people are getting board. People are starting to gripe about the fact that Cameron uses “blue” in his film alot! Really, we’re complaining about colors now?

The full trailer is supposed to be out sometime this week, so we’ll see what the buzz is after that happens.

You know what’s sad I STILL have never seen White Fang!

Even to this day I find Dances With Wolves to be one big boring epic that took all of the interesting bits out of the book and replaced it with scenery porn.

I can’t hate on Dead Poet’s Society man. Robert Sean Leonard is really cool in that movie (and in Swing Kids he teams up with Christian Bale too!) and I have a soft spot for teacher movies and I’ll own up to it: I cry at the end when they all stand on their deaths and cry “Oh Captain! My Captain!” Just like I cry at the song in Goodbye, Mr. Chips.

And just like how I watched a clip from the funeral scene in My Girl earlier today I started bawling my eyes out. “He needs his glasses! Where’s his glasses? He can’t see without his glasses!” And Dan Ackroyd tries to tell her that he’s gone and she runs away in anger… Oh God I’m crying now…

I’m such a sap…

Now Dead Poets Society, that’s a piece of shit.

Picture it: Yonkers NY, 1991. Myself a plucky little 8 year old who liked stories about animals, particularly dogs/wolves, my sweet 5 year old baby sister who just did what we told her to do, and my confident 11 year old sister who was harboring a crush on a fresh faced post Dead Poets Society/pre- Reality Bites Ethan Hawke, and my father, who wasn’t more creative with what to with three girls are at Movieland Theaters on Central Ave.

We want to see “that new wolf movie” that we can’t remember the name of. (White Fang- the one with Ethan Hawke)

My father asks the woman at the counter if there’s a wolf movie playing because my father at the time was only aware of movies where wars are being fought or Bruce WIllis is blowing some shit up.

The ticket girl in her infinite wisdom sells my father an adult ticket and three child tickets for Dances With Wolves.

DANCES WITH FRIGGIN’ WOLVES!

WHO TELLS A MAN WITH THREE YOUNG CHILDREN THE MOVIE THEY WANT TO SEE IS DANCES WITH WOLVES????

That is why when I was 8 I almost plucked my eyes out for sitting through what amounts to the most boring movie. EVER.

This is a lesson people. Why won’t someone think of the children?

Do what? You type something like that sentence, and I’m the one not making sense? Maybe I need to start typing in Yoda-speak in order to get through.

@Rusty:

I was just saying that they would be aware an Avatar movie is coming out, and then think that is what they are seeing. When I was a kid, I was often taken to the theater with my parents. They would pick a movie, and if I didn’t want to watch that one, I could pick a different one instead. From what I’ve seen that happens a lot at the theaters around here. And when the kids are desperately scanning for an alternative to whatever lame movie their parents are watching, Avatar would likely jump off the page as an option that they are “aware of”. I didn’t even necessarily mean to say they would be disappointed by the movie, but disappointed by the fact that it’s not what they thought it was. I’m sure they would love the movie itself.

Anyway, I’m going to leave the rest of the trek to 100 comments up to you guys. I never make any progress in these debates, so I’m going to give up. Maybe I should join Scott, Ben, and Wayne in hibernation.

I believe you, there was a study done about this recently.

But it seems like you’re trying to tell us that, simultaneously, kids don’t care which movie they go see, and also they are specifically setting out to see Air Bender not Avatar and are going to be disappointed. It can’t really be both things.

Also, if this argument about whether or not two movies are going to be confused for one another gets to 100 comments, then I say we all disband and join other websites.

@TNN: I’ve already said what I thought this conversation reminded me of. Talking to a wall. No matter how many counter-arguments you make, the wall just stares back at you.

yeah but my comment was a joke. people are gonna see avatar because it’s based on a cartoon…

Just out of curriousity, how many people were reffering to Flash of Genius at all?

I work at a video store and whilst some people are confused by the similar movies, most people (especially the kids) know what they want to see.

Anyway, SaberJ, it looks like we are actually on a similar page here, even if our previous posts don’t really seem like it. Of course there is always a few people who will get confused about things, even if there isn’t something with the direct potential to cause it like we have here. I just think that the amount will be small enough to be pretty much negligible in the big picture, so it doesn’t really matter that much.

From what you said above, it sounds like you have a similar feeling.

Regardless, I’m ready to drop the topic as well. I’d rather discuss something like the new Tron footage, how awesome Robert Downey Jr is during CC panels, or something else of the sort.

Maybe it’s just the area of the country I live in, but the fact is, people don’t know a lot about the movies they go to see around here. It was not uncommon to hear people refer to Flash of Genius as “That windshield wiper movie” around here. When Bride Wars and the other wedding movie (Rachel Getting Married, perhaps) were both out, people would have no clue which one they were wanting to see.

As far as kids movies? Do you think it’s an accident that cartoon movies sometimes have imitators? There are a lot of kids that can tell the difference between Antz and A Bug’s Life. But there are a lot that can’t.

@PW: There are actually a ton of people that go to the theater without knowing what they want to watch. My wife complains about it every day after work, and has for the past 6 years. It happens, believe it.

But let’s assume you are correct, and everyone in the world decides what movie they are going to watch before they get there. Unless the newspapers in your part of the world are better than the newspapers in my area of the world, they still only list the title. And yeah, a lot of kids are going to run off to do some research on Avatar, and find out that it’s not what they think it is. But that’s like how everyone said that all the bad reviews would hurt Transformers 2. And yet it’s on the cusp of 400 million. A majority of people don’t do their research.

As far as a large marketing campaign? I didn’t say there wasn’t going to be one. I said that it would not be pushed in the area that these kids are going to see it. Hell, I don’t see most marketing campaigns these days. This is an era of skipping commercials. But I’m specifically talking about kids that are glued to the cartoon channels. They will not see Avatar marketed on those channels. And kids DO watch a lot of cartoon channels. Sometimes exclusively. I see it all the time from my 6 nephews and nieces.

The fact of the matter is, most movies get marketed in some way prior to 5 months before release. Avatar is not doing that. They are likely aiming for the all out blitz before it comes out. That’s great. Fantastic. But you miss a lot of people when you do it.

Fact is, (And I do mean FACT) marketing campaigns spend millions of dollars to hit their audience. And they still miss a lot of people. I’ve never seen a hyped video game launch (Xbox 360, Halo, Call of Duty, Playstation 3, etc) where there aren’t fanboys screaming about how they have yet to see a single commercial for their precious new game/system. Meanwhile, others will tell them that they are crazy, because the ads are all over the place. And these are people that are LOOKING for ads. The typical person is not going to pay attention to some of these ads.

The point I’m trying to make is simple. Some people will be confused, and will go into Avatar expecting a different movie. It will happen. I have no doubt of that. And if you think it won’t, you don’t know how people work. I’m not saying millions of kids will do it. I’m not saying it will significantly increase the business of Avatar. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. I’m saying it will happen. Probably not to a measurable amount, but it will happen. Why is that such an outlandish claim? They are two movies with very similar names. There is nothing revolutionary about the idea of confused movie goers.

My final comment about that subject before I give up talking to a wall. If it’s as you guys say, and nobody will get confused (Except possibly parents), and people all research movies to a level similar to how much we research them. If all that is true, and there is no way someone could be so “stupid” as to get two movies confused, and buy a ticket to the wrong movie. Then why is it that Nickelodeon would not decide to keep the title, “Avatar: The Last Airbender”? It’s a brand name. It’s a household name for kids. It’s money in the bank. Why would they give that up?

@Rusty: I have no doubt that The Last Airbender (And Avatar) is going to do a lot of business. This was in no way a discussion of how well each movie is going to do.

And yes, I am assuming that there will be a fairly heavy ad campaign for this. Most blockbuster movies get a fairly robust ad campaign, especially during the holidays. Most movies coming out in December get advertised in many different places, and get a ton of ads on TV during several different timeslots. If you watch TV at all, especially during sweeps time in November, I’m sure you will be exposed to several Avatar ads.

I guess I just think 12 year olds are smarter and are exposed to more things than you seem to think they are.