Director: James Cameron
Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez
Certificate: 12A
Trailer

Here at i-Flicks, we aren't the biggest fans of the 3-D film monster. It is slowly consuming every film - past, present and future - like the pink stuff in Ghostbusters II. But James Cameron's latest epic, Avatar, may have just about swayed our views.

As the world waits for James Cameron's epic labour of three-dimensional love, the vote's in, at least for one critic. Published on Gawker.com, the review from a "real live entertainment worker" of Avatar is far from positive. In fact, it describes it as "vomit inducing".

The guy, who remains anonymous, has seen a fairly large glimpse of the film and isn't impressed. Taking Cameron's titan of cinema to pieces, his review points out that "the story/acting/tone are alienating and weird", before going on to explain his main issue with the film: "The problem is with cutting in between 3D focal points and perspective - the mind cannot adjust to it without a buffer - thus, Avatar is literally vomit inducing."

Harsh words for the Fox release, which is mounting the kind of hype that rivals low-budget phenomenon Paranormal Activity. Now I'm not a hugely convinced Avatar fan, as you know. It looks moderately impressive, but I'm worried by what looks like a terrible love story and cliched dialogue. With a slew of trailers gradually being released, some fears are allayed, others made worse. But the studio are clearly out to eradicate all doubts with their latest concoction: the world's first interactive trailer.

Containing links to feeds from Twitter and Facebook, it jazzes up their theatrical teaser with profiles, cast comments and other things multimedia. It'll certainly give you all the Avatar fixes you need. Whether you're impressed by it or not is another matter. All we know for now is that for one person, it's not a pretty sight. His review concludes: "There are very beautiful moments, with great editing/sound/art direction, but overall it's a horrible piece of shit."

Avatar is released on Friday 18th December. Read on for a glimpse of the interactive trailer.

Here it is: the new international trailer for Avatar.  The official full-length trailer (i.e. not a teaser) is hitting the online world tomorrow, but it's supposedly identical to the one above. We get more of a look at Pandora, Cameron's uber-CGI 3-D paradise, and a bit more of the plot. The verdict? A resounding meh.

Ok, so the visuals still look good, but we've already gathered that one - on Sunday 1st November, the 3 1/2 minute trailer will be played on the world's biggest screen at the Cowboys stadium in Arlington, Texas. Millions in the crowd will make it the largest live preview of a movie to date, let alone the folks at home watching on FOX Sports.

"We will send a message: that this is our land!" yells marine Jake (Sam Worthington) in his mind-controlled Avatar body, bred especially for bowling around Pandora with Really Big Guns. But in between the mining of the planet's natural resources and the terrible looking love interest, James Cameron's Avatar is looking increasingly average story-wise. After that crazy hype machine working overtime, it's a massive anti-climax; when it comes to tight-lipped PR campaigns, less is always more. Now we've got more, I'm not sure I want it. Judging by this, heck, I prefer Titanic. At least that had Billy Zane.

Maybe I'm being too harsh. Is this a big blue let-down? Your thoughts? Read on for the full video.

Well, the BFI IMAX was packed to the rafters (and those rafters are very high, folks) with fans eager to see the epic imagination of James Cameron, no doubt soon to be crowned King of 3-D. But what can be gleaned from 15 minutes of footage? Can you really get a sense of what might unfold in a few months time? Probably not, but hey, let's give it a bash.

Oh, no! It's Avatar Day but you have no-one to take you to Avatar Day? Or someone mugged you and stole your ticket from twixt your broken, limp fingers? Maybe you're at work and just simply bored? Well, never fret, because here's the latest bunch of images to come out of Cameron's sci-fi epic, all for your viewing pleasure.

It's less than 24 hours until Avatar Day. Excited? Try this on for size...

The teaser trailer for Avatar is online! To celebrate Avatar Eve (or Evatar, if you will), Fox have put this lovely sneaky peek online for all to see. Just in case you haven't got any tickets for tomorrow's 3-D Cameron CGI-fest (we're still sorting out the logistics of ours - thank you Royal Mail).

We see crippled ex-Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), who gets his mind shoved into his alien Avatar - a blue, half-Na'vi body who he can then act through. Then, off he goes to the pretty planet of Pandora. Things don't say pretty for long. Sure, there are no real words spoken in the entire couple of minutes. But who cares when it looks so pretty? Check out the trailer over at Apple, or read on for your CGI fix...

Whatever your views on Titanic, 3-D, or James Cameron in general, there's no denying that this Friday, 21st August, the eyes of all geeks (be they 2 or 4) will be focussed on one film: Avatar. As Fox arrange to make movie history with a national free preview of Cameron's upcoming sci-fi epic, people will flock to their nearest cinemas to watch hand-picked footage on screens of all sizes.

The teaser trailer will be hitting the UK in standard and IMAX cinemas, both in 2-D and 3-D. But in addition to the free, ticketed frenzy, footage will also be available online from Friday. On that same fateful day, Fox will unveil their 3-D posters, Ubisoft will reveal their videogame tie-in, and Mattel will unmask their action figures - because we clearly couldn't do without those. The extended look at Avatar will unspool for two showings only on the Friday evening across the UK, the exception being BFI Southbank, IMAX where lucky viewers will get four separate showings. Tickets can be obtained at www.seefilmfirst.com and entering the code 302001. Seats will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

Participating cinemas in the UK showing the footage include:

Cineworld Aberdeen
Cineworld Birmingham, Broad Street
Cineworld Brighton
Cineworld Cardiff
Cineworld Edinburgh
Cineworld Glasgow, Renfrew Street
Cineworld Sheffield
Odeon London IMAX Greenwich
Odeon London IMAX Wimbledon
Odeon Manchester Printworks
Odeon Southampton
Vue Bristol Cribbs
Vue London West End
BFI Southbank IMAX

Avatar, the heroic tale of one man's redemption and discovery (by way of spectacular special effects and 3-D explosions), was first conceived by Cameron 14 years ago, when the means to realize his vision did not yet exist. Now, after four years of actual production work,it will open in cinemas everywhere on Friday 18th December.

Are you at Comic-Con? I'm not at Comic-Con. But don't worry, because James Cameron has taken pity on the rest of the world - he wants to share the preview footage of Avatar with everyone. For free!

What's that? The internet? No, no, this will be 15 minutes you can only catch in the cinemas. Yes, Friday 21st August will henceforth be known as Avatar Day. Here's what Cameron had to say:

“We wanted people who couldn’t come to Comic-Con to be able to see what you’ve seen so we’re going to take over as many IMAX and 2D cinemas on August 21st. We’re going to allow international audiences to come and see footage from Avatar for free.”

He could've just put it on YouTube. But then, that wouldn't quite get a sense of the stunning spectacle Cameron's going for - if you're going to trail a film, you want to be faithful to your vision.

Then again, putting it up for anyone to google wouldn't get people excited about the 3-D movie. And, excited though I am, it's becoming increasingly clear that this groundbreaking blockbusting epic just might be the make or break of the entire 3-D movement...