AvatarTrailer

UPDATE: The new domestic trailer is now live over at Yahoo.

The brand new Avatar trailer is set to arrive online today at 1pm EST (10am PST), but in the meantime the longer (and very similar) international trailer has found its way online. There are subtitles that kinda get in the way, and the transfer isn't all too great, so don't judge the movie based on the visuals you see here. I'd wait to watch the domestic trailer in HD before you start comparing James Cameron's blue aliens to larger Smurfs.

This trailer definitely gives us a better feel for the story -- walking us through, holding our hands as it goes over the main plot points. Guy gets to travel to distant planet to help humans obtain resources from aliens. Guy explores planet as blue alien via Avatar suit thingy. Guy meets real female alien and falls in love. Guy then turns on the people he's working for in order to protect those he's come to care for. Pretty basic stuff, and definitely a storyline we've seen countless times before. But we're here for Cameron's vision, and his promise that this film will visually blow our minds to the point where we'll all want to marry and have, like, ten thousand babies with 3D technology. Will he be right? Is this the film that will "change everything"?

Check out the international trailer after the jump, then come back in a little while and we'll update this post when the full trailer arrives online.

From Cinematical

UPDATE 3: The Apple links work now. Watch it in HD right over here.

UPDATE 2: Here's a link that works! It's the French trailer, but since there's only one line of dialogue in the whole thing, it'll do until Apple fixes their glitch.

UPDATE: 15 minutes in and it appears Apple is having issues with the trailer launch. Stay tuned ...

Come one, come all -- the long-awaited trailer for James Cameron's much buzzed-about Avatar has finally arrived online over at Apple. The debut trailer -- which is the first footage from the film to be shown to a mass audience outside a convention-like atmosphere -- is part of a larger marketing push for the film this week, which includes the release of several new photos (see gallery over on Cinematical) and a special presentation of an extended 16-minute trailer in 3D to be screened at IMAX theaters across the globe tomorrow.

In the meantime, though, prepare to feast your eyes on what some say is a film that could change the way we watch, well, film. The big-budgeted sci-fi flick follows a paraplegic war veteran (Sam Worthington) who is unwillingly sent to the distant planet of Pandora to help establish a human settlement. It's there that he'll find himself in the midst of a battle between humans and the planet's indigenous Na'vi race. Tack on marvelous, out-of-this-world special effects -- coupled with 3D like you've never seen it before -- and you get the most anticipated film of 2009 that no one seems to know anything about.

Enough babbling ... watch the trailer right over here and then let us know what you think. Does Avatar look like it can live up to the hype? The film drops in theaters on December 18.

Perhaps you spent too much time in the sun this past weekend and completely forgot that today is the day you can score your free tickets to screen that 16-minute 3D Avatar trailer in IMAX theaters on August 21. All you need to do is fight off the other hundreds of thousands of people logging on to AvatarMovie.com at 3pm EST (12pm PST). Once there, you'll need to select your country and nearest theater, and the website will then give you something you can print out and bring to the theater on Friday, August 21 along with a piece of photo ID.

The extended trailer will probably screen at different times depending on the theater, though early word had it playing twice between the hour of 6-7pm. For those who miss out on tickets, a regular trailer will be released in conventional theaters and online the same day. Avatar hits theaters on December 18.

Let us know how easy or hard it was to get tickets in the comments section below.

(Details on Avatar day have been revealed. Here's Elisabeth Rappe reporting for Cinematical with all the info you'll need to make sure you're one of the many who'll be trying to check out footage from one of this year's most talked-about films.)

Just when you were thinking "Say, whatever happened to all that Avatar day talk?", the details have finally come online. According to The Hollywood Reporter, you too can see the footage that made thousands of people lose their minds by getting tickets from AvatarMovie.com starting this Monday. Keep checking the website for information, and the participating IMAX theater nearest you. The tickets will only be available online, and the website will eventually reveal just how and where you get them.

The 16-minute Avatar trailer will show at 6-7 pm on August 21st, sandwiched between IMAX showings of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and will be a blend of what screened at ComicCon, but with some brand new footage added. Though IMAX and Fox are predicting a general geek stampede, they're trying to combat the frenzy by limiting tickets to two per person. (So pick which friend or family member you like the most!) For those of us who don't nab a golden ticket, there's still hope. An alternate, "conventional" trailer will be debuting the same time in 2D and 3D, and will play before Post Grad, Inglourious Basterds, and other summer and fall releases. You won't be able to get away from Avatar footage.