James Cameron's sci fi epic is shaping up to be the cinema event of the year. With revolutionary motion capture techniques that give the CGI characters an unprecedented expressiveness as well as a 3D process that promises to put audiences in the middle of a lush alien world, Cameron is maintaining the reputation for technical innovation that distinguished earlier projects like Terminator, Titanic and The Abyss.

This second trailer for the movie shifts the focus away form the exotic alien forests of Pandora and onto the space marines that have been sent to wrest control of the planet away from its inhabitants.

At once an allegory for American foreign policymakers using military force to gain control of natural resources and an old fashioned sci fi war movie in the vein of Cameron's earlier Aliens, Avatar is undoubtedly the movie that everyone will be talking about when it opens in cinemas this December.

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