"Avatar"

James Cameron's 'Avatar' a symbol of early buzz after preview
BY Ethan Sacks and Christina Boyle

The sci-fi world was buzzing Saturday after thousands of moviegoers around the world got a sneak preview of James Cameron's much-hyped 3-D epic "Avatar."

"It's fairly spectacular," said Harry Knowles, founder of movie Web site Ain't It Cool News.

"We've never seen a 3-D science fiction film quite like this."

"From what I can tell, the vast majority of people really loved what they were seeing," he added. "I'm incredibly hopeful for the film."

The movie, which cost more than $200 million to make, is scheduled for general release Dec. 18, but more than 100,000 people in 58 countries got the chance to see a 16-minute preview after scoring free tickets online.

It was a stunt designed to create buzz around the film - Cameron's first feature since "Titanic," which holds the box-office record after grossing $1.84 billion worldwide.

And if the early reviews on blogs and social networking pages were any indicator, it did the trick.

"The man who famously declared himself the King of the World on Oscar night 10 years ago has now become the ruler of an entire planet," declared New York film critic and blogger Eric Kohn on thewrap.com.

"Cameron's experiment with the ever-evolving art of buzz deserves recognition for its innovative approach."

"Avatar" is set on the planet Pandora, where an ex-Marine, played by Sam Worthington, is one of a group of humans who have their brains linked to the native alien species so they can explore the environment.

Sigourney Weaver, the star of Cameron's "Aliens" series, plays a botanist overseeing the mission.

"Avatar is going to be the cinematic event of this holiday season," blogger Kevin Carr wrote.

"The only way to experience 'Avatar' will be to watch it through a pair of high-end 3-D glasses on a screen 50 feet high."

cboyle@nydailynews.com

This is the 'Avatar' trailer released online and not the 16-minute 3D version shown in theaters.

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Great sci-fi epic movie. James Cameron has done it again.
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