Trailer Faceoff: The Better Tease?

Two pretty significant sci-fi teaser trailers were released this past week, and boy do they tease good.

In this week's "Trailer Faceoff" Leonardo DiCaprio teams up with The Dark Knight's Christopher Nolan against the man that made him famous -- Titanic's James Cameron.

Christopher Nolan vs. James Cameron

The men behind the two most successful movies ever.

Up first, weighing in at nearly 885 million dollars in domestic box office earnings and enlisting the help of young Oscar talent like Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard and Ellen Page, it's Christopher Nolan with Inception:

What's it about? Based on this trailer, no clue. But it sure does grab you. From its seeming tagline ("your mind is the scene of the crime") to the thumping drumbeat, to the anxious crescendo and the trippy Matrix-like action -- this one's a perfect tease.

The plot details released so far for Inception are just as skimpy as the trailer: it's been revealed that DiCaprio plays a "CEO-type" caught in some kind of "blackmailing scandal", while all Warner Bros. will disclose is that the film is "set within the architecture of the mind", whatever that means. No matter, this one's a must-see come Summer 2010.

In the opposite corner, weighing in at over 1.1 billion dollars in domestic box office gross, with heavyweight veteran Sigourney Weaver at his side, James Cameron returns to the ring after a twelve-year hiatus (who wouldn't take a break after Titanic?) with the much-anticipated Avatar:

What's it about? Based on the teaser, again, no clue. But more is known about Cameron's film than Nolan's. Apparently, it is about a paralysed human soldier who gets the chance to walk again as the "driver" of a body called an "Avatar". Then the Avatars invade a planet called Pandora full of aliens. Likely, some ethical, imperialistic issues ensue.

It's not that the plot sounds bad, it's just this teaser is too massive. It leaves one a little cold.

This is however, the weakness of trailers -- they don't always work for certain movies, especially huge, complicated, 3D sci-fi epics. Or maybe it's just the weird CGI aliens. As a teaser trailer, Avatar is not a success. But based on its credentials, there is no doubting its must-see worthiness.

Champ: Inception, Christopher Nolan