The James Cameron's "Avatar" Thread

[Kane52630]

yea i had no problems when i went to the 15 min screening in IMAX 3D
it was just as enjoyable

 

[Timstuff]

If girl is artistic type, drawing and stuff, she will probably love it. (Wife of my friend is painter and she hates SF. She loved Avatar.)

She's a film student with an interest in makeup and photography. I think she fits the bill.

 

[Dark Donnie]

Is this true? I read it on another board...


[I"]Depends what you mean by "planned." Are they screening Avatar on IMAX? Yes. Was the film designed around screening in IMAX 3D? No. It was designed with Real D 3D in mind. They are two very different systems of 3D. The IMAX 3D system takes the original print of the movie, blows it up to 70mm (which isn't always a good thing), and then spits the movie out of two projectors to simulate the 3D experience. With Real D 3D, it's all in one digital box (so you are keeping with the medium the film was shot on), and the technology is only a few years old. Avatar was shot with Real D 3D in mind, and that is definitely the ideal way to see the movie. I have seen the 3D preview on both systems, and I can tell you--the depth and clarity of the 3D in the Real D system was nothing short of mind blowing, while watching the preview on IMAX felt like a gimmick. I noticed THAT great of a difference.

But as I said in another thread--don't take my word for it--go watch A Christmas Carol on IMAX 3D, and then go watch it again on the Real D 3D system and see the difference for yourself.[/I]"

That's dissapointing.

 

[Crook]

I almost find that hard to believe. IMAX 3D on Avatar Day was nothing short of mind-blowing for me. I can't imagine the 3D effect to be that much of a bigger influence on RealD. Surely Cameron would realize many would opt for the IMAX experience.

 

[Ipodman]

My theater only has 3D... 0.0
had no choice

 

[craigdbfan]

I saw the Avatar day footage in IMAX 3D (digital/Liemax) the small one.

It still looked pretty spectacular. In my screening there wasn't any visible ghosting.

 

[DraganM]

It is "IMAX experience". Best money can buy. Problem is not with Cameron here. There is just newer and slicker projecting equipment that works a slightly better on smaller screens. That is all.

 

[craigdbfan]

7th Avatar Clip (New) (Sky chase)

7th Clip

 

[DraganM]

She's a film student with an interest in makeup and photography. I think she fits the bill.

That is promising.

 

[#1Batmanfan]

shooot i have tickets for Imax 3D should i return them for real 3D????

 

[DraganM]

shooot i have tickets for Imax 3D should i return them for real 3D????

Let me put it this way. Theater here installed Dolby 3D projectors. Some say that it is even better than RealD and I still plan to travel to another country to see it in IMAX. Truth is ... size maters.


I know that visuals are hyped up. But lets do not forget sound.

 

[Bunker]

I'll probably see it in IMAX 3D and Real 3D. Not really a big deal.

 

[Ipodman]

Let me put it this way. Theater here installed Dolby 3D projectors. Some say that it is even better than RealD and I still plan to travel to another country to see it in IMAX. Truth is ... size maters.


I know that visuals are hyped up. But lets do not forget sound.

Is my theater the only one that asks for you to return the 3D Glasses?

 

[FCEEVIPER]

I think I'll watch this Dec 28th or 29th, I'll be on vacation from work and also all the hype will die down by then.

 

[DraganM]

Is my theater the only one that asks for you to return the 3D Glasses?

No!

Most of system are too price for one time only.

 

[Scarlet Spider]

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2009/12/cameron_is-recrowned_king_of_the_world.html

Cameron is recrowned King of the World

By Roger Ebert on December 16, 2009 11:17 PM

The thing about James Cameron is, he can get his mind around a project the size of "Avatar" and keep his cool. If it requires the development of untested technology, he takes the time to work on it. If he wants to create aliens human enough to be sexy and yet keep them out of the Uncanny Valley, he test-drives them. If it costs $250 million, as reported, or $350 million, as rumored, you reflect: That's a lot of money, but after seeing the movie I guess I saw most of it up there on the screen.

It became a favorite sport in some Hollywood circles, and even among critics not a million miles distant from myself, to publicly doubt Cameron's claims. He took ten years, starting with a story he began writing years before that? He was determined to film in 3-D, but no 3-D was good enough, so he had to perfect the next generation of that contentious process. The film needed 163 minutes to be told, causing anxiety among exhibitors eager to usher in a new audience every 120 minutes? If that's what it took, that's what it took.

After the epic success of his "Titanic," the highest-grossing movie ever made, no one was prepared to say no to him. That is a risky position to be in, and Hollywood is littered with the corpses of films that were made next after big hits by their makers. There's even a joke about that:

"Now that you've set box office records, what are you going to do next?"

"I've got this script in my desk drawer that I've been working on since the 1980s, but until now no one has ever wanted to back it."

Doubt descended upon Cameron's fans after he previewed 18 minutes of "Avatar" in the autumn. Audiences were underwhelmed. Did the alien race of Na'vi look a little creepy? Or not creepy enough? The term Uncanny Valley is used by robot theorists and special effects technicians to describe artificial humanoids who look "too" human, so that their artificiality becomes unsettling. Better Robby the Robot as your housecleaner than a Stepford Wife.

In the days before the first press screenings of "Avatar," a sort of frenzy gripped certain web fan sites. Then the great day arrived, 20th Century-Fox issued individual invitations and posted guards at the door, the chosen people filed in, the movie began, silence descended, interest grew, and doubts were dispelled. Cameron had done it.

Fox made much of a press embargo: No critics were to review the film until Fri. Dec. 18, its opening day. A flaw in this theory was that the movie opened a week sooner in England, and American fans, not witless, were instantly devouring the London reviews.

Kirk Honeycutt of the Hollywood Reporter broke the U.S, embargo and referred to Cameron's infamous speech when "Titanic" won as best picture: "A dozen years later, James Cameron has proven his point: He is king of the world." Todd McCarthy of Variety was also an embargo-breaker: "Cameron delivers again with a film of universal appeal that just about everyone who ever goes to the movies will need to see."

You could call those the kinds of reviews Hollywood likes to read, and it's unlikely Honeycutt or McCarthy will be denied entry to Fox screenings anytime soon. What was the point of an embargo, anyway? Was Fox afraid the reviews would be negative? By Friday afternoon editors at the Sun-Times and Tribune were growing restless as the good news leaked out, and both papers published reviews. Soon a movie that wasn't supposed to be reviewed was sporting high numbers in the Tomatometer (86% as I write).

More sincere praise came from a woman seated not far from me (no, not Chaz), who felt the call of nature, raced out to the facilities, hurried back in, sat down, and 10 minutes later realized she'd forgotten to put her 3-D glasses back on.

"Avatar" creates a new world from scratch, and, as Lucas did in "Star Wars," fills it with such countless minute details that it doesn't seem artificial. Well it does, but it's as real as a fantasy can seem, if you see what I mean. The creatures of this planetary forest are many-toothed and preposterous, but not the grotesque artifices of so many monster movies. Their battles seem sincere and earnest, and not the banging of pots and pans as in "Transformers 2."

The special effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen, who made horses fly and sent skeletons into battle, is still alive at 89. If he sees "Avatar" he'll possibly feel the kind of pride Werner von Braun might have felt the day men walked on the Moon. Yet "Avatar" isn't primarily about Harryhausen's kind of special effects at all, in the traditional sense. Its use of CGI means that in the scenes on Pandora it's every bit as much an animated film as "The Polar Express," "Beowulf"--or "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," which also used motion capture, although its artists drew on paper, not computers.

Cameron has told a story with comprehensible emotional motivation, physical events that make sense at least within the realities of his imaginary world, and an alien race that exists not as foils for ray guns but an indigenous people living in harmony with their environment. His movie has a Green message and an anti-war message, both effective and organic parts of the plot.

Those towering blue Na'vi with their long tails look peculiar at first, but it's strange how quickly they grow on us. You don't whip up aliens like that with a sketch pad. It takes trial runs and countless hours of testing. And Cameron was equal to the test. He also overcame the bane of 3-D, which is dimness. His Dolby 3-D seems noticeably brighter. His use of 3-D is restrained; he doesn't poke his picture in our eyes, and his editing makes sense of things, unlike Michael Bay's mixmaster approach.

James Cameron set out to do a lot of very difficult things and to do them all correctly. It took him and his many collaborators a long time and a lot of money, but how many filmmakers could have done it at all? As Honeycutt observed, the King of the World has been re-elected.

 

[nite-owl]

I found out yesterday that the cinema near mine has sold out. So I'm going to have to see some time next week.

 

[bapi]

8/10

SImply... great visuals but no story.

 

[matrix_ghost]

Sorry guys.

I had written and entire review yesterday and yet with one wrong button the whole thing went away. So i just said screw it i'll write one tomorrow
But anyway here it . Yes i saw Avatar yesterday in IMAX 3-d and yes it was amazing.
Before the movie started they were showing the trialer for ALice In Wonderland and How To Train Your Dragon in 3-d. Both movies will be converted into 3-d later and it shows.'Ever since Superman Returns , i've watched pretty much every 3-d movie that came out in the cinemas and i felt a relief once i remved the 3-d glasses because my head would hurt. Beowulf was one that that was awesome at the same time yet left me with a migraine inducing headache for a couple of hours afterwards. Anyway as i watching those 2 trailer i felt that headache coming back. Yet 5 minutes into Avatar that headache was gone and remained gone.
I would go so far to say the 3-d here is as close to what the human eye can really see. It's that good The scene where Jake wakes up in space was absolutely breathtaking. You can clearly see that Cameron has done his homework here. It's not simply a question of taking a 3-d camera and filming scenes but also understanding hownyou film the scenes. My Bloody Valententine , i think , was also shot using the same camera yet it just felt like any other converted 3-d movie. Avatar really has such excellent 3-d that you won't even notice it. It feels very fluid and definately not a in your face manner. And that obviously helps with the world that cameron has created.

And that world is very very real. I would say that the only shots that looked CG ( mind you they were practically 98% photoreal) were the scenes when Jake first arrives at the military base as well the shots of the military aircrafts taking off. The ships themselves are photorealistic but Cameron has also included shots with people like those you see on aircraft carriers who are removing blocks etc. There i definately felt that they didn't blend so well with the CG settings. But really those are like shots of a couple of seconds.
Everything else is flawless. I was surprised how much the footage was changed or should i say improved when compared to the stuff i saw during Avatar day. Remember the first trailer of Avatar. There is a shot of the helicopter landing in the jungle. There the grass movements looked good but the grass itself looked almost blueish. In the movie that's changed to a full jungle green color. I could go on describing everything but really you guys if you have the changed see this stuff in 3-d or beter yet IMAX 3-d. It's that great. Trust me the scenes where the military atacks the Na'Vi stronghold for the first time is done excellent. THere are rockets fired from the ship and it's almost like the bombs used in Vietnam. The shockwaves just completely blow you away. Hell there is even some 9/11 influences in the same sequence as well.

The performances are also stellar. And i do believe that you see the same thing in the Na'Vi creations because they look and talk just like real people. You could argue that Gollum might the closest thing to a CG human but he's nothing compared the Na'Vi. You can mo-cap movements like running or walking and get it right but when you have a guy doing impossible moves like say hanging from something and flying , the movements often looked weightless. I dunno how Cameron did it but even those movements come off in a realistic manner.

If i had to criticise one thing , it was the whole hippie gathering and chanting. The way the whole scene is filmed complete with fluerescent groundmovements just screams LSD to me me . But then again i have a personal dislike to hippies anyway. I'm liberal minded but not in a greenpeace "save the world , don't eat meat and smoke pot " kinda way.
That and one cliche scene of the heroes being outnumbered and right at the end getting help. I found the execution of that scene great but personally they could've gone with a different way of doing that.
As for complaints about the story is too simple and been done before. Really when you look at some of the critically and commercially loved movies of late , they're also very simple .
What's so great storywise about Iron Man. It follows the same general rule of all comic book movies . Guy sees injustice , finds some kind of power and fights that injustice.
What is so great about Star Trek storywise. Honestly if you look at it . nothing
Ditto with District 9. Remove setting of south africa and aliens and you get a storylineof a guy disliking an opressed minority but (un)willingly decides to help them at the end. The Last Samurai could be used as an example of a similar storyline.
Yet all those movies i named have one thing in common. They're great fun. The performances don't feel fake and are well done , you buy into that world and you can enjoy those movies . That's the exactly the same thing with Avatar. The Abyss's greatest strength was that the characters had heart. And IMO that's what Cameron has succeeded doing here.

The whole movie i had a smile on my face and that was because i was proud that Cameron delivered on what he promised.
3-d -> easily the best use ever. The only two movies right now that could match or top Avatar in terms of 3-d use are Tin Tin and Tron Legacy. I've read that Spielberg jokingly said that he felt like an intern when Cameron was explaining how to use his tech. I hope that SPielberg can deliver the same quality with Tin Tin.

PHOTOREALISTIC CG characters -> Definately. The only way to top this was if Cameron actually started working on Battle ANgel to create an CG human. Speaking of CG humans , the last fight of Avatar is Col. Quaritch in his AMP suit fighting Jake in his Na'Vi body. For those that didn't know this , the whole scenes ( minus some close ups) are completely CG. I frikkin dare you to spot a flaw there

The Mother Of All Aerial battles -> HELL YEAH

Final Rating 9/10

PS : For all you pervs out there. You get a glimpse of Neytiri's **** when she goes to sleep

 

[Crook]

Very smart to leave that tidbit at the end. I'm positive I would have stopped reading if that was in the beginning.

 

[matrix_ghost]

Very smart to leave that tidbit at the end. I'm positive I would have stopped reading if that was in the beginning.

You gotta save the best for last
Naah but seriously it's just one very small scene somewhere in the middle and it's not that distracting.

 

[Eggyman]

I have my marrywanna ordered and my tickets in my pocket

 

[craigdbfan]

"Thats a potent mix".

 

[Batspider77]

The Story isn´t something we haven´t seen before but i don´t care because the FX is just Jaw dropping.
What impressed me the most was not the CGI renderings or something,but the movement of the CGI Characters....i always had problems with the static movements of some of the CGI Characters/Beasts of the past but Cameron absolutely nailed it with this one.

I give it 9/10 Stars and i hope it makes a lot of Money,so we could have more Movies in the stile of this one.

 

[Scarlet Spider]

For anyone that missed it last night, here's Cameron on The Tonight Show:

http://www.tonightshowwithconanobrien.com/video/clips/james-cameron-pt1-121609/1186249/?__cid=thefilter

http://www.tonightshowwithconanobrien.com/video/clips/james-cameron-pt2-121609/1186251/?__cid=thefilter