The James Cameron's "Avatar" Thread

[squeekness]

this might be the theme for AVATAR

This was better.

 

[The Squirrel]

This film was great. A good way to end 2009.

 

[squeekness]

This film was great. A good way to end 2009.

Sherlock Holmes opens on Christmas day. Don't forget that one. It looks great.

 

[SuperFerret]

It will. It already has. Thats a fact. New tech was created. The effects have pushed passed the uncanny vally.

Story aside...this movie has changed everything.

That's depressing. Very, very depressing. I thought movies were supposed to be getting better.

 

[Bunker]

Sherlock Holmes opens on Christmas day. Don't forget that one. It looks great.

Nothing I've seen from Sherlock Holmes has made me want to go see it. I'll still probably check it out because Guy Ritchie and RDJ are rad, but it doesn't look like anything special.

 

[Big Daddy]

Sherlock Holmes opens on Christmas day. Don't forget that one. It looks great.

meh. RDJ's holmes is too silly for my likings. looks more like an action comedy than a detective movie. I'll watch it but im not expecting much. (im a HUGE holmes fan, read every book, so I'm pickier than most Trekkies)

I'll use it as TP to clean up after I ***** my pants on monday when I see Avatar again.

 

[The Squirrel]

Sherlock Holmes opens on Christmas day. Don't forget that one. It looks great.

But I'm in no rush to see it. Avatar probably is the last film I will see in theaters this year.

 

[squeekness]

meh. RDJ's holmes is too silly for my likings. looks more like an action comedy than a detective movie. I'll watch it but im not expecting much. (im a HUGE holmes fan, read every book, so I'm pickier than most Trekkies)

I'll use it as TP to clean up after I ***** my pants on monday when I see Avatar again.gl

I have Christmas week off. I'll be seeing Avatar again sometime then. I want to see it in 2D to compare.

 

[A&W]

That's depressing. Very, very depressing. I thought movies were supposed to be getting better.

so let me get this straight. your very very very depressed about the tecnological advancements of CGI?

I'll just chalk that up to another example of people exagerating their criticisms of the movie.

 

[Mr. Para-Normal]

I know this is early and but I wonder how the Blu ray be handled? I mean will it come packaged with some 3D glasses or will you need a special TV or something to see it in 3D? It would be sad to have to watch in normal 2d after seeing it in wonderful digital 3D.

 

[squeekness]

I know this is early and but I wonder how the Blu ray be handled? I mean will it come packaged with some 3D glasses or will you need a special TV or something to see it in 3D? It would be sad to have to watch in normal 2d after seeing it in wonderful digital 3D.

Do they even make 3D DVDs? I haven't seen any....

 

[A&W]

But I'm in no rush to see it. Avatar probably is the last film I will see in theaters this year.

It will be the last movie I saw in 2009 and the first movie I saw in 2010

 

[A&W]

Do they even make 3D DVDs? I haven't seen any....

on very rare ocasions you can get a dvd that is 3d but that is using the old crappy 3d technology.

3d tvs are coming out but they wont play 2d movies or 2d television. you'd have to buy one of those tvs.

 

[SuperFerret]

so let me get this straight. your very very very depressed about the tecnological advancements of CGI?

I'll just chalk that up to another example of people exagerating their criticisms of the movie.

Excuse my hyperbole. What's "depressing", or rather disappointing, highly disappointing, is that after all the hype of this movie being "groundbreaking", the only thing that fits the bill is the extraneous stuff, like the CGI.

But then, I don't "get" what's so special about 3D or photorealistic CGI anyway.

 

[chaosTM]

u are not in Kansas anymore..

 

[Mr. Para-Normal]

on very rare ocasions you can get a dvd that is 3d but that is using the old crappy 3d technology.

3d tvs are coming out but they wont play 2d movies or 2d television. you'd have to buy one of those tvs.

Yea that sucks because you need a 3D TV for the Avatar video game to be in 3D. Those TV's are expensive and I already have a flat screen so I doubt buying a whole new TV just to see one movie in 3D would be kinda of a waste. Even if the movie was AWESOME!

 

[C. Lee]

Do they even make 3D DVDs? I haven't seen any....

The SPY KIDS 3 DVDs were released in 3D. Been a long time since I watched it....I remember it was fair in 3D, but the newer technology since then could do better.

 

[BlackLantern]

Excuse my hyperbole. What's "depressing", or rather disappointing, highly disappointing, is that after all the hype of this movie being "groundbreaking", the only thing that fits the bill is the extraneous stuff, like the CGI.

But then, I don't "get" what's so special about 3D or photorealistic CGI anyway.

I think what SF is getting at, is that yes...new technology has been developed and thats great....but the first movie to make use of said technology was not exactly revolutionary

essentially this movie is like a brand new Ferrari that has nothing but a milk crate on the inside for a seat

 

[A&W]

'Avatar' Delivers, and That May Change Everything


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Buzz up!





By Sharon Waxman
Published: December 15, 2009

I just saw “Avatar.” And for the first time in a very long time, a movie that made a great, big promise delivered.

It’s been more than a year since I’ve been hearing that James Cameron would reinvent moviemaking with “Avatar.” That he was marking a milestone with this film that was the equivalent of silent films to talkies, or black and white to color.
Right. And once I heard that he was the king of the world.
Going to the movies for a grown-up is too often a series of ongoing disappointments and adjusted expectations. So I was braced for anything.
But I had learned by now to be careful in announcing Cameron’s demise just because his own overblown, self-aggrandizing pronouncements tempted one to do so. I wrote some of those epitaphs 12 years ago before “Titanic" came out, and learned my lesson then.
If that film went on to become the highest-grossing film of all time, “Avatar” may well bust through “Titanic’s” record.
The film succeeds where even the visionary Robert Zemeckis (“A Christmas Carol”) falls short. “Avatar” takes two (at least) kinds of technology -- motion capture and classic visual f/x, along with 3D projection (which involved his inventing a camera contraption he wore on his head) -- and weaves a gripping, epic tale.
That's what the movies do, when they're great.
The two Na'vi characters, 10 foot creatures played by Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana colored bright blue, with rabbit-like ears, are entirely believable. The technology has gone far enough to allow those virtual characters to emote broadly and subtly too, to laugh and cry.
And for once, the 3D technology is used to serve the story. Things that reach out to touch you in the audience feel like they ought to. Actually, you feel more like you enter the world of the Na'vi, rather than the reverse.
The film has a political message about America’s ham-handed forays into foreign wars -- the Na'vi defend themselves from war-mongering Americans out to grab the natural resource in their environment that humans crave. But more to the point, it entertains; the movie manages to weave the latest technology in the best possible way into telling a story.
Sam Worthington plays a paraplegic Marine, who visits a dangerous new planet via his avatar, the aforementioned 10-foot, blue version of himself, yielded by cloning and the kind of technology that only exists between Cameron’s ears.
But in short order, you forget that you are watching 10-foot blue aliens.
The flora and fauna of the planet Pandora, where they live, is just spectacular. The colorist on this film should get special mention – the blues and purples and ineffable, undulating whites – are exquisite.
And in the final segment of the movie the Na'vi take on the humans in a battle scene worthy of the best in the film vault.
So – a political story about American selfishness, a love story between a man and woman kept apart by their cultures (and species, if it must be said), and a bang-'em-up wartime narrative with the most spectacular images this side of “Star Wars.”
Works for me. And it will work for Twentieth Century Fox, to the tune of hundreds of millions.
This is just what ailing, uncertain Hollywood needs. And if "Avatar" is not a top contender for Best Picture at the Oscars this year, then something is terribily wrong in this town.

 

[nogap87]

Saw the movie today. Solid 8.

It had a predictable story but I never thought any of the special effects looked fake.

For a second I thought Cameron had the balls to let the military win.

 

[BlackLantern]

Saw the movie today. Solid 8.

It had a predictable story but I never thought any of the special effects looked fake.

For a second I thought Cameron had the balls to let the military win.

would have made the movie a bit better IMO....challenge the audience a bit

 

[nogap87]

would have made the movie a bit better IMO....challenge the audience a bit

Exactly. Not every movie needs a Hollywood ending.

 

[A&W]

Excuse my hyperbole. What's "depressing", or rather disappointing, highly disappointing, is that after all the hype of this movie being "groundbreaking", the only thing that fits the bill is the extraneous stuff, like the CGI.

But then, I don't "get" what's so special about 3D or photorealistic CGI anyway.

that's not what you said though. what's his or her name was saying that new tech was created and it's going to change movies, and you replied that is depressing very depressing movies were supposed to get better.

you in effect were saying that improved CGI is a bad thing, and I used that as an example to show that people will say anything even if it's ridiculous, just to criticize the movie.

I'm not accusing people of pretending not to like it. I'm well aware of the fact that not every person will like this movie, but most of the criticisms offered by the small minority of critics, and descent chunk at the hype are hugely exagerated and often completely false.

 

[SuperFerret]

I think what SF is getting at, is that yes...new technology has been developed and thats great....but the first movie to make use of said technology was not exactly revolutionary

essentially this movie is like a brand new Ferrari that has nothing but a milk crate on the inside for a seat

I guess that's a good assessment of what I'm saying, though to be entirely honest, I'm none too happy with the way this new tech sounds anyway.

 

[A&W]

Saw the movie today. Solid 8.

It had a predictable story but I never thought any of the special effects looked fake.

For a second I thought Cameron had the balls to let the military win.

I'm surprised that hadn't occured to me. I think that would have been better.