James Cameron's Avatar

I'm glad you're excited :) No amount of additional viewings is going to convince me the military designs are well-done; yes they have to be functional-looking and utilitarian but Aliens did a much better job (dropship and the tank in that movie were excellent), even the Matrix did a better job. Everything I'm seeing here feels pretty uninspired design-wise.

However, I think I'll still enjoy the film, and I suspect like Titanic a lot of naysayers will end up secretly admitting it's more moving than they thought it would be. Just a hunch.

personally the things I have the biggest issues with are: a) the whole avatar idea seems very forced, it would probably be more effective with just a human dude falling in love with a naavi chick (interracial, yum) and b) cameron seems to be desperately rehashing too many ideas from Aliens, from the loader mechs to the sassy female pilot (Vasquez 2) to the slimy corporate guy (Ribisi instead of Reiser) and so on. I wish he wouldn't be so conservative

  On 10/30/2009 at 9:49 AM, lumpenprol said:

I'm glad you're excited :) No amount of additional viewings is going to convince me the military designs are well-done; yes they have to be functional-looking and utilitarian but Aliens did a much better job (dropship and the tank in that movie were excellent), even the Matrix did a better job. Everything I'm seeing here feels pretty uninspired design-wise.

 

However, I think I'll still enjoy the film, and I suspect like Titanic a lot of naysayers will end up secretly admitting it's more moving than they thought it would be. Just a hunch.

I can see what your saying, and I didn't say I think the human designs are at all inspired or interesting... my point was that they are kind of bland for a reason. Cameron is trying to demonstrate the beauty in the natural world versus the destructive ugly aspects of our material world. Perhaps it would have better to just fuck the cliche themes and just make everything really awesome, but it doesn't bother me that he went in this direction, I didn't exactly expect anything else.

If you find the alien stuff uninspired well then yeah thats just a difference of opinion... I think the biggest gripe I can see with the Alien stuff is how colorful/cartoony it all appears, but as I said, I really think the trailer brings those things out while the film will feel far more subtle (as you ease into the world).

Do I expect this to be the best movie of the year? Yes... do I think it will be the best movie in a long time? Na, I hope so, but because I have shield myself from much information about the story, I really have no clue how thats going to turn out. I've known the basic plot long before the trailers, so I'm guessing a good portion of the story is still unknown to most everyone. This movie is fucking 2 hours and 45 minutes long. It's either going to go through what we saw in the trailer at a very very very slow pace or the second half of it hasn't even been revealed yet.

This raises a lot of questions for me. First of all, where exactly does James Cameron post? Is it a frame-based forum or what? What i mean is, if he is making posts long enough to benefit from a 3.5 minute avatar, then exactly what is he posting about, and what sort of site design would keep his avatar visible while scrolling through the post? The only thing I could think of is it's one of those forums that places the body of the post in something like an I-Frame element so that the user's avatar, info, and signature remain static as you scroll through the post. While I think he's sacrificing universal appeal by targeting a specific forum format, I must say I'm very impressed. I have a lot more respect for Cameron now, and I think everyone is judging him a bit too harshly.

Though avatars have been around for quite a few years, I think we should not forget the fact that they are still in a pioneer stage. Mr. Cameron, whether or not you like his aesthetic, message, or think his working resolution is overkill, is one of the few artists out there really pushing the limits of forum avatars and I look forward to what he'll do next.

I think it's some sort of cargo forum, I've come to this conclusion based on the fact that avatar discussed is a trailer.

So, according to that they're going to compare the somewhat intriguing storyline to us cutting down our rainforests and otherwise destroying our planet therefore making the main character choose to stay on Pandora to never return.. as a lot of people would.. yep.

  On 10/29/2009 at 10:47 PM, Mcdergbit said:

  On 10/29/2009 at 8:39 PM, T35513R said:

Nice! Thanks for posting.

 

I'm so pendulum in my expectations for this one - one minute I think it's going to rock my balls off, the next I'm terrified it'll be a 3D Bayfest of cool looking shit with no soul. . . .

 

but, it is James Cameron doing sci-fi, which hasn't produced a bad movie yet (correct me if i'm wrong)

 

Piranha Part Two: The Spawning (1981)

lmfao holy crap you're right!

I have that on VHS somewhere. for the lulz.

the aliens and avatars look stupid.

You are all going to go watch it anyways.... so fuck the haters

im probably not

yeah I'm pretty sure I'm not going to see this.

3-hour James fucking Cameron sci-fli flick... in imax 3d... most of you haters will go see it.

and COBALT BLUE FTW

looks horrible. i'm actually not going to see this after watching this preview.

hell yes I'm going to see it and I will hate every second.

If the cripple's avatar becomes a problem for the human investors, why don't they simply destroy his original body?

cause theyre idiots

If you are curious about whats going to happen or whatever just wait for the movie. Theres probably a lot of stuff we don't know about yet...

And lol at people not going to even bother giving this a chance, or wait until the reviews come out to make up their mind. I've never seen such a polarizing film before, where some people (mainly people I talk to on other forums) are absolutely dieing to see this next month, and others think it looks like a joke/trash.

Even if the subject matter doesn't interest you, if you are at all interested in what 3D filmmaking's potential is... then this should be a good technical benchmark of what to expect in the coming generation of 3D films.

Only furries and teens could possibly like what they've seen in the trailers. As for the new 3D tech I would rather have a cool 45min short movie/tech demo than a sorry excuse for a movie.

  On 10/30/2009 at 11:52 PM, vasio said:

Only furries and teens could possibly like what they've seen in the trailers.

Yeah that's it! I am obsessed with furries folks, just got down shagging my cat.

Puurrrrr

The aliens do look like they were based on cats.

the aliens are fucking hot i dont give a shit

  On 10/30/2009 at 11:52 PM, vasio said:

As for the new 3D tech I would rather have a cool 45min short movie/tech demo than a sorry excuse for a movie.

Tech demo? Find me a tech-demo that has 200+ million funded into WETA for state of the art effects and CGi... Until then, this is the greatest "tech-demo" your going to be seeing or have seen in a long time.

  On 10/31/2009 at 12:09 AM, karmakramer said:

  On 10/30/2009 at 11:52 PM, vasio said:

As for the new 3D tech I would rather have a cool 45min short movie/tech demo than a sorry excuse for a movie.

 

Tech demo? Find me a tech-demo that has 200+ million funded into WETA for state of the art effects and CGi... Until then, this is the greatest "tech-demo" your going to be seeing or have seen in a long time.

I just find it a shame that Cameron is following George Lucas steps.

  On 10/31/2009 at 12:34 AM, vasio said:

  On 10/31/2009 at 12:09 AM, karmakramer said:

  On 10/30/2009 at 11:52 PM, vasio said:

As for the new 3D tech I would rather have a cool 45min short movie/tech demo than a sorry excuse for a movie.

 

Tech demo? Find me a tech-demo that has 200+ million funded into WETA for state of the art effects and CGi... Until then, this is the greatest "tech-demo" your going to be seeing or have seen in a long time.

 

I just find it a shame that Cameron is following George Lucas steps.

lol you haven't even seen the movie yet