James Cameron's Avatar

  On 12/16/2009 at 12:14 PM, Obel said:

Don't get me wrong, I love Cameron. His movies anyway (Well, I say that but what I mean is Terminator, T2 and Aliens are close to my heart) but I'm just not enamoured with what I've seen of Avatar so far. I'll reserve any serious criticism for when I finally see it, I too haven't watched enough. I guess I'd just rather people discussed the film as opposed to just mindlessly defending it. But hey, each to their own.

True, but I'm really only sharing my opinion on the film just like everyone else that is critical of it. I may be defending, but I think thats been mainly cause other then one or two members here, no one else is really excited about it. So most thoughts have been negative and I think its a mistake to conclude anything negative about this film based on Fox's advertising, which as I said earlier is entirely focused on people not like us. The advertising Fox has done isn't suppose to win the passionate film lover over... we already know its a James Cameron movie and we already know its coming out on the 18th. They already have our money...

From a more recent review from a huge Cameron fan, the story/characters is described as lacking compared to his previous films. But that is not a fault to the film in this case, because in this case the style is the substance. Here's a quote:

"My mind is still reeling from the experiene and I'm trying to piece together the story and scenes in my head, but ultimately AVATAR is about going to Pandora. It is just that - an experience. This isn't me defending negative claims of the story or anything of the sort - the film ultimately feels like an epic tour of another universe - in terms of its foreigness as a place and as a culture.

That said, where as in Cameron's past films he has written thinking entirely about the characters, their motivation, what they are feeling (and that is still there) - this time his focus ultimately seems to be on the viewer. What is the audience seeing, what is the audience feeling at this point? Its Cameron not just guiding Jake through this foreign world and culture, but ultimately guiding the viewer. And its necessary - he is showing you how the culture works, how the ecosystem lives and thrives, the rules and rituals of each - that is a big part of the story."

  On 12/16/2009 at 2:15 AM, Awepittance said:

well if that's the case i'm pretty impressed.. a lot of things that people think are CGI in the star wars prequels are actually just really detailed miniatures, so i'm willing to believe either way. It just seems like more man hours would go into doing it with 100% cgi vs taking a lot of photographic elements of miniature rain forests and compositing them and integrating them with CGI.

Oh you are absolutely right about that. Episode 1 had more miniature work than the entire original trilogy.. .combined! In fact there is more model work in demand these days than ever before in special effects. Of course a lof of that are miniature sets that are scanned and incorporated into the 3d world.

(old usenet post from me :)

================================

- The Republic Cruiser's introduction, the first shot in space and when it

docks with the control ship is a miniature.

- The Republic Cruiser's explosion (Many people said to me that scene cried

"CGI fake" when in fact the model is really blown up to pieces).

- When Obi/QG look upon the troops after they went "down the ventilation

shaft" is a miniature set. Of course often the models are enhanced with CGI

effects (Troops of Droids moving, etc..)

- When the Trade Federation Landing ships arrive on Naboo, there is some

miniature work with the AAT unloading from inside the ships.

- When Annie flows inside the control ship at the end, it's a miniature

- The Pod Race Arena is a model that has 10+meters in size. How many people

said it looked fake? <G> They just extend the scene by including CGI like

some balloons floating up with sheets covering the spectators from the sun

(another nice touch that CGI makes possible).

- At the end of the movie when the Control Ship's Reactor Core explodes it's

a miniature, not CGI

- Theed's cityscape is a big (sorry VERY big) miniature that has incredible

detail.

- Battle Droids getting chopped are chopped for real in front of a blue

screen, sparks&all.

- When the Podracers are introduced on screen (they wave to the crowd), many

of the models are miniatures

- During the race, Sebulba's Pod Racer is sometimes a model (for some

close-ups)

- When Sebulba's Pod Racer slides down the sand (before he says "Poodoo"),

it's a miniature.

- The whole Control ship is a gigantic model!

- The Slave quarters on Mos Espa is a miniature set (it's also a live set).

- In different situations on screen, the Trade Federation AAT is a full size

model, not a CGI model. When it explodes at the start of the "Battle for

Naboo, you see it but this time the shattered AAT is a miniature model.

- The same AAT's in the plains of Naboo is often a miniature about 3 meters

in size.

- When you see the PodRacers going inside a craggy hole (the famous scene

where Ratts Tyerell find his fate hehe) is a model.

- The scene when a Gungan gets on top of an ancient temple statue is a

model.

- The underwater terrain in the Gungan sequence is a miniature carved out of

foam.!

- The Queen's Royal starship was most of the time a miniature model

- On another note, the Sith Probe Droids are for real, not CGI (mostly

wire/blue screen effects)

===============================

avator

transformers is equivalent to terminator 2,

titanic is the worst movie ever.

i don't want to see this at all

  On 12/16/2009 at 7:57 PM, GORDO said:

transformers is equivalent to terminator 2,

noooo... stupid toy and FX! based movie does not equate to one of the most epic sci-fi stories ever!

  On 12/16/2009 at 7:57 PM, GORDO said:

titanic is the worst movie ever.

yesss

it's only epic if you're 12.

transformers is only remotely watchable if you're 12

we're not having this discussion again.

transformers is shit.

transformers is complete shit... as are most bay films

so is T2 on many levels.

agree to disagree

T2 takes a massive fucking shit on transformers out of its ass and onto all of the transformers and michael bay and you

  On 12/16/2009 at 8:49 PM, GORDO said:

so is T2 on many levels.

... a world of pain

saw this tonight.

overall, the story was pretty much middle-of-the-road, nothing spectacular. there were some cool moments that seemed original, but overall the story is probably what you're expecting.

visuals / immersion wise, i was blown away a few times, completely immersed to the point of not noticing a few times, becoming aware of the CG a few times.

there are definitely some really stunning moments with the na'vi expressions and realism. the 3D aspect is really well done, without being 'gimmicky'.

overall, definitely worth seeing in 3D... not so sure i'd be as excited about it in 2D / standard.

ok i'm tired. time to sleep.

  On 12/17/2009 at 11:21 AM, maus said:

saw this tonight.

 

overall, the story was pretty much middle-of-the-road, nothing spectacular. there were some cool moments that seemed original, but overall the story is probably what you're expecting.

 

visuals / immersion wise, i was blown away a few times, completely immersed to the point of not noticing a few times, becoming aware of the CG a few times.

 

there are definitely some really stunning moments with the na'vi expressions and realism. the 3D aspect is really well done, without being 'gimmicky'.

 

overall, definitely worth seeing in 3D... not so sure i'd be as excited about it in 2D / standard.

 

ok i'm tired. time to sleep.

my thoughts exactly, the story and characters were meh, but the visuals made it worth the 11€ I had to pay. The 3D got me more physically involved than any other movie before, it took me a few moments after the ending credits to "re-adjust" to the less colourful reality.

Which was also one aspect of the movie I really admired: Jake was always talking about how his avatar and his life with the Navi became more and more "real" than his own paraplegic life. He always made these dream-logs after a day within his avatar which reminded me a lot of practicing lucid dreaming. Well, it definetly felt like one.

By the way, did anyone have difficulties to see the movie on the first day? My cinema had to showings, but only one copy of Avatar, so the people who reserved their tickets for the other showing had to go home or see the non-3d Version...luckily we had the tickets for the right one

  On 12/17/2009 at 11:47 PM, plstik said:

He always made these dream-logs after a day within his avatar which reminded me a lot of practicing lucid dreaming. Well, it definetly felt like one.

 

that sounds really cool.

  On 12/15/2009 at 11:40 PM, Awepittance said:

i love that part too

 

if only more movies would take after the hard work put into Dune's sets and costumes, we wouldn't have had such a shit CGI infested SCifi movie output of the last 15 years

I still have a bunch of screenshots I took years ago:

Even the special effects I like, they look so abstract and creative, to me it redefined what Dune should look like, specially with the costumes.

Also love the late 70's-80's star fields... there's something to them, I think they look miles better than CGI.

So beautiful

ONE DAY TO GO

Alright, so the story was, as maus mentions it, nothing spectacular. The movie could have been about nothing but the world of the na'vis for all I care. In other words, I didn't care for the humans at all I didn't care for anything they had to say. All I wanted was to see more of Pandorum because it was pretty fucking beautiful and so were the na'vis. James Cameron should make a 3 hour long tourist guide video on Pandorum.

Ok, enough of all the bullshit. What I really liked about the movie was the fact that it actually felt like the na'vis had a history and that they had actually been on Pandorum for centuries. Their language sounded real, they had names for everything, everything had a history, and their history was something I felt like I could believe in.

The CGi was pretty much flawless. The stark, raw emotions of terror, anguish and sadness that read across the na'vis faces was brilliant. This is the most impressed I've been since I watched Jurassic Park.

Also, the last 30 minutes were pretty damn mindblowing.

Unfortunately, a couple of rows behind me were a kid and his father and the father read EVERYTHING out loud to him.

  On 12/18/2009 at 12:16 AM, Squee said:

Unfortunately, a couple of rows behind me were a kid and his father and the father read EVERYTHING out loud to him.

Man thats very unfortunate... did you see this in 3D?

  On 12/18/2009 at 12:22 AM, karmakramer said:

  On 12/18/2009 at 12:16 AM, Squee said:

Unfortunately, a couple of rows behind me were a kid and his father and the father read EVERYTHING out loud to him.

 

Man thats very unfortunate... did you see this in 3D?

Yep. The first 5 minutes were sick. But we'll talk about that once everyone has seen it :)

Man I can't wait... and yeah please anyone writing impressions put anything specific in SPOILERS! ... I've gone a year of constant watching for this film and I have gotten away with basically no spoilers and very little footage besides the trailer. I am seeing this tomorrow at 6:30 and I can't fucking wait. Seeing it in RealD and then IMAX

so did anybody get fucked up/stoned before they saw this movie and had a psychedelic mind blowing experience. that's my goal on friday