Cameron selects an Avatar

[CoryHolmes]

Also will James Cameron win a oscar? Its likely for best visuals, best picture I doubt though.

Of course he will. These awards shows are little more than popularity contests and I really wouldn't be surprised at the depths of back-room barganing that I suspect goes into these things.

As for Bayformers... I kinda maybe possibly *muttermutter* ne'ermind.

[nugundamII]

Can we see a screen cap of this scene? As I assume you didn't see it in theatres repeatedly. Also will James Cameron win a oscar? Its likely for best visuals, best picture I doubt though.

Also I don't think anyone here is flaming you for not liking the film its quite the opposite nearly everyone thats commented on the movie has said the same thing Decent plot amazing visuals and they were entertained and you seem to be taking this as an attack on your opinion.

thank you

and i plead the 5th. the movie is available for everyone

some comments of the huge box office seller from our local paper on avatar

Avatar, one of the best movies ever

Having seen this movie in Imax 3D I believe this is one of the best, if not the best, movies I have ever seen. The story is not unique and tends to the predictable but the vision of an alien planet with its people, wildlife and plant life are simply stunning. One of the few times I recommend going to the cinema and not waiting for the DVD.

Just goes to show you how bored people are.

The endless need to be entertained reminds me of children crying that they are bored and have nothing to do. Of all these people all over North America, how many could have gone for a walk in a nearby park or forest. How many could have sat quietly reading a book and listened to music. The act of sitting quietly with your own thoughts seem to frighten so many people. Peace be upon you all. <<<<< this wasnt me i swear!

[EXO]

thank you

and i plead the 5th. the movie is available for everyone

some comments of the huge box office seller from our local paper on avatar

Avatar, one of the best movies ever

Having seen this movie in Imax 3D I believe this is one of the best, if not the best, movies I have ever seen. The story is not unique and tends to the predictable but the vision of an alien planet with its people, wildlife and plant life are simply stunning. One of the few times I recommend going to the cinema and not waiting for the DVD.

Just goes to show you how bored people are.

The endless need to be entertained reminds me of children crying that they are bored and have nothing to do. Of all these people all over North America, how many could have gone for a walk in a nearby park or forest. How many could have sat quietly reading a book and listened to music. The act of sitting quietly with your own thoughts seem to frighten so many people. Peace be upon you all. <<<<< this wasnt me i swear!

That doesn't even make sense. You're making up random activities and comparing them to the experience of watching a movie just so watching the movie would sound like a waste of time. That's like if I say... hey, why don't people go serve soup at skid row instead of sitting around for 3 hours watching bright lights... all of a sudden spending time with bums sound a lot better than watching a family event movie. And this is from a guy that spent countless hours watching a movie just so he can watch blue people hump trees and making up some weird agenda for people to see that they shouldn't like a movie (and what a fine way to make use of your so called valuable time that is).

I'm probably someone that enjoyed this movie more than anyone else here and by coincidence I probably spent more time walking thru forests because I had to scout a location requiring that type of backdrop, so I can tell you that your point sucks.... again!

[Ghost Train]

Of course he will. These awards shows are little more than popularity contests and I really wouldn't be surprised at the depths of back-room barganing that I suspect goes into these things.

As for Bayformers... I kinda maybe possibly *muttermutter* ne'ermind.

I'd like to think that the award shows are still more artistically inclined, and thus not popularity contests. If they were, you would have seen hot-blooded testosterone fueled action flicks win best movie every single time, yet these have been the academy award winners for the past few years (hardly the "movies of the season"):

2008: Slumdog Millionaire

2007: No Country for Old Men

2006: The Departed

2005: Crash

...

Just as a point of contrast, the top grossing blockbuster movie of 2008 was the Dark Knight with 530M USD, the best picture winner is nowhere near the top 10. The most popular movie seldom wins a mainstream prize.

Edited December 28, 2009 by Ghost Train

[nugundamII]

That doesn't even make sense. You're making up random activities and comparing them to the experience of watching a movie just so watching the movie would sound like a waste of time. That's like if I say... hey, why don't people go serve soup at skid row instead of sitting around for 3 hours watching bright lights... all of a sudden spending time with bums sound a lot better than watching a family event movie. And this is from a guy that spent countless hours watching a movie just so he can watch blue people hump trees and making up some weird agenda for people to see that they shouldn't like a movie (and what a fine way to make use of your so called valuable time that is).

I'm probably someone that enjoyed this movie more than anyone else here and by coincidence I probably spent more time walking thru forests because I had to scout a location requiring that type of backdrop, so I can tell you that your point sucks.... again!

as a hall monitor your pretty lousy at logic

[nugundamII]

I'd like to think that the award shows are still more artistically inclined, and thus not popularity contests. If they were, you would have seen hot-blooded testosterone fueled action flicks win best movie every single time, yet these have been the academy award winners for the past few years (hardly the "movies of the season"):

2008: Slumdog Millionaire

2007: No Country for Old Men

2006: The Departed

2005: Crash

...

Just as a point of contrast, the top grossing blockbuster movie of 2008 was the Dark Knight with 530M USD, the best picture winner is nowhere near the top 10. The most popular movie seldom wins a mainstream prize.

2008: Slumdog Millionaire wasnt something i called amazing

2007: No Country for Old Men violent kind of pointless like unforgivin

2006: The Departed hong kong ripoff of Mugando which was better

2005: Crash this was a great film

[Twoducks]

I sense that nugundamII soul is fragmented and he's crying out for our help. Quick everyone, lets shove our peckers into the ground (or a three) and start dancing to heal him!

No... wait... crap; Forgot that our Gaia is brain dead compared to the Pandora goddess’s huge noggin… Hippy movie my ass, now I HATE my green planet for getting so owned by a made up one.

BTW, I want to see this movie again. Loved the 3D visual experience.

Edited December 28, 2009 by Twoducks

[Ghost Train]

I sense that nugundamII soul is fragmented and he's crying out for our help. Quick everyone, lets shove our peckers into the ground (or a three) and start dancing to heal him!

No... wait... crap; Forgot that our Gaia is brain dead compared to the Pandora goddess’s huge noggin… Hippy movie my ass, now I HATE my green planet for getting so owned by a made up one.

BTW, I want to see this movie again. Loved the 3D visual experience.

Our Gaia is not dead, just biding her time. On December 20 2012 she will party her a$$ off, she'll be so drunk and high that there will be a geomagnetic reversal the next day, thus fulfilling the prophetic words of the great sage Ronald Emmerich.

[EXO]

as a hall monitor your pretty lousy at logic

You're useless retort pretty much says it all.

[jenius]

Saw this movie this weekend and I'd say I was very pleasantly surprised. After the previews I went into it thinking "I'm going to hate this movie" which is usually a much better way to see a movie than going into it thinking you're going to love it. I was relieved that they explained that they COULD make the guy walk if he could afford it... I was really worried there was going to be a crap ton of tech but for some reason they hadn't solved spinal injuries. The 3D was a bit tough on me at first but after 10 minutes I began really enjoying it. The story was definitely full of cliche, stereotypes, and was very predictable but the movie stayed fun for me throughout. Even while I scoffed at all the coincidences in the last big battle I was still enjoying watching it unravel (just as you knew it pretty much would). Some of the subtexts could have been a bit more subtle also but with such a straight forward movie I guess it makes sense to be a bit blunt. So, the film elected to be a trailblazer visually and play things totally safe from a story perspective and I liked it. I'd watch it again if I was with a large group of people who hadn't seen it.

[nugundamII]

I sense that nugundamII soul is fragmented and he's crying out for our help. Quick everyone, lets shove our peckers into the ground (or a three) and start dancing to heal him!

No... wait... crap; Forgot that our Gaia is brain dead compared to the Pandora goddess’s huge noggin… Hippy movie my ass, now I HATE my green planet for getting so owned by a made up one.

BTW, I want to see this movie again. Loved the 3D visual experience.

wait you have three holly crap you have spares! hahahaha

[Ghost Train]

You guys mean "trees" right? >_> Just checking (unless that's the spelling in commonwealth English):

[EXO]

wait you have three holly crap you have spares! hahahaha

yeah this is where you start to post senseless jokes to pretend to keep up with the thread...

[Roy Focker]

Haven't seen this movie yet. Not high on my list either.

I did get a review from two people. One of them a 17 year old girl had this to say,

"I didn't like it. Started out okay but then got stupid with the people becoming these blue creatures and trying to make animal sounds"

[Ghost Train]

The 17 year olds in your area are quite well spoken, around here it would be something like this,

"OMG.... this movie was like ssooo boooring ok ok it starts like ok you know what I'm saying? This is like you know whatever, and then stuff happens and like i totally had to call my friend and update my facebook because this movie was like so bad then my boyfriend broke up with me and i was like wtf u jerk, then like we went to mcdonalds."

[Save]

So, the film elected to be a trailblazer visually and play things totally safe from a story perspective and I liked it. I'd watch it again if I was with a large group of people who hadn't seen it.

Funny thing was while watching it I actually thought to myself "jenius is going to hate this movie", do to your whole "Mecha+Knife=Dumb" motto.

[jenius]

Ha! I think I gave them a pass since it was a mecha with knife against biological stuff instead of two mechas or super beings dueling with knives. That last fight I definitely shut down mentally to just enjoy the visual spectacles.

How everyone ended up fighting at the one place where the rig was set up was a bit of a trigger to really stop thinking so much.

[peter]

The 17 year olds in your area are quite well spoken, around here it would be something like this,

"OMG.... this movie was like ssooo boooring ok ok it starts like ok you know what I'm saying? This is like you know whatever, and then stuff happens and like i totally had to call my friend and update my facebook because this movie was like so bad then my boyfriend broke up with me and i was like wtf u jerk, then like we went to mcdonalds."

I work with a 17 yr old who's pretty intelligent and she liked it enough to watch it twice. Yikes though, the comments from your two examples.....they need to be removed from the gene pool.

Edited December 29, 2009 by peter

[J A Dare]

My wife and I saw the IMAX 3D version at the SF Sony Metreon lastnight. She was very impressed with the 3D visuals (her favorite were the flying "jellyfish") and since I only have one good eye, I can't see in 3D (looks like a regular 2D screen to me), however, we both thoroughly enjoyed the cinematic experience.

As it has already been mentioned in this thread, the CG may not have been "groundbreaking", just more of it. But what really impressed me was the attention to the little details, i.e. blood, sweat, tears, paint textures on the Navi skin. That, I believe I have not seen (or at least noticed) before in prior CG movies.

BTW, we probably enjoyed Avatar a little more than usual because we spent Christmas in Yosemite's winter wonderland. Hiking around Mariposa Grove, Vernal Falls, Nevada Falls, etc.

[EXO]

A lot of the breaktrhu wasn't really woth the visuals as far as the audience can see. I don't think they should have touted it as such. A lot of it was motion capture during shooting. New 3D shooting tech... I think cameron is just an over eager geek tech that thinks people will know what was done.

[Kelsain]

Ended up at a 2D showing by mistake, but I often have issues w/ 3D movies. I liked it pretty well. Not TEH GRATEZT MOVIE EVAR!!!!1!, but it was pretty good. A little predictable. The blend between live action and the CG characters was pretty good, but still fairly noticeable. When in the full CG environment, I was very impressed with the quality of the modeling, textures and fluidity of the animation. That's definitely a long way ahead of anything we've seen yet.

My main beef, aside from the impracticality of the Exo-Suits, was that the Navi didn't seem to fit in their environment. Biologically. Everything else had a secondary pair of eyes, trachea at the base of the neck, and 4 arms. The virtual eco-system was very well thought out and designed. But it seemed like the Navi were designed by a completely separate team. I know, they're sympathetic characters, so they have to look more human, just something I noticed. It didn't hamper my enjoyment of the film.

I did like that the Avatars were very different looking that the indigenous Navi. And I knew right away that Wes Studi was the old chieftain!

[Ghost Train]

I work with a 17 yr old who's pretty intelligent and she liked it enough to watch it twice. Yikes though, the comments from your two examples.....they need to be removed from the gene pool.

I aim to please, though the intellectual content of this thread did not provide a lot to tear down in the first place.

[nugundamII]

My wife and I saw the IMAX 3D version at the SF Sony Metreon lastnight. She was very impressed with the 3D visuals (her favorite were the flying "jellyfish") and since I only have one good eye, I can't see in 3D (looks like a regular 2D screen to me), however, we both thoroughly enjoyed the cinematic experience.

As it has already been mentioned in this thread, the CG may not have been "groundbreaking", just more of it. But what really impressed me was the attention to the little details, i.e. blood, sweat, tears, paint textures on the Navi skin. That, I believe I have not seen (or at least noticed) before in prior CG movies.

BTW, we probably enjoyed Avatar a little more than usual because we spent Christmas in Yosemite's winter wonderland. Hiking around Mariposa Grove, Vernal Falls, Nevada Falls, etc.

As it has already been mentioned in this thread, the CG may not have been "groundbreaking", just more of it. But what really impressed me was the attention to the little details, i.e. blood, sweat, tears, paint textures on the Navi skin. That, I believe I have not seen (or at least noticed) before in prior CG movies.

sony actually developed that level of cg way before Cameron in Final Fantasy the spirits within

[kaiotheforsaken]

Square has always been a front runner in CG, at least from a gaming standpoint. Spirits Within looked amazing for it's time, and still holds up well, but it was the foundation for the CG we see today. In terms of realistic characters and environments Avatar really does step it up, even if by only a bit. The movie practically never looked blatantly CG (which even the best from a few years ago can).

This movie certainly has changed the course of future movies, if only for proving to a wider audience that 3D can be legitimate and not just for animated kids flicks or really lousy horror movies.

[eugimon]

wait, what??? haha, no. Spirits Within NEVER comes close to what we see in Avatar. First, the models, they don't come close to the avatar models. Their range of motion is limited and the models deformed awkwardly at times and in certain poses. This problem can be seen quite readily in Flight of the Osiris of the Animatrix. Cloth modelling and animation is also poor compared to Avatar.

Then there's the motion capture and animation. It was extremely limited and spirits within switches back and forth between motion capture and manually animated. The animated stuff was extremely wooden and unnatural. Facial expressions don't come close to what we see in Avatar, if anything they're only slightly better than what we see in modern games like Mass Effect.

Spirits may have broken ground for realistic human models but to claim that they accomplished the same "level" as what's seen in Avatar is just flat out wrong.

[Ghost Train]

When I first heard of Spirits Within I was expecting to see OMGAWESOME big screen versions of Bahamut, Shiva, and Ifrift causing ownge across the screen, ... I was naturally dissapointed .

[kaiotheforsaken]

I think that's half the reason they gave us Advent Children (Which CG wise is miles ahead of Spirits).

On topic; Avatar looked amazing, the technology used to do the CG effects is cutting edge, there's really no two ways about it. Does that mean Cameron deserves full credit for it, no, but give the movie some credit for what it brings to the table.

[RDClip]

Just got back from a 3D showing and it liked it. Just liked it, i wouldn't say it was the greatest ever or even in my top 50 movies. Certainly not worth the 'highest grossing movie of all time' record it will get.

Kinda reminded me of that old animated movie 'Furngully" pretty basic premise of dozens of other movies (Last Samurai, Dances with Wolves, etc) Heck, i was even very much reminded of Macross Zero

Daisy Cutters and when the destroyed the Hometree

I felt that the main character was quite unoriginal and could be described as a 'Mary Sue' type character.

And did anyone else feel they introduced

Unobtainium

or w/e its called and then just ignored it for the rest of the story. It was the driving force behind the human's agenda, but all they could dedicate to it was a few lines of dialogue.

Edited January 6, 2010 by RDClip

[EXO]

Maybe saying that the breakthru weren't onscreen was an understatement, I just meant that a lot of what's onscreen was indiscernible as CG and people will look right over it and probably won't be impressed. But a lot of the tech breakthrus are also in either 3D technology or behind the scene stuff.

Saw it again... this time I saw it at the Irvine spectrum.... It's funny but the cheap glasses turned out better for me as far as seeing it in 3D. I finally saw everything flying around me. While it's a cool feature, I really wouldnt want to see everything in 3D and certainly not want to deal with it at home.

I enjoyed it as much maybe even more this time. I'm just so into the action and scenery and the way it just transports you into a whole other world and yet you get to fill up on the whole mech stuff without having to be bothered by the Micheal Bay nonesense and ugly robots. I'll probably see it again in regular 2D next time.

In comparison to Final Fantasy: SWI, it's probably what I expected to see back then but that movie was total fail. Not only was the tech not ready but man... I'm surprised no one cried derivative back then when that one was the real Cameron ripoff. I used to think if they didn't make it an Aliens ripoff then maybe it would have been watchable, then I saw Advent Children and thought that I was wrong... it was still pretty bad.

[jenius]

I know it seems unobtainium took a back seat in the film, and I think maybe we're missing a cut scene, but the unobtainium is the perfect conductor so that's theoretically how everything on the planet is connected. I think they were trying to dumb the film down to appeal to as many people as possible so they didn't focus too much on the undoubtedly very loose science that kept the fictional world together. I heard there was some featurette where it was explained that large unobtainium deposits also have large magnetic properties which is how the mountains fly and why sensors don't work and such. So, while it's not explained well it's playing a crucial part.

Edited December 30, 2009 by jenius

[EXO]

The unobtainium is the macguffin.

[Ghost Train]

I know it seems unobtainium took a back seat in the film, and I think maybe we're missing a cut scene, but the unobtainium is the perfect conductor so that's theoretically how everything on the planet is connected. I think they were trying to dumb the film down to appeal to as many people as possible so they didn't focus too much on the undoubtedly very loose science that kept the fictional world together. I heard there was some featurette where it was explained that large unobtainium deposits also have large magnetic properties which is how the mountains fly and why sensors don't work and such. So, while it's not explained well it's playing a crucial part.

At first I thought this was silly, but it might actually be grounded on some actual science. An electric current will always produce a magnetic field perpendicular to the direction of the current. Nerves in Pandora's trees I assume basically work through electric currents (like our own nervous system), and therefore a magnetic field that is presumably strong enough to do "stuff" to its surroundings is produced.

I'm probably overthinking this, and the writers probably never heard of Michael Faraday.

Edited December 30, 2009 by Ghost Train

[Graham]

Gonna bite the bullet and watch it tomorrow afternoon.

Bought my ticket already for the 3D version.

This movie is going to have to work awfully hard though to beat District 9 as my personal favorite movie of the year.

Graham.

[taksraven]

The unobtainium is the macguffin.

Talk about stupid names for elements. They might as well have called it ucantgetitium.

Sure some technology used for the film was groundbreaking, but I hate it when people rave about motion capture as some new magical technique when its really just a computerised version of rotoscoping that was invented in 1915.

Film was good. Best film ever. No. Most spectacular ever. No. As bad as the prequel trilogy. No. Just some enjoyable fun that might be good for the Stage 4 History Contact/Colonisation topic. Have to talk to my HT.

Taksraven

[EXO]

Talk about stupid names for elements. They might as well have called it ucantgetitium.

Sure some technology used for the film was groundbreaking, but I hate it when people rave about motion capture as some new magical technique when its really just a computerised version of rotoscoping that was invented in 1915.

Film was good. Best film ever. No. Most spectacular ever. No. As bad as the prequel trilogy. No. Just some enjoyable fun that might be good for the Stage 4 History Contact/Colonisation topic. Have to talk to my HT.

Taksraven

I agree about the element name. It's so offputting when ribisi says it. Takes you right out of the so called immersive experience.

But no. Motion capture is nowhere near rotoscoping. That's like comparing coal power to nuclear power plants. Sure it's somewhere along the same line of work but nowhere near each other in terms of technological feat. But as far as the capturization process that they developed for this film, it has to do more with the facial expression capture to do away with dead eyes that we see in most CG characters. It's not the same tech as gollum but pretty close to what they use for the recent Hulk film. I think the Hulk team developed theirs after Avatar did. And a lot of those effects guys hold the early pioneers in high regards but that's no reason to celebrate new techniques when they develop it. Another big advancement was WETA's "Massive" software. It can be mistaken as mocap but has no motion capture whatsoever.