Thank you James Cameron...

[Layabout]

Just came back from the cinema, just regular 3D version.

I went in expecting uncanny valley. Sure they aren't human, but still, they were very humanoid. Only one or two slight little things made me realise I wasn't watching real blue tall people on a planet with funky plantlight plants.

Plot, standard extended hero's journey nonsense. Predictable, yes, but who cares, you feel better that you figured out who would die, who would survive, etc. Bad movies give you suprise endings without leaving any clues. Good movies kinda hint at it subtly and you congratulate yourself and feel better for being right. We do like to think we are clever after all.

And... I liked that they didn't use the 3D effect in an OTT way. It was nice and subtle. The way it should be.

Darth, pretty sure I did see blue nipples on the lady navi. What man wasn't trying to see if they could see that? :p

I thought the world of Pandora was very well done indeed. I wouldn't say it was empty, the 'life' wasn't just the animals that populated it, it was the plants as well. Also, adding in too many creatures to keep track of would have been distracting during the latter half of the film.

Increator, did you see the same film as me? The avatar people look nothing like the Khajiit from Oblivion. They kinda look somewhat similar to night elves from WoW, but still different.

Anyway, I enjoyed it, if you didn't, then hype probably got the better of you.

[InCreator]

Increator, did you see the same film as me? The avatar people look nothing like the Khajiit from Oblivion. They kinda look somewhat similar to night elves from WoW, but still different.

Dunno, maybe we sense fantastical characters differently. Wide noses and cat eyes and human hair on something that shouldn't have human hair yelled khajiit at me. Didn't let myself to be distracted by blue skin though. Maybe that's where our viewpoints differ.

Also, what I actually thought most of the time during film was how awesome porn would be in 3d glasses & big screen  

[Stupot]

Also, what I actually thought most of the time during film was how awesome porn would be in 3d glasses & big screen  

I feel you there, brother.

[ThreeOhFour]

Also, what I actually thought most of the time during film was how awesome porn would be in 3d glasses & big screen  

I feel you there, brother.

Nice choice of words.

I personally now want to play games with awesome 3d dork glasses and smash things on my desk while I swat at flies that are really just polygons.

[InCreator]

Time to give back all christmas gifts and ask for money instead...

$598!

http://www.nvidia.com/object/GeForce_3D_Vision_buying_options.html
wannawannawanna

[Misj']

I personally now want to play games with awesome 3d dork glasses and smash things on my desk while I swat at flies that are really just polygons.

My cousin had a videocard that came with these glasses back in 2000/2001; it was able to convert 3D games to actual 3D games. It was funny when you played Monkey Island 4 (which had just come out), because you could clearly see that the background was merely a flat backdrop (and the videocard was unable to make that 3D as you might expect) with 3D characters 'floating' around.

But other than that, he never really used it (of course he liked adventure games over shooters, so that was one of the reasons why it didn't complement his gaming).



EDIT: removed all the useless ranting about Avatar; because it's negativeness didn't do the movie justice either

[Darth Mandarb]

removed all the useless ranting about Avatar; because it's negativeness didn't do the movie justice either

You needn't have removed it!  I enjoy reading all view-points (even if I totally disagree )

And... I liked that they didn't use the 3D effect in an OTT way. It was nice and subtle. The way it should be.

Exactly!  It's not gimmicky or "hey look at this!"... it's just a new way to view movies. 

Darth, pretty sure I did see blue nipples on the lady navi. What man wasn't trying to see if they could see that? :p

Glad I wasn't the only one!!

I heard a rumor (but it was on the 'net so it must be true) that the sex scene was more ... graphic ... but was cut down to get a PG-13 rating, and that the director's cut blueray/dvd will have the unedited version.

I must admit to being curious as to how the na'vi bump uglies (if they actually bump ... or have uglies).

[Vince Twelve]

I went to this for a second time yesterday because my wife wanted to go.  We went to the IMAX 3D (her first IMAX trip, actually).

This time I didn't get a headache, so that was good.  I noticed actually that it was much easier on the eyes watching the fully CG scenes than it was the live action bits.  I don't know if it was because they could fine-tune it better when it was being created in a computer or what.

But my wife had to take off her glasses and close her eyes around the middle of the movie for a while because she was getting so nauseous.  She eventually recovered and enjoyed the second half more.  I don't know if she just took a while to adjust or what.  She also got a bad headache when we watched Coraline in 3D.  But I noticed she kept leaning her head over to the side propped up on her hand, which is not a good way to watch 3d, since it throws everything out of line if the glasses are not perfectly horizontal, but she says she was nauseous before she started doing that.  We concluded that it would be the last time she goes to a 3D movie, sadly.

Fun experiment: I turned my glasses upside down on my head for a while and it throws the 3D in reverse.  Things that are supposed to go to your left eye go to your right and things that are supposed to go to your right go left.  It makes some things that are supposed to be close look far and vice versa.

So, I still think that it's a fun film.  The CG is amazing and the world is engrossing.  I like the story despite it's familiarity and predictability.  All the details and effects blew me away.  I do think the movie is great, but I don't think that it has revolutionized movie making.

I certainly hope that we don't start seeing every film moving to 3d, like films moved from black and white to color.  There are still some big problems with the format, like the headache and nausea-causing issues I've discussed here and in my previous post in this thread.

And really, the heart of films are their stories and this film certainly didn't revolutionize story telling.

But it is a high-water mark for film special effects and the 3D presentation, and is an overall entertaining film that I would easily recommend to anyone.

And hey, it made a billion dollars already, so expect a sequel in a couple years!

[Theme]

Worst thing is that I couldn't see Aang anywhere in the whole movie
o/

[Igor Hardy]

Well, my opinion is that this was a weak movie. In fact this was the kind of old school Hollywood trash that I thought even Hollywood already outgrown a while ago.

The world of Pandora is just another generic CG world with little visual imagination. But I have to admit, while you're watching the film it certainly does make an impression of being a genuine, fully realized place - mostly based on the strength of the time you see it on screen and because truly no expenses have been spared on showing it in full detail.

The really bad part was the story though. Never before have I sat 2h 40' watching something based on such feeble screenplay, nonexistent plot and without a single sympathetic character (except maybe Weaver's scientist).

[Wesray]

In my opinion Avatar was good, but it is way way too overhyped.

Story is so-so. Certainly ok for a Hollywood blockbuster, though overly familiar as others before me have noted. The 3D made a friend of mine nauseous, she had to keep her eyes closed for parts of the movie. The 3D thing was actually the part I was least impressed with. Yeah, some scenes were quite impressive, but I wouldn't say it improves the theatrical experience by a lot and in Avatar the 3D in my opinion wasn't even that much better compared to other movies that came before it. Mind you, I am talking about immersion here, not about things jumping out at me.

I would and will re-watch the movie, probably on DVD, but I wouldn't pay extra for 3D again. But then I am mostly immersed by good writing and characters anyway, so 3D is still a gimmick to me. Nice to watch from time to time, but nothing more. But I fear Hollywood will take Avatar as an excuse to produce more and more big 3D movies in the future. Which is ok as long as it is done subtly (like in Avatar for most of the time), but who are we kidding? More impressive than the 3D I think was the capturing of the emotions of the CGI Navi. Although I still kind of dislike their design, that part worked really well.

In summary I think Avatar is technically well done, but not much better than other special effect heavy blockbusters of the past. I liked it, but I certainly don't want every other movie in a few years to look like it. And i am already growing tired of 3D.

[Stupot]

Fun experiment: I turned my glasses upside down on my head for a while and it throws the 3D in reverse.  Things that are supposed to go to your left eye go to your right and things that are supposed to go to your right go left.  It makes some things that are supposed to be close look far and vice versa.

This works with the old bog-standard Red-green/red-blue glasses, too.
I used to played about with this as a kid and used to draw my own 3D pictures (only basic stuff, like stick men and houses).
All you need is a red pen and a blue/green pen and you basically draw the image twice... the distance between the red pen and it's blue/green counterpart determines the depth of that part of the image.  And when there is no gap then that part of the image is neutral.  Frontness and backness depends on whether the red is to the left or the right of the blue/green, so based on that alone, it makes sense that turning your glasses upside down is going to reverse the depth of the 3D image.
One picture I was particularly proud of was a house... the basic kind all kids draw, 4 windows, a chimney with smoke coming out of it, and a door with a bendy garden path leading up to it (I guarantee everyone here has draen that picture at least once).  But I made the garden path look like it readlly was leading up to the house, and i drew stick fugures in the house that really looked like they were on the other side of the window.

Hooray for 3D!

[Matti]

Sorry to dig this up, but I wanted to share this:

[Phemar]

My god I was about to post the same thing!

[Darth Mandarb]

You mean the story for Avatar was similar to another existing story?

No way?

[Adrian  ]

I have those 3D glasses from Nvidia, left 4 dead is particularly good in 3D, I don't use them much but I do hope they release avatar in a 3D format when it's released on DVD. The only 3D films I've found for them are mostly on the tech page: http://www.nvidia.com/object/3D_Vision_3D_Movies.html but there are some b-list sort of movies I've noticed on various torrent sites, I haven't downloaded them but it might be worth ago

[Anian]

I've written in here before, I watched the damn thing last week and....it sucks.  If I were 10-12, I would probably be fascinated.

Yes, the effects are great, but did you expect anything less for the most expensive cgi movie (imagine if this movie didn't have that big of a budget, it wouldn't even make it into cinemas)?
3d, yes, it's ok (i'm not talking about pulling it off, I'm talking about what I got from it), but some scenes are just not exploited enough, for example a tail waves as they walk but instead of the tail going towards the audience it goes somewhere off camera. Things like that - good 3d effect scene, but ruined. Still it's ok, it's great how it all looks natural.
That's where it stopped, just everything about the quality, originality, dignity, creativity stopped. Films were made before 3d and cgi, great films. Seems now days as long as it has cgi it's ok. Technologoy has way passed the point where the story and other asspects can be ignored...or, alas, it seems people still like the glitter.

The plot is just so sad. Sad as in bad. Some movies have such a bad plot that it's funny or interesting cause it's so bad - Avatar doesn't even have that. Somebody said that this is a good movie cause you know what's gonna happen?! This would be a good script if it was a demo for the 3d technology, but not for something that actually boasted for it's originallity and perfection of script. The only character I liked was the colonel (or whatever rank it was), he  did a couple of smart things and thought about he's fighting. Everybody else is just copied. Even the catchphrase the pilot uses is so expected- things like "I didn't sign up for this $hit" - that really insults me as a human with some brain activity. You didn't join the army to follow orders, what the hell were you expecting, do you know your history woman?! Btw we don't know any history, humans are just BAD. They're BAD, except 4 humans which mostly spend their time as blue aliens....so yeah, humans bad, aliens good...great morals mr. Cameron.
Nobody had the idea to jump on the back of that red dragon/perodactyl thing...well I guess if you throw arrows at a great big metal thing that has almost nuclear missles on it, you're not that bright.
And don't say that aliens are any better than humans, cause they're not - they're full of prejudices, they hate people, they refuse to try to understand others ways - they're the same, but the movie didn't show that.
And the finale, oh, god, can you say DEUS EX MACHINA, you know when the ground crumbles at the end of the 3rd LOTR movie and all the army falls into nothingness...for no special reason. Do you know when Mel Gibson gives a great speech about freedom, do you know when a soldier comes to live with a tribe and finds their ways better and falls in love etc.
By the end I just got into a crazy giggle, cause I really couldn't believe

True, not everything has to be original, and true there is an art in putting ideas in one big cool story but you make it your own somehow...this is just copy pasted stuff on an already copy pasted material. My friend put it like this: this is a story that the four of us could've constructed but would've thrown it away cause we wouldn't believe anybody would watch it. And it makes me sad that some of you very creative people find this movie so fascinating.

Some article said people get depressed because they can't live on Pandora. Excuse me but 99% of plants and animals there want to eat you and kill you. They do not want you there, you can live there so you avoid them but they will freakin' eat you when they can.


p.s. Thank you James Cameron for:
1. desensitizing the public and children by making it all look like a spectacle, who's gonna protect this planet, we don't have any plug and play trees around...
2. prooving that story is not important anymore as long as aliens look lifelike
3. for doing very little contribution to science and not saving the nature you so admire instead with that 200+ millions of investors and another billion of dollars people seem to have around, if this is what we award as a culture these days, then we're already doomed

[Timosity]

Yeah, I've heard of this director, he made one of my favourite movies as a kid.

Piranah 2, the sequel to a movie no one asked. Who would have thought of that, Piranah's flying out of the water and attacking people.

Be interesting to go back to look at anyway. Just like peter jackson, did "bad taste" & "meet the feebles"


I haven't really watched tv for over a year, didn't even hear of avatar til just before xmas cause one of my mates saw it, still haven't even seen a preview of the movie. heard something about blue people, and 3d, and the story is basically every block buster movie combined with the iraq war. Cant be that exciting, oh and yeah, haven't really read this thread incase i do see it one day.

[Chicky]

Sorry to dig this up, but I wanted to share this:

What.. what?! A hollywood blockbuster followed the hero's journey! Oh noes!

Seriously, good luck getting money in hollywood without writing to that formula. They literally won't buy most scripts that don't follow the damned hero's journey.  Look it up, good theory for adventure game design.

[Anian]

What.. what?! A hollywood blockbuster followed the hero's journey! Oh noes!

Seriously, good luck getting money in hollywood without writing to that formula. They literally won't buy most scripts that don't follow the damned hero's journey.  Look it up, good theory for adventure game design.

There's a difference between a "hero's journey" and the same story but with aliens. This was like saying "try to ride this horse" and turning it into "fly this winged creature" -> now that principle applied to a whole story...soldier passes with a riffle to soldier passes by in a mech suit.
Oh, yeah, maybe the original part was sad ending -> happy ending by way of deus ex machina event (they couldn't even avoid the sad ending by any other way than making up something that is just thrown in there just for that).

Hero's journey is one of the main rules of 99% of stories (well except "art" pieces, but even those go with "know the rules so you can brake them" pattern). Especially with fantasy and similar settings. And it can be made into great or at least interesting stories.
Besides, the whole point of a story is usually a look into someones life but most of the time it shows how a person develops when faced with some change in their life -> hero's/protagonists' journey- it's a skeleton, maybe not original but works and we are used to them.

Cameron isn't the only one to do that mind you, most of those popular fantasy novels are basically politics and Roman society lookalike worlds which can't be helped cause we're all human etc.. But still those use the mold and ideas to transform them into something new, while Cameron just disguised them and in that wayso it doesn't change the story even the slightest. Just as an example Mad Max, LOTR, Fargo, Inglorious basterds, Casablanca are a hero's journey in some way or form, but I wouldn't say they're like Pocahontas.