N7v1K0
Lieutenant
This one has no time for your solid waste excretions.
Posts: 171
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Dec 18, 2009 18:19:54 GMT 1
Post by N7v1K0 on Dec 18, 2009 18:19:54 GMT 1
Who's going to see it? It's getting 5* everywhere and looks great!
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Dec 18, 2009 23:06:12 GMT 1
Post by Cali on Dec 18, 2009 23:06:12 GMT 1
I thought it looked quite horrible in the trailers. But I'm a pretty optimistic guy, plus I'm nostalgic for the Cameron-era so I'll see it.
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Post by Zarsthor on Dec 19, 2009 5:40:22 GMT 1
I've heard mix reviews. Some people that have gone to see it said it wasn't as good as they hoped it would be and ... Adam the perpetually strange is saying he's going to see it again in 3D because he loved it. Then again this is the same guy that said Broken Flowers was a master piece so we never trust his judgement. Hopefully it'll be as good as the Termiantor/Alien movies Cameron has done.
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Dec 19, 2009 10:45:28 GMT 1
Post by Mister Buch on Dec 19, 2009 10:45:28 GMT 1
Good reviews, N7? Hmm... I am surprised - it just looks.... abominable.
But it's Cameron, so I'll give it a go.
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Post by Knightfall on Dec 20, 2009 2:36:05 GMT 1
I'm considering shelling out the extra $7 to watch it in 3D. I hear it's a fantastic technical achievement. The story hasn't received much praise, but that story hasn't been original since the Book of Exodus. We'll see.
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Dec 20, 2009 11:19:38 GMT 1
Post by Knightfall on Dec 20, 2009 11:19:38 GMT 1
Incidentally, I had a chance to go see Avatar today, so I took it. Shelled out the $13 for the 3D showing, got my glasses and had my eyeballs fucked for three hours.
Honestly, I rave a lot about many, many movies. 2012 was amazing, Star Trek was amazing, Inglourious Basterds was amazing. I don't even know if I can put this movie in the same category. I was in shock almost the entire way through. It was the one time, maybe the only time, where I was near-fully immersed in the experience. The digital 3D gives everything such depth and clarity that it's like you're looking out a window and into this world. I can't describe it but I was in awe, I got vertigo, and I was dodging bits of debris that would occasionally hurdle toward the me (to my embarrassment, but many other people in the theater were as well).
When Sigourney Weaver was standing on the other side of this glass door, it literally felt like there was a glass wall between us. Like, literally...literally.
This was a beautiful movie. I always had Star Wars envy over all these people who were able to see A New Hope when it was originally released, and the sci-fi spectacle it must have been at the time. I'm not sure if I reached that feeling but I bet that I got damn close.
With that said: it was a good movie as is, but if you have a chance to see it in 3D then take it. When the movie's over, it's the difference between thinking you're leaving a theater and thinking you're leaving Pandora. Great stuff. Long as hell, but great. I've never spent $13 for a movie in my life, but I'm seriously contemplating doing it again.
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Post by Mister Buch on Dec 21, 2009 0:57:24 GMT 1
As I type this I am arguing with Knight over instant message about this movie (I still haven't seen it but I am very very dubious). I just wanted to say it here simultaneously-
*rolls eyes*
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N7v1K0
Lieutenant
This one has no time for your solid waste excretions.
Posts: 171
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Dec 21, 2009 22:29:03 GMT 1
Post by N7v1K0 on Dec 21, 2009 22:29:03 GMT 1
One of my friends saw it on the weekend, says it's the best movie he's ever seen.
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Dec 22, 2009 23:32:21 GMT 1
Post by Mister Buch on Dec 22, 2009 23:32:21 GMT 1
I suspect your friend hasn't seen many movies! I've seen better films this week! I saw it today (in extremely impressive 3D) and thought it was... fine. It was okay. Be warned, there are some spoilers coming up in my massive, self-indulgent rant. -- It looked absolutely incredible (although I really hate unnecessary CGI so I wish they'd have just filmed a real forest with real people painted blue) - for an action movie it was well-acted, and it was exciting and epic throughout - and rather emotional at times. At the end I was really rooting for the heroes. It's a decent, very fun, movie. And now I will focus needlessly on the negative aspects, because I'm a jackass. -- Actually all my complaints are fairly minor. The plot was very thin and predictable, the whole thing was very kid-friendly, it was all too shiny and brightly-coloured, and the exposition was painfully obvious, to the point where I laughed at it a few times. Also there were a few too many of those Hollywood Action Movie Unsubtle Motifs where someone says a line eary on, and it's repeated ironically later on. The 'Aggressive Negotiations' trick. The two things that I just couldn't forgive are 1) the lack of motivation for the villains and 2) the narration. The humans are doing all kinds of profoundly evil things because they want to mine an unobtainable mineral named.... unobtainium. Yeah. Unobtainium. We don't know what it is, what it's for... but it must be bloody important if the want of it turns the entire human race into one-dimensional, murderous villains. The main antagonist, The Army Guy (I didn't actually catch his name or rank) was particularly cartoonish. The villains just had no motivation beyond "They really want to do some mining for some reason." And the narration served zero purpose beyond exposition. Every now and again, Jake just explains the plot, in a flat voice. And often he will actually do it looking directly at the camera ('video log'.) I loved the first video-log he does, because he stops after a couple of sentences, looks at Sigourney Weaver and just says, "Is this right? Do I just...?" and I thought for a moment he was going to say, "Do I just explain the plot, looking directly at the camera?" Oh I thought of a third one! The floating mountains. Just - why? How? WHY?! There was absolutely no point to them. It was as if Cameron was just going, "Hey! Look! Floating mountains! Can you imagine such a thing!" And then they were never ever mentioned again. So - how the bloody hell do they float?! Why do they float? What lives on the floating mountains? Does anything else on Pandora float? Have the Na'vi harnessed this floating-magic/science/whatever in some way? Why are there floating mountains?! I just had so many questions, and it was so unnecessary. -- But I was stirred many times, the acting was pretty good (particularly from the voice actress on Jake's girlfriend, whose name I also didn't catch) and the cartoon jungle was incredible to look at. It was a solid, serious film which managed to make its bizarre, silly premise very enjoyable. Two and a half stars! ---------------- On the front page of his website, The Spoony One and his brother do a good, rather critical review. If I haven't bored you to death already, here is a more competant review which makes good points. Including a very good point about the waterfalls on the floating mountains. spoonyexperiment.com/
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Post by Knightfall on Dec 23, 2009 4:06:48 GMT 1
Hmmmm, again, I'm gonna have to disagree with these Spoony guys on this. I think they're looking at this the wrong way (mostly the main guy). It just sounded like he was indifferent with CG in general, so maybe that's where all the criticism was coming from. It seems unfair to judge things like this, a CG sci-fi movie with spiritual undertones, based on the fantastical elements of it.
His floating mountains, for instance. They said briefly in the movie that it was on account of a strong magnetic field, which equated to the guidance systems on the space helicopter failing and why Sigourney Weaver's character mentioned that the avatar transmissions stream would be a bit glitchy. And the water coming off of them, I assume, would form just like they do in real life. Given the heightened elevation, precipitation would occur, resulting in snow build-up that would eventually melt and give way to waterfalls.
But even if that's just so far-fetched to believe, it bothers me that in a science fiction movie that's centered on another planet that retains an entire catalog of indigenous flora and fauna: floating islands is where they draw the line. I think if I had that attitude watching Star Wars or Lord of the Rings, I don't think I would have enjoyed them nearly as much, if at all. I would have been the one to point out how there's no sound in space, or that there's no such thing as magic, or how all the officers on the Death Star seem to have British accents.
Suspending your disbelief is paramount to enjoying a movie like this. It's completely required, and that goes for any work of hard sci-fi or fantasy. If you can't believe that a set of rings can cause an entire world to go to war, or that we discovered life on other planets then nothing else beyond that is gonna make much sense.
And again with the Dances With Wolves comments. I must say, I get sick of hearing about them. I never heard that comparison once when District 9 came out. And even the Dances With Wolves story hasn't been original since Moses decided to side with the Jews against Ramses. James Cameron has already proven he can create a complex storyline (i.e. Terminator 1 and 2), so the lack of a terribly complicated one in this regard must be for a reason. The center of this movie was the visuals, and a complex story makes it hard to really enjoy anything.
For instance, Star Wars: Episode II. Lucas tried to make some kind of political thriller disguised as a sci-fi epic, but little did he know that all that movie would be remembered for was the crappy romance scenes and the epic battle at the end. I couldn't follow that movie at all after a while when I first saw it.
When what's going on visually is more important than anything else, directors often choose a minimal storyline to draw in more attention, so you resoundingly understand the motives behind everyone's actions. Saving Private Ryan, for instance, had almost no story. It was just a bunch of guys walking somewhere for two and a half hours. Even Star Trek, which I loved like a woman, had one of the most predictable plots of a year.
Was Avatar worth my writing this all out? Probably not. I enjoyed the movie's 3D visuals immensely, but I'm not sure if I'll ever get it on DVD. I just read a lot of criticism like this over the years, and it doesn't make any sense to me to judge something on what it was never trying to be.
I don't like the Spoony Experiment. >=O
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Dec 23, 2009 12:04:26 GMT 1
Post by Mister Buch on Dec 23, 2009 12:04:26 GMT 1
I think part of me just really enjoys arguing, which is why I wrote such a long, and such a critical, review.
A couple of things - I agree that Spoony was far too negative. I think as you say that (like me) he really dislikes computer graphics in films.
But I really do draw the line at floating mountains!
This was a sci-fi movie, which didn't involve magic like Star Wars did. SW got the magic into the plot very early on and gave some sort of explanation, AND made it a central theme and part of the plot. These mountains were just... there. Everything had a reasonable scientific explanation, except these mountains. And what got me is that they served absolutely no purpose to the plot.
And Dances With Wolves aside, I think I have to say that this movie had a predictable, unoriginal plot, and it should have been better in that regard.
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Dec 25, 2009 16:51:48 GMT 1
Post by Zarsthor on Dec 25, 2009 16:51:48 GMT 1
Knight sounded like he was getting a har don for the 3D rather than the movie. So sweet people who have seen 3D for the first time. I was lucky enough to get taken to a nunber of 3D shows when I was a kid so it doesn't surprise me anymore. Its just like watching a normal movie. Daniel still gets excited about 3D though, he wants a 3D TV now...
I haven't read your long post fights because ... I'm really sick. Full on fever and everything. Fun yeah. Anywho... Whats this about floating mountains? Is this Ghilibi? Hopefully I'll be well enough to see Avatar either this wednesday or enxt wednesday but I'm dying to watch Where the wild things live still. Its my priority. lol
Someone bought me Star Trek for xmas... I'm not looking forward to watching it but everybody ehre seems inthralled with Incredibles at the moment. I am so sick of that movie. I've sene it like 20 times. Enough is enough.
OK I don't know what I am talking about anymore so I'm gonna go. Oh and OI! Add me to MSN so I can ignore you like I do everybody else.
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Dec 29, 2009 22:54:00 GMT 1
Post by Rascarin on Dec 29, 2009 22:54:00 GMT 1
For my 1000th post, I am going to come here and say that Avatar is easily the best film I have seen this year.
I love 3D.
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Post by ravenchick on Jan 3, 2010 5:00:11 GMT 1
I still have to see it!
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Post by Knightfall on Jan 4, 2010 5:46:16 GMT 1
Avatar just crossed the 1 billion dollar mark, making it the fourth-highest grossing movie of all time. I'm very excited for this, because now studio execs will see that 3D is actually profitable, which I think will lead into some very exciting movie possibilities in the future.
1) Titanic - $1.8 Billion 2) The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - $1.1 Billion 3) Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - $1.06 Billion 4) Avatar - $1.01 Billion
James Cameron has sooo much money right now. ><
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