Amph James Cameron's Avatar (The Way of Water + sequels)

I loved the Cameronesque ship and weapons designs at any rate. It's exactly what you expect from one of his sci fi movies - something that strongly evokes Aliens and the flashback scenes from Ts 1 and 2.

3D cgi has long since lost its ability to startle. All that's left is the question of whether it serves the narrative interests of the movie and how compelling that narrative is. I have a lot of confidence in Cameron's ability to entertain even if at the end of the day Avatar's visual effects don't entirely break the mold.

 

I've been doing a pretty good job at managing my expectations for the movie so I don't really feel that underwhelmed by it. The CGI isn't photoreal, but I never expected it to be. Overall what little we did actually see of the N'avi looked pretty good to me, as far as motion and facial animation go. Definitely want to see this in 3D, especially since one of my friends who saw the footage at Comic-Con said it really helped the way the CG looked.

 

So it's a furry movie. And it looks like there's a yiff scene.

 

Heh. For all the CGI advances over the years, digitally rendered characters and creatures still look fake. I'm looking forward to the movie but jeez did bits look cartoony.

 

Most of us are posting in this forum because we are interested in this genre of sci-fi, to me if your fan of the genre this movie will be a must see. IMAX 3D CGI at this level hasn't been done before so a trailer on your computer screen can't give you how this movie will look on the really big screen.

IMHO this is the type of movie you must see for yourself before you pass judgment.

 

We're seeing something in 2D that's specifically designed for 3D. Plus, we're still getting shots -- even in a TEASER -- that speaks to just how good a director Cameron is. Say what you will about Titanic, in terms of screenplay and such, but I don't think anyone doubts it was a technical masterpiece on filmmmaking... right?

I see similar themes here, while it goes out of it's way to not give the whole enchilada away in terms of plot (though we can certainly guess at generalities based on what we see).

There's a shot, specifically near the beginning, when Worthington is wandering around his Avatar and his head lines up exactly with his head being on top of the Avatar-body in the shot. Damn...

 

Agreed. Aliens/Terminator guy gets benefit of the doubt.

 

The first time I watched the trailer in a small resolution I was definitely underwhelmed, but after I watched it in HD I am quite impressed. Many of the shots do indeed look photo-realistic and the overall "look" is just fantastic.

I do have to say that none of the night-time shots look even remotely photo-realistic, especially with the flourescent blue and teals so dominant.

Thanks to good old-fashioned bad timing I'm not going to be able to attend a screening tomorrow, but I suppose we'll know a lot more about what kind of box office destiny this film is going to have after we hear the reactions tomorrow.

 

In standard definition the cg definitely looks like a video game, but in HD the quality is much better. I'm not exactly sure what the storyline of the film will be, but I've liked most of Cameron's previous work and I'll most likely end up liking this movie. If I can get off work early enough tomorrow, I'm going to catch the 15 min preview of Avatar.

 

I too am unimpressed with the trailer. My main complaints are that the Na'vi look too CGI looking, all the creatures on Pandora are various shades of blue and that we don't much of a feel for the story beyond Human vs. Na'vi. Still, I'm a big sci-fi fan and am anxiously looking forward to December 18th. I hope someone is able to leak the 16 minute IMAX footage so we can get a better look at Avatar without having to wait another 2 or 3 months before Cameron decides to release the full theatrical trailer.

 

People are saying this is going to flop, him I seem to remember reading the exact same thing when Titanic came out, everyone was saying that was going to flop. I'll have to see the film in 3d before I make a judgment on it.

and this is an original science fiction film, so who knows if that help it or hurt it, it's s sequel or a remake or a franchise, which seems to be all the rage in Hollywood right now, which is why I'm glad District 9 is doing so well.

 

That may be true but is completely beside the point. The fact is that Ellison is incredibly talented.

I just saw the trailer and have to agree with those who said they were unimpressed. For one I didn't really see much of a story beyond the cliche of it all. Humans colonize alien planet, hostilies erupt and a inter-species love story ensues. Really? It took 11 years to come up with that? The background special effects did look stunning but the big blue aliens look absurd.

This film is getting too hyped up and I actually think it will flop.

 

Looks like a video game to me, and I'd rather play them than watch them. In fact it doesn't even look all that better than the cut scenes in some games.

District 9 had me sold, this doesn't.

 

Call me a rebel, call me "irresponsible", but I think I'm going to wait until I actually watch the film before I form an opinion of it. I know that's an innovative concept in this day and age, but hey, I've often found that...it works!

 

Yeah, on my regular computer those effects definately looked bad. But if you guys say it looks much more realistic in HD I will take your word for it. I will say that judging from LOTR, WETA has a bit of a weakness in texturing, all though they seem very good at animation.

 

nah... what would we be talking about, if we couldn't prejudge?

 

Call me closed-minded, call me a fool, but I think that a trailer should be a reflection of the quality and product the movie its selling will deliver and as such should sell me on the concept. I don't know about anyone else, but I am judging the trailer not the movie and at worst making an opinion whether or not I want to see the film based on said trailer not on how many people tell me its cool. Last time I checked that's the purpose of the trailer.

 

I went back to see D9 again last night. The Avatar trailer is already out and ran in front of it. As a point of comparison, the images look every bit as CGy on the big screen as they did on the medium size trailer version. The low resolution apology does not fly.

And D9 was nearly as engrossing the second time around.

Avatar is a big 3D cartoon, but so was Up. Nothing wrong with that if the story is good.

I remember back in 97 when all the negative buzz about Titanic was circulating: the most expensive movie ever, no way it will ever recoup its investment, Cameron gave up his direcortal fee, the production beset with interpersonal strife, etc., etc.

Then that trailer came out highlighting the scene when the ship's stern goes vertical. And everyone just looked at each other and realized that the movie was going to break every record ever.

But last night watching the Avatar trailer was not one of those moments.

 

I have no idea what the movie is about, but the trailer was pretty. And besides, I've yet to see a bad Cameron movie. I just wish they didn't say it was "From the director of Titanic" because I think that's gonna give people the wrong idea about the movie. It looks more like they should be saying "From the director of The Abyss." But I guess that didn't win an Oscar, so it gets no love.

 

I think most people are aware that the guy who made Titanic is the same guy who made Aliens and Terminator 1&2. The Abyss is a little more obscure these days, but it's still well-respected, and most movie fans (as opposed to average people) are aware of the connection.

 

The Abyss is a whole lot better than Cameron's other movie about water-people interactions.

 

That reminds me of Mark Hamill comment on the original Star Wars teasor trailer. He said that in Christmas of 76 he went to a theater in New York to catch the teasor, and in the narrative the trailer voiced "Star Wars, a billion years in the making and it's coming to your galaxy this summer," and someone in the audience shouted out, "YEAH! it'll be coming to TV 3 months later!"

I'm not saying that Avatar will be the next Star Wars, but I'll be giving the Director of Terminator and True Lies the benefit of the doubt.


Here are some comments of the footage played at Comic Con:

-- "Cameron proves again that he can combine high-octane thrills with human drama, creating palpable emotional depth both for and between the characters even as he subjects them to physical derring-do that otherwise seems impossible." -- Todd Gilchrist, Cinematical


-- "This is an evolutionary jump, not a revolutionary leap. I didn't experience movies in a whole new way, and nothing I saw on screen left me feeling more than impressed. What the movie represents is someone putting real money into the current CGI and mocap tech and shoving it an extra step forward." -- Devin Faraci, CHUD.com

-- "What I saw were glimpses at a fantastic bit of storytelling, a rich fantasy tale, by a master of the artform, but the CGI creatures and characters are just that. They're amazingly executed, no doubt, but it's not like when you saw your first CG dinosaur and you said, "This is a game changer" to yourself." -- Quint, AICN

 

Mmm, I think comparing anything to Jurassic Park's CG dinosaurs is pretty ridiculously unfair. Those scenes weren't just game-changing; they're icons of incredible use of FX technology that were as genre-changing as SW's dogfighting scenes.

It's sorta like judging the next major novel to come out by comparing it to the Illiad.

 

Yeah, really. It looks fantastic. I don't think the CGI is the problem people are really having with it... it's the cartoony character designs. The imagery itself looks absolutely amazing. Looking forward to December with great interest.