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Rottenwatch: AVATAR (82%)

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duckroll said:
How did this thread get over 500 posts in less than a day? There's still no RT score! :lol
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When there is this much crow to be eaten it is serious business.

Eating_Crow.jpg
 
Inglourious Basterds has a way better shot than Avatar. Let's not split hairs here, though; neither has a huge shot of winning (though from what I've seen so far, Inglourious Basterds is one of two films that I WANT to see win). It'll probably be something like Up in the Air or Invictus; maybe The Hurt Locker will have a chance as well. They'll nominate some audience-friendly films due to the 10 nominations (that's kind of the point), but it'll probably go to something more traditional.
 
polyh3dron said:
jett's great grandfather probably insisted on seeing an all black & white print of Wizard of Oz for his first viewing.
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Why wouldn't he? Colour is a fucking distraction. You don't need colour to tell a story. And I hate the way that any colour that contrasts with the palette of the other colours in the frame draw your attention to it. Let me be free to look at what I want without the director shaping my focus.
 
Film School Rejects said:
The quality of the Na’vi is so detailed and natural that when placed next to humans, we can believe that if these creatures were real, that is exactly how they would look to the naked eye. As visual effects go, this is an achievement like no other. No uncanny valley issues here. The Na’vi, for all we know, are very real.
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WETA seems to have truly knocked it out of the ballpark.
 
I hope the movie does well. And the technology gets used more frequently. I want directors to actually create worlds instead of just stories.
 
Scullibundo said:
Why wouldn't he? Colour is a fucking distraction. You don't need colour to tell a story. And I hate the way that any colour that contrasts with the palette of the other colours in the frame draw your attention to it. Let me be free to look at what I want without the director shaping my focus.
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well, if he found the 3d a distraction when he watched the preview (or other 3d films), choosing to see it first in 2d is perfectly reasonable, no? the movie should stand on its own without the 3d. that said, in 2 hours i'm watching the 3d version. slowest 2 hours of work ever.

that's a lot of 2s and 3s :P
 
Just in from Jeffrey Wells aka the Cranky Kong of movies @ Hollywood Elsewhere (this guy is pretty well known for having a very anti-genre movie bias especially for any movies the "internets" have been hyping such as this one):

A Fine Madness

Jeffrey Wells said:
I went to a Magnolia Pictures holiday party just after tonight's 7 pm Avatar screening exited, and then the damn wireless wasn't working for about 30 minutes when I finally got home. The upshot is that I'm too whipped -- it's 12:35 am -- to evaluate the ins and outs of this amazing film, but I'll tell you right now there are very few outs. It's half CG, half live action and it jumps back and forth so the dreaded sensation of being swallowed by a cartoon never happens. Avatar is a hybrid thing and a wild one at that.

All the energy and the madness and the money are right there on the screen, you bet, and the "yeah, I guess I'll see Avatar but I'm in no real hurry" phase is over. This is too much of an adrenalized eye-popper not to see it as soon as possible, and absolutely in 3D and most desirably in 3D IMAX. (Believe it or not, 20th Century Fox showed it to the creme de la creme of New York journalists in a regular non-IMAX theatre this evening, although the 3D quality was perfectly fine.)

This is probably the goofiest, craziest, super-budgeted CG romper-stomper I've ever seen. A friend said it was three video games rolled into one instead of a movie, which is somewhat true in that the story and action-fantasy elements are aimed at your inner 14 year-old (whom I'd forgotten about until tonight -- now I feel pleasantly re-acquainted).

You can't say Avatar doesn't impart a feeling of delirious abandon and wild-ass splendor. You could call it a kind of visual opera -- a forest-primeval symphonic naturalist hard-on movie that technically knocks you flat, coheres emotionally, isn't afraid to be silly or simplistic, delivers visual CG wonder like nothing I've ever seen before (really) and pays off like a gotterdammerung Apocalypse Now meets Tarzan meets the best-special-effects-flick-you've-ever-seen insanity ride. The two and a half hours just fly by, and the last 30 minutes alone -- a truly nutty extended battle sequence -- are worth the price.

I was in fact open-mouthed -- faintly grinning but pretty much agog -- during the big-ass finale. As Bruno Ganz's Adolf Hitler said in that YouTube satire, the 3D is so good it's like your eyeballs are having sex. The only problem (which wasn't a problem for me) is that it's aimed at teenagers. I was wishing, in fact, that I could somehow revert to age 14 or 15 so I could see Avatar in the proper frame -- then I'd really have something to do double-backflips over. I'm a little older than that, unfortunately, so instead of sending me into wet-dream action heaven Avatar gave me the wet-dream action heaven giggles, as if I'd toked up before it started.

I've seen and heard all the stuff that Avatar dishes out many times before -- in Dances With Wolves and A Man Called Horse, for openers -- but it's thrown together with such punch and frenzy that it's like Cameron somehow managed to time-machine himself back to his own mid teens in order to make it. This is one surging rush of a 3-D flying banshee jungle flick, and at the same time a respect-the-earth, Bush and Cheney-condemning political movie. They should be showing this to the climate change gang in Copenhagen.

That's it, I'm finished...I'll write more tomorrow morning.
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Bolded part is for jett

polyh3dron said:
Don't worry, the contrarian attention whore crowd will be coming around the corner...
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lol and I thought Wells would be leading the offensive.
 
Sculli took a shit load of abuse for this over the year. But man, December 18th is looking to be his day of reckoning

I'm going to see if I can pick up my tickets for the Imax showing after class tomorrow. It's going be my birthday gift from my family. That and putting some more money into schooling funds ^_^
 
polyh3dron said:
Just in from Jeffrey Wells aka the Cranky Kong of movies @ Hollywood Elsewhere (this guy is pretty well known for having a very anti-genre movie bias especially for any movies the "internets" have been hyping such as this one)
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Maybe there's a reason they're not screening it in Imax, perhaps the 3d is worse? Though I would think the good outweighs the bad.

Also, why isn't this a summer movie?
 
HitFix feels that Avatar has a shot at Best Pic now with this buzz:

LINK

HitFix said:
From London to Los Angeles, the first screenings of James Cameron's long awaited Sci-Fi opus "Avatar" had many pundits, critics and journalists eating crow. In fact, some of us should be so stuffed we can't speak. Not only is the film anything but a cheesy disaster, it is instead a stunning spectacle that should become a monster hit and a legit Best Picture contender.

That's right, you just saw the words "legit Best Picture contender" associated with a film this writer was seriously unimpressed with after seeing 20 plus minutes at Comic-Con this past summer. Needless to say, the whole epic adventure -- all 2 hours and 25 minutes of it -- is a filmmaking achievement that will be hard for the Academy to ignore. It's not only in for Best Picture, but it should pit Cameron against his ex-wife, "The Hurt Locker's" Kathryn Bigelow, for Best Director (can you hear Baldwin's jokes now?). Many in the industry are rooting for Bigelow to be the first female director winner in Oscar history, but Cameron's work here should make it an incredibly close race.

In terms of other categories, look for "Avatar" to land nominations in Best Original Score (James Horner), Best Editing, both Sound Editing and Mixing, Best Art Direction and possibly even Best Cinematography. And, duh, best Visual Effects are a lock you can take to Vegas -- this is a film whose CG work will leave George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson dumbstruck. On the other hand, the one area that is hard to imagine any nominations are the acting categories. Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana give perhaps two of the most impressive motion capture performances in the early history of the medium, but with such competitive leading actor and supporting actress categories already, it's hard to see the Academy taking that leap this year.

The big question though is whether "Avatar" can win Best Picture. Let's be frank. "Avatar" is still a quintessential Cameron film. It's a tad too long, there are bad bits of dialogue (nowhere near as cringe inducing as "Titanic") and the villains are of the Billy Zane variety. But amazingly, the romance and relationship between Worthington and Saldana's alien characters is much more believable than the "my heart will go on" shotgun wedding of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslett's duo in "Titanic." And again, there are moments in this movie that just absolutely astound in their breathtaking beauty and scope. It's hard to believe it's even CG at times.

Then again, at this point you still have to call "Up in the Air" the front runner. However, the excellent dramedy is such a small, small film compared to "Avatar" (not that there is anything wrong with that either). As time marches on and "Avatar's" global box office grows, can Jason Reitman's little flick withstand what could be a major theatrical phenomenon?

With that in mind, here is Awards Campaign's revised contender countdown.

BEST PICTURE

1. "Up in the Air"
Will need help from critic's groups and a win over "Avatar" at the Globes and Producer's Guild.

2. "Avatar"
Will Academy members sit through it? Yes. Will they be impressed? Yes. Will they make it No. 1? Unclear.

3. "Invictus"
"Avatar's" emergence made winning it all a bit tougher. Needs to become a word of mouth movie to help

3. "Precious"
Lionsgate is starting to spend a bit more, but it may have peaked too soon.

4. "The Hurt Locker"
Could win either LAFCA or NYFCC this weekend.

5. "Up"
Just hard to imagine it winning the top prize, but Best Animated Feature is a lock.

6. "An Education"
"We're still here? Thank you!"

7. "Inglourious Basterds"
Why does it feel as though if another studio were running this campaign it could be a top contender?

8. "Nine"
Reviews haven't been kind so far, but it fills a slot.

10. "A Serious Man"
Still believe Focus will be able to ride the critical acclaim to a nomination.

11. "500 Days of Summer"
Cropping up in conversations, but is the campaign really there?

12. "District 9"
If it gets in many will be thrilled; if it doesn't there won't be much protesting.

And yes, it looks like Awards Campaigns' report on "Avatar" making the Globes race for Best Picture - Drama was right on the mark.

Just for those keeping track at home.
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Still standing your ground Amir0x?

OT: I feel bad for "An Education". Such a great film and Carey Mulligan should get Best Actress for it for her amazing performance. It is just getting no love at all. Fucking Sony Pictures Classics, sending their flicks to die.
 
shintoki said:
Sculli took a shit load of abuse for this over the year. But man, December 18th is looking to be his day of reckoning

I'm going to see if I can pick up my tickets for the Imax showing after class tomorrow. It's going be my birthday gift from my family. That and putting some more money into schooling funds ^_^
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You just know the guy is going to play it cool though. Not going to tell anyone to eat crow, no obscene laughing, and in fact will probably even criticize it a bit.
 
Salty said:
Maybe there's a reason they're not screening it in Imax, perhaps the 3d is worse? Though I would think the good outweighs the bad.

Also, why isn't this a summer movie?
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Fox had Wolverine for its summer tentpole and probably didn't want to cannibalize it. OTOH, the reasoning for Fox releasing THE FUCKING SQUEAKUEL just one week after Avatar is beyond me.. Yeah, slightly different target demos but there is a shitload of overlap.

There's also the fact that post production still wasn't finished at that time. Cameron worked on it right down to the wire.
 
Salty said:
Also, why isn't this a summer movie?
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My take: It would have to battle it out against a plethora of other big event movies in an increasingly crowded tentpole release season and even though it might well emerge victorious it's got a better shot at really doing gangbusters at the end of the year where it's got a much larger release/press window all to itself. Plus putting it in summer amongst all the other cookie-cutter tentpoles almost kinda cheapens it a bit; better to release it at the end of the year, in the prestige window, where it's also more likely to pick up award noms.

But what the fuck do I know?
 
Fox's positioning of Avatar as a December film is probably the best thing this movie has going for it. Summer movies open big, then face 50% or steeper drops every week. A movie like Avatar is NOT going to have an enormous opening, no matter what season it opens. At the very least, if the movie is good, word of mouth will carry it to 250-350 million in the winter. On the other hand, in the summer, a 60-70 million opening would mean the film essentially tops out around 200 million, no matter what the quality or the strength of word of mouth, because there's too much competition.
 
Avatar is going to have a bigger opening than people expect. The word-of-mouth rumbling has already begun. It'll soon turn into a roar. The film will be the "can't-miss" event of the holidays and a lot of people are going to want to see it as soon as they can so they can be a part of the excitement.
 
Damn, the movie is really getting rave reviews from all over the place. France, UK, US, Germany, Russia...it really seems like its hitting the chord globally.
 
Certainly if word-of-mouth and press continues to be as good as this early reaction with overwhelmingly positive buzz going into next weekend I think the opening could really destroy people's expectations. At this point I think the only serious strike against this film putting up a massive number is the running time affecting the number of daily showings but they may make some if not all of that back on the 3D ticket premium.
 
I think the Dark Knight has shown that run-times is simply not a limiting factor when it comes to breaking opening weekend records :D That said, I think this movie will benefit immensely from being the first 3D event film where the 3D makes a difference, and that could push up the gross considerably.
 
After seeing Up in the Air tonight, I hope it doesn't win best picture. God, the nominations are going to fucking suck like they did last year.
 
Gary Whitta said:
Certainly if word-of-mouth and press continues to be as good as this early reaction with overwhelmingly positive buzz going into next weekend I think the opening could really destroy people's expectations. At this point I think the only serious strike against this film putting up a massive number is the running time affecting the number of daily showings but they may make some if not all of that back on the 3D ticket premium.
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3D/IMAX premiums will likely not just offset, but overcompensate for the running time issue.
 
Good point about TDK.

I'd be interested to know what the 2D/3D theater breakdown is.

Mostly I'm just hoping this movie does not have more than four weeks of serious legs :lol
 
AlternativeUlster said:
After seeing Up in the Air tonight, I hope it doesn't win best picture. God, the nominations are going to fucking suck like they did last year.
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Ah, is it disappointing? I'm really looking forward to watching it.
 
Gary Whitta said:
Good point about TDK.

I'd be interested to know what the 2D/3D theater breakdown is.

Mostly I'm just hoping this movie does not have more than four weeks of serious legs :lol
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:lol So is the purpose of Denzel killing other people to read the bible? I just the trailer tonight.
 
Zeliard said:
Ah, is it disappointing? I'm really looking forward to watching it.
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I hate most movies. I thought it was ok like how Slumdog Millionaire was just ok. Felt like oscar fodder and some things were seen way ahead of time. Also, too many musical moments and really bad commentary about our financial crisis.
 
polyh3dron said:
did you see the hidden GAF message at the end though.... :D
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No! Now I want to know! I forgot the word "saw" in a quote above. Please forgive. It is late and I am listening to a band who is ripping off XTC right now on the radio.
 
AlternativeUlster said:
No! Now I want to know! I forgot the word "saw" in a quote above. Please forgive. It is late and I am listening to a band who is ripping off XTC right now on the radio.
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BOOK OF ELI

(fades to)

ELI

(fades to)

BELIEVE
 
polyh3dron said:
BOOK OF ELI

ELI

BELIEVE
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Oh shit! Haha. That was good. Maybe the laughter when the line came up on the screen was because there were Gaffers in the audience too and got the joke....

I kid. I kid.
 
AlternativeUlster said:
Oh shit! Haha. That was good. Maybe the laughter when the line came up on the screen was because there were Gaffers in the audience too and got the joke....

I kid. I kid.
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4173934560_a93a4082e9_o.jpg


Thread hijack over, back to Avatar! :D
 
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