Snowman Prophet of Doom
Member
BlueTsunami said:
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Rottenwatch: AVATAR (82%)
- Thread starter SCULLIBUNDO
- Start date
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Your long journey has finally come to it's end.Scullibundo said:Gentleman, its been a pleasure.
I'm now off to go give my friend his bday present, then we're going to start heading toward IMAX.
Will it be a happy ending? Or anti-climatic? All in all Scullibundo's Avatar journey will be heard by my grandchildren.
iamcool388
Member
Jtwo said:Haha, thought this was pretty funny.
Months ago I was really drunk and browsing gaf and AVATAR was getting a bunch of haters.
So I PMed Sculli my support. :lol :lol
Now that it's all over with I figured I'd share.
Bastard never replied though. :[
You tryna be Sam to Sculli's Frodo, eh?
http://www.toplessrobot.com/When_Frodo_Met_Sam.jpg
Cross posting from the FFXIII thread:
http://www.square-enix.co.jp/fabula/ff13/
Starting from 23rd Dec to 5th Jan, all 3D Toho cinemas nationwide in Japan will feature a specially edited 2 min clip of scenes from FFXIII, remastered in 3D film technology. The clip will be screened before all 3D screenings of Avatar.
http://www.square-enix.co.jp/fabula/ff13/
Starting from 23rd Dec to 5th Jan, all 3D Toho cinemas nationwide in Japan will feature a specially edited 2 min clip of scenes from FFXIII, remastered in 3D film technology. The clip will be screened before all 3D screenings of Avatar.
polyh3dron
Banned
Yes but which Leona Lewis song will be playing?duckroll said:
BlueTsunami
there is joy in sucking dick
duckroll said:
Jesus :lol Talk about taking two behemoths of their respective medium and putting them together.
Just went back from the premiere here in Mexico City, literally i´ve just watchet a movie from 2018, nothing compares to this, the achievment is great, film industry jumped 5 years in the future with Avatar.
The movie plot sucks but i didn´t gave a fuck, i felt like 1983 watching Return of the Jedi at the cinema with my dad, you NEED to see this movie.
The movie plot sucks but i didn´t gave a fuck, i felt like 1983 watching Return of the Jedi at the cinema with my dad, you NEED to see this movie.
Ollie Pooch
In a perfect world, we'd all be homersexual
a mate of mine is a journo and got a double pass invite for last friday's screening. the understanding was, if he didnt take me we'd never speak again.ezekial45 said:
Tricky I Shadow
Banned
duckroll said:
Such a smart move! I can easily see AVATAR being absolutely massive in Japan. It just seems to me that its gonna be very appealing for them, and having this screened before AVATAR in 3D is just icing on an already delicious cake.
Karma Kramer
Banned
Krev said:
What lacked without spoiling?
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
Need to eat some dinner badly and will post my full impressions afterward.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lgLaY9BiAo#t=11s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lgLaY9BiAo#t=11s
Karma Kramer
Banned
I'm pretty excited to hear both Krev and Sculli's full thoughts considering how hyped they were. Should be a good indication if I need to take my expectations down.
Scullibundo said:
So the translation is.... the movie starts and Cameron pulls it off and all fans are overjoyed, it's everything they expected..... then the movie drags on and he starts overdoing it and putting gimmicks all over the screen and it becomes obvious that he has ruined a good thing by being too showy and fans get disappointed and pissed off that he couldn't show some self-control and restrain? :lol
CorporalDork
Banned
I'm in the cinema waiting for the trailers to roll.
I'm enormously excited. And they just started. I'll be back later.
I'm enormously excited. And they just started. I'll be back later.
I'm still digesting it, but parts of the film didn't fully connect. Not all of the characters are as developed as they need to be at certain key points.Karma Kramer said:
You care enough about their plight when it really counts, though. The final third is SPECTACULAR.
Also, parts of the world of Pandora don't feel as original and engaging as I would have liked. Again, you grow to love it all by the end.
All of the worries over the Cameron dialogue were totally overblown. With the exception of one scene of exposition, I loved it. Of course it's cheesy and unsophisticated, but it's really fun 'movie' dialogue. It made me smile.
The action is beautifully executed. Cameron returns to the mansion and throws out the ragamuffins who've been shitting up the place for the last 12 years. It's striking to see a man who understands spacial dynamics take the reigns of action scenes of this scale, but perhaps even more so to see these scenes infused with real emotional interest. Many moments hit me in the gut.
The 3D is perfect. The best ever by a wide margin. The CG is unparalleled, but don't expect to be blown away any more than you were in the trailers or footage.
Go see it.
If I had to give it a score, I'd say 8 right now, but I'm leaning towards 9. It's one of the best films of the year.
Karma Kramer
Banned
Thanks for the type up Krev! Few more questions
Did the film surprise you in anyway? And was the CG convincing/real throughout or was it more inconsistent?
Did the film surprise you in anyway? And was the CG convincing/real throughout or was it more inconsistent?
Karma Kramer said:
Narratively...not really, but I was swept up in it. A few parts surprised me in how they got to me emotionally, though.
Make no mistake, this is all stuff you've seen before, but executed exceptionally. Like all of Cameron's films, really.
There are a few moments where the CG quality slips, but it doesn't matter too much.
As time passes and the buzz wears off, some of the cracks in the film become more apparent, but at the same time I start to like other moments more and get a bit nostalgic about the time spent on Pandora.
Oh, and if you guys thought the font used in marketing was cheesy, wait 'till you see the logo used in the film. :lol
saw this earlier......visuals were fantastic, CG was well done and 3D was surprisingly good....you would be hard pressed to find a better looking film
story was meh.... didn't really care about any of the characters. It just did nothing for me, i'm surprised its getting such rave reviews but maybe i'm the odd one out
one guy tried to clap at the end but nobody joined in :lol
still, it was a solid film but i probably wont be seeing it again
story was meh.... didn't really care about any of the characters. It just did nothing for me, i'm surprised its getting such rave reviews but maybe i'm the odd one out
one guy tried to clap at the end but nobody joined in :lol
still, it was a solid film but i probably wont be seeing it again
jey_16 said:
I've heard a few people saying that. For a while, I agreed. The characters and story weren't properly connecting. By the end I grew to love them.
Looking at clips of the film now, I'm getting a warm fuzzy feeling, even for the parts that I didn't fully love the first time around. I can see myself really getting into it on further viewings.
No. :lolJibril said:
Karma Kramer
Banned
Krev where did you see it...?
Karma Kramer said:
In my nice little local cinema, the Randwick Ritz. Cheapest in Sydney!
Most people would think I'm crazy for watching a film on this scale on their screens (small compared to what megaplexes can put up), but their projection is rock solid (much better than the RealD screens at Hoyts EQ) and I like supporting them. The projection is really bright, the sound is good and the cinemas are fairly shallow so you sit close to the screen.
I'll see it in different cinemas later, but I like the idea of moving up in screen size rather than down as I do.
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
This will be a spoiler free review. If I choose to delve into spoilers, I will clearly mark beforehand, before also spoiler-tagging them, so have no fear.
Cameron delivered.
This is a jump forward like no other. You really feel like you're in uncharted territory when watching this film from an experience standpoint.
SEE THIS IN 3D. I cannot tell you how important that is. It adds SO much to the experience. There is no past use of 3D that comes close to this. This truly will be the movie people refer back to.
This is Cameron's best shot film. The composition of shots and scenes is absolutely outstanding. It is the best shot film I've seen all year. And I'm not just talking about sweeping shots. I'm also talking about setups on the WETA-built sets - inside the sound-stages. It is expertly done and the framing is unreal.
There is that same Cameron meticulousness to the film when it comes to detail as well - in both the sets and the artificially created environments.
This is the most visually epic sci-fi you have ever seen. The sense of scope on this picture is unmatched. If you can see it at IMAX fucking do it. I saw it at a true IMAX (non-digital projection) and the image was completely fine. Nobody complained of headaches. I was far more wow by the human-built environments and scenes than I thought I would be. They look stunning.
My mind is still reeling from the experiene and I'm trying to piece together the story and scenes in my head, but ultimately AVATAR is about going to Pandora. It is just that - an experience. This isn't me defending negative claims of the story or anything of the sort - the film ultimately feels like an epic tour of another universe - in terms of its foreigness as a place and as a culture.
That said, where as in Cameron's past films he has written thinking entirely about the characters, their motivation, what they are feeling (and that is still there) - this time his focus ultimately seems to be on the viewer. What is the audience seeing, what is the audience feeling at this point? Its Cameron not just guiding Jake through this foreign world and culture, but ultimately guiding the viewer. And its necessary - he is showing you how the culture works, how the ecosystem lives and thrives, the rules and rituals of each - that is a big part of the story. Does this tourism-based plotting have its drawbacks?
The characters are definitely identifiable, but certainly not anywhere near as enigmatic as Cameron's other protagonists. You LIKE them, you definitely root for them, but never in a 'Oh shit yeah! Ripley is going to fuck up that Alien Queen!' or 'Hasta La Vista' sorta way.
Weaver is great, as is her character. Michelle Rodriguez certainly surprised me because I normally hate her guts, but she was charismatic as hell.
If you like the characters of Aliens you'll like Stephen Lang's character. Imagine Apone and Burke's characters from Aliens were melded together and you've got Lang's character.
The writing in terms of the plot and ideas was very good. The writing in terms of the pacing is Cameron gold.
The dialogue is a funny thing. Cameron can write for military like nobody's business. Dealing with the corporation stuff, the scientists, the foundation of the world - all top notch Cameron. That said, in trying to write for the Na'vi, its as though Cameron literally presented them as tropes.
Where other reviewers have said the film is plagued with this bad dialogue, I disagree completely. I won't say where, but the cringe-worthy dialogue is literally concentrated into this one five minute scene that indeed felt uncomfortable. That scene was jarring and momentarily took me out of it.
After that there is perhaps one or two lines in the rest of the movie that were corny, but otherwise its all good stuff. It literally is just 5 minutes, that if they were omitted, you wouldn't here people complaining nearly as much (if at all) about the dialogue. But it is there.
The effects are absolutely flawless. Photo-real etc etc. As previously reported, you forget about them completely after a few minutes.
Horner's score. Well, here is probably where my only disappointment lies. Horner had some GREAT tunes in this. However, for every great piece, he would have a...not bad, but EXPECTED, typical piece. But more than that, he was all over the place in terms of tone. There could be a scene that is dark or sombre etc, and he will retcon that feeling immediately by pumping jovial music straight after, effectively robbing that scene and all the work his music had just achieved.
I know I said earlier that the movie is one of the best shot of the year and his career, but I cannot describe just how incredible it is. Whilst he's using a virtual camera, you never get that feeling that the camera is some intangible thing that is just floating in the air like a Zemeckis pic. You get the odd shake or rough zoom in as if it were a camera operator getting right in there, whether it be on the ground or in the air. Magnificent.
Also, after all these years, despite fears that he may have lost it, nobody - NOBODY shoots action like Cameron. Jesus fucking christ this fucking guy. You know in Titanic when you hear that huge hull creaking like a fucking beast before everything goes to shit? You get awe-inspiring, epic shots like that in the middle of all hell breaking loose. The action is also practical action - you buy the action shots completely.
Is this a perfect movie? No, but it is one of the most incredible experiences I've ever had in the cinema. It is the definition of an event film. The story isn't quite as worth revisiting as much as the Terminator films or Aliens etc, but that it mostly because a lot of the film is written purely to take you through the world - the story is in the discovery - the setup. It definitely feels like this film needed more time for the plot to unspool. I never wanted it to end.
If I were to rank all the Cameron films right now, in my immediate take on AVATAR, it would go:
Terminator 2/Aliens
Terminator
AVATAR
True Lies
The Abyss
Titanic
This film deserves every praise it gets. It really is a new star wars for the new generation and is generation defining, a landmark - all of that. It is lightyears ahead of any other event film or breakthrough you've seen in the past.
As an experience - 10/10. You can't get better.
In thinking about how I might feel upon multiple rewatches when it becomes about revisiting it as not just an experience, but as a film 9/10. The plot arc (and I stress arc because you have no idea what you're going to be introduced to within that arc) is predictable, but the execution is motherfucking flawless.
I would go to say it is his best directed film, marred by the fact that its his most poorly written. The fact that I give it a 9/10, despite its writing faults should tell you just how great his direction is.
He can't and shouldn't win best original screenplay.
He deserves best director.
I literally can't stop thinking about the film and can't wait to get back into the cinema to experience it.
**********************
SPOILERS
LIGHT SPOILER
My favourite scene and the scene in which I knew we were in for something FUCKING special was
MODERATE SPOILERS
Also,
Cameron delivered.
This is a jump forward like no other. You really feel like you're in uncharted territory when watching this film from an experience standpoint.
SEE THIS IN 3D. I cannot tell you how important that is. It adds SO much to the experience. There is no past use of 3D that comes close to this. This truly will be the movie people refer back to.
This is Cameron's best shot film. The composition of shots and scenes is absolutely outstanding. It is the best shot film I've seen all year. And I'm not just talking about sweeping shots. I'm also talking about setups on the WETA-built sets - inside the sound-stages. It is expertly done and the framing is unreal.
There is that same Cameron meticulousness to the film when it comes to detail as well - in both the sets and the artificially created environments.
This is the most visually epic sci-fi you have ever seen. The sense of scope on this picture is unmatched. If you can see it at IMAX fucking do it. I saw it at a true IMAX (non-digital projection) and the image was completely fine. Nobody complained of headaches. I was far more wow by the human-built environments and scenes than I thought I would be. They look stunning.
My mind is still reeling from the experiene and I'm trying to piece together the story and scenes in my head, but ultimately AVATAR is about going to Pandora. It is just that - an experience. This isn't me defending negative claims of the story or anything of the sort - the film ultimately feels like an epic tour of another universe - in terms of its foreigness as a place and as a culture.
That said, where as in Cameron's past films he has written thinking entirely about the characters, their motivation, what they are feeling (and that is still there) - this time his focus ultimately seems to be on the viewer. What is the audience seeing, what is the audience feeling at this point? Its Cameron not just guiding Jake through this foreign world and culture, but ultimately guiding the viewer. And its necessary - he is showing you how the culture works, how the ecosystem lives and thrives, the rules and rituals of each - that is a big part of the story. Does this tourism-based plotting have its drawbacks?
The characters are definitely identifiable, but certainly not anywhere near as enigmatic as Cameron's other protagonists. You LIKE them, you definitely root for them, but never in a 'Oh shit yeah! Ripley is going to fuck up that Alien Queen!' or 'Hasta La Vista' sorta way.
Weaver is great, as is her character. Michelle Rodriguez certainly surprised me because I normally hate her guts, but she was charismatic as hell.
If you like the characters of Aliens you'll like Stephen Lang's character. Imagine Apone and Burke's characters from Aliens were melded together and you've got Lang's character.
The writing in terms of the plot and ideas was very good. The writing in terms of the pacing is Cameron gold.
The dialogue is a funny thing. Cameron can write for military like nobody's business. Dealing with the corporation stuff, the scientists, the foundation of the world - all top notch Cameron. That said, in trying to write for the Na'vi, its as though Cameron literally presented them as tropes.
Where other reviewers have said the film is plagued with this bad dialogue, I disagree completely. I won't say where, but the cringe-worthy dialogue is literally concentrated into this one five minute scene that indeed felt uncomfortable. That scene was jarring and momentarily took me out of it.
After that there is perhaps one or two lines in the rest of the movie that were corny, but otherwise its all good stuff. It literally is just 5 minutes, that if they were omitted, you wouldn't here people complaining nearly as much (if at all) about the dialogue. But it is there.
The effects are absolutely flawless. Photo-real etc etc. As previously reported, you forget about them completely after a few minutes.
Horner's score. Well, here is probably where my only disappointment lies. Horner had some GREAT tunes in this. However, for every great piece, he would have a...not bad, but EXPECTED, typical piece. But more than that, he was all over the place in terms of tone. There could be a scene that is dark or sombre etc, and he will retcon that feeling immediately by pumping jovial music straight after, effectively robbing that scene and all the work his music had just achieved.
I know I said earlier that the movie is one of the best shot of the year and his career, but I cannot describe just how incredible it is. Whilst he's using a virtual camera, you never get that feeling that the camera is some intangible thing that is just floating in the air like a Zemeckis pic. You get the odd shake or rough zoom in as if it were a camera operator getting right in there, whether it be on the ground or in the air. Magnificent.
Also, after all these years, despite fears that he may have lost it, nobody - NOBODY shoots action like Cameron. Jesus fucking christ this fucking guy. You know in Titanic when you hear that huge hull creaking like a fucking beast before everything goes to shit? You get awe-inspiring, epic shots like that in the middle of all hell breaking loose. The action is also practical action - you buy the action shots completely.
Is this a perfect movie? No, but it is one of the most incredible experiences I've ever had in the cinema. It is the definition of an event film. The story isn't quite as worth revisiting as much as the Terminator films or Aliens etc, but that it mostly because a lot of the film is written purely to take you through the world - the story is in the discovery - the setup. It definitely feels like this film needed more time for the plot to unspool. I never wanted it to end.
If I were to rank all the Cameron films right now, in my immediate take on AVATAR, it would go:
Terminator 2/Aliens
Terminator
AVATAR
True Lies
The Abyss
Titanic
This film deserves every praise it gets. It really is a new star wars for the new generation and is generation defining, a landmark - all of that. It is lightyears ahead of any other event film or breakthrough you've seen in the past.
As an experience - 10/10. You can't get better.
In thinking about how I might feel upon multiple rewatches when it becomes about revisiting it as not just an experience, but as a film 9/10. The plot arc (and I stress arc because you have no idea what you're going to be introduced to within that arc) is predictable, but the execution is motherfucking flawless.
I would go to say it is his best directed film, marred by the fact that its his most poorly written. The fact that I give it a 9/10, despite its writing faults should tell you just how great his direction is.
He can't and shouldn't win best original screenplay.
He deserves best director.
I literally can't stop thinking about the film and can't wait to get back into the cinema to experience it.
**********************
SPOILERS
LIGHT SPOILER
My favourite scene and the scene in which I knew we were in for something FUCKING special was
when Jake awakes from cryo-sleep and all the medics etc are free-floating - perhaps one of the coolest shots/scenes I've ever seen and definitely memorable.
MODERATE SPOILERS
Also,
the way the Na'vi can literally connect to everything is fucking awesome.
Basically, the way Cameron has set up this story as introducing Pandora means a sequel would be all plot business. We know how the tribe works, their rituals etc, the next film wouldn't need to cover any of that and could be something truly spectacular.
Basically, the way Cameron has set up this story as introducing Pandora means a sequel would be all plot business. We know how the tribe works, their rituals etc, the next film wouldn't need to cover any of that and could be something truly spectacular.
AgentOtaku
Member
Never thought I'd see the day I'd see Sculli's review
*sheds single tear*
*sheds single tear*
Karma Kramer
Banned
Fuckin A! Bravo, great review, and although I was kind of hoping for a slightly more "disappointed" review (to lower my hype), I'm glad after all of this you ended up liking it
Tricky I Shadow
Banned
Nice review Sculli! Cant wait for Sunday night!
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
Rengoku said:Thanks for the writeup Sculli.
Just curious, for the IMAX 3D viewing, would you suggest sitting closer to the screen or further away?
Further away obviously. Third row from back of IMAX was awesome.
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