Blair said:
This video contains content from bbc, who has decided to block it in your country.
I'm not used to this and I do not approve
Blair said:
I'm confused by all this ReadD/Imax3D (Liemax..wut? Why are people saying Liemax?) comparisons. I saw it in Imax3D, was this not the best 3D tech to see it with? I wasn't particularly "OMGWOW" impressed by the 3D so I'm wondering if when I see it next I should see it in a RealD theater. Although the sound at the Imax was pretty fucking astounding and I'm a sound whore.
Edit: I thought the 3D added a lot of depth and immersed me into the world of Pandora that much more, but as far as how good the actual 3D tech looked in comparison to 3D films I've seen in the past (Beowulf) I didn't see as drastic an improvement as I was hoping/expecting. Also my eyes hurt during and 15 minutes after the movie was over? They felt very strained.
I was wondering that actually.Solo said:Technically, RealD seems the best for this particular movie, since its what Cameron used to edit the thing.
You sound like me regarding Super Mario Galaxy, let's be friends.Cosmic Bus said:Post 3520, just a bit up on the page.
Chrono said:Haven't kept up with the thread so sorry if this review was posted, be prepared to have your head explode otherwise...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/17/AR2009121703483.html
Three million down...'Avatar' grosses $3 mil since midnight
First-weekend haul expected to exceed $80 mil
James Cameron's epic sci-fi actioner "Avatar" rang up more than $3 million in domestic boxoffice from 12:01 a.m. Friday performances, according to preliminary unofficial estimates.
Running more than 2 1/2 hours, "Avatar" unspooled in a mix of 3D and 2D venues amid mostly positive reviews and broad expectations of a first-weekend haul exceeding $80 million. Though nowhere near any records, the solid witching-hour coin will help keep the Fox release on track as it strives to reach that sort of rarefied range.
The current record-holder for midnight openings, "New Moon," grossed $26.27 million in its opening night last month.
Fox would not immediately confirm the unofficial estimate of the early grosses, but is expected to release its own estimate later Friday.
"Avatar" played on about 2,000 mostly 3D screens for its earliest showtimes but will boast about 3,000 3D screens the rest of the weekend and an equal number of 2D auditoriums. Its domestic theater count is more than 3,400.
Fox is also opening the pic -- produced in a mix of motion-capture animation and live-action -- in most foreign territories this week. "Avatar" bows in Japan on Wednesday, in China on Jan. 2 and in Italy on Jan. 15.
Sony has this weekend's only other domestic wide release, the romantic comedy "Did You Hear About the Morgans?" Starring Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker, "Morgans" may get to $10 million through Sunday.
Sweet Jesus, no.DeathNote said:Would it be 80 million opening day? That's a record.
DeathNote said:I was wondering that actually.
DeathNote said:This video contains content from bbc, who has decided to block it in your country.
I'm not used to this and I do not approve
DeathNote said:Sculli said imax>liemax>reald>dolby3d
On this page some people are saying they found realD to look better because it's digital an apparently less ghosting. And that people recommend imax because of the screen size and sound benefit.
Danthrax said:Another thing that bothered me was when the arrows went through the glass. Like, earlier in the movie, it was established that arrows bounced off the humans' cockpit glass. It's even bulletproof, FFS. But when the big battle comes, suddenly arrows can penetrate the glass! When I saw that in the theater, I called bullshit.
Critics Reviews Average Grade: A-
Source Brief Review Grade*
Boston Globe
Ty Burr "Its easy to get lost in the visually spectacular world ..." more... A-
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert "...an extraordinary film." more... A
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips "The first 90 minutes of Avatar are pretty terrific -- a full-immersion technological wonder with wonders to spare. The other 72 minutes, less and less terrific." more... B
E! Online
Luke Y. Thompson "...an immersive epic unlike any other." more... A
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman "...likely to leave audiences simultaneously amazed and unmoved." more... B
Filmcritic.com
Bill Gibron "This is a sumptuous film, overflowing with detail and delicate touches which counteract the massive firepower and mechanical/animal menace on display." more... A
Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt "A titanic entertainment -- movie magic is back!" more... A
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan "You've never experienced anything like it, and neither has anyone else." more... A-
New York Post
Lou Lumenick "...its rarely less than absorbing and never boring over its nearly three-hour length." more... A-
New York Times
Manohla Dargis "...glorious and goofy and blissfully deranged." more... A
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers "Cameron's talent may just be as big as his dreams." more... A-
San Francisco Chronicle
Amy Biancolli "...a monumental feast for the eyes." more... B
USA Today
Claudia Puig "For all the grandeur and technical virtuosity of the mythical 3-D universe Cameron labored for years to perfect, his characters are one-dimensional, rarely saying anything unexpected." more... B
Cosmic Bus said:At 71 pages, I don't think anyone really cares about opinions, so I'll just say that it was... okay. The 3D failed to impress (this being my maiden voyage into 3D theater-going), the effects didn't 'wow' me (we're at a point where literally anything can be done, yet it still looks plastic and feels soulless) and the content of movie itself certainly didn't, but none of it was offensively bad in any sense, just resoundingly "meh."
It's not stellar, but it's tough to extrapolate much from that -- other than that it's not coming close to Dark Knight territory (anyone who thought it ever would is nuts).mckmas8808 said:Isn't $3 million kinda small?
Solo said:What in gods name is wrong with you, mang?! My 3D strategy is the exact same as my 2D strategy. Back row, centre.
Extollere said:I've never seen a 3D movie. How much of a pain in the ass will it be for people like me who wear glasses? Do the goggles fit comfortably on top of glasses?
FirewalkR said:Well, gonna add my 2 cents. I saw Avatar yesterday and it was quite an incredible experience. I tweeted (yay) this right after I got home:
"Just saw Avatar. It's an unparalleled AV spectacle. It's a simple story wonderfully presented. For 2.5hours you ARE in another world"
That's basically it. A few hours after watching the movie there were some scenes still coming back to my mind quite vividly, perhaps Cameron was on to something when he suggested that 3D viewing enhances memory formation, perhaps I'm just a fanboy, who knows!
Negative things... It felt a bit rushed in parts, the 2.5 hours went by fast, I would have gladly stayed on Pandora for half an hour more (hell, make it an hour more), and I hope the inevitable Blu-ray 3D extended edition fills any gaps. It also has great science fiction concepts that could be explored further, and perhaps will in the sequels.
It's not incredibly original but it is a movie where love is pervasive, not only the love that clearly went into making it, but also the love felt by the characters for the world and for each other.
Something that was a bit eerie, there are scenes when all hell starts to break loose where there is very little music, it's almost silent (slo-mos and such) and you couldn't hear _a thing_ in the theatre. Everyone was clearly completely immersed (or noticing that everyone was immersed) in the movie.
Regarding the 3D. I was going to see it in RealD but due to proximity issues for most of the friends I went with we went to a new movie theatre (i'm in Portugal) where they are using XpanD. The 3D effect was quite good, though the image was darker than I believe it should. The glasses are also _heavy_ bastards and eventually I put them on the tip of my nose where it didn't hurt lol. Since XpanD uses active shutter technology in the glasses, they need an infra-red receptor (hence batteries and the weight) which is located between the lenses. The emitter must have been right in front and if you looked up, down or to the sides a few degrees it would loose the signal and stop working. I was in the middle of the third row from the back, and since the seats (which _are_ quite comfortable) recline a bit I had to lower my vision also a bit in order not to loose signal. I believe if I had seen it from about 3 or 4 rows below I would be able to recline and look slightly up without loss of signal and it'd have been more comfortable. Still, all of this almost makes it look like a bad experience, which it definitely wasn't. Just a few "niggles" I easily lived with.
I will watch it again in RealD (hopefully today) and I'll be able to compare better then.
Writing this, I realize that the more I think about it, the more I love this movie.Oscars will come in droves (thought I don't know about the main ones but technically this movie is peerless) and Pandora will rejoice.
Two last things, lesser scenes in this movie would be money-shots elsewhere. Still, one particular scene that made me go wow was when. However, the scene that will probably stay with me forever is at the end withQuaritch escapes from the exploding ship, the scene he's still inside and jumps out is incredible. Simply incredibly beautiful.Ney'tiri holding human Jake after she saves him
Cameron rules.
border said:Yes, the arrows penetrating the helicopter cockpits is incredibly stupid. But if you bought a ticket for this movie you probably had to expect that there were gonna be some dumb "Ewok moments" of primitive technology magically beating out flawless engineering. At least the ground troops were accurately and appropriately torn to shreds by the humans.
rockman zx said:I watched the movie with the XpanD glasses, sadly from a corner of the theater and I didn't notice the 3D effect and notice double image many times. Horribe experience but the movie is fantastic 10/10.
Because even with those factors the arrows still would not approach the velocity let alone the density of an actual bullet.....and the glass itself is supposed to be bulletproof. Bullets move at something like 500 meters per second....a banshee going maybe doing maybe 200 miles per hour can't touch that. Gravity's acceleration is neglibile as well.MisterAnderson said:I don't see why people keep bringing this up, as it seemed obvious to me thatthe velocity of them diving on their flyers (forgot the name of the animal) added way more impact to the already high velocity of the arrows, not to mention they were flying down on them so add gravity to equation for good measure.
I haven't seen the movie. But from 1) the Na'vi being much larger and stronger than humans, 2) meaning the bow would be larger and stronger than the human equivalent, 3) the arrow being much larger and heavier than a bullet would add up to at least as much force as a bullet. Cameron's enough of a physics geek that I wouldn't be surprised if he had it worked out. :lolborder said:Because even with those factors the arrows still would not approach the velocity let alone the density of an actual bullet.....and the glass itself is supposed to be bulletproof. Bullets move at something like 500 meters per second....a banshee going maybe doing maybe 200 miles per hour can't touch that. Gravity's acceleration is neglibile as well.
Meus Renaissance said:I wasn't really impressed by the 3D (this was my first 3D) viewing. It only adds some depth of field as they traverse through the forest and some segments at the start but its nothing WOW or in your face (except the UI for the video diaries). I think there was one moment where it actually appeared 3D when Jake's gun (you already seen this in the trailers) as he meets the wildlife is pointed towards the camera and it looks like it's coming out of the screen. Other than that, there was nothing notable to mention IMHO.
In fact it fucked hurt my eyes at the start. The glasses made the contrast levels lower than what was on screen, so I actually had a slightly darker picture than what was on view. I often pulled the glasses down a little to see the screen and there were times it actually looked a lot better. Overall next time I will see it in standard 2D and I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy it a bit more.
I'm surprised they tout this movie as one intentionally made for 3D moving from the start. Maybe it was the Cinema I went to, or maybe it's my eyes, but Avatar didn't seem like a 3D movie - just a gorgeous piece with elements of 3D here and there
Don't worry, just watch yourself.aznpxdd said:Damn that's a shame. Every single 3D movie I've seen so far have fallen into the "just a gorgeous piece with elements of 3D here and there", thought Avatar was gonna change that. The 3D looked great in the clips from Avatar Day though, I guess I'll find out tomorrow afternoon.
TrAcEr_x90 said:Movie was amazing, cgi was amazing. But holy hell, i thought i chose the right theatre to go too and it suuuucked. First of all, when is saw the 15 minute preview, it was a realD imax one cuz the glasses were the large black grames. This one last night they handed out some lame yellow rimmed small 3D glasses.
Then, the fuckin protectionist, let every sit there through the whole movie, while nats were flying around the projector. so there were very tiny bugs walking around the screen the whole time. When it was a bright or day scene you could see them perfectly. it sucked.
Magnus said:I can't get over Unobtainium.
Is that some fucking joke in the script from 2005 that somehow never got changed for the final shooting draft? :lol :lol