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Rottenwatch: AVATAR (82%)

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Tobor said:
I'm going to see this at 7PM EST. I bought tickets for 3D, but I have no idea which version my theater has. It's not listed anywhere.
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Just got back from it. The plot is cliche and predictable, but it's presented very well. The special effects were way better than I was expecting, and the movie really helped with my getting used to the design of the Na'vi.

My favorite film of the year, ahead of D9 and Up.

However, if there's a sequel, I'm concerned that it'll make this film weaker.
 
GhaleonEB said:
Yeah not sure on that one. All the site says is "Digital 3-D Projection", and I couldn't find anything else in searches.

Probably should just give the theater a call.
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It's not that big a deal. I'm driving over there in a half an hour anyway. Thanks, though.
 
Dax01 said:
However, if there's a sequel, I'm concerned that it'll make this film weaker.
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That's definitely the main problem that could occur. I can think of the last two movies that were great as standalone pictures, The Matrix and Pirates of the Caribbean. But the sequels for those turned out to be, well, heh (more so for the Matrix of course)

But if it's Cameron who works on it, I have faith, while he only has done one true sequel to his universes before, T2, it was still amazing.
 
Saw it in IMAX on opening day. Tons of people in line, sold out the entire weekend. I did enjoy the film..it had some great use of 3D (strangely the best scenes tended to be non action scenes for me). It was a good movie, not great. Personally, if I had to choose between a sequel to Avatar or District 9, I'd go with District 9.
 
Dax01 said:
However, if there's a sequel, I'm concerned that it'll make this film weaker.
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I dont subscribe to this theory at all. Ive seen a shitload of great movies get bad sequels, and it in no way lessons the quality of the original. The Matrix is still one of the best sci-fi movies ever made, despite its sequels being garbage.
 
DMczaf said:
And it's still laughable. It was a terrible idea. "Hey, no one knows what this movie is....let's have Cameron talk about it for 15 mins and not show a single image of it!!"
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He wanted to show it didn't he? Fox pulled it I believe, so he had to improv, something like that. I actually didn't think it was that lame, in retrospect it was a poor decision, but I enjoyed his comments.
 
J.M.Reyes said:
saw it yesterday in 2D, really stunning visuals and great story, contemplating going to the 3D theater but since I wear glasses I am not sure if it will work properly.
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It'll work, but probably a bit uncomfortably.

And if your nose is too small you might have trouble keeping the polarized glasses on over your current ones!
 
I really wish there were more Navii-Human melee combat like the scene where tsutey kills everyone in the hangar before dying, it really gave you the sense of how tall these guys were compared to humans
 
cms382 said:
Saw this earlier today in RealD, thought it was very good. My favorite use of 3d was the cockpits.
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YES, that was quite awesome indeed. The reflection on the windshields. I'm not exactly sure how Cameron achieved this. :P Never seen anything like it.

g23 said:
I really wish there were more Navii-Human melee combat like the scene where tsutey kills everyone in the hangar before dying, it really gave you the sense of how tall these guys were compared to humans
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Some kids in the theater I was in were going crazy in that scene. I too wish there had been more stuff like that.
 
g23 said:
I really wish there were more Navii-Human melee combat like the scene where tsutey kills everyone in the hangar before dying, it really gave you the sense of how tall these guys were compared to humans
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Not only how tall, but how powerful. He destroyed everyone. I thought the Navi sdize relative to humans was shown many times. Hell, the first time Jake is wheeled up to his, I couldnt stop thinking about how big it was. Then you have a scene with Neytiri and Jake's human body, and its really apparent.
 
Here's James Cameron owning a paparazzi guy http://www.tmz.com/2009/12/20/james-cameron-avatar-video/

Solo said:
Not only how tall, but how powerful. He destroyed everyone. I thought the Navi sdize relative to humans was shown many times. Hell, the first time Jake is wheeled up to his, I couldnt stop thinking about how big it was. Then you have a scene with Neytiri and Jake's human body, and its really apparent.
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Well...not everyone :lol
 
Solo said:
Not only how tall, but how powerful. He destroyed everyone. I thought the Navi sdize relative to humans was shown many times. Hell, the first time Jake is wheeled up to his, I couldnt stop thinking about how big it was. Then you have a scene with Neytiri and Jake's human body, and its really apparent.
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Yeah, but i'm talking during the battle sequences. The riders never got close to actually fight with the humans up close (which would have been pretty cool to see). I guess their tactics were different and the human firepower was too strong.
 
I keep telling you Solo, in that link you posted, the score becomes great at 3:30 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBpV6U-xknw

Anyway, despite what everybody else says, I'm almost convinced that AVATAR 2 will be about Pandora starting to die. The electric field near the Hallelujah mountains losing their charge and those big motherfuckers will come crashing down. Then they'll have to venture deep beyond the planet's surface (I'm thinking caves and shit in the vein of Laputa and the opening cave you see in Nausicaa) to get closer to the heart of Eywa or whatever.

Obviously I don't expect all that, but I do think it will have something to do with Pandora dying. If I have one problem with sequels to AVATAR, its that he's said he's already outlined two sequels. If there were to be a second movie, I would want it to be completely self-contained and not reliant on a 'to be continued' at the end. Those are always the most unsatisfying endings to sequels.

But then if you should have faith in anybody doing a sequel, its Cameron.
 
Scullibundo said:
Obviously I don't expect all that, but I do think it will have something to do with Pandora dying. If I have one problem with sequels to AVATAR, its that he's said he's already outlined two sequels. If there were to be a second movie, I would want it to be completely self-contained and not reliant on a 'to be continued' at the end. Those are always the most unsatisfying endings to sequels.
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I think that'd make a cool film, but considering he had two more outlined if anything is encouraging, because nothing in Avatar 1 links to a sequel, he could have easily done that if wanted to.
 
I feel direct navi-human relations were a huge missed opportunity. My favorite moments were in the beginning and the end when you see them interacting directly.

I was hoping to see some avatars doing work around the base with some humans. But maybe since these things cost tons of money they didn't want to waste them on moving boxes and working in a lab. Hopefully there is more of this stuff in the sequels... which will come out in 8 or 9 years.
 
MetalAlien said:
My mouth hurts from having to stretch so wide to swallow the message of this movie. I think we got your point Mr Cameron. Trees are good, we are not.
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I thought the message was primarily about terrorism. The main tree being the Twin Towers.
 
Saw this on Friday at IMAX.

Thought it was very good, but not quite great. There were many memorable scenes, but I just got a bit tired of the story and was anticipating the inevitable ending for about an hour before it actually happened.

There is only one scene I missed from the ending.
When Quaritch was in the mech and Neytiri shot him with the first arrow, I would have loved to see Quaritch pull out the first arrow with his hands and with a pulled back shot watch the mech's arms have emulated that movement. Of course, directly after pulling out the arrow Neytiri could have finished the job then.
 
sk3 said:
I feel direct navi-human relations were a huge missed opportunity. My favorite moments were in the beginning and the end when you see them interacting directly.

I was hoping to see some avatars doing work around the base with some humans. But maybe since these things cost tons of money they didn't want to waste them on moving boxes and working in a lab. Hopefully there is more of this stuff in the sequels... which will come out in 8 or 9 years.
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I think one reason they did it was to really have it hit hard when you see 'them' together at the end and the size is quite surprising, even after seeing humans with avatars earlier.

But the avatars raises an interesting thing, there are quite a few of them at the start, then basically three for the rest of the film.
 
g23 said:
I really wish there were more Navii-Human melee combat like the scene where tsutey kills everyone in the hangar before dying, it really gave you the sense of how tall these guys were compared to humans
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In the beginning of the movie they say the navi are incredibly hard to kill. They seem to go down pretty easy with a couple bullets. Least Tsutey goes down quickly. Found that a bit odd.
 
stuburns said:
IMAX Experience (LieMAX) or 'real' IMAX? I'm going for RealD next time because I want to see it in Scope, and the glasses are nicer. First time the LieMAX ones didn't bother me but last night they were annoying at times.
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"IMAX Experience" I believe. Not that I really know the difference.
 
Scullibundo said:
Obviously I don't expect all that, but I do think it will have something to do with Pandora dying.
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You know, this is plausible, and offers a way to get humans in the movie. Perhaps the Navi need their assistance.
 
Ferrio said:
In the beginning of the movie they say the navi are incredibly hard to kill. They seem to go down pretty easy with a couple bullets. Least Tsutey goes down quickly. Found that a bit odd.
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He doesn't die when he's shot though does he? It's enough to knock him off the plane, but the fall probably killed him.
 
Ok, my theater uses Christie digital. I've never heard of it, but the theater manager said they just had it installed for Avatar.
 
Solo said:
You know, this is plausible, and offers a way to get humans in the movie. Perhaps the Navi need their assistance.
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Yeah thats actually what I posted earlier in the thread, that because the planet is dying, they would have to accept human assistance. It would also follow the twist sort of angle attributed to Cameron.

Oh man, what if it was a race to the heart of Eywa, with a human/na'vi team racing a team that wants to kill the fucking planet so it can no longer defend itself. I can also see Cameron including a line about basically having to jump-start (in the 'CLEAR!') sort of way, the heart of the planet. :lol
 
Scullibundo said:
Yeah thats actually what I posted earlier in the thread, that because the planet is dying, they would have to accept human assistance. It would also follow the twist sort of angle attributed to Cameron.
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Definitely. Humans WILL be a large part of the movie, and anyone thinking otherwise is going to be very disappointed. There is no way FOX would allow a movie with nothing but the Navi.
 
J.M.Reyes said:
saw it yesterday in 2D, really stunning visuals and great story, contemplating going to the 3D theater but since I wear glasses I am not sure if it will work properly.
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I've seen it in Real D 3D and traditional 2D.

In all honesty, it is about the fantastic special effects. The 3D gives a bit of depth and the depth-of-field effect is mostly well executed (though at times a bit irritating), but I won't call it the game changer it has been called. Plus I didn't have bloodshot eyes - while watching the movie in 2D - and could still appreciate the fantastic motion capture work/environmental design WETA/ILM did, respectively.
 
This was probably the best looking movie I've ever seen, a world literally coming to life in a way I haven't seen before.

But dear god, what a cliche series of events, and what empty supporting characters. It got a C- from me story wise.

but dear god again, it was visually AMAZING. Nothing touches the world they created.
 
As much as I liked Pandora - I don't think the Avatar universe is all that interesting. In fact, Pandora was the best character of the film.

I'm just happy to have Cameron back, so now he can work with the same tech (without spending years on R and D) and make a universe with a cool locale like Pandora..and this time, with characters.
 
BowieZ said:
I thought the message was primarily about terrorism. The main tree being the Twin Towers.
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I don't think you actually saw the movie, then.
 
I want Battle Angel before anything else.

Now that Cameron's given us an epic lush world, I want to see him show us the post-apocalyptic, technological wasteland of Battle Angel.
 
dmshaposv said:
As much as I liked Pandora - I don't think the Avatar universe is all that interesting. In fact, Pandora was the best character of the film.

I'm just happy to have Cameron back, so now he can work with the same tech (without spending years on R and D) and make a universe with a cool locale like Pandora..and this time, with characters.
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Problem is that Cameron is never going to NOT write his own movies, so the characters are never going to be more than shallow stereotypes/caricatures like they are in all his movies. The man's achilles heel is his writing and his failure to never pass it off.
 
It is a visually amazing movie. But otherwise an empty shell, I would find it really difficult to sit through a 2nd showing of the movie.

I also think Sully should have died in the end.
 
how far away are we from a sequel though? Knowing cameron likes to spend most of his time in his submarines..
 
jett said:
YES, that was quite awesome indeed. The reflection on the windshields. I'm not exactly sure how Cameron achieved this. :P Never seen anything like it.



Some kids in the theater I was in were going crazy in that scene. I too wish there had been more stuff like that.
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This scene along with the scene in the trailer with Netyri and Jake were two of my favorite scenes. The awesome sense of size and power you get from the Na'vi when you see them interact with humans reminds you that they are still aliens despite the similarities with humans.
 
g23 said:
how far away are we from a sequel though? Knowing cameron likes to spend most of his time in his submarines..
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No one knows. But he could make the next one surprisingly fast once he has a script. The tech is done, the casting is in place, all he needs to do is shoot it and then theres the months of post.

Ill venture a guess of SUMMER 2012.
 
Scullibundo said:
I want Battle Angel before anything else.

Now that Cameron's given us an epic lush world, I want to see him show us the post-apocalyptic, technological wasteland of Battle Angel.
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"Battle Angel" does not start with "T" or "A". Cannot be a Cameron movie.
:(
 
Solo said:
Problem is that Cameron is never going to NOT write his own movies, so the characters are never going to be more than shallow stereotypes/caricatures like they are in all his movies. The man's achilles heel is his writing and his failure to never pass it off.
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I'm sorry Solo, but this isn't completely true. He made Ripley into a fully fleshed out character (especially in the Director's Cut) and even the villain in that film was great (Carter Burke). You never entirely knew his agenda or the depths of his character until late in the picture.

Though Cameron admits in the Aliens commentary that it is and probably will always be his best-written film. Aliens is BRILLIANTLY written. There is no film that is better written with regards to pacing. His suspension and constant build of tension for a 90 minute period in the film is fucking unrivalled. Its like tautening a string for 90 minutes with no end in sight.
 
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