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Rottenwatch: AVATAR (82%)

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AniHawk said:
It's tracking to gain another $200 from Friday to Sunday WW?

Oh, $24 of Wednesday's $16.4m was mine. :)
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I just edited this in, but for the new page:

Code: 
           Domestic      International   Total
Weekend    77,025,481    164,974,519     242,000,000 
Monday     16,385,820    26,836,711      43,222,531 
Tuesday    16,086,461    27,957,923      44,044,384 
Wednesday  16,445,291    35,917,800      52,363,091 
			
Total      125,943,053   255,686,953     381,630,006

So we're $219m away from $600m. Today it will probably make half of Wednesday's take, due to Christmas Eve. Call it $25m.

So now it's at $406m or so as of tomorrow morning.

To just hit $600m, and no more, it would have to drop 20% from last weekend. It's tracking to do better than that - and it's 1) got Christmas tomorrow as a boost and 2) playing in more international markets now (thus the boost on Wednesday's take).

(To hit only $500m, it would have to drop 61% from last weekend, WW.)

I'm guessing we'll see $625m through Sunday.
 
DanielPlainview said:
I posted this in the 2009 round-up but I'd thought I give all you Avatar lovers a chance to vote in our poll, just click below.



I'm going to do a huge post with all the results after they are accounted for, so vote away!
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Way to bury Avatar behind the site branding! Why do you hate Avatar?
 
DanielPlainview said:
I posted this in the 2009 round-up but I'd thought I give all you Avatar lovers a chance to vote in our poll, just click below.



I'm going to do a huge post with all the results after they are accounted for, so vote away!
Click to expand...

So how come Public Enemies is preselected as most disappointing film and Iron Man 2 is preselected as most anticipated film?
 
Saw the movie last night and overall thoroughly enjoyed it.

The movie was good, mainly for being a simple engrossing tale and having some spectacular visual design.

It was not, in my opinion, a great movie. Firstly, the central theme - man vs nature, environmental symbiosis etc - was handled rather simplistically and not told with particular insight. The Navi were a rather unimaginative blend of native indian and African tribals, I didn't really have too much of a problem with this, but felt it was rather cliched. Infact, the whole movie was very cliched.

Actually, the movie very much seemed like a combination between Princess Mononoke and The Spirits Within. It was definitely inferior to the former and visually I was quite as impressed as I was with the latter when I first watched it. Keeping on a visual tip, it very much reminded to me of something out of Final Fantasy, right up to the floating mountains. I am not complaining though, I love FF visuals.

As befitting the film, I actually quite like the Navi's visual design and animation. However, although I know it is based on 1. our template for self-aware life ie US (plus dolphins etc) and 2. a matter of being able to relate 2 - I feel that the Navi elven appearance wasn't very daring and again rather cliched.

The movie also felt as if it had been compressed. It was originally intended as a trilogy, was it not? The latter sections of the film felt rushed. It didn't even show his taming of the giant aerial predator, which was supposed to be a legendary event for the Navi. There were quite a few other instances.

The main villain was a cliched piece of trash. He spouted the usual shit and acted like one dimensional bitch throughout. However, I suppose these people do actually exist and it did mean that it was satisfying when the bitch was finally put to rest.

Another thing that came up was that although the Navi supposedly treasure all life, they didn't seem to have any compunction about killing humans. Granted, the humans were outsiders, a violent threat to the planet which they treasured and there is no reason to believe the Navi would be 100 % consistent in their beliefs.

All in all, however, I enjoyed the movie, but felt the potential was there for something better. Somebody should make the Nausicaa Manga with these visuals. That would be an absolute masterpiece.

Oh, yeah. The 3d didn't really impress me all that much. The film did pop a bit more which I liked, but it didn't really make it that much more immersive. Guess the tech is still not cheap enough yet to give us full on VR
 
DanielPlainview said:
I posted this in the 2009 round-up but I'd thought I give all you Avatar lovers a chance to vote in our poll, just click below.

[/URL]
I'm going to do a huge post with all the results after they are accounted for, so vote away!
Click to expand...
Two of those were pre-filled in for me. Most disappointing was Public Enemies, and Most Anticipated was set to Iron Man 2. That might skew your results since not everyone will fill in the non-required fields.

Edit: beaten by Ani.

I think those two were in the center of the list. So probably some kind of default on the form needs to be turned off.
 
AniHawk said:
So how come Public Enemies is preselected as most disappointing film and Iron Man 2 is preselected as most anticipated film?
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GhaleonEB said:
Two of those were pre-filled in for me. Most disappointing was Public Enemies, and Most Anticipated was set to Iron Man 2. That might skew your results since not everyone will fill in the non-required fields.

Edit: beaten by Ani.

I think those two were in the center of the list. So probably some kind of default on the form needs to be turned off.
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Fixed, I don't have anything against PE, I swear! :lol I quite enjoyed it. Inception is #1 for me as well.
 
I was thinking of a few things that were left unanswered:

1.
Since Neytiri's banshee died, and they seemed to only connect with one of those birds in their lifetime, does that mean she won't be able to bond with another one?
2.
All the humans left without an Avatar (such as Norm), how will they live on the planet? I mean, didn't the whole compound get shut down? And in the case that it didn't, where will they pull the energy from to keep it running?
3. Did Jake have any family left after his brother died? I'm assuming this is the case, as it would better explain why he was so quick to consider Pandora as a permanent home (it would also mirror Titanic's Jack, who also didn't have remaining family and was jumping from place to place without putting much thought to it).
 
Scarecrow said:
I forget, what was special about the unobtainium? Besides it being rare.
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It's a room temperature superconductor. The only way we've been able to give a metal superconducting properties is by makinh it really really cold.

That kind of material would have countless revolutionary applications for advanced tech.
 
Koodo said:
I was thinking of a few things that were left unanswered:

1.
Since Neytiri's banshee died, and they seemed to only connect with one of those birds in their lifetime, does that mean she won't be able to bond with another one?
2.
All the humans left without an Avatar (such as Norm), how will they live on the planet? I mean, didn't the whole compound get shut down? And in the case that it didn't, where will they pull the energy from to keep it running?
3. Did Jake have any family left after his brother died? I'm assuming this is the case, as it would better explain why he was so quick to consider Pandora as a permanent home (it would also mirror Titanic's Jack, who also didn't have remaining family and was jumping from place to place without putting much thought to it).
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Yeah, I'm definitely wondering about number one because it was explicitly stated that the Banshee's will only connect with one Na'vi. That was another
sad moment in the film bought to life by Zoe's acting when her Banshee died who she was obviously close to

As for number 2, they probably
wouldn't shut the entire complex down since the remaining humans will still need it. I'd imagine they'd definitely shut down the Unobtanium refinery though as that's what was spewing out all those gases. I could also see them dismantling a lot of the weaponry (though I hope they don't touch the second Dragon or any remaining AMP Suits).

Again, I can't wait for the novel which will probably go into a lot of depth about these things which were too complex to put into the film.
 
Rentahamster said:
It's a room temperature superconductor. The only way we've been able to give a metal superconducting properties is by makinh it really really cold.

That kind of material would have countless revolutionary applications for advanced tech.
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Hahahah, almost forgot about unobtainium hehe
 
Alright I have heard a lot of hate for the soundtrack, but after listening to it on my zune for a bit I think some of the pieces are pretty good. Not spectacular or anything but a few of the pieces I could see myself listening to for a bit. I think it just may have been a bit too low key for the film but on its own it sounds pretty good.
 
Grimm Fandango said:
I've figured it out. Unobtainum = nanomachines.
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I think I read something about nanotech being used in those Amino tanks and in other biological tech.

It does seem in the Avatar universe that Biological science has made far far more leaps than most other fields like robotics or cybernetics comparatively.
 
Grimm Fandango said:
I've figured it out. Unobtainum = nanomachines.
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It's on Pandorapedia.

http://www.pandorapedia.com/doku.php/the_rda
Within a few decades, the company had the stature to propose the construction of a world-spanning rapid transit system that would allow entire population groups to conveniently commute hundreds or even thousands of miles to perform work where it was needed, without impinging on the cultural values of host populations. This led to the current global network of maglev trains that require the superconductor unobtanium for their continued operation.
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Combine said:
Yeah, I'm definitely wondering about number one because it was explicitly stated that the Banshee's will only connect with one Na'vi. That was another
sad moment in the film bought to life by Zoe's acting when her Banshee died who she was obviously close to
.
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Well, let me put it to you like this. If I said that cats only have one owner in their lifetime and that my cat died, does that mean I'll never have another cat?

One other point here, the movie shows Jake connect with at least three creatures in that manner.
Once with the horse-thing, once with the banshee and then again with the dragon-thing. So, I'd say there's a pretty good chance that Neytiri's riding days are not over.
 
Saw it today. This was my first 3D movie since Sharkboy & LavaGirl (I probably shouldn't admit that), but it was so amazing. I really loved it. It goes right up in the category of one of my favorite movies of all time. :D
 
Come to think of it, what kind of 3D technology did Spy Kids and Sharkboy & Lavagirl use? I think they predated all this digital stuff.
 
border said:
Come to think of it, what kind of 3D technology did Spy Kids and Sharkboy & Lavagirl use? I think they predated all this digital stuff.
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Robert Rodriguez filmed a diorama with a camcorder to make that happen. What an innovator!
 
border said:
Come to think of it, what kind of 3D technology did Spy Kids and Sharkboy & Lavagirl use? I think they predated all this digital stuff.
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It was shot with an early version of the Cameron/Pace Fusion system, but only presented in anaglyph (red/blue) 3D.
 
First Christmas Eve estimates are out

Avatar - 11 million (very impressive, over 10 on christmas eve...)

Alvin 2 - 8 million
 
Dead said:
First Christmas Eve estimates are out

Avatar - 11 million (very impressive, over 10 on christmas eve...)

Alvin 2 - 8 million
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Holy shit. Alvin had a good run. :lol

Going back and looking at recent years for context:

#1 move for the last five December 24ths:

2008: $1,935,364 (Yes Man)
2007: $7,004,295 (NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS)
2006: $5,708,502 (NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM)
2005: $4,740,768 (THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE)
2004: $7,159,130 (MEET THE FOCKERS)
 
Aselith said:
Once with the horse-thing, once with the banshee and then again with the dragon-thing. So, I'd say there's a pretty good chance that Neytiri's riding days are not over.
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From what I understand, a Na'vi can connect to multiple horses (ok, that sounds kind of wrong :lol ), but they still can only get one Banshee. And as for Toruk, well he's quite a special case anyway.
 
GhaleonEB said:
Holy shit. Alvin had a good run. :lol

Going back and looking at recent years for context:

#1 move for the last five December 24ths:

2008: $1,935,364 (Yes Man)
2007: $7,004,295 (NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS)
2006: $5,708,502 (NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM)
2005: $4,740,768 (THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE)
2004: $7,159,130 (MEET THE FOCKERS)
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Its even better than all 3 LOTRs Christmas Eve numbers
 
Dead said:
Its even better than all 3 LOTRs Christmas Eve numbers
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Yeah.

Meet the Fockers has the record Christmas day take at $19.5m, after $7.2m on Christmas Eve. Avatar is tracking to blow that out of the water.

Could you link to the source, BTW?
Combine said:
From what I understand, a Na'vi can connect to multiple horses (ok, that sounds kind of wrong :lol ), but they still can only get one Banshee. And as for Toruk, well he's quite a special case anyway.
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I think it's the Banshee that bonds with only one Na'vi, but the Na'vi isn't restricted to that one if it dies.
 
Okay, just watched the movie myself. I went in with pretty low expectations, but I quite liked the movie in the end. I'm not sure if the CG gets out of the uncanny valley, but it was pretty good. Didn't watch it in 3D, so I can't really comment on that. Story was kind of whatever, but the action moments (especially at the end) were likely the best thing since District 9, which is to say that those two movies were the only films I've seen with decent set piece moments in a long ass time.

Some of the characters were really good, but some of them were pretty awful, but not enough to ever make me groan or face palm though.

The movie also gets points for it being the only thing ever to have Michelle Rodriguez in it where she wasn't eye bleedingly awful to witness.

Oh, and before I forget:
HELICOPTER LIZARDS! HELICOPTER LIZARDS, OH MAN I LOVE THE HELICOPTER LIZARDS! So dumb but so great!
 
I think it’s a safe bet to say that this’ll gross over 1 billion worldwide. Everything just seems to be falling into place. Everything is going perfectly at the moment! :D

And you’d have to be pretty stupid at this point to still say that AVATAR doesn’t have a chance at taking home best picture at the Oscars. Haters/doubters = owned.
 
Aselith said:
I'm sure the execs at the studio will be a bit disappointed.
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At the rate Avatar is lighting up cash registers all over the world it will make more than a billion dollars worldwide and be in the top 5 of all time worldwide grosses. The movie will make hundreds of millions of dollars thru DVD\Blu-Ray sales, tv-rights, etc.

The execs at Fox are laughing all the way to the bank.
 
So today I went to spend the day with my mum since everybody else was doing Christmas stuff (we're Jewish) and everything was closed. We had lunch and then she asked me if I wanted to go see AVATAR with her (dawwww) even though I had already seen it 3 times. I could tell she was really hoping I would say yes, so we went (I was personally hoping to wait until late Jan to see it again so I don't burn out on it - 4 times now). She absolutely loved it and she HATES sci-fi/fantasy movies and pretty much thinks they're all silly. I caught her gasping when Quaritch sticks the knife into the Thanator and covering her mouth in horror when the poisonous air starts seeping into Jake's uplink bed.

Just like my little cousin last week, she couldn't stop talking about it on the way home and even spoke about it during dinner. She really loved the characters and said she was glad she was able to see the film (in the event film sense) as it was unlike anything that has been done before. :lol

Having seen it 4 times in the last 9 days, the first half was still good, but I pretty much knew beat for beat so had lost some oomph. Once it kicks into the second half however, I still can't help but get caught up in all the heavy-hitting moments.
 
Grimm Fandango said:
I've figured it out. Unobtainum = nanomachines.
Click to expand...


Rentahamster said:
It's on Pandorapedia.

http://www.pandorapedia.com/doku.php/the_rda

Within a few decades, the company had the stature to propose the construction of a world-spanning rapid transit system that would allow entire population groups to conveniently commute hundreds or even thousands of miles to perform work where it was needed, without impinging on the cultural values of host populations. This led to the current global network of maglev trains that require the superconductor unobtanium for their continued operation.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Oh so the whole, 'Earth is a dying planet' thing meant nothing in the movie. They just invade other planets to build trains on Earth.
 
Bob Loblaw said:
Oh so the whole, 'Earth is a dying planet' thing meant nothing in the movie. They just invade other planets to build trains on Earth.
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Hehe, trains, but also the ISV's too:
The unique magnetic properties of Unobtainium are used to contain and direct the energy of the matter-antimatter annihilation which propels ships like ISV Venture Star. Without Unobtanium, interstellar commerce on this scale would not be possible. Unobtanium is not only the key to Earth’s energy needs in the 22nd century, but it is the enabler of interstellar travel and the establishment of a truly spacefaring civilization.
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Aselith said:
They don't have bombs.

Look maybe you should stop writing an alternate reality version of Avatar, where they just Matrix up some shit that they don't have, and just go with what's on the screen, yeah?
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What I see on the screen is a fortified compound called Hell's Gate that is capable of producing ships, guns, vehicles, missiles, armor, equipment, weapons, and all kinds of stuff. manufacturing bombs wouldn't be very hard. Dropping a shit ton of bombs on the Navi from an altitude the Navi can't reach wouldn't be a problem.

Aselith said:
If they pushed them out too high, they almost certainly would not hit their target so they couldn't go over the mountains or drop them from fucking outer space (?). Bombs don't fall straight especially not ones that are just big bricks of explosive material. The wind would push them far off target without guidance or a short distance to fall.
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Who cares if they hit the target? The objective is to demoralize the Navi, and carpet bombing them would probably do the trick.

Aselith said:
The Na'vi could have not attacked them except for guerilla style raids on their mining ops. Which is what they would have done in that situation where the RDA doesn't attack them head on. What then?
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What then? They do what they've always done before. Guerrilla attacks didn't phase the RDA before, why should it now? Even without tracking and nav capabilities, the RDA were winning against the Navi (Before Eywa stepped in to help). I don't think the Navi would fare much better from a flux-interference free zone with a fortified perimeter defense.
 
Rentahamster said:
Who cares if they hit the target? The objective is to demoralize the Navi, and carpet bombing them would probably do the trick.
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No? They specifically said some shit like, "Let's wipe these roaches out! Fuck yeah!" They wanted to kill them all. Horribly misplaced bombs aren't the best way to do that.


Rentahamster said:
What then? They do what they've always done before. Guerrilla attacks didn't phase the RDA before, why should it now? Even without tracking and nav capabilities, the RDA were winning against the Navi (Before Eywa stepped in to help). I don't think the Navi would fare much better from a flux-interference free zone with a fortified perimeter defense.
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Before they didn't have a military trained human on their side with knowledge of their fortifications and techonology. The humans were also aware of the growing population of Na'vi in that area. What they were facing was a tribe before. They decided to attack them head on specifically because the humans saw their mounting numbers as problematic.

Also, where did you get the idea that the human base produced things? All I saw were big transport ships. That says to me that they brought everything with them. I'm assuming they produced some stuff like food but I saw no indication of the facilities needed to make weapons especially bombs. If they had that capability, why did they have to jury rig bombs on a transport ship? It wasn't even a military plane.
 
Aselith said:
No? They specifically said some shit like, "Let's wipe these roaches out! Fuck yeah!" They wanted to kill them all. Horribly misplaced bombs aren't the best way to do that.
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I think Quaritch's plan to bomb the Tree of Souls was to demoralize the Navi and make them flee.

Aselith said:
Before they didn't have a military trained human on their side with knowledge of their fortifications and techonology. The humans were also aware of the growing population of Na'vi in that area. What they were facing was a tribe before. They decided to attack them head on specifically because the humans saw their mounting numbers as problematic.
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They decided to attack the united Navi tribes in an area that they had the tactical disadvantage, and still managed to win (until Eywa helped out). I'm not sure Eywa's help would turn the tide as it did if the RDA had been attacking from a more fortified and flux-free area.

Aselith said:
Also, where did you get the idea that the human base produced things? All I saw were big transport ships. That says to me that they brought everything with them. I'm assuming they produced some stuff like food but I saw no indication of the facilities needed to make weapons especially bombs. If they had that capability, why did they have to jury rig bombs on a transport ship? It wasn't even a military plane.
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I dunno why they had to jury-rig bombs on a transport ship. Time? That's what I'm trying to understand. Quaritch's plan was dumb. But anyway...

From Pandorapedia:
Because each gram of mass must be accelerated and decelerated (as well as the onboard fuel to accomplish this), every possible weight-saving measure has been taken. The ship carries only enough fuel for the planned mission profile, and a minimal amount of additional maneuvering. There are only enough supplies for the minimum crew needed to remain out of cryosleep. Air, water, and food must be replenished at Pandora, and the ship refueled there with locally-manufactured anti-matter and hydrogen and deuterium harvested from Polyphemus.
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Universal object-manufacturing system (In-situ Stereolighography plant). This can produce large, complex objects from data describing their three-dimensional form and material composition. Using raw materials obtained on Pandora, construction and mining equipment far too large and massive to be shipped from Earth can be produced, along with any replacement parts that are needed. Smaller items such as weapons and furniture, are also created, using design data brought from Earth. Locally-designed items are made as well, or modifications of existing designs.
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Watched this last night. Enjoyed it but I think I'll enjoy it more on a second viewing.

There were a few things that got in the way of me getting fully involved - one was 3D and second was the hype.

This was the first 3D film for me and although I think 3D looks good in short spells I found it gave me problems in the long run. I kept fidgeting with the glasses (I've always been terrible like that with glasses which is why I wear contacts) and I just felt there was a barrier between me and the film (especially as the 3D process makes the edge of the screen less distinct). The 3D worked well in slow scenes but did make it harder to follow things in the fast scenes.

I think until they come up with RealD contact lenses I'll stick to a beatifully crisp 2D presentation that I can view with no barrier between my eyes and the screen.

The hype going in to the film meant instead of just letting go I was constantly thinking "Am I enjoying this? Is this one of the problem areas people are talking about? Is this the bit that wasn't explained as much? Am I connecting with these characters?' etc

I think Cameron did just enough to get me invested in the characters which made the build up to the finale satisfying and I could feel myself starting to root for the characters and getting swept away with the action.

I think on a second viewing (in 2D) I'll be able to just relax and take in the film and enjoy the characters (I liked Jake and Neytiri) and the world of Pandora more.

By the way, the script and dialogue are fine. Although not stellar there was no cringe-inducing moments like there were in Titanic.

Overall I would say the film is very good - definitely worth seeing with some amazing atmosphere and spectacle - but it's not quite a masterpiece (a little too safe and underdeveloped).
 
Man. Elijah is pretty humble. I always like listening to his interviews.
And about Sam playing Jake in Avatar. I really, really liked him in it. I can't imagine another person being Jake. He's got that special something. I love how his accent slips through in certain scenes, and he's just got this special something about him.

http://www.tonightshowwithconanobrien.com/video/sam_worthington_pt.1_(12/18/09)/1187028/ Sam interview: GET TO THE CHOPPAH! :lol
 
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