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Rottenwatch: AVATAR (82%)

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Looked pretty. Will probably never watch again until it makes its rounds on FX or whatever television circuit I'll happen to catch it on sometime in the future.
 
Turns out my 9% drop prediction was accurate.
What more will I be right about?

btw. That Quaritch doesn't give a shit gif makes me proud.
 
Seeing that gif makes me realize the aspect ratio I saw this film in was fucked.

It wasn't IMAX but it was a larger screen (three stories tall) that this particular theater had for some showings.

It was like liemax plus RealD :lol

edit: I guess anything I lost to AR I gained in being engulfed. There is a lot to take in in this movie in a cropped frame anway (/Attempted self convincing)
 
Howard mentioned that Cameron will be in one the show this week. Can't wait!

For non fans, definitely check it out. Probably be a ~1hour interview.
 
gdt5016 said:
Howard mentioned that Cameron will be in one the show this week. Can't wait!

For non fans, definitely check it out. Probably be a ~1hour interview.
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did he say he liked the film? I missed him talk about it, heard him talk about a whole ton of other movies (SAG) though.. :lol
 
Just in case anyone missed it, in regards to sequels, here's one of the last interviews Cameron gave before the year ended where he mentioned stuff about them: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2009/12/2...r-trilogy-director-tells-mtv-news/#more-26656
Cameron isn't exactly ready to start the cameras rolling on a follow-up. He'll probably wait until awards season is over at the very least. Whenever he does get started on the continuing story of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his Na'vi mate Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), we at least know that he's got a broad strokes plan in mind for where life will take them next.

"We'll follow Jake and Neytiri," Cameron told MTV's Josh Horowitz in an interview at the pre-release "Avatar" junket in London. "I have a trilogy-scaled arc of story right now, but I haven't really put any serious work into writing a script," he said.

Some of the satisfied fans undoubtedly left theaters this past weekend wondering exactly when we might see more of the "Avatar" universe. After all, Cameron's initial idea for the story grew out of an 80-page treatment he penned back in 1995. Will it be another 13 years before we get a return trip to Pandora?

"From the time we capture and finish the capture, it's literally nine to 10 months to get the CG characters working, to get their facial musculature working," he said. "So now we have Jake, we have Neytiri. Sam can step right back into it, the characters will fit them like a glove, and we'll just go on. So a lot of the start-up torque that had to be done for one movie really makes more sense if you play it out across several films."

Presuming the director pulls together a new script in a reasonable amount of time, we could see more "Avatar" as soon as 2012, 2013. Perhaps even sooner, if Cameron gets his way.

"My next goal is to refine the technique, make it easier so it doesn't take as long. We were doing a lot of pioneering work on 'Avatar.' It wouldn't have taken as long if we already knew exactly how to do it."
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rhino4evr said:
did he say he liked the film? I missed him talk about it, heard him talk about a whole ton of other movies (SAG) though.. :lol
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Robin LOVED it, Howard hasn't seen it yet.
 
gdt5016 said:
Howard mentioned that Cameron will be in one the show this week. Can't wait!

For non fans, definitely check it out. Probably be a ~1hour interview.
Click to expand...

Excited!!!
Although Howard would focus most of his time on James 5 wives of course. And alimony etc.
 
gdt5016 said:
Robin LOVED it, Howard hasn't seen it yet.
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I had a feeling, Howard has become spoiled with all the free screeners and his home theater. He never wants to go to the public cinemas anymore..and I don't blame him, but really this is one he will have to venture out of his batcave to see.
 
gdt5016 said:
Howard mentioned that Cameron will be in one the show this week. Can't wait!

For non fans, definitely check it out. Probably be a ~1hour interview.
Click to expand...
Will it be available on the net?
 
original.jpg
 
saiftk said:
Excited!!!
Although Howard would focus most of his time on James 5 wives of course. And alimony etc.
Click to expand...
Looks like someone missed the interview Cameron did for Titanic.
 
I get why Avatar has more appeal in the international markets, but I'm quite surprised that Avatar has a better-than-good shot to top The Dark Knight domestically. Personally, I think that The Dark Knight is easily a much better film, but I suppose that Avatar is more of an 'event' film than TDK and is more likely to get people out to the cinema. I do like Avatar, though.
 
Snowman Prophet of Doom said:
I get why Avatar has more appeal in the international markets, but I'm quite surprised that Avatar has a better-than-good shot to top The Dark Knight domestically. Personally, I think that The Dark Knight is easily a much better film, but I suppose that Avatar is more of an 'event' film than TDK and is more likely to get people out to the cinema. I do like Avatar, though.
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Why is that?
 
Snowman Prophet of Doom said:
I get why Avatar has more appeal in the international markets, but I'm quite surprised that Avatar has a better-than-good shot to top The Dark Knight domestically. Personally, I think that The Dark Knight is easily a much better film, but I suppose that Avatar is more of an 'event' film than TDK and is more likely to get people out to the cinema. I do like Avatar, though.
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I think TDK was more of an event - the $156m opening weekend is a testament to that.

Or maybe it's better to say they both are, but people didn't realize it until after Avatar opened.
Gui_PT said:
Why is that?
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The themes of the film are very universal and the story is straight forward enough to translate well.
 
From that '97 interview:

Director James Cameron Comes In. 12/17/97. 8:50am

James Cameron who has directed such hit movies as ''Terminator'', ''Terminator 2'', ''True Lies'' and ''The Abyss'' came in to promote his latest movie ''Titanic''. ''Titanic'' opens on Friday. Robin has seen the movie and said it was great. We have to remember that Robin also said that ''The Last Action Hero'' was great also so maybe we should wait until someone more credible sees the movie. Mr. Cameron talked about how he got into the movie business after being a truck driver. He also said that he won't be making any money off of ''Titanic'' because he gave up the rights to it. He said he went a bit over his $120 Million budget so he gave up his part of the deal. The movie ended up being $200 Million to produce. He said that he enjoyed ''Private Parts''. He also said that he may be directing a ''Spiderman'' movie sometime in the future. This interested Howard because he said he'd like to see a good ''Spiderman'' movie since most comic book movies are pretty bad. James said that the rights to the Spiderman character are kind of screwed up right now so he's not sure if it'll work out. He also wrote the script for it. James is married to Linda Hamilton who you may remember from the ''Terminator'' movies. One of his wives left him because he wanted to go and make movies. She's probably kicking herself now. Mr. Cameron had to leave shortly after coming in because he had to catch a plane to Mexico to meet with the President.
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Still would like a link if possible.
 
Gui_PT said:
Why is that?
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Well, what Ghaleon said, partly. I think that Avatar has a story that's told in broader, more mythological strokes and has a much more general appeal, whereas The Dark Knight was made using more specifically American tropes and was also more complex in terms of the way that it used language, something that I wouldn't think would translate as well in other markets.
 
Well I'm "international" and I can honestly tell you that a movie being more or less general is not an important factor at all. Most of the other people I know are the same way.

It might be a factor, but I highly doubt that is why the movie is doing so well internationally
 
GhaleonEB said:
I think TDK was more of an event - the $156m opening weekend is a testament to that.

Or maybe it's better to say they both are, but people didn't realize it until after Avatar opened.

The themes of the film are very universal and the story is straight forward enough to translate well.
Click to expand...

Well, the opening of The Dark Knight was more of an event, I'll give you that. I guess I meant 'event' in the sense that the actual process of going to the movie and seeing it on the big screen seems to be more present with Avatar than with The Dark Knight. Outside of the scenes filmed for IMAX, nothing in TDK was really necessary to see in a theater, whereas I have heard many, many people on television, in print, and on the radio say that this is definitely one that needs to be seen in the theater for the experience to be 'complete'.
 
Gui_PT said:
Well I'm "international" and I can honestly tell you that a movie being more or less general is not an important factor at all. Most of the other people I know are the same way.

It might be a factor, but I highly doubt that is why the movie is doing so well internationally
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It's doing well because it's a great movie and people like it. It's hard to pin down something like why a movie does well with a broad, international audience. But I think the topics it addresses and the way it does so are probably more universally appealing than say, Batman, which seems to be more popular in the US; certainly the weighting of TDK's domestic versus international take indicates that.

Snowman Prophet of Doom said:
Well, the opening of The Dark Knight was more of an event, I'll give you that. I guess I meant 'event' in the sense that the actual process of going to the movie and seeing it on the big screen seems to be more present with Avatar than with The Dark Knight. Outside of the scenes filmed for IMAX, nothing in TDK was really necessary to see in a theater, whereas I have heard many, many people on television, in print, and on the radio say that this is definitely one that needs to be seen in the theater for the experience to be 'complete'.
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True, TDK was billed as more of an event movie and openend as such - though it seems like Avatar is a better demonstration of what that means.
 
Vic said:
link if possible?
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Um... I've always listened to his show the old-fashioned way, even after they started charging for it. I'd have no idea where to look. A portion of it was on his TV show on E!, though.
 
TAJ said:
Um... I've always listened to his show the old-fashioned way, even after they started charging for it. I'd have no idea where to look. A portion of it was on his TV show on E!, though.
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No, so do I.

I just wondered if anyone has a link for it. Many people keeps archives for one reason or another.
 
No it doesn't. There is no backlash, not for Avatar. Never.
 
gdt5016 said:
No, so do I.

I just wondered if anyone has a link for it. Many people keeps archives for one reason or another.
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My favorite part was at the end, when they wanted him to record promos for the show. He just glanced at the sheet with his lines, then recited them a couple times without looking at it. That part was on TV, too.
 
GhaleonEB said:
It's doing well because it's a great movie and people like it. But I think the topics it addresses and the way it does so are probably more appealing than say, Batman, which seems to be more popular in the US; certainly the weighting of TDK's domestic versus international take indicates that.
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Well , you have a point there. But I still don't think it makes a big difference.

Problem is, I spend most of my days in the internet, which gives me more of an "americanized" mentality. So that might give me a different view on things compared to other people
 
Didnt Cameron write the original Avatar script even before Disney released their version of Pocahontas?

Its like people think that Pocahontas or Dances with wolves invented this sort of story telling trope...
 
One of the first internet sites I ever visited was marksfriggin back in 1996. I can't believe the guy is still churning out reports every day, all these years later.
 
This movie is huge here in Brazil. I just looked for every theater that sells tickets online and every session for the rest the day is sold out. ON A MONDAY. crazy shit
 
Gui_PT said:
Well I'm "international" and I can honestly tell you that a movie being more or less general is not an important factor at all. Most of the other people I know are the same way.

It might be a factor, but I highly doubt that is why the movie is doing so well internationally
Click to expand...

Well, general is not quite the word I want but I'm having trouble thinking of the word that I want. I guess that I mean that this is the type of story that exists in most cultures: the idea of a brave young man leading his people to victory. Granted, Avatar has something of a post-colonial twist to it (and I recently had a conversation with somebody who was downright offended by the movie for that reason), but it is a story built mostly from broad mythological strokes that would probably translate more easily into non-western cultures.

Plus, when a story is more broad in terms of its influences, it can sometimes resonate with people who were not necessarily the film's target audience. For example, there was a post a few pages back about how the movie was getting a lot of traction somewhere (Hong Kong, I think?) because the people there were touched by the film's portrayal of characters defending their homeland and by the film's visceral depiction of the destruction of a cultural landmark. Such things are not really possible predict but can only really happen if a film is told in such a way as to rely less specifically on the tropes of the country/society that made it. I think Cameron did that on purpose with this movie, and he was incredibly smart to do as such.
 
skybaby said:
This movie is huge here in Brazil. I just looked for every theater that sells tickets online and every session for the rest the day is sold out. ON A MONDAY. crazy shit
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That's crazy. Maybe it will hold strong this week too.
 
Gui_PT said:
Well , you have a point there. But I still don't think it makes a big difference.

Problem is, I spend most of my days in the internet, which gives me more of an "americanized" mentality. So that might give me a different view on things compared to other people
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Yeah. And to be fair, I'm purely speculating; I don't think this is a question we can really answer right now. I think part of the reason was touched on earier on this page - Cameron has created something so visually rich that people want to see it in theaters, a sentiment which seems to be universal. The way Avatar has been tracking internationally has been nearly lockstep with its domestic performance, so he's clearly hit a nerve (again!) that very few seeem to touch on.


On a different note, I'm warming up to the script more and more. Especially compared to Titanic - a movie I love, warts and all - it has much less clunky dialogue (while there are awkward moments in Avatar, Titanic has entire scenes that elicit one long cringe), more plausible (and enjoyable) villains and a more convincing relationship between the love interests. And all in a much higher-concept story than Titanic.
 
According to @giteshpandya on twitter (=boxofficeguru.com):

"Final wknd gross on Avatar very close to estimate: $68,490,688, -9.4%, $19,789 avg, $352,114,898 in 17 days."
 
Wow, finally seen this today. I loved it. My sister though said it didn't look as vibrant or detailed at the one she seen on Sunday. So I looked it up, while this was just a digital theater, her's was Real3D.The same theater as that also has an Imax 3D. Now I am very tempted to make a long trip if my casual sister noticed the difference. Should I stick to Real3D like she seen or without question will Imax 3D be the pinnacle?
 
Ah! Bumped from page 2!

Anyway, my friend saw the movie and he thought the character development and acting was really bad. I really can't disagree more. The acting was great, even considering the actors had to wear body suits and face-cams, and I don't remember the last time i felt emotional about alien.
 
roman2003h said:
I liked the movie a lot, but I think this is kind of funny. :lol
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And to be fair, Cameron said he pitched the movie to Fox as Fern Gully in space. So I think he knew the comparisons. :p

On the topic from earlier: looking at the top 10 world-wide records, only one has taken less than 60% of its earnings from outside the US, and that's The Dark Knight all the way down at 46.8%. All of the others made close to 2/3 of their earnings in the international markets.

Also, the international weekend take was revised up by seven million.
 
VelvetMouth said:
And so the backlash begins.
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Avatar is a special case when it comes to hype and anti-hype. The backlash started months ago and effectively ended when the movie came out. The haters blew their load too early.
 
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