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Rottenwatch: AVATAR (82%)

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Sequel speculation caught around the net that just may be based on legitimate quips from Cameron and Weaver on Cameron's intents for the story, spoilered /just/ in case:

Humans do come back to Pandora before too long, but corrupt some of the Na'vi tribes who don't like the fact that Jake has become a super hero / messiah to the people. It returns to plot elements from the early drafts of the story in which the Na'vi were employed by humans to mine unobtainium.

Personally, I believe this has the ring of truth to it. The script could of course end up being totally different over the next two years. But it'd jive with Cameron's overall vision for the story which was explained in greater detail in the original draft of movie 1 before he cut so much out for running time / to reduce the number of primary characters.
 
Kaijima said:
Sequel speculation caught around the net that just may be based on legitimate quips from Cameron and Weaver on Cameron's intents for the story, spoilered /just/ in case:

Humans do come back to Pandora before too long, but corrupt some of the Na'vi tribes who don't like the fact that Jake has become a super hero / messiah to the people. It returns to plot elements from the early drafts of the story in which the Na'vi were employed by humans to mine unobtainium.

Personally, I believe this has the ring of truth to it. The script could of course end up being totally different over the next two years. But it'd jive with Cameron's overall vision for the story which was explained in greater detail in the original draft of movie 1 before he cut so much out for running time / to reduce the number of primary characters.
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Yeah I don't know how practical that would be after Jake/Toruk having united clans together in order to drive them out. :lol

I'm still hoping for an infiltrator Avatar story with an Apocalypse Now twist. Would love to see a story where Jake and the Omiticaya find a lost Na'vi, only in the end it turns out to be a human who has cut off his extra fingers in order to pass as a Na'vi to usurp/kill Jake.

Either that or the humans do something in an attempt to kill the defense mechanism of Pandora/Eywa itself so they can mine with no resistance. Wouldn't mind seeing a race to the heart of Pandora. I've always imagined those floating mountains coming crashing down.
 
WOW.

I didn't think they would include the opening scene in Jake's apartment. I just assumed they would have the bar fight. What a beautiful shot.

Are we getting any new animals in the Extended version?
 
TekkenMaster said:
WOW.

I didn't think they would include the opening scene in Jake's apartment. I just assumed they would have the bar fight. What a beautiful shot.

Are we getting any new animals in the Extended version?
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Just the ones that were in the Special Edition. The Sturmbeast and the Stingbat.
 
UqQRR.jpg


http://www.noblecollection.com/index.cfm?fa=products.product&id=NN8008&catid=0

If you got $600 to spare for a Chess set :lol
 
Harry Knowles has the blu-ray and posted some hype-inducing comments on his twitter:

Harry Knowles said:
headgeek666 Harry Knowles
Wow the psychedelic drug trip sequence in AVATAR's deleted scenes is fucking amazing

headgeek666 Harry Knowles
Not on Acid. In Deleted scenes, Avatar Jake swallows a pschedelic glow worm then is stung by a scorpion thingee twice and ZOOM WOWEE he go!

headgeek666 Harry Knowles
The Giovanni Ribisi scene standing up the the Col is really great. Ribisi's best of the film

headgeek666 Harry Knowles
I have just seen James Cameron be crowned by an Amazonian Tribal Leader, then dance with a spear. I kinda love this Blu Ray

headgeek666 Harry Knowles
Love the new opening on the AVATAR Blu Definitive thingamagig.

headgeek666 Harry Knowles
There is no doubt, this is a far stronger story than the theatrical feature. Personally, I'd love to see every deleted scene finished out.
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Why the fuck do I have to wait for this!??
 
The Ribisi and Lang scene is another scene that I cant believe Cameron didnt re-insert into the film.

And you know the worst part? Theres a video of Cameron talking about how it "killed" him to take that scene out of the film :lol

Still, even though its Knowles, HYPE
 
The Digital Bits have reviewed the set:

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/reviewshd/bdreviews110910.html

Extended cut:
However, having now seen the new Extended Collector's Edition cut of the film, I think it's definitely a richer and more complete experience.

There are several new scenes and moments that really add to the story. First, there's a terrific new opening where you see Jake on Earth, getting kicked out of a bar and learning that his brother was killed. This is fascinating for a whole host of reasons, not the least of which is the chance to see what life on Earth at this point in the future is actually like. (Not particularly great seems to be the answer.) There are also new scenes in which you see Jake learning to hunt with the tribe, and you see Grace's abandoned school for Na'vi children - important because you also learn that Neytiri had a sister who died in a skirmish with Quaritch's mercs. That history of bad blood really informs the whole story. There are also a host of little moments - scene extensions and the like - as well as the long version of Jake and Neytiri's love scene (which really isn't explicit in any way, so I'm not sure why it was cut other than time).
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Video:

Video-wise, it's clear to me that Fox has continued to work very carefully on the compression and encoding for the film since the original Blu-ray release, because the 1080p video looks just as good here as it did on the previous disc. In fact, it almost seems a little more natural looking, with just a hair less compression artifacting in the most detailed scenes. The differences aren't enough that I felt the track deserved a higher grade than the previous edition, but it's quite an achievement considering that this new cut has 16 additional minutes of footage to contend with.
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Disc 2 Extras:

Re: Deleted Scenes:

but again the little additional glimpses of plot and character you get here really add to your appreciation of the overall story. For example, you see that Jake's final test before he became a member of the tribe was a toxin-induced vision quest. You see that after the tribe's big hunt (newly added to the longer versions of the film) there was a feast involving much dancing and character interaction. You see that that Colonel Quaritch has pretty clearly gone power mad by the time he launches his attack on the Na'vi, and that he's been manipulating events all along. During the big battle, you see the other human "avatar drivers" using their avatars to attack the RDA Command Center. And at the end of the film, you see the starship leaving orbit for Earth... as well as a couple of shots that pretty clearly hint at Jake and Neytiri's new life together on Pandora.
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Disc 3 extras:

Did you, like myself, wish to know what propulsion method the starship at the beginning of the film employed? No problem - all that detail (and MUCH more) is here in the Pandorapedia. After reading all of it, you can jump over to the galleries to see high-resolution images of the starship's various sections too. THIS is the kind of arcane detail sci-fi fans absolutely go nuts for, and you can truly spend hours sifting through it all here.
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Basically the only complaint is the lack of Audio Commentary

conclusion:

After watching all of the content on this set, what you quickly begin to realize is that Avatar's stunning 3D presentation is almost the least impressive aspect of the production. With MAJOR leaps forward in the performance capture process, and the newly-developed Virtual Camera and Simul-Cam technology, James Cameron and his creative team have transformed and reinvented the filmmaking process in a way that will reverberate long into the future. They've done this, in fact, in much the same way that George Lucas has pushed the film industry in new directions in the past. Ultimately, this new 3-disc Blu-ray allows casual fans of Avatar to gain a much deeper appreciation of all this, while encouraging already diehard fans to love the film even more. It includes nearly everything viewers might want to see, know or learn about the film and its well-imagined world... and then some. This is heady, fun and dazzling stuff - a must for any serious Avatar fan!
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I really wonder why there are no Audio commentaries.

I would have loved a solo Cameron track, and a track with Cast. Kind of a shame, this set looks to be pretty much the prime example of an A+ release, aside from the lack of commentaries.

Shit, Titanic had THREE commentaries
 
You know what. As much as I love Cameron commentaries, I think I've heard him talk enough about Avatar that it won't hurt so much. I'd rather he do something for True Lies already ffs.
 
About the video being better, its just one reviewers opinion.

Im sure the people at AVS will manage to find a single frame in the movie that looks worse than the previous release once they have the disk :lol
 
StuBurns said:
Any word on the image balance being different?
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image balance?

Here's what the review said:

As before, the film is presented in its original 1.78:1 IMAX aspect ratio. Colors are bold, the blacks are nicely deep and there's abundant texture and detail in the image. As I said with the last disc, I'd STILL love to see a version of this film on Blu-ray that would allow it to be split over 2 BD-50 discs with an intermission break. I know that's a big red flag for most viewers these days, but if you think this video image looks terrific - and it does - I'm betting that with even less compression it would be just that much better. Nevertheless, I doubt any but the most extremely picky enthusiasts will find fault here. I'm watching it on a 110-inch projection system and, even at that size, the image holds up extremely well.
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I was hoping it's a bit less blue. As for the higher bitrate thing, I'd rather they use a 100GB disc than use more than one disc. I have some DVDs that are two sided, stupid shit.
 
Dead said:
Will those 100GB discs even be compatible with current blu-ray players?
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No idea, Sony said they'll work with PS3. Setting up the spec is useless if they aren't going to use it. Maybe it'll be for 'next-gen' bluray with Quad-HD codec support or something. I still think it'll happen.

Wasn't avatar rendered at 2k?
 
And that right there is the difference between every other film and a Cameron film.

I constantly rewatch the ground-crew flight navigators steer the approaching aircrafts in to land. Amazing the effort that went into the secondary stuff. The HUDs of every single system in the film has been well thought out and visualised. Brilliant stuff.
 
He's such a geek. If he never gets around to doing Battle Angel, I'd love to see the prep they've done. I bet there is some incredible stuff in there.
 
Its why im glad Cameron went with Weta. Weta are incredibly detail oriented. LOTR, King Kong and Avatar are easily the most detail oriented big budget movies of the past decade.
 
This is why Avatar and Cameron films in general are so great. The realism in all of it. The great lengths Cameron's gone through to make everything as detailed as possible. Just look at that shit man.


And honestly, it's the reason why I prefer the non-Nav'i scenes over the rest. I love the first few minutes of avatar more than anything else. It's ridiculously well thought out.

Cameron should get to work on Battle Angel already. I wanna see more.
 
One more:

Kx3du.jpg



Designers comment re: the Rifles:

these are weapon designs for the RDA security forces on pandora.
i really went super nerdy designing these things, and worked out all the little details, like the reloading process (pre-packaged plastic magazines that you tear the top off and load, complete with e-ink ammo counter on the sides. then you twist the top dial to chamber and cock the first round), how the modular pieces form various weapon types (the under barrel grenade launcher on the assault version forms the base of the shotgun/20mm munition launcher) etc etc etc good fun! these versions are the original caseless designs, but the finals in the film had cased munitions, and ejection ports, as jim wanted brass flying. he also asked for the shotgun to be pump action, which was fucking awesome cause pumping the final prop (with norinco 12 gauge pump internals) is a highlight of my time at weta.
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http://skul4aface.blogspot.com/
 
man, i just hope we get to see more technology showcasing scenes, next time.

Just think about how great Aliens would have looked (though it still looks great to this day) if Cameron had the resources he has now. Oh man.
 
I have Aliens on right now, it is an incredible looking film. You know the big explosion at the end is just a light bulb in cotton wool? Very cool.
 
StuBurns said:
I have Aliens on right now, it is an incredible looking film. You know the big explosion at the end is just a light bulb in cotton wool? Very cool.
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I watched the new Blu-Ray last night. It was glorious.

So many details I never noticed before. And man, the shots of the Atmosphere Processor look just astounding.
 
Avatar inspired me to want to build those Holographic displays the Dragon uses for targeting and the holographics inside the human base. It may take a decade or two, but hey. IDC.
 
Dead said:
I watched the new Blu-Ray last night. It was glorious.

So many details I never noticed before. And man, the shots of the Atmosphere Processor look just astounding.
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I'm waiting for the individual releases before I get the bluray, looking forward to it. It's interesting, the first half hour of Aliens is very Ridley Scott, it's like Cameron was cloning his style before it opens up to being a lot more Cameron-like.
 
StuBurns said:
I'm waiting for the individual releases before I get the bluray, looking forward to it. It's interesting, the first half hour of Aliens is very Ridley Scott, it's like Cameron was cloning his style before it opens up to being a lot more Cameron-like.
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Watching 2001 recently I was surprised by how similar the opening of Aliens is. Some very similar music and shots.
 
StuBurns said:
I'm waiting for the individual releases before I get the bluray, looking forward to it. It's interesting, the first half hour of Aliens is very Ridley Scott, it's like Cameron was cloning his style before it opens up to being a lot more Cameron-like.
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Here's an appetizing comparison


1Arks.jpg


2O5Gr.jpg
 
StuBurns said:
I'm waiting for the individual releases before I get the bluray, looking forward to it. It's interesting, the first half hour of Aliens is very Ridley Scott, it's like Cameron was cloning his style before it opens up to being a lot more Cameron-like.
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He even says so in the commentary. He believes the transition from one movie to the next in the same franchise shouldn't be jarring, so it was his way of easing the audiences into a very different tone of story in the same universe.
 
julls said:
Watching 2001 recently I was surprised by how similar the opening of Aliens is. Some very similar music and shots.
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There are some literally copied shots, the boy on his tric down the corridor for example. Doesn't Alien end on the starchild/earth cloned shot? Ripley and the domed sleeping chamber thing I think, it's been a while since I saw it though.

Dead, that looks very good indeed, hopefully they won't wait too long till they sell them alone.

Scullibundo, that's interesting, there is a commentary track on my DVD but it's lots of different people, what version has the Cameron commentary? I like his commentary on T2 and Titanic, it's a lot more technical than most.
 
julls said:
Watching 2001 recently I was surprised by how similar the opening of Aliens is. Some very similar music and shots.
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Cameron worshipped Kubrick IIRC.

Theres actually a funny story about Cameron meeting Kubrick for the first time. When they met, supposedly Kubrick wanted to know all about how Cameron made True Lies, the action totally blew him away :lol
 
StuBurns said:
There are some literally copied shots, the boy on his tric down the corridor for example. Doesn't Alien end on the starchild/earth cloned shot? Ripley and the domed sleeping chamber thing I think, it's been a while since I saw it though.

Dead, that looks very good indeed, hopefully they won't wait too long till they sell them alone.

Scullibundo, that's interesting, there is a commentary track on my DVD but it's lots of different people, what version has the Cameron commentary? I like his commentary on T2 and Titanic, it's a lot more technical than most.
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Its either in that commentary track, where they splice a track of him watching alone with the track of the cast watching it together. Or there is an extra track. I think its the former.
 
Theres only 1 Aliens commentary, the one with everyone spliced together (wish they seperated em, 1 with Cameron, the other with everyone else. Oh well)
 
I've put the commentary on, it's lots of Cameron with a little of his wife and some other guy at the moment. Not the ensemble mess I imagined.
 
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