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James Cameron's 'Avatar'

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Sep 14, 2006
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http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/avatar

So what do you all think? Anyone been to the 15min preview?

I'm sure it will be an entertaining, impressive eye-candy ride, especially when seeing it in IMAX 3D.

But it does look like the plot is gonna be cheesy, cliché ridden fantasy adventure with a generic culture-rape analogy behind it with a predictable story line and ending. A little bit like Pocahontas meets Delgo in space.
 
The traielr does not do hte film justice. After seeing the 16 minute preview in imax 3d. It was just beautiful!

Wow. They showed 4 scenes. The colonel talking to the new recruits, how they will fail. Jake entering his avatar and glad he can walk. Jake in his avatar with some other avatars running away from an animal. Neytiri and Jake talking at a bio-luminescence night scene. They have their own language. Jake attempting to ride a bird(like those dinosaur that could fly) then a montage then BOOM end!

The 3D is not trying ot be in your face, it is about depth of field and it works perfectly. Everything is detailed, camera movement doesn't affect it. The world and the na'vi plus animals are great to look at, realistic looking and really detailed. The film looks great and feels great, not a leap but a evolution from previously based technology. I am getting tickets as soon as they are going on sale!


It is not cartoon, it is advanced cgi, motion capture and it is realistic in the setting. Nothing about it is terrible.

Don't start mentioning delgo or i might go on a tirade.

Yes, I can already see similar story lines to Pocahontas and Dancing with the Wolves.

It is a simple story but that does not automatically mean it will be bad. Everything i've seen in theaters reassured me that this movie is going to rock!


FYI, James Cameron is directing this, his first film after titanic, 14 years in the making and 4 years of production.
 
I am very excited to see this film, although I was a tad less excited after I saw the trailer. I think Tron 2 may have a little more edge than this one.
 
obeygiant said:
I am very excited to see this film, although I was a tad less excited after I saw the trailer. I think Tron 2 may have a little more edge than this one.
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Tron Legacy right? The 3d tech in avatar is depth of field not in your face stuff. I don't know what tron's 3d is about
 
I'm curious to see how I respond to the 3D. It's too hard to tell from the trailer. Up until now I've really struggled when 3D characters and live action is mixed. Even when it's really good (like Gollum in LOTR), I still find it distracting because it's not quite right.

I heard that James Cameron waited so long to make this film because he didn't think we had the proper technology until recently. We'll see if he's right!
 
Only seen the Full HD trailer on the interwebs. Looks amazing though, really looking forward to its release, might even get me to go to the cinema for once! :eek:
 
I rarely can be bothered to see a film in the cinema but this I have to see.

e and I have gotten ourselves so excited about it we even made suitable Avatar avatars!
 
I saw the preview on Friday and was kind of underwhelmed.

I'll go to see the movie but so many movies have pipped Avatar to the post with the 3D "gimmick" that I think it maybe lost a bit of it's wow factor for me.

The CGI looks like a real step forward but not jaw droppingly so.

Still looks like it'll be an interesting movie though.
 
nomad01 said:
The CGI looks like a real step forward but not jaw droppingly so.
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Really? I'm surprised you say that. I've never seen a forest/jungle look so good, or skin look so real in its imperfections. I'm stunned!

AvatarEye.jpeg
(Click for large to get the detail)

From the trailer I found it very hard to determine what was real and what was built in the computer, the only deciding factor being what you know in your mind is real/possible and what isn't.
 
edesignuk said:
Really? I'm surprised you say that. I've never seen a forest/jungle look so good, or skin look so real in its imperfections. I'm stunned!
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Maybe if you can sit and examine it closely but watching it on the big screen with the 3D specs... hmmm... I went in with little knowledge of the premise of the film other than the hype for the FX and it just seemed underwhelming.

You can see that the lead characters are better than the average CGI but I just didn't buy them being real... even in the pre-Pandora scenes where the blue Sully is mixed in with "real life" actors it was reasonably obvious after a short while that it was a CGI effect.

I think the faces are pretty convincing, especially the mouths but the overall effect didn't seem *that* great to me.

I'm not saying it's not better than the average CGI... just less impressive as a whole than I was expecting from the hype.
 
I find it curious that they're using 'From the director of Titanic' in the trailer, Aliens, Abyss or Terminator would seem more appropriate films to use.

Anyways, it looks like I'll be spending a night at the cinema in December.
 
James Cameron can just wait until he's reached 500 posts like the rest of us have to.

BoyBach said:
I find it curious that they're using 'From the director of Titanic' in the trailer, Aliens, Abyss or Terminator would seem more appropriate films to use.
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I suppose that the sort of film-goer who's a fan of sci-fi stuff would be naturally inclined to go to see Avatar anyway, the Titanic reference is maybe aimed towards 'floating' cinema goers who perhaps wouldn't be immediately attracted to this sort of film, but might be reassured by the fact it's by the bloke who made the movie with that nice Leonardo DiCaprio in it.
 
I usually am very critical of these CGI epics, but this one had has left a wet spot on the sofa!

The CGI is definitely next-gen compared to anything I have seen recently, and it's Cameron doing Sci-Fi of course, so there's always the distant little hope somewhere inside us all that we'll get a touch of that Sci-Fi mastery we had in Aliens.
 
Jaffa Cake said:
James Cameron can just wait until he's reached 500 posts like the rest of us have to.

I suppose that the sort of film-goer who's a fan of sci-fi stuff would be naturally inclined to go to see Avatar anyway, the Titanic reference is maybe aimed towards 'floating' cinema goers who perhaps wouldn't be immediately attracted to this sort of film, but might be reassured by the fact it's by the bloke who made the movie with that nice Leonardo DiCaprio in it.
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Titanic was the highest goosing movie ever, people and couples did not just see it once. It stayed it number 1 for weeks to come, had a steady 20 million each weekend and gained on valentines weekend. Though I suspect this film won't do that. This film is simple and is viewable for the entire family, which is what will bring the most cash in.
 
iBlue said:
:D

Awww, you say it like it's a bad thing that I'm not being a snob and trying to find fault with it. I am impressed and I can't wait to see it.
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Ouch! I only expressed an opinion about my reaction to the movie. I wasn't serving it up as the gospel truth.

I don't think "a snob" would be impressed with stuff like the Jurassic Park but the effects in that blew me away when I saw them. Likewise, Abyss when it first came out was stunning.

Avatar just looked like a refinement of stuff I've already seen. It's impressive for sure but it didn't quite live up to the hype for me.

Sorry if that's annoying or upsetting for some people but it's just an opinion... honest!
 
I've been working on Avatar in post production at Weta Digital for about a year now, so trust me when I say this is going to be one heck of a film.
The online teaser released last Friday wasn't great in my opinion and certainly didn't do the visuals any justice.
Keep in mind that teasers and trailers for VFX laden films are known for using unfinished material, and the Avatar teaser is no exception.
The 15 minute preview screenings however are much more representative of what can be expected.

As for the claims of hyper/photo realism used by Cameron and his marketing team, this seems to have caused a bit of confusion.
Some people were probably expecting photo-realistic humans and aliens protrayed in nitty gritty environments akin to Children of Men, or District 9.
Avatar is no such film. Instead Avatar has a carefully designed, crafted and honed stylised form of realism and beauty.
I think if people can just accept that fact and ignore the marketing catch phrases, perhaps they'll be able to better appreciate the artistic effort that has been put into it.

There is still a crazy amount of work left to do before December the 18th, but the end result will hopefully impress movie go-ers world-wide. :)

(And no.. I still don't have enough posts to earn my own Avatar here on MR. Too busy running shots leaves little time to up the MR post count. :( )
 
nomad01 said:
Ouch! I only expressed an opinion about my reaction to the movie. I wasn't serving it up as the gospel truth.

I don't think "a snob" would be impressed with stuff like the Jurassic Park but the effects in that blew me away when I saw them. Likewise, Abyss when it first came out was stunning.

Avatar just looked like a refinement of stuff I've already seen. It's impressive for sure but it didn't quite live up to the hype for me.

Sorry if that's annoying or upsetting for some people but it's just an opinion... honest!
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Oh no, I wasn't trying to call you a snob or have a go at you and I'm certainly not upset by your opinion. I was just explaining that I am impressed from what I've seen thus far. I'm looking at it from a perspective not unlike what the Lone Deranger just said. It looks like it's going to be quite a feast for the eyes. Once I've seen it I'll decide if it has lived up to the hype and for me I imagine it will.
 
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