I have been waiting this movie to be "the most awesome visual fx" movie that money can do, but those trailers look so game like and I'm just wondering where are the awesome effects? Maybe the film will open up on that side when seeing on the big screen, but who knows.
I really don't like 3D movies. They make my eyes sore and come off feeling far too dark, what with so much light being lost to the polarized glasses. Then there's the artificially striated depth effect that just doesn't feel right. The inability to actually focus on what I really want to see is the final frustration that makes it I so much prefer standard 2D film and will likely see a film as visually complex as avatar that way.
A weird phenomena I found when I took my daughter to see Up! in 3D: When viewing in 2D, my mind understood that what's within the confines of the screen was all that there was to view. Where as in 3D, the forced sense of perspective cause my mind to perceive the screen more like a window and it was constantly wanting me to move and try to look "around" the frame of the screen to see more.
I experienced a bit of that myself. The effect was less peering into a 3d world, and more poking my head against a window and glancing out into a field of animate cardboard cut-outs.
Random ChaosActually Carefully-selected Order in disguise
The problem with true 3d movies is that (1) the scenes will be much more complex because people will be able to look in any direction and (2) audiences will be much smaller because more people will obstruct observation of the scene.
An embedded holographic box at the front of an auditorium makes more sense, essentially like a movie, but with full range of view from the principle source angle, sort of like looking in through a window.
I've only seen a couple 3D movies and I wasn't impressed by what I saw. It seems to me to be hardly worth the effort or investment. But there is potential in it if the technology behind it gets better. The need to wear those 3D glasses is something they need to work on. I believe there are already display prototypes that do not require you to wear anything special over your eyes to get the same effect. It's just that matter of price.
Biggles<font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
My GeForce 256, oh so many years ago, was an Asus one. This was back when Asus were adding LCD shutter glasses to their cards themselves. While most games were very meh, the effect of playing Homeworld with real depth was amazing. The ships looked like they were actually solid, and when the mothership was a long way away, it really looked like it was.
my biggest issue with 3D movies remains that some movie makers use it as an excuse to throw shit at the audience like its some kind of gag. For example... Seen the commercials for Disneys new animated version of the Scrooge fairy tail?
If your going to have a 3D "experience", dont treat 3D as a gimmick, pretend it isnt there and just give the viewer depth.
[QUOTE=Stingray;183731]I'm still a bit skeptical how this movie is going to translate into a fresh game.[/QUOTE]
Right about that.
[QUOTE=Stingray;183743]Looks nice, but you can't really tell if it's going to be any good.[/QUOTE]
Now we can, and no it isn't.
[QUOTE=Stingray;185108]Maybe the game will be better. :D[/QUOTE]
No, apparently it won't.
The results are in and it doesn't look pretty. [URL="http://pc.ign.com/articles/105/1050925p1.html"]IGN gives the game a 6.8/10[/URL] and [URL="http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/jamescameronsavatar/review.html"]Gamespot a 5.5/10.[/URL]
Too bad. Even a Canadian can't fix the video game industry. :D
So I went to see Avatar tonight, and it was everything I hoped it would be, and nothing I feared it would. I am happy to recant my previous statements and concerns and give it a hearty two thumbs up.
I shall endeavor to keep this spoiler free, all spoilers will make use of spoiler tags)
The story itself is simple, but the way the story unfolds it what is important. As Greg Anderson once said, “Focus on the journey, not the destination.” It would be easy to draw comparisons to (The romanticized) Pocahontas, Dune, The Last Samurai or Dances with Wolfs – but none of those are bad things to be compared with. It is not an original tale by any means, a retelling with a new stage. A very beautifully crafted stage.
We are given a standard pallet of characters, from the one we can relate with, the military jar head, the corporate money grabber, the scientist, and the misplaced protagonist searching for their place in this world. These roles are well acted, and fit the world created. Speaking of the world, it's obvious a lot of work went into back story that we never see. From the situation on earth, to the culture and history of the Na'ji. Some of it comes into play, but I felt like there was a lot more beneath the surface – this is a good thing. It helps set motivations and actions of the characters, and gives the story a sense of weight that aids it's believability. Attention was paid very closely to ensure continuity to the world, and I did not spot any glaring errors.
The overall pacing of the film was spot on in my opinion. While many films will add filler to either wow the audience or make the film needlessly long, Cameron has used every shot to add to the story – either in feeding us tidbits to enrich the world, or to set the stage of a character. Plot elements are woven into story, allowing us to learn through observation rather than force feeding it to the audience. While many things become readily apparent how they will return in the film, it is done properly, without insulting the audiences intelligence, nor leaving them guessing.
I've been trying to think of flaws in this story, or world – not to be negative, but to be fair. When tasked with creating an entirely new world, with new species, and with those species have their own histories, there needs to be a level of solidity involved, and simple plot holes could break both the immersion and the world created. Ultimately, there is but one concern which may or may not exist. I can easily resolve it in my mind, but a single line in the film could have prevented it being an issue. (And it may be in the movie, I wouldn't have been looking for it at the time. More on that in the spoiler section below.
Visually, it is a feast for the eyes, and I do recommend 3D. This was the first time in my memory that I have audible been wowed by graphics on scene. The 3D is not used as a gimmick, but as a tool – and it works wonderfully. There were times I forgot I was wearing the glasses, it just seemed real. This is doubly impressive since really, the vast majority of the film was not real, I honestly do not know what was CG and what was real in many scenes. I'm aware that all the shots of the forest and planet were CG, but even with that knowledge it was remarkably real. I think I spotted 2, maybe 3 scenes that were obviously CGI, and that is incredibly impressive. I am a 3D artist myself, I know the tell tale signs of CGI better than most (enough to feel confident in that statement), and the amount of work that went into this film is incredible. It Looks Real.
Go see this film. And go ahead and bring a date, there is enough of a love story to make it work as a ate movie.
Spoiler:
Now, the one glaring concern I have is this:
They faught off the company with heavy losses this time. What about when they come back prepared for a fight?
This question could have easily been remedied when the suite was talking about Unobtanium, and the shareholders, saying that they are already over invested and they need this to work, else the company may go bankrupt.
This would give creedence to the need to push forward with a military unit, they are despirate to have results - and protect the Na'ji from future invasion.
As it stands, I can see Humans returning in force to get what they want, and the ending feels less satisfying with that knowledge.
I'd like to throw in a couple words about the soundtrack...
Barring the atrocious vocal song "I see you" used in the credits, this soundtrack worked wonderfully in the film. It added to the scenery, and didn't distract.
There are a couple tracks acceptable for listening to outside the movie itself, though overall it's very much tailored to the action on screen.
for anyone interested in listening to the soundtrack, just go to grooveshark.com and search for "Avatar Motion", it will bring up the soundtrack for "Avatar The Motion Picture", and you can decide for yourself.
Great service BTW, far better than pandora. (No pun intended, just...gah!)
Comments
A must see in theater anyway.
Jake
Worf
An embedded holographic box at the front of an auditorium makes more sense, essentially like a movie, but with full range of view from the principle source angle, sort of like looking in through a window.
And yes, I have thought about this quite a bit :)
If your going to have a 3D "experience", dont treat 3D as a gimmick, pretend it isnt there and just give the viewer depth.
Right about that.
[QUOTE=Stingray;183743]Looks nice, but you can't really tell if it's going to be any good.[/QUOTE]
Now we can, and no it isn't.
[QUOTE=Stingray;185108]Maybe the game will be better. :D[/QUOTE]
No, apparently it won't.
The results are in and it doesn't look pretty. [URL="http://pc.ign.com/articles/105/1050925p1.html"]IGN gives the game a 6.8/10[/URL] and [URL="http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/jamescameronsavatar/review.html"]Gamespot a 5.5/10.[/URL]
Too bad. Even a Canadian can't fix the video game industry. :D
[url]http://www.imax.com/magnificentdesolation/[/url]
I do use the search feature sometimes, but not always to check though.
We'll see how that fares.
[URL="http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091211/REVIEWS/912119998"]Four stars, two enthusiastic thumbs up.[/URL] :D
Worf
I shall endeavor to keep this spoiler free, all spoilers will make use of spoiler tags)
The story itself is simple, but the way the story unfolds it what is important. As Greg Anderson once said, “Focus on the journey, not the destination.” It would be easy to draw comparisons to (The romanticized) Pocahontas, Dune, The Last Samurai or Dances with Wolfs – but none of those are bad things to be compared with. It is not an original tale by any means, a retelling with a new stage. A very beautifully crafted stage.
We are given a standard pallet of characters, from the one we can relate with, the military jar head, the corporate money grabber, the scientist, and the misplaced protagonist searching for their place in this world. These roles are well acted, and fit the world created. Speaking of the world, it's obvious a lot of work went into back story that we never see. From the situation on earth, to the culture and history of the Na'ji. Some of it comes into play, but I felt like there was a lot more beneath the surface – this is a good thing. It helps set motivations and actions of the characters, and gives the story a sense of weight that aids it's believability. Attention was paid very closely to ensure continuity to the world, and I did not spot any glaring errors.
The overall pacing of the film was spot on in my opinion. While many films will add filler to either wow the audience or make the film needlessly long, Cameron has used every shot to add to the story – either in feeding us tidbits to enrich the world, or to set the stage of a character. Plot elements are woven into story, allowing us to learn through observation rather than force feeding it to the audience. While many things become readily apparent how they will return in the film, it is done properly, without insulting the audiences intelligence, nor leaving them guessing.
I've been trying to think of flaws in this story, or world – not to be negative, but to be fair. When tasked with creating an entirely new world, with new species, and with those species have their own histories, there needs to be a level of solidity involved, and simple plot holes could break both the immersion and the world created. Ultimately, there is but one concern which may or may not exist. I can easily resolve it in my mind, but a single line in the film could have prevented it being an issue. (And it may be in the movie, I wouldn't have been looking for it at the time. More on that in the spoiler section below.
Visually, it is a feast for the eyes, and I do recommend 3D. This was the first time in my memory that I have audible been wowed by graphics on scene. The 3D is not used as a gimmick, but as a tool – and it works wonderfully. There were times I forgot I was wearing the glasses, it just seemed real. This is doubly impressive since really, the vast majority of the film was not real, I honestly do not know what was CG and what was real in many scenes. I'm aware that all the shots of the forest and planet were CG, but even with that knowledge it was remarkably real. I think I spotted 2, maybe 3 scenes that were obviously CGI, and that is incredibly impressive. I am a 3D artist myself, I know the tell tale signs of CGI better than most (enough to feel confident in that statement), and the amount of work that went into this film is incredible. It Looks Real.
Go see this film. And go ahead and bring a date, there is enough of a love story to make it work as a ate movie.
Spoiler:
Now, the one glaring concern I have is this:
They faught off the company with heavy losses this time. What about when they come back prepared for a fight?
This question could have easily been remedied when the suite was talking about Unobtanium, and the shareholders, saying that they are already over invested and they need this to work, else the company may go bankrupt.
This would give creedence to the need to push forward with a military unit, they are despirate to have results - and protect the Na'ji from future invasion.
As it stands, I can see Humans returning in force to get what they want, and the ending feels less satisfying with that knowledge.
Still, great movie.
Barring the atrocious vocal song "I see you" used in the credits, this soundtrack worked wonderfully in the film. It added to the scenery, and didn't distract.
There are a couple tracks acceptable for listening to outside the movie itself, though overall it's very much tailored to the action on screen.
BTW, it holds up for a second viewing.
Worf
Great service BTW, far better than pandora. (No pun intended, just...gah!)