Avatar
 

I thought there would probably be a thread for this already, but I searched "avatar" and "james cameron" and found nothing.


Anyways, this is James Camerons first movie in 12 years. Most importantly, it's an action movie.

I'm pretty pumped for it for those reasons, and it's also supposed to be visually amazing with the way it's going to use IMAX 3D.

The trailer finally came out today.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/avatar/


It still looks great, but I was a little dissapointed by the CGI. Looks a little much, and not that convincing. I guess I was imagining this as visually similar to Aliens, Abyss, and T2 (which it is for the first half of the trailer)

Maybe that stuff will be cleaned up by release, or just look altogether better in 3D. As a movie, it still looks great though. I'm just not big on the Narnia-esque fad of overly done CG that intentionally looks surreal.

Yeah a little disappointed by the CGI in the trailer but I guess thats to be expected considering the astronomical expectations.

HOWEVER I pooped my pants at some of the non battle scenes there that are truly 100% photorealistic.

WHAT.

I've been ignoring any and all news and mentions of this movie because I thought it was based on that one cartoon show.

Now I find out... it isn't.

CGI looked great. 'The fuck were you guys expecting?

Look for the "Air Bender" subtitle for M. Night's project.

That movie couldn't use the word Avatar in the title because Cameron owns the rights to it or something.

Lets be honest, it's not great. It's good, but its not great. I can think of things that came out up to 5 years ago that looked better.

In any event, it's not about that. I wouldn't be complaining if it weren't for the fact that this movie has been hyped and built on the fact that it has mindblowing effects.

According to Cameron, and those who have seen or worked on the movie, it was supposed to be "completely photorealistic" and blur the lines of real and fake in a way thats never been done before.
From what we're shown, that's clearly not the case. If I didn't know any better, I would liken it to something like 10,000 B.C.

Of course, this is only a short 2D trailer. The movie was shot and animated for 3D presentation, so it very well could look better in that format.
According to Ridley Scott, Jon Favreau, Steven Spielberg and some others who have actually seen the full movie in its proper format, it's incredible. So we'll see...

As a moviegoer I'm getting increasingly sick of fake looking CG anyways. It seems as though the craft has come so far that it's now getting too rendered and polished, and beginning to look worse.

I'm just over it. It's a tool, not an attraction. I get sick of it being overused, and used in situations where it doesn't need to be.
I look to a movie like The Dark Knight that captured more peoples imaginations and had more success than any large scale adventure in the past 20 years. Where was the CG? It was hardly there. It was all practical. If a truck needed to be flipped, they flipped a truck. CGI was only used when it absolutely had no alternative.
That's how it should be done.

As a black man how would you feel about the cgi?

I don't think it's a matter of rights. It's a common word. There is no copyright on the word. There have been other movies called Avatar, or using the word in their title.

I just think its a matter of Cameron started work on his movie first, and the studio making Airbender not wanting to confuse or lessen their product by confusing people, since their movie is coming out in close proximity to Cameron's.

M. Night Shaymalan is terrible anyways

(although I love Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs)

I guess you're right. I don't know from where I read what I wrote.

I'm all for CGI when needed. And the fact is those blue elves don't fucking exist. Or that planet. Or those mechs. It's not like I was looking at Aliens and I thought, "Look at these fucking toys Cameron is using. Why don't he build a damn set?"

C'mon.

And you're gonna have to name those examples of CGI from 5 years ago that looked better. Your best bet is the LotR trilogy, of which I would agree. But it's not what you film it's how you film it. And the illusion that CGI will look convincing will never happen so long as we look for it to be fake.

But whatever. I'm not gonna carry on this shit cause I feel it coming, man.

King Kong

LotR/KK - Weta workshop. Nice add, though.

Anyways, that doesn't mean I think the movie looks bad. I just think the effects are underwhelming considering the hype they attached to them.
They aren't bad. They're just nothing special compared to the current standards.

It's okay man. I'm not attacking the movie, I can't wait to see it. These movies aren't 100% infallible.

As for Aliens. Dunno what you're talking about with toys. Yes, there were miniatures but there were tons of sets and full scale animatronics. That movie only used miniatures and opticals when it had to, just like movies should do with CGI nowadays.

Now, I think the CG environments look great. The planet looks incredible. But, there are places where a set should be built. I mean, when he's wheeling his chair down the ramp of that ship onto that runway. That's bad CGI. That could easily be a set.

As for those robot suits. That really should look better. I mean, this is 2009. They've been animating shit like that forever. Look at Transformers. That looks way better.

The problem isn't using CGI. It's when you have a CGI character, on a CGI object, in a CGI environment. It's oversaturation, and it becomes like a pixar movie.

I know they're both Weta but King Kong's effects are out of this world, even compared to LotR.

Personally, I think Kong himself is the best cgi to date.

I like Pixar movies.

I love pixar movies too

but they're animated movies and we're talking about live action

Well... not specifically live action... It is marketed as a CGI fest. They're not running away from this point. Like Star Wars Eps. 3. That movie was 95% CGI and they glorified it. There's places to go for straight up realism and grand sets.

Mind you, I can give a fuck. I understand how the CGI isn't reshaping the landscape. I'm just saying... I see what they're selling and I accept. No reason for me to be religious about it though.

Weta is working on the CG for Avatar. My friend is working on it and says it's looking amazing.

http://www.tpww.net/forums/showthrea...ghlight=avatar

:)

I saw the trailer before IB and I wasn't impressed. My guess is unless you see this in 3-D Imax it will be unimpressive.

This movie looks great but the aliens in this movie look a little too much on the cartooney side if you ask me.

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I'm pumped for this. Gonna pick up my ticket tomorrow

$500 Mil. to make.

Think James Cameron will break even?

Gonna take a bit of mushrooms and go see this. I hope it doesn't melt my brain.

Probably going to spend the whole time thinking about how crazy it is that computers even exist

The budget was actually 237 million, still a massive budget though.

Avatar MADNESS!!!!
 

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Just saw Avatar 3D
 

Fuck that other thread.

Absolutely fucking mind blowing. I'm speechless. Fucking see it or DIE.

I can't get over how fucking sick it was.

Anyone see Avatar yet? Heard it was a shitty script but an awesome movie experience.

Doesn't come out til Friday here in America

So, just see it.

I hate movies in 3D so I will probably never see this.

Well, it also comes out in 2D. So fuck up.

Yeah, but I don't want to get into a whole thing at the ticket counter about how I want the 2D showing rather than the 3D showing. I don't need them making comments behind my back about being the guy who can't handle his D's. I can handle the D's. It's a matter of preference.