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[Reg]

A ton of people go to movies between Christmas and New Years. I doubt they have much to worry about.

[lamaros]

Seeing it tomorrow at IMAX Melbourne, the third largest screen in the world. Will it live up to expectations?

[Kitsune]

It was a very fun movie to watch.  All the depth of a pie plate, and I'm really sick and tired of the 'oh the noble savages who live in perfect harmony with all life yay' characters in movies.  But still a fun action movie, and not a smidgen as retarded as Transformers/GI Joe.  My only advice is to pass on the 3-D version, which really didn't add much of anything in the opinion of the people I saw it with.

[Merusk]

Wha?  That's the exact opposite of about every opinion about the 3d I've read to date.   

I'm going to see it next weekend in Imax when the kids are at their grandma's.  Whee.

[Riggswolfe]

A ton of people go to movies between Christmas and New Years. I doubt they have much to worry about.

I suspect the only thing that might cause it problems will be Sherlock Holmes.

[ahoythematey]

Saw it in 3D tonight.  Strangely enough, the trailers did it justice and also didn't do it justice, all at the same time.  The story is the same old shit we know, directed very well, but the combination of 3D and the mo-cap+CG are what really make this movie special.  They pull you into the world very easily, to the point that I often felt like I was looking through an illusion box into a real location with real Viamontians interacting with real Phazon-infused objects.

It's a shame that General Cynical Hardass turned into a full-blown caricature at the end, but that was pretty much telegraphed from far away, so not surprising.

[Comstar]

Seeing it tomorrow at IMAX Melbourne, the third largest screen in the world. Will it live up to expectations?

I saw it there on Sunday night. Don't need to do what I did and get there an hour and a half early, 45 minutes will get you good seats in the back. Also, no trailers either. I found the glasses they use at the IMAX more comfortable than at Hoyts too.

It's a shame that General Cynical Hardass turned into a full-blown caricature at the end, but that was pretty much telegraphed from far away, so not surprising.

I thought it amusing that in another movie he would have been Bruce Willis in Die Hard 5000: Pandora edition.

[Vision]

Definitely worth seeing for the 3D. I was pleasantly surprised, even if I thought the alines were too Native American-like, and not enough alien. Sort of took me out of the fantasy setting more so than I would have liked. Story was interesting enough, although what had me really excited is what other kinds of stories they will tell with Cameron's technology. I keeping trying to imagine 3D Miyazaki movies that worked like Avatar did.

[Draegan]

It's fun watching the world-weary internet guys fume while their predictions of disaster based on nothing but the trailer turn out to be completely wrong.

 

This is the only reason why I'm in this thread before I've seen the movie.

[Bzalthek]

too Native American-like

wat?

[ahoythematey]

too Native American-like

wat?

There's a pretty obvious part later on, "horse people of the plains," or some shit.

I thought it amusing that in another movie he would have been Bruce Willis in Die Hard 5000: Pandora edition.

I would watch that movie.

[Vision]

too Native American-like

wat?

It was obvious he was referencing American Imperialism, and referencing what America did to the Native Americans. Which isn't exactly original, but fine none the less. I just wish he was more subtle about it instead of giving the aliens horses, bows/arrows, and high pitched battle cries. I felt like they were distant cousins Pocahontas instead of aliens..  

[Yoru]

It was a very fun movie to watch.  All the depth of a pie plate, and I'm really sick and tired of the 'oh the noble savages who live in perfect harmony with all life yay' characters in movies.  But still a fun action movie, and not a smidgen as retarded as Transformers/GI Joe.  My only advice is to pass on the 3-D version, which really didn't add much of anything in the opinion of the people I saw it with.

Just saw it this evening myself and I agree with much of this. Shut your mind off - especially when it comes to the dialogue - and enjoy the best graphics a modern render-farm can crank out.

I think about 30-45 minutes could've easily been left on the cutting room floor; gratuitous flight scenes and whatnot that existed solely because of the 3D tech. For that reason, I'd recommend going to a 3D showing if it's not terribly more expensive than a normal one and doesn't make you nauseous.

I found the 3D to be supportive in a few scenes, okay in most, and incredibly distracting in a few places; primarily when they had foreground objects on-camera while the camera's focus remained in the middle ground. My eyes want to focus on things that suddenly pop up in front of them, but the camera's focus obviously doesn't allow that, so I'd have to consciously focus on the middle ground, which hurt immersion. There's a few scenes where the action, and focus, are moving so quickly that I had to actively search the screen for where I was "supposed" to be looking.

That said, if you're not going for the tech or visual direction, don't bother.

[Vision]

I feel that since there is little narrative value, the fx and 3D were the only big selling points of the movie, and what I went to the movie for. Therefore an extra 30 or 45 minuts of pretty 3D wasn't a big deal in my opinion. And even though I haven't seen the non 3D version, I felt the 3D added a lot in terms of aesthetic bling.

[Sheepherder]

I felt like they were distant cousins Pocahontas instead of aliens.

That's New England.  You're looking for the Lakota and Cheyenne of the Black Hills (Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Gall).

[Slyfeind]

I was thinking Mohawks, because of um their mohawks, and Cherokee, because they totally should have used that 80's glam rock song "Cherokee" when they were marching down their trail of tears. Cherokeeeeee!

[rk47]

It's Pocahontas. In Space.

As much as I wanted the Terrans to win against Night Elves...it's just wasn't meant to be.

[lamaros]

Eh.

Got motion sickness every now and then and had to take the glasses off and sit with my eyes closed for a few min for it to pass (didn't get there early and had to sit front-side), story was absolute shite, some pretty sweet cgi, 3d was underwhelming most of the time but on very rare occasions was pretty neat.

Worth seeing? Maybe.

Worth paying $40, which was the amount I had to pay because the fucking trains decided to stop running and I had to catch a cab home... nope..

I knew the story was going to be rubbish and it still pissed me off.. gah

[fuser]

Got motion sickness every now and then and had to take the glasses off and sit with my eyes closed for a few min for it to pass (didn't get there early and had to sit front-side), story was absolute shite, some pretty sweet cgi, 3d was underwhelming most of the time but on very rare occasions was pretty neat.

Got a massive headache from it, I don't think the 3d added anything (besides the depth to some scenes). The biggest thing was the amazing sharpness of the new screens, but I was put in awe of how much waste was being generated from the 3d plastic glasses and packaging 

[Xuri]

Just back from seeing it in non-3D. Very shiny. And since I happen to like shiny, it's all good.

[UnSub]

Saw it in 3D.

In short: pretty and vapid. A near 3 hour tech demo. I got bored waiting for the inevitable conclusion.

My longer, petty gripes:


In short: if this film had been much, much tighter, it would have been more enjoyable and the stupid would have been able to slide right by. I would have liked to see Michael Biehn as the military commander though (he lost out to the other guy). 

[Rendakor]

They really called it Unobtainium?

 

[Comstar]

With some of the names given to real elements, it's makes sense. For that matter, it was called that by the corporate manager who needed a tech to use the map display tool.

It's a room temperature superconductor that allows the construction of a world wide network of maglev train lines on earth that solve earth's transportation problems.  Earth's going to strike back in the sequel.

[Riggswolfe]

Ok, I saw this yesterday. I was all prepared to go in and be a jaded asshole. About halfway I realized I was grinning like an idiot and I didn't stop until the credits.

In short, if you don't like this movie you just hate fun.

[Draegan]

There are a lot of people around here that hate fun.

[Teleku]

I guess.  Absolutely everybody I've talked to not on these boards (IE, Real Life) has absolutely loved it.  This is a wide range of people from nerds to art fags.  Guess I have to go see it.

[Reg]

Well you may think you're having fun but remember all of cognoscenti will be laughing at you for enjoying a movie with such a trite, juvenile plot.

[Mattemeo]

Well you may think you're having fun but remember all of cognoscenti will be laughing at you for enjoying a movie with such a trite, juvenile plot.

...who still payed their $20 to go and see it and now pretend they hadn't enjoyed themselves for three hours. Prerogatives!

[Bzalthek]

ALL of cognoscenti?  Oh my.  I guess I should rethink what I like because all of cognoscenti will laugh at me!

[lamaros]

About halfway I realized I was grinning like an idiot and I didn't stop until the credits.

Aint nothing more fun than watching a crippled whiteboy playing out all his adolescent imperialist alpha-male fantasies with a bunch of blue pagan technology worshippers, amiright?

I enjoyed parts, but there's no denying that the plot is just that bad. It's a half baked mess of poorly developed clichés, woefully stupid 'battles', and really bad acting. Some of the sequences, especially with flying, were pretty sweet. But it never escaped the stupid.

[Riggswolfe]

Aint nothing more fun than watching a crippled whiteboy playing out all his adolescent imperialist alpha-male fantasies with a bunch of blue pagan technology worshippers, amiright?

*snort* Do you just go out of your way to overanalyze movies? Where is all this repressed rage coming from anyway?

[lamaros]

You mean because it's so subtle? I had to sit down for four hours with a notepad in a university library to figure it out, and you're not even giving me some credit?

[Phire]

I take it you are not white?

[gryeyes]

He used "aint", of course he isnt. Personally I liked it better when he role played a philosophy major.

[UnSub]

With some of the names given to real elements, it's makes sense.

No, it really doesn't. But that isn't even a major point, since it is just the excuse to create conflict.

I do hate to get too much movie nerd over a film, but "Avatar" looks great but says nothing. There is no dramatic tension, no surprises in the movie, nothing unexpected. It's completely by the numbers. Yes, it looks beautiful and the technology is great, but the narrative is completely dull. The characters are dull (was there any doubt at all that Sulley would flip sides? Any real kind of soul searching? No.) All the colour is on the screen. It's got the story depth of "Transformers".

It's like "Sin City" - something that looks great the first time you see it, then on every re-watching you realise exactly how dumb some of it is. Go and watch "Avatar" again. See it when the spectacle (and I love spectacle) has worn off and you are actually trying to be interested in the characters or the plot. If it was shorter, I might have been more swept away, but it runs long and I just wanted it to get to Colonel vs King Blue Elf at the end so we could wrap it up.

Complete side note: have evangelical Christians started picketing this film yet? I could see some mileage being made in declaring "Avatar" as pagan and anti-Christian.