Avatar 2009

[cinemabon]

Avatar is now the second biggest box office film of all time (surpassed only by Cameron's other film, "Titanic") with 1.2 billion in dollars in world wide sales, and for a very good reason. It is a very beautiful to see in its current presentation.

I said in the first post that I felt, despite the criticism, this would be a phenomenon. If you haven't seen it in 3-D (my 86 year old mother saw it Saturday in 3-D IMAX), then I highly recommend it. The DVD will most certainly not be the same and this may be your only opportunity to be part of this experience for a very long time, as no other studios or directors will be eager to spend three years and 300 million dollars on a similar project.

[tabuno]

When Titanic came out in in 1997 people oohed and ahhed at the dazzling special effects and the nearly perpendicular death falls of passengers, this was a huge epic love story pasted on the background of a huge dizzying set and for a while the audience was transported much like an extended Disneyland ride into a world outside of themselves and away from their current lives. Today in 2010, America and now the world are again enthralled in another visual entertainment ride transported far away for a couple of hours away from the terrible worries and anxieties of reality by the dazzling special effects and another love story and American-based fairytale in outerspace. Nevertheless, both Titanic and Avatar are just that - amazing visual entertainment rides that allow us to turn off our minds and absorb the visual images and forget our real world for a few moments, hope for a better future with images of perhaps experiencing some moral uplift in ourselves. Whether or not the audience afterwards has really been intellectually stimulated with a truly layered and qualitatively substantive script with any depth is another matter. Yes, both Titanic and Avatar were phemonena but so were the Wall Street Crash and executive bonuses, UFO Balloon ride, and the Palin Vice Presidential campaign, and the death of Princess Diana or the television coverage of OJ Simpson's trial.

[Johann]

I'll be seeing this within the next two weeks in 3-D in Toronto. (Hopefully in IMAX too).
I'll be good and ready for it by then.
I know I'll like.

[cinemabon]

I just finished the article on "Avatar" in the January issue of ASC magazine "American Cinematographer." Cameron used the experience from his two previous films, "Ghosts of the abyss" and "Aliens of the deep" to perfect his use of 3-D camera work. One might even assert he made those films as practice for "Avatar." By the time he hired cinematographer Mauro Fiore, Cameron knew more about photographing with the process than his photographer (Fiore: "This entire production was extraordinary, the most extraordinary experience of my career so far...If you’re going to delve into new technology and a new world, Jim Cameron is the guy to do it with.") The article on the production goes into the technical problems Cameron faced on the set, which were monumental. Also revealed is the question of a sequel. Evidently Cameron wrote another script simultaneously with "Avatar" called "Battle Angel" which he plans now as a possible sequel to "Avatar" although its plot has nothin in common with the other film (Although he said in an article recently he plans two sequels to "Avatar" where the characters explore the nearby moon).

Cameron is nominated this year for a DGA Award (presented Saturday January 30)

While "Book of Eli" took Friday night (11 million to Avatar's 10), Avatar's domestic gross just passed 460 million which will make Cameron's films the two highest grossing box films of all time.

Here is further reading on "Avatar"..............

ACS article: http://www.theasc.com/magazine_dynam...atar/page1.php

Avatar on Wikepedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_(2009_film)

Directors Guild of America: http://www.dga.org/index2.php3?chg=

[tabuno]

We started last year with Chris and I debating the direction of 3-D films, with Chris getting me to pull back on my belief that 3-D films were becoming a permanent and important phenomenon. Whether or not 3-D films will become an essential part of the film landscape, particularly when it comes to non-action movies, remains to be seen. Nevertheless, the technology seems to always to be improving and money seems to help a lot with some exceptions (WATERWORLD). Yet, behind all the feverish work on technology and the glorification of fantastic scenery, it seems that American's lust for something new and supposedly exciting remains ever present. Video games, virtual reality (movies such as THE CELL and BRAINSTORM) will always point to more and other movies that will succeed in surpassing these marvels of visual delight leaving in its wake and fading memory of has been movies. AVATAR is likely not to be exempt from this category, particularly as this movie is so heavily dependent on them as opposed to the more endaring TITANIC storyline and ending scene and musical score. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY for all the time that has passed retains is power and authenticity regardless of all the fancy new special effects technology. Here there was a commitment to authentic realism in a sci fi back drop that was layered in scientific realism without 3-D or other visual delights except the ending - where the musical score really supported the LSD experience.

[Chris Knipp]

I am not impressed by 3D; I don't think it adds as much as its supporters think. But whatever my personal opinion may be, anyway AVATAR clearly provides 3D/iMax viewers with a tunning experience, and that may be the main thing the film has to offer, given it's conventional plot. But a friend pointed out to me that what's exciting about AVATAR visually is more due to other technologies, often explained in promotional videos for the film -- all kinds of new special cameras and processing methods that permitted the blending of CGI, motion-captuire figures, and directly filmed people to be integrated into a single scene seamlessly and convincingly. And also the beauty of some of the images, like the glowing blue in the one i used with my review, and the invented flora and fauna of the land of the Na'vi.

[Johann]

Is everybody watching the Golden Globes tonight?

James Cameron said in an interview that Avatar is meant to be seen as a 3-D experience.
I must see it the way it is meant to be seen. Can't wait to get back to Toronto to check it out.
Will definitely post about it after I see it. (finally)