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What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

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    What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

    Apparently it's the most expensive film in history. Ever. So it must be more than just a bit of CGI nonsense with blue people flying around on dragon thingies on a planet called "Pandora", which is all one can glean from the trailers?

    Or is this James Cameron's "Ishtar" moment?

    #2
    What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

    Rogin the Armchair Fan wrote:
    Apparently it's the most expensive film in history. Ever. So it must be more than just a bit of CGI nonsense with blue people flying around on dragon thingies on a planet called "Pandora", which is all one can glean from the trailers?

    Or is this James Cameron's "Ishtar" moment?
    Only without any of the style and elegance.

    Comment


      #3
      What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

      There are two reasons it's so expensive. One, it's all CGI, and high quality CGI at that. Two, Cameron developed a "virtual camera" system which basically allowed him to do "proper" cinematography within a CGI set, and see the results in real time (not fully rendered, of course). Building that technology cost a lot of money.

      But I think the main reason there's so much hype about this movie is that it's the big hope for 3D cinema. The whole thing is one big advert for 3D projection. If it doesn't succeed, then the industry's dreams of getting all cinemas to convert to 3D are screwed. Or so the argument goes.

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        #4
        What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

        It would help if it didn't look like complete bobbins. I think it will take a certain amount of money, because a lot of people will feel they have to see it because of what it represents, the vfx, the 3d etc. But I don't think it has enough appeal as a story to do as well as it probably needs to. But I'm usually wrong.

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          #5
          What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

          Would anyone seriously pay to see a film purely because of its "groundbreaking" special effects, even if it was otherwise a virtually plotless pile of shit?

          Ah. 2001: A Space Odyssey. Say No More.

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            #6
            What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

            I may see it.

            If I were a studio head, I wouldn't let James Cameron blow that much money on an unproven property. I'd try out the fancy new technology on something that was a certain hit, like the next Harry Potter film or Spider-Man 4 or whatever.

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              #7
              What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

              Out of curiosity I'm going to see it next weekend. I seem to be a sucker for this kind of stuff as my last cinema visit took me to see 2012. I'm trying to go in with an open mind, but my gut feeling is that it has all the makings of another Waterworld.
              As for Cameron, he seems to have been given a blank cheque based on his previous money making machine Titanic.

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                #8
                What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

                I seem to recall Cameron's last movie getting at least this level of derision in the run-up to release. It worked out OK.

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                  #9
                  What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

                  I would like to see less CGI, not more.

                  But what the fuck do I know about what sells in the cinema these days. Avatar will make way more than it's money back.

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                    #10
                    What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

                    I'll probably go and see it, but I'm a little perplexed at the onrushing wave of people relentlessly hawking this 'way of the future' 3D shit and how 'it'll change the way we see movies forever', even before its had the chance to go on general release. Normally, the fashion is to praise something to the skies after it's been shown, not before. Here, we're being told it's already a phenomenon yet all there's been are trailers. Even the UK's SFX Magazine labels the movie 'James Cameron's triumphant return to science fiction' on its cover. Triumphant? Bloody hell, it hasn't been shown Stateside yet.

                    It'll be a smash-hit, I dare say, yet I'm a little wary of this rush to glorify the process of 3D, while ignoring whether the material placed before its cameras is any good or not. I've seen films that have impressed me more than any huckstered eye-candy process ever will and I feel a lot of poor movie-making will be given the go-ahead because some Hollywood suit thinks that wearing special goggles will make it a whole lot better.

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                      #11
                      What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

                      I feel a lot of poor movie-making will be given the go-ahead because some Hollywood suit thinks that wearing special goggles will make it a whole lot better.
                      A whole lot of poor movie-making will be given the go-ahead because some Hollywood suit thinks that wearing special goggles will make it harder to pirate and encourage people to go to the cinema rather than waiting for the DVD.

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                        #12
                        What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

                        Hah, dances with aliens, they wish

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                          #13
                          What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

                          I think he makes brilliant "popular" cinema.
                          He did 18 years ago, sure.

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                            #14
                            What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

                            I'll probably watch it since I have a Cineworld unlimited card. I'm not eager to see it and will wait a couple of weeks after release to see it but chances are that I will enjoy it.

                            The amount of money spent on marketing will make it break even at the very least but I can't see how it's going to be a Titanic sized hit. Titanic was so big because it had something for everyone - action, romance, cutting edge special effects and historical significance. My grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, male and female cousins of all ages watched it.

                            Who is going to watch this movie though? Are parents going to bring their 7-10 year olds like a Pixar movie? The Mamma Mia or the Sex and the City crowd? Or the Transformers crowd? To me the only obvious target market is male 12-30 year old. Now, there are shitloads of cinema-goers in that group so it will make a profit but I can't see it becoming the phenomenon it clearly wants to be. I'm sure the studios will spin it as a success no matter what happens though - they are desperate for 3-D to succeed.

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                              #15
                              What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

                              Surely the "3D Is The Future" stuff is all about trying to keep the medium exclusive to cinemas given how many pirate downloads there are. The studio types just want to have something the pirates can't get. They don't care in the least about quality, or whether it improves the viewer's experience.

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                                #16
                                What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

                                I still haven't seen titanic, And I doubt I ever will. And I suspect that the same will go for this movie.

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                                  #17
                                  What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

                                  Do you think the success of this will be weighed up directly against the success of 'Where The Wild Things Are' in a kind of CGI vs. animatronic is-it-really-worth-the-outlay showdown?

                                  I can't help but think this will end up being Ishtar x Waterworld. A video game spin-off may end up being the most lucrative part of this 'franchise'.

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                                    #18
                                    What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

                                    The game is pretty rubbish, by all accounts. And it's going to be swamped in the Christmas rush by Modern Warfare 2 and New Super Mario Brothers on the Wii.

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                                      #19
                                      What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

                                      Would anyone seriously pay to see a film purely because of its "groundbreaking" special effects, even if it was otherwise a virtually plotless pile of shit?

                                      Ah. 2001: A Space Odyssey. Say No More.
                                      See also: Tron.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

                                        A couple of people I know are seeing it on Friday. They are kind of the target audience so I will be interested to hear what they say. But, you know, for a film this 'big' and a christmas blockbuster and whatever else, I find it sad that the trailer makes it seem like boring preachy patronising childish rubbish.

                                        I think I have an irrational dislike of this kind of elfin wide-eyed blue people nonsense. It's like there's all these adverts on buses for Planet 51 and there's all green people with 3 fingered hands and 3 tentacles for hair. And it just looks like every crappy unimaginative children's TV programme from the last 10 years. Teletubbies. tweenies, hoobs, whatever, they all look the same. I blame the Simpsons, actually. Bland bland bland bland. it's probably supposed to be creative or imaginative or something but it's not.

                                        Give me mumblecore or even the worst excesses of Dogme any day of the week. And I *like* sci-fi.

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                                          #21
                                          What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

                                          Lyra wrote:
                                          I blame the Simpsons, actually.
                                          Errr... I think that's a bit of a stretch, really. I agree with everything else you said, though.

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                                            #22
                                            What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

                                            Oh not really. Just cos they're all a stupid colour and have rubber hair and not enough fingers.

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                                              #23
                                              What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

                                              The trailer for Planet 51 makes it look pretty imaginative for a non-Pixar movie. It's ET with the human as ET. It might well be that everything good about the film is in the trailer but I wouldn't write it off just yet.

                                              Of course that doesn't mean that your point about the visuals isn't correct. It is amazing that every extraterrestial lifeform is more like us than a chimpanzee and just has pigmentation issues.

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                                                #24
                                                What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

                                                I want drooling slavering lizard aliens with razor claws, 5 rows of teeth and acid spit. Or Triffids. Ye,s even in a children's film. Especially in a children's film.

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                                                  #25
                                                  What's this "Avatar" bollocks all about then?

                                                  Surely the "3D Is The Future" stuff is all about trying to keep the medium exclusive to cinemas given how many pirate downloads there are
                                                  I can see your point, but there are any number of Blu-Ray discs coming out now packaging the 3d version and 4 sets of glasses.
                                                  The thing about digital 3d is that it rips just as easily to Matroska as non 3d does. All you need is one blueray 3d disk or to see one 3d film at the cinema and you're set for life, 3d glasses-wise. I have a couple of pairs from Monsters v Aliens still.
                                                  Still, I suppose it may limit or even stop the camera in the cinema bootlegs.

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