Just got back from Avatar in 3D...

another reason for the imax is the sounndd.
its pretty much incredible tbh. When i saw it yesterday the sound was so loud it achully shakes you.

I liked the movie except for the new age, Gaia promoting, message and the Puerto Rican girl that kept kicking the back of my chair and talking on her cell phone.

The only reason I know she was Puerto Rican is because when I turned around to give her the stink eye she said, "Oh, am I too loud? I don't care because I'm Puerto Rican!" LOL You got to love 16 year old girls with attitude! I am officially an old fart according to her.

Other than that I enjoyed the show.
I was able to sneak in 2 cans of diet Coke, a bag of Twizzlers licorice and a bag of M&Ms from the dollar store in my leather jacket so that gave me a real sense of satisfaction when I saw the concession prices. My wife was not so impressed, she just thought I was a cheapskate.

Regarding the movie, My wife got a splitting headache watching it. She said she even felt a little motion sick from the dizzying heights and the 3-d effects.

She generally hates every movie that I like so I was surprised when she said that she liked it.


[edit on 12/22/2009 by Sparky63]

Not that Avatar was BAAAD in 3D, in fact for the most part it was very impressive.. but there were some issues that really need to be sorted out and I couldn't believe they haven't sorted it out already via say, focus groups or something like that.

(1) The film was waaaay too DARK, compared to the 2D version. I couldn't see any detail on the bark on the trees, or the forest. This greatly affected the range of colours you could see, the luminosity, it was horrible, knowing that the film has a beautiful range of colour in 2D. Whoever owned the theatre really needed to ramp the brightness up to max. I can't wait for it to come out in blu-ray on 3D, at least I should be able to set the brightness in the privacy of my home and not rely on the cinemas to decide how bright is 'bright enough'. It was so dark, you couldn't see the beauty of those Pterodactyl-like creatures they rode on... they glistened in the 2D version.. in 3D you could barely make out any detail or colour because it was so dark-and-dim.

(2) There was a LOT of ghosting, choppyness, motion blur on fast action shots. This is inexcusable, and hard for the eyes to follow. It made certain scenes unwatchable, such as when Jake first encounters the jungle and tries to outrun the larger creatures. In 2D, each shot was perfectly composed and you could focus your eye on everything in shot, even though there was so much going on. In 3D, it was so dark and choppy and blurry, your eyes couldn't keep up with what was going on. Also the 'run forrest run' scene when Jake tests out his Avatar body for the first time on the commando course.. for some reason again it was dark blurry and unwatchable in 3D, yet perfectly clear and sharp in 2D! The ghosting reminded me of trying to watch a movie on an early LCD tv. In 2010, this shouldn't be happening, especially in a public cinema where people are supposed to be paying to see a cutting edge breakthrough technology.

(3) The thick black rims of the RealD glasses were always in the way, you could see an annoying black border at all times, obviously not a 'one size fits all' solution. They are poorly-designed. Ideally, I would redesign them to be wrap-around rather than flat. I would abandon the 'sunglasses' paradigm and would adopt a 'headband/blindfold' like design that stretches around the head like a tennis headband, with curved lenses stitched into the lycra-like fabric. It would be more comfortable and more of a true virtual reality experience that would truly put you into the movie itself. You could still recycle/reuse them and would still be low-cost to manufacture. Again, didn't they do any focus group testing of different designs, prior to deeming the bulky-framed RealD glasses the best solution? I'm seriously considering taking the lenses of my RealD glasses and making my own set of 'blindfold' glasses and take them with me next time I see a movie in 3D.

(4) Many times you are 'seeing double', or at least the faint outline beside it, which shouldn't be happening if they had the technology exactly right. You could see it quite visibly on the text of Jake's 'video logs'. Perhaps this is another reason the overall images can be quite ghosty and blurry.. it's not as sharp as it potentially could be.

(5) The resolution of the image is not as good as 35mm film, not by a long shot. I noticed the overall picture quality lacked fine details, it looked a bit like trying to watch SD (standard definition) tv on a 60" high definition television, when you try and blow up those details on a huge screen, the details get washed out and not so clear. I get the feeling the digital format standard is a compromise, and not as good as it could potentially be. Whether it be higher bitrates or twice the resolution it needs to be, the images are not as sharp as they should be. Extreme closeups of human faces in 2D looked much clearer than in 3D, it was like watching behind a layer of vaseline-on-glass. However, there were some occasions where the 3D looked stunning in that regard.. mostly though when there is a dramatic use of contrast in the shot. Not so good when there was already plenty of natural light in the shot, human faces looked flat and un-3D. I think they could use a much higher resolution and hope to god this won't be the resolution standard they use for decades to come because it will do an injustice to cinema.

(6) Although it looked INCREDIBLE when you had things in the foreground, so close to you that you felt you could touch them, the resolution looked so poor. To use a videogame analogy, it was like being affronted by having a 320x240 pixel object with a 1920x1200 picture behind it, like having a pixelated monster from the videogame DOOM at the front of your vision, with the lush environment of CRYSIS in the background. An illuminated vine will swing towards you, but it would be so low-res, it looked like a chunk of fluffy string coming at you! Whereas, in real life, the closer something moves towards you, the more detail you will see on the objects. In this 3D film, the complete opposite happens. Those ferns in the jungle look amazing at the bottom of the screen, almost as if you are hiding right behind them, but they are so pixelated they look somewhat cut out of cheap cardboard!

Having said that though, the way that little details such as bubbles and leaves fly towards you and dance around on the screen, look totally wondrous. The floating jellyfish-like creatures that fly around Jake and dance around before us... it really is a heavenly sight to behold.

And slow-moving scenes that don't involve too much panning or fast action look totally beautiful in 3D, it's like James Cameron was thinking properly on most of the scenes. But there are other scenes where you are wondering if Cameron really did oversee the movie and 'OK'-it fit for release in theatres, I mean, did he really sit down in the theatre with RealD glasses, put his hand on heart and say his eye could keep up with all the fast action scenes with no ghosting? Or that the movie wasn't too dark? If I was a famous film maker, I would be really pissed off if the cinema-goers couldn't see the bark on the trees or the range of colours on the Pterodactyls..

I'm just frustrated as there is so much potential in what I saw, I could see how good it could be.. it's just been terribly implemented and not giving people the best possible experience. Potentially, it could be like experiencing virtual reality. It's not as good as it should be...

[edit on 24-12-2009 by RiotComing]

[edit on 24-12-2009 by RiotComing]

saw it in 3D a few days ago. I'm a special effects geek and was totally awestruck. At one point my eyes started watering then i realised i needed to blink. I was just staring at the screen soaking up the eye candy, all that bioluminescense going on in the jungle wow.

Unfortunately the rest of the film is a bit of a letdown, 1 dimensional characters, archetypes, cliche plot, preaching about the environment. I came out and was thinking "well it was a 12 rated movie i shouldnt expect too much" but i'd still recommend it for the eye candy alone.

I enjoyed district 9 much much more.


[edit on 24-12-2009 by yeti101]

I watched it again and i still think its brill XD

and they wanna make it into a trilogy. thats a good thing ^_^ as long as its not a crappy sequal

I watched it to and was blown away by the storyline, like a modern day Pocahontas story. I was thinking it would be cool to be in the forest in 3D on shrooms lol and I was wondering if the film was laced with something to burn a image into your retina lol (the glasses made my eyes sore) but heyy maybe some people will look at this and say wow were really screwing up our planet and take a hint.

reply to post by Eevee

Originally posted by Eevee
My son really wanted to see Chipmunks: The Squeakquel

but when I told him that all the cool kids were watching Avatar he relented....YAY!!

ROFL!

"All the cool kids were watching Avatar", Eevee You used peer pressure to get out of having to watch Chipmunks: The Squeakquel!

Aw man, that is so awesome!

reply to post by Izarith

ROFL!

"All the cool kids were watching Avatar", Eevee You used peer pressure to get out of having to watch Chipmunks: The Squeakquel!

Aw man, that is so awesome!

Damn!! You saw through my evil yet genious plan.

I did feel a small pang of guilt when my son asked me the other day why we didn't "have time" to watch Chipmunks over the Christmas holidays.

We all agreed that Avatar was a really great movie, we thoroughly enjoyed it, but we all agreed that it was a bit weird too.

reply to post by ModernAcademia


My sister felt the same way. I told her Corporations are using a metal to make profits from things like cell phones to jet engines and game consoles.

Once I told her how U.S. Corporations are working in Africa to use Coltan right now, and how she should stop, because corporations are hurting people from the use of this metal. she realized that she used these things and couldn't stop.

The way of the world...

[edit on 7-1-2010 by lucidclouds]

this movie is for sure the best self-cheating shid i ever saw in my live. Messages like "war brings peace", They are al speaking from one, and do the other:

Speaking from nature in a 100% CGI Film with not one real plant.
Speaking from Peace and making a War Movie
I read 3 Pages about fx and cgi, but not one word about story.
Pocahontas 2.0 ? Blue, Anorexic, botox-cats?

And the people are also like this movie, they never care about something but when it's gone they can cry, cry, cry.

Then they all say "what can I do?" - Stop consuming this brainless #. I mean 500 000000$, how many children can live a life long with this money?

And what are YOU doing after the "SHOW" - driving with the huge car to the next McD'oh! and buy the merchandising trash - more stupid and ignorant can't world be anymore.

And now buy this (another WAR machine for your Kids):



Shid world!

Wanne see your kids dieing from hunger buy this:



Wanne see you kids no longer sleeping because of nightmares? buy this:



Bring kids more to Nature, outside in the wood and play "to capture" or do this for a better understanding of nature? ON KIDS TV?



Really?!




Metaphor:



Can I have a Avatar Coffee at Starbucks?
GOD PLEASE!

[edit on 7-1-2010 by cushycrux]

You are all like this if it gets (straight) down to the nitty-gritty:

Im sorry but to me the CGI is still CGI, it looks fake, you know it is and its awful.
The sooner director's and producer's stop playing around with this stuff the better.
Yeah it may be a good movie but its still a cartoon.

reply to post by george_gaz


I'm with you on this one because I don't and can't see in 3D. so, how did you know it saved the main character? the one I watched left it hanging...

We could learn alot from the Navi and how they respect all forms of life
All we care about is profit and we don't mind being fooled by war-profiteers

It's one thing to say this, but quite another to live it. I didn't see any Internet, fast food, video games, etc. in the Naavi tree, did you? No tv, no air conditioning, etc.

It's one thing to put the nature life on a pedestal, and there are people actually trying to live this way, but if you really think about it, you'd be giving up a lot of things you take for granted.

I'm not saying corporate greed is good, far from it, but it is responsible for the innovations we have, whether we like it or not. Still, there are definitely some lessons to take away from the movie, but there's also this:

What happens in 6 years when the corporation returns with 10 times the amount of firepower, and exterminates the Naavi? Because you know that is exactly what would happen...(sadly).

I thought it was a great film...not as blown away as most, but I did enjoy it, and the 3D was nice. The music was powerful (similar to Titanic in many places), and the visual of Pandora was like Dorothy seeing Oz way back when...

The only reason I know she was Puerto Rican is because when I turned around to give her the stink eye she said, "Oh, am I too loud? I don't care because I'm Puerto Rican!" LOL You got to love 16 year old girls with attitude! I am officially an old fart according to her.

I just don't tolerate that kind of crap anymore, I'd have given her one chance to stop, or I'd be getting her thrown the hell out...especially with the price to see this thing in 3D...

Other than that I enjoyed the show.
I was able to sneak in 2 cans of diet Coke, a bag of Twizzlers licorice and a bag of M&Ms from the dollar store in my leather jacket so that gave me a real sense of satisfaction when I saw the concession prices. My wife was not so impressed, she just thought I was a cheapskate.

I can see concessions being a little higher, but these days, they are downright ridiculous, so I too have no guilt over smuggling stuff in. Take a hot dog for example. In a convenience store, or a street vendor, you're looking at $1. Now, even a 100% increase is one thing ($2)...but a 400% one? (i.e. usually $4 at theaters), and there are no fixings, and the bun is crusty? No, that's just ridiculous.... A snack and a drink should not cost the same as a full meal at a sit-down restaurant!

[edit on 18-1-2010 by Gazrok]

I havent seen avatar yet....looks kinda cool. the director is truly amazing and deserves the box office hits! Can’t wait to see it

"Avatar" is based on real stories :

“ notwithstanding the French Commissioners took all the Pains possible to carry Home the French, that were Prisoners with the Five Nations, and they had full Liberty from the Indians, few of them could be persuaded to return. “Nor, he has to admit, is this merely a reflection on the quality of French colonial life, “for the English had as much Difficulty” in persuading their redeemed to come home, despite what Colden would claim were the obvious superiority of English ways:

No Arguments, no Intreaties, nor Tears of their Friends and Relations, could persuade many of them to leave their new Indian Friends and Acquaintance; several of them that were by the Caressings of their Relations persuaded to come Home, in a little Time grew tired of our Manner of living, and run away again to the Indians, and ended their Days with them. On the other Hand, Indian Children have been carefully educated among the English, cloathed and taught, yet, I think, there is not one Instance, that any of these, after they had Liberty to go among their own People, and were come to Age, would remain with the English, but returned to their own Nations, and became as fond of the Indian Manner of Life as those that knew nothing of a civilized Manner of Living. And, he concludes, what he says of this particular prisoner exchange “has been found true on many other Occasions.”

Benjamin Franklin was even more pointed: When an Indian child is raised in white civilization, he remarks, the civilizing somehow does not stick, and at the first opportunity he will go back to his red relations, from whence there is no hope whatever of redeeming him. But when white persons of either sex have been taken prisoners young by the Indians, and have lived a while among them, tho’ ransomed by their Friends, and treated with all imaginable tenderness toprevail with them to stay among the English, yet in a Short time they become disgusted with our manner of life, and the care and pains that are necessary to support it, and take the firstgood Opportunity of escaping again into the Woods, from whence there is no reclaiming them.

There was always the great woods, and the life to be lived within it was, Crevecoeur admits, “singularly captivating,” perhaps even superior to that so boasted of by the transplanted Europeans. For, as many knew to their rueful amazement, “thousands of Europeans are Indians, and we have no examples of even one of those aborigines having from choice become Europeans!”

paimei01.blogspot.com...

Originally posted by ModernAcademia
Yep, saw the 3D today
Loved it

However as i was watching it I couldn't help but feel ashamed to be part of the human race.

Anyone else feel like that?

We could learn alot from the Navi and how they respect all forms of life
All we care about is profit and we don't mind being fooled by war-profiteers

If we ever make contact of the first kind with aliens we will be the bad guy, not them

My 11 year old and I saw the 3D version Saturday night. WOW. Instant top-5 movie of all time for me....brought up some interesting topics with her on the way home...

"Daddy, where we the bad guys in the movie?"

"Why did we want to rob their planet?"

Amazing film.

My GF took me to see it today. Her 2nd time. Very, very impressive 3D green screen, CGI majic and well worth the price of admission but.....

The story was formula and predictable. Filled with new age moralizing and mystical propaganda.

This new generation 3D is great. I can't wait to see Depp in "Alice in Wonderland"

[edit on 3-2-2010 by whaaa]