On August 03 2013 09:53 SergioCQH wrote: Hell, if garbage like Crash can WIN the Best Picture, Avatar definitely deserves at least a nomination.
The people who didn't see the hype probably didn't see the movie in IMAX 3D on a giant screen.
At least Crash had a modicum of depth (pretentious/contrived or not). Avatar had absolutely none and was written like a nursery rhyme.
I'm actually amazed that people were so impressed by it. Am I the only person in the world who isn't impressed by CGI anymore? I mean, yes, it was "breathtaking," or whatever, but at the end of the day it's just visual art, which is pretty boring when it's as vacuous as Avatar.
Using bigger words makes things more entertaining for you?
That's cool, but that's something that's more of a unique trait than a common one.
"It's just visual art" Well..... It's a motion picture. Visual art is pretty much the highlight of motion pictures, as they are pictures that are in motion. Every picture needs to speak volumes, but even the most basic words can teach the wisest of lessons and provide the best entertainment.
Has nothing to do with using big words. Avatar didn't have any depth whatsoever, and it abounded with cliche (seriously, listen to some of the dialogue). It was an action movie styling itself as an action movie styling itself as a grand, fantastic dream about...something.
Obviously motion pictures are visual art. But the point I was trying (and failing) to make is that pretty visuals only transcend mere intrigue and move into the territory of "art" when either they have super omfgwtfbbw levels of innovative aesthetic achievement or when they have some extremely powerful/unique insight.
In my estimation, Avatar had neither. The visuals were good, yes; perhaps they were even breathtaking. But, to be honest, I don't see what was so amazingly impressive about this when we live in an age of CGI. I mean, none of the visuals in Avatar struck me as particularly awesome in themselves; they were awesome only in their scale. Is scale really worth so much praise on its own? To me, not really. I think that to try for depth and come up pretentious (like Crash) is preferable than not trying for depth at all.
It doesn't mean that Avatar is a bad movie, because it isn't. It's a solid summer blockbuster. But it's not much more than that, to me, anyways.
This just in from Pandora: James Cameron says the Avatar sequels have reached a major milestone with the completion of all principal photography involving main cast members.
In a video message, the director of the two highest-grossing films of all time (Avatar and Titanic) praised the ensemble of actors who have been filming Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 since September 2017.
“Hi, James Cameron here and today I’m coming to you from the set of the Avatar sequels — and behind me you can see our performance-capture stage. Today we’re capturing some stunt scenes filming some stunt scenes but our principal cast are all wrapped: Sam [Worthington], Zoe [Saldana], Sigourney [Weaver], Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet.”
The Oscar-winning filmmaker added: “They’re done now but they gave us incredible performances. And I can’t tell you how proud I am of the work that they did on these films.”
Avatar 2 is due in theaters on December 18, 2020, and will be followed by Avatar 3 on December 17, 2021. Two additional sequels are planned after that if the first pair deliver the kind of box-office success that Fox and Cameron are expecting.
In the video message, Cameron then turned to a different project as he explained the ambition and artistry of Alita: Battle Angel , which reaches theaters in February.
Cameron fell in love with the namesake source material, the cyberpunk saga created by Yukito Kishiro in the 1990s, and flirted with making it into a movie in the mid-2000s but ultimately set it aside in favor of making the first Avatar.
In 2015, director Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Spy Kids) came on board as director for Alita with Cameron producing (along with his longtime partner, Jon Landau). The film’s approach — a dreamy futuristic setting yet with photorealistic anime visuals — is being billed as a game-changer (not unlike Cameron’s Terminator 2 and Avatar) but that could be an elusive sell to moviegoers.
Which explains why Cameron was using his Avatar publicity and social media megaphone to tether the two franchises and boost the fledgling Alita.
Ten years ago on December 18, 2009, 20th Century Fox opened James Cameron’s science-fiction epic “Avatar” in theaters nationwide. The movie rode a wave of interest in its groundbreaking 3D and motion capture technology to become the highest grossing film worldwide, a title it kept for a decade until it was surpassed this year by “Avengers: Endgame.” Cameron now has four “Avatar” sequels in the works. Ten years after the original, the first “Avatar” sequel is still two years away. “Avatar 2” was originally being eyed for 2014, but the added sequels and the new technology needed for extensive underwater sequences pushed the film back first to December 2020 and then to December 2021. Cameron now tells Variety the sequels are on track to hit their announced release dates.
“From 2013 until now we’ve mostly designed the whole world across four new movies. We’ve written, finished scripts for all four of those films. We’ve cast them, and we’ve [performance] captured movie 2, movie 3, and the first part of movie 4. We’re mostly done with the live action. I’ve got a couple months in New Zealand in the spring, so we’re kind of on track with what we set out to do.”
Cameron added, “People don’t really understand the scope and complexity of the process. It’s like making two and a half big animated films. A typical big animated film takes about four years, so, if you do the math on that, we’re kind of right on schedule for December 2021.”
Per Cameron’s update, all of the motion capture on the first two “Avatar” sequels has been completed. Additional live-action photography will be filmed in the spring, similar to how any big studio tentpole would film reshoots several months ahead of a theatrical release. The big takeaway is that Cameron has already started working on the performance capture for the fourth “Avatar” sequel. While Cameron has made his intention clear to make four “Avatar” sequels, he did tell Vanity Fair in November 2017, “Let’s face it, if ‘Avatar 2’ and ‘3’ don’t make enough money, there’s not going to be a ‘4’ and ‘5.’” It looks like “Avatar 4” is well under way in terms of production.
The release date for the “Avatar” sequels are as follows: “Avatar 2” on December 17, 2021; “Avatar 3” on December 22, 2023; “Avatar 4” on December 19, 2025; “Avatar 5” on December 17, 2027.
It's wild this has been in development for over a decade. I saw the Avatar re-release in 3D a monthish ago, it was fine, better than I remembered since I fell asleep part way through the first time. Movies that long really need a 5 min break in the middle though - hollywood should normalize bringing that back.
On November 03 2022 00:36 emperorchampion wrote: It's wild this has been in development for over a decade. I saw the Avatar re-release in 3D a monthish ago, it was fine, better than I remembered since I fell asleep part way through the first time. Movies that long really need a 5 min break in the middle though - hollywood should normalize bringing that back.
how crowded was it?
but yeah, i agree, with 2 1/2-3 hour movies becoming so much more common, we need intermissions.
EPT
