James Cameron's Avatar

[Big s]

I rewatched avatar not too long ago and it really doesn't hold up. When I first saw it in 3D I thought it was great. I recommended it to everyone I know. It of course was when non red blue 3D was new for full length films and it really made me feel like I was in that world. It was almost like the first time as a kid going to Disneyland and riding the Haunted mansion and being amazed at this amazing supernatural world around you. The rewatch was without 3D and it was like being an adult going on that ride and just saying things like "they did that with mirrors". Since the visuals were flattened everything wrong with the movie became visible, like the boring story or the boring characters, or the uninspired mecha that would give anyone a bad back after that drop.

Edited April 23, 2016 by Big s

[sh9000]

[jvmacross]

I like the Avatar ride at WDW more than the actual movie....maybe the sequel will mean some sequence updates to the ride

[Thom]

I want to see James Cameron's Battle Angel Alita 2 far more than this. It was fine the first time, but I have no interest to either see it again, or any of its sequels. Maybe he should remake Raise the Titanic instead.

[Big s]

I really liked Avatar the first time I saw it. It was in the theater with the great 3D effect and absolutely loved it. The second time around it was on a high def tv, no 3D and all the magic was gone. It was just a basic movie with a basic plot and silly things happening. I’m not really all that excited about the sequels, but I’m hoping there gonna be worth the long wait 

[jenius]

9 hours ago, jvmacross said:

I like the Avatar ride at WDW more than the actual movie....maybe the sequel will mean some sequence updates to the ride

I'd second that. Riding a Banshee or whatever they were called was my favorite part of Animal Kingdom by a long shot.

Quote

I really liked Avatar the first time I saw it. It was in the theater with the great 3D effect and absolutely loved it. The second time around it was on a high def tv, no 3D and all the magic was gone. It was just a basic movie with a basic plot and silly things happening. I’m not really all that excited about the sequels, but I’m hoping there gonna be worth the long wait 

I'd second that as well. I remember the protagonist brushing away bubbles and thinking how cool that looked. I watched some of it more recently while my son watched it for the first time on a traditional screen and it was definitely 'meh.' 

[sketchley]

Never saw the original in 3D.  The only thing it has going for it is that it recaptures some of that James Cameron magic from his earlier films—Aliens, Terminator, and so on.

Is Dir. Cameron going to be using the footage he shot at the bottom of the Mariana Trench in Avatar 2, or was that only ever a rumour?

Edited May 2, 2022 by sketchley

[Big s]

3 hours ago, sketchley said:

Never saw the original in 3D.  The only thing it has going for it is that it recaptures some of that James Cameron magic from his earlier films—Aliens, Terminator, and so on.

Is Dir. Cameron going to be using the footage he shot at the bottom of the Mariana Trench in Avatar 2, or was that only ever a rumour?

I feel bad for anyone that missed out on the 3D theatrical experience. It was very immersive and probably the best use of the whole 3D fad that ever came out as a wide release. I had a split group of friends that saw it and the ones that saw it in 3D were all talking about how amazing  it was for weeks and the other group saw it normal and thought we must have been high or something because it really isn’t a great movie and we were talking about how it felt like you were there and could almost touch the plants

[Dobber]

I saw it in 3D, just in a standard theater though, and honestly don’t see what all the Hoopla was about. 2D images stood out more in the foreground etc. I was expecting something different the way people were carrying  on about it, but it just seemed like any other 3D movie to me. With maybe just more of it in a given scene but still nothing “GROUNDBREAKING” Avatar goes down as one of the most over rated movies of all time for me. Just don’t get it or am I missing something?

Chris

Edited May 2, 2022 by Dobber

[TangledThorns]

Avatar was the best film I saw in 3D and lead the 3D wave last decade. Unfortunately it was the post-processed 3D films that killed that same wave. That being said, I'll see the Avatar sequel in 3D if its made well.

On a side note my 2013 65in Panasonic plasma has 3D glasses that I never used, lol.

[Big s]

1 hour ago, TangledThorns said:

Avatar was the best film I saw in 3D and lead the 3D wave last decade. Unfortunately it was the post-processed 3D films that killed that same wave. That being said, I'll see the Avatar sequel in 3D if its made well.

On a side note my 2013 65in Panasonic plasma has 3D glasses that I never used, lol.

I thought about getting one of those a few years back, but there just weren’t enough movies or shows that took advantage of the gimmick. It did seem great at the time though 

[Podtastic]

On 5/2/2022 at 8:36 AM, Big s said:

I feel bad for anyone that missed out on the 3D theatrical experience. It was very immersive and probably the best use of the whole 3D fad that ever came out as a wide release. I had a split group of friends that saw it and the ones that saw it in 3D were all talking about how amazing  it was for weeks and the other group saw it normal and thought we must have been high or something because it really isn’t a great movie and we were talking about how it felt like you were there and could almost touch the plants

I was just irritated by the re-emergence of the 3D fad. It was a thing back in the day of Treasure of the Four Crowns. All it does is make the movie much more expensive, and doesn't make much difference to me in terms of the visuals. Seeing a bunch of flat "cardboard cut-outs"  on the edge of the screen or deeper in it doesn't impress me any more than 2d.

As to the movie itself, Pandora just felt like Fenrille-Lite and the Na'vi were too much like American Indians. 

Then again, the great Leonopteryx did remind me of Kontory crossed with Gaifand from Arco's Other World toy line.😆

Edited May 3, 2022 by Podtastic

[hutch]

The visuals in Avatar were great but as a movie the story was incredibly derivative of a hundred movies before it, the acting was cartoony, and the script didn’t help.  It was basically a Michael Bay film in a lot of ways. 

[TangledThorns]

1 hour ago, hutch said:

The visuals in Avatar were great but as a movie the story was incredibly derivative of a hundred movies before it, the acting was cartoony, and the script didn’t help.  It was basically a Michael Bay film in a lot of ways. 

Unfortunately that is Hollywood for ya. How many movie versions of King Arthur or Cinderalla have been released in our lifetime??

I'm hoping James Cameron will take an original turn this time around.

 

[Dynaman]

Avatar stood out for the 3d, and that was it.  Seeing it in 2d was a total waste of time.  The only other film that was worth it to see in 3D was Gravity - but that one was also a good movie even in 2d.

 

[Mog]

Is it bad that I’d rather watch a movie based on this instead:

PAPYRUS!! 

[Big s]

7 hours ago, Dynaman said:

Avatar stood out for the 3d, and that was it.  Seeing it in 2d was a total waste of time.  The only other film that was worth it to see in 3D was Gravity - but that one was also a good movie even in 2d.

 

It’s unfortunate that the 3D thing wasn’t properly used in most films. It also is unfortunate that even when it was, it usually was for films that were mostly just ok at best

[TangledThorns]

Teaser. Looks decent but more of the same?

 

 

[mark-1s]

I hope to hell it's not in 3D. I don't think I can handle another wave of movies with 3D shoehorned in.

[TangledThorns]

7 minutes ago, mark-1s said:

I hope to hell it's not in 3D. I don't think I can handle another wave of movies with 3D shoehorned in.

Pretty certain it'll be in 3D though I remember back when it first came out some theaters had screens showings in 2D only. 

Will it set a new 3D trend again? I don't think so with post-COVID cinema.

[ValkAddict]

Meh, I'm not too excited to return to Pandora. Need to see more action sequences to get me excited for this.

[sh9000]

 

[Tking22]

The first one was fun enough, and a great test for if you get a new TV or sound system. I'll definitely check this out, that upcoming Avatar game sounds pretty interesting too. 

[no3Ljm]

[Bolt]

Looking forward to checking it out. I saw the 2d and 3d versions on the big screen. I think , for novelty alone, 3d will do good. 

[obakesan]

I saw the 1st in 3D in the cinema and was blown away since it was filmed to be in 3D. I still enjoy it overall in 2D too. This sequel, just feels like the same of the 1st, just moved the plot away into the ocean now. i.e. Navi happy, humans come back, want unatainium or whataver , big fight, Navii win, queue Avater 3. Will probably still watch it but hope it brings something new.

[M'Kyuun]

On 5/3/2022 at 8:50 PM, Mog said:

Is it bad that I’d rather watch a movie based on this instead:

PAPYRUS!! 

I normally don't watch SNL, but if all their skits were written at this level, I'd be a lifetime fan.  Such perfect ludicrousness w/ all the over-the-top reaction we see in regular films. This is high art. 😄

 

As to the Avatar sequel, I never saw the original in 3D either; I was deployed, and somebody brought a DVD of it for us to watch, so my first viewing was on a regular tv. I remember thinking it was an OK sci-fi film, certainly very pretty to look at, but not worth all the hype it had received. Still, I like it, and I'm not averse to revisiting Pandora in a new story.

[Firefox21]

This makes me think of Horizon Forbidden West for some reason. I hope one day we'll have Horizon Zero Dwan movie.

[M'Kyuun]

13 hours ago, Firefox21 said:

This makes me think of Horizon Forbidden West for some reason. I hope one day we'll have Horizon Zero Dwan movie.

Catch-22 with that sort of proposal; On one hand, it was such an excellent game with an engaging wonderful sci-fi story and a very likeable protagonist. OTOH, the scope of the game was so broad, with so much stuff going on that to try and capture it in a film, even a 3-hour film, would boil it down to a rather thin essence of what the game offered in totality.  IMHO, I think it would be better served either as a live action series, or an animated series, with at least two guaranteed seasons to tell the story while delving into some of the peripheral side stories, mostly those involving the more important NPC characters, as well as flashbacks to the old world and their actions that led to the current world of all these hostile machines everywhere.  I'd love a series like that, but I don't think a film would do it justice.

[Firefox21]

Yeah, a mini anime series would be great! Or a movie for prequel of Horizon Zero Dawn, like how the machines took over the old world, though it would be more like another fad sci-fi movie for that.

[sh9000]

[sh9000]

 

 

 

[sh9000]

 

[jenius]

Saw the original in 3d again and the visuals are still very impressive. There's a reason it kicked off a 3d craze.

[Big s]

13 hours ago, jenius said:

Saw the original in 3d again and the visuals are still very impressive. There's a reason it kicked off a 3d craze.

Yeah, I saw the original release in 3D and was absolutely amazed. I kinda thought every movie after that would try to be that immersive. Unfortunately that didn’t really happen. I still wasn’t that happy with the movie on home video. I couldn’t afford a 3D tv and that gimmick is really the big thing for it.