James Cameron's 'Avatar' - The next gen of cinema

NeilF · 21 Aug 2009 at 23:35

Meridian said:
Of those films, only two show as a sole credit to Cameron: The Abyss and Strange Days. Since the others are shared credits, in one case with about five other people, it's hard to know how much Cameron was involved - for instance he may only have story-boarded. The Abyss is a classic case of the point I was making: several parts of it give the feeling of having been written at the bottom of a treacle well (to paraphrase Martin Gardner), to the extent that it jars against the better bits. It's a long time since I saw Strange Days, but it's generally considered one of the weaker films he has been associated with. He needs to co-write, because his tendency towards cliche and bathos need curbing.

And yes, the script of Titanic is embarrassingly bad - more cliches crammed together than normal mortals thought possible.

M

Well, he's credited with the sole writing of Avatar, so we'll see how well he fairs

If it's as poor as The Abyss or Strange Days then I'll be happy

darubio · 23 Aug 2009 at 01:51

omg cant wait to see this movie

^TANK^ · 23 Aug 2009 at 07:59

Azagoth said:
So is this yet another film I won't be able to see due to the stupid 3D glasses not allowing me to wear my current glasses, and thus having a blurred view?

I'm not alone then

.

Streeteh · 23 Aug 2009 at 08:57

^TANK^ said:
I'm not alone then.

Nope

, i'm practically blind without my glasses.

meghatronic · 23 Aug 2009 at 09:58

LostPhil said:
I have the same problem and it's a bit disappointing that films are going this way! (same eye too... we're not related are we?) It's bad enough losing pool games just because I don't actually know where the end of the cue is in relation to the ball... ha.

Looks intruiging though! As long as it's not just a gimmick for the sake of it I'm sure it'll be good.

I'm tempted to see it regardless.

I'm tempted too, but I know from experience it won't work. I'm more bothered about The Final Destination.

If it helps, it makes you a good target shooter - only having the one useful eye.

As for losing pool games, I've spent my entire life sucking at all ball sports - that was hard through childhood.

atpbx · 23 Aug 2009 at 10:03

Meridian said:
Not if he wrote the script, they aren't: he's pretty good at directing other people's scripts (as long as you aren't expecting anything profound or intellectually/emotionally challenging), but a profoundly average writer of scripts, where he has a terrible tendency towards wallowing sentimentality. He's good at action films as long long as someone writes a good script for him, but Kurosawa he ain't.

M

You will have to clarify this for me, from what I understand, Cameron wrote the screenplays for:

Piranha 2 - the spawning
Terminator
Terminator 2
The Abyss
Aliens
Rambo
and True lies.

4 of those were Ideas he had himself and created entirely by him from what I understand, while obviously Aliens and Rambo were based on existing properties, but he still wrote the screenplays.

The only one I can see your statement applies to, is Titanic.

In fact, from what I can see, of the 8 films he has directed, he's written all of them.

NeilF · 23 Aug 2009 at 10:09

Meridian said:
as long as you aren't expecting anything profound or intellectually/emotionally challenging

I think this is where you miss what Cameron's actually good at... The intelligence and emotion he DOES get into his films. Look how believable the plots are and how enjoyable the characters are... Now look at a Michael Bay film...

T2 and Aliens are both hugely solid films because of how intelligent the plots are... Now throw into this characters you actually care about. Dear God, in T2 you even care a little bit about a hunk of metal that was the bad guy in its predecessor.

Sure it's no full on drama, but it's not suppose to be. But none-the-less, he manages to keep a good believable and emotional aspect to his films which many other action directors skip over or fail to achieve. The revival scene in The Abyss still brings a tear to my eye everytime I watch it. Epic performance from Ed Harris!

=VTA=MANFACE · 23 Aug 2009 at 12:59

Looks awesome.

Robosapien · 23 Aug 2009 at 13:37

When I read that it 'taps parts of the viewers mind upon viewing that were previously uptapped' I knew this would be a hyped up piece of ****. Can't wait to be proved wrong. I need another Matrix to happen.

Ampeg · 23 Aug 2009 at 15:02

Watched the trailer the other day then read through this. Watched the trailer again just now to check i hadnt missed anything and the film looks like a huge pile of stinking toilet. 3D Gubbins aside the aliens looked very ropey and the plot instantly forgettable, if I hadnt known it was Cameron my money would have been on Michael Bay after watching the trailer.

NeilF · 23 Aug 2009 at 15:22

Ampeg said:
the film looks like a huge pile of stinking toilet... the plot instantly forgettable...

For goodness sake... You've seen one trailer and now you're an expert on the plot? Wait for it to come out at least before proclaiming your armchair expertness :rolleyes:

Hen_Dawg · 23 Aug 2009 at 15:49

Ampeg said:
the film looks like a huge pile of stinking toilet. 3D Gubbins aside the aliens looked very ropey and the plot instantly forgettable,

How exactly can you criticise the entire plot when you only know the basic concept and a bit of info about one of the characters?

This film is clearly creating a lot of debate at the moment but there is a point of criticism which just doesn't stand up with only a 2secs clips making a 90 seconds teaser trailer.

I'm not saying this film will 100% surely be amazing (but I'm hopeful) as I've not seen it, but some people seem to be saying they know 100% it will be terrible. Maybe it is just some people's cynical, negative nature

Eliot · 23 Aug 2009 at 19:09

i dont get why this film is so hyped, its in 3d which is nothing new and i dont see how any of the ridiculous cliams of awesome ness can be made without anyone actually seeing it

NeilF · 23 Aug 2009 at 19:37

Eliot said:
i dont get why this film is so hyped, its in 3d which is nothing new and i dont see how any of the ridiculous cliams of awesome ness can be made without anyone actually seeing it

1) Cameron
2) Cameron
3) Cameron

He's more than earned his reputation, so add to this purpose made new technology solely made for 3D, and a massive budget, people are expecting a big WOW factor...

Of course it can't live up to the hype, but as long as it's typical Cameron quality I'll be happy...

Syphon · 23 Aug 2009 at 19:55

I managed to snag a free ticket for the 15 minute preview at our local cinema. The visuals blew me away in 3D. Never seen anything quite like it.

We were given 3D polarising glasses and things just popped out of the screen, with an immersion and depth that was just awesome. It's going to be a must see at the cinema. The trailer doesn't do it justice until you have seen it how it's meant to be shown.

Even if the story doesn't turn out to be that great it's going to be an audio visual feast and there's nothing wrong with that. I'll be first in line for tickets come the end of the year.

NeilF · 23 Aug 2009 at 20:14

Syphon said:
We were given 3D polarising glasses and things just popped out of the screen, with an immersion and depth that was just awesome. It's going to be a must see at the cinema. The trailer doesn't do it justice until you have seen it how it's meant to be shown.

I guess that's the new camera hardware he's deviced/created...

Hen_Dawg · 23 Aug 2009 at 21:15

Syphon said:
I managed to snag a free ticket for the 15 minute preview at our local cinema. The visuals blew me away in 3D. Never seen anything quite like it.

We were given 3D polarising glasses and things just popped out of the screen, with an immersion and depth that was just awesome. It's going to be a must see at the cinema. The trailer doesn't do it justice until you have seen it how it's meant to be shown.

Even if the story doesn't turn out to be that great it's going to be an audio visual feast and there's nothing wrong with that. I'll be first in line for tickets come the end of the year.

I'm so glad to hear from someone who has seen it properly. Have you seen other 3D films? If so, how did it compare?

Syphon · 23 Aug 2009 at 21:21

Hen_Dawg said:
I'm so glad to hear from someone who has seen it properly. Have you seen other 3D films? If so, how did it compare?

I'm afraid not really. Only crappy 3d glasses stuff from the 80's

I can't say how it compares to other recent 3d stuff, however cheesy this may sound, it pretty much had my mind convinced it was in real space in front of me.

lsg1r · 23 Aug 2009 at 23:42

I watched the trailer on apple site and to be honest the 3D work didn't look that much better quality than that used in appleseed (yes different render techniques), appleseed ex machina, vexille and the final fantasy films, especially advent children (I rate this as probably the best cg film I have seen). Some of those are nearly 5 years old now so don't ask my why it took 14 years to have the technology to do this.
Obviously things like pixar movies can't be compared as they're a different style.

As to the 'animated' people, I'd put money on them either being digitally adjusted to fit or that motion tracking based cg (as used in captain scarlett animations for example).

Now the plot, obviously only seen a short bit but it seems like James Cameron is thinking that western people don't watch anime as to me the trailer seems very much like one you would get in an anime.

Now don't get me wrong I'll probably end up watching it but I'm not buying all this revolutionary junk they're spewing.

As to the '3D' (not the cg) - well thats great as long as you don't have glasses, the last time I used polarising (or the two colour ones) they didn't work for me.

Hen_Dawg · 24 Aug 2009 at 00:07

lsg1r said:
Some of those are nearly 5 years old now so don't ask my why it took 14 years to have the technology to do this.
Obviously things like pixar movies can't be compared as they're a different style.

Check my link in the OP for info as to what the tech is and how it is different