talkmagic.co.uk

The general consensus on the QI forum is that Avatar works wonderfully as a visual spectacle, but is something of a flop in terms of storyline and character depth, so in the end it depends on what you're looking for in a movie. This is more or less what the Telegraph reviewer said, too, except he wasn't even all that taken by the spectacle.

I got a giggle out of Matt Bateman's take on it:

That's great.

That's hilarious!!!

I suppose the test will be if it works in 2D as well… The effects were very good but, to be fair, I’d rather watch a Pixar film if I want ‘animated’ characters. There was a 100% more humanity in the first 15 minutes of ‘Up’ than there was in the whole of Avatar.

And, whilst the effects were good, you can’t escape the fact that they were all CGI. It’s not the same sense of awe that you feel when you see great camera work – That reverse dolly shot in Vertigo, Scorsese's extended take on Goodfellas, the sheer majesty of those vistas in the great John Ford Cinemascope westerns.

My worry is that TV/Movie producers will look at the box office returns and try and shoe horn 3D into every major release from now on...


Sean

Klangster1971 wrote:There was a 100% more humanity in the first 15 minutes of ‘Up’ than there was in the whole of Avatar.

Amen. I definitely had something in my eye watching Up.

Klangster1971 wrote:Scorsese's extended take on Goodfellas

STILL the best use of Steadicam in cinema so far. Ever since i can remember i always wanted to be Scorsese's Steadicam operator.

Grimshaw wrote:Amen. I definitely had something in my eye watching Up.

That was one case were I was pleased to be wearing the 3D glasses - so my 5 yr old couldn't see me welling up!

Nominated for best picture and director along with other nominations at the Academy Awards for a total of 9 nominations.

I didn't realize you could direct cartoons but...

Happy to see Up nominated for Best Picture.

Right, I cannot see things in 3D; which makes me think things like "this will never catch on, id was a fad 50 years ago and it's a fad now". Out of curiosity, how common is it not be able to see 3D? If it really is taking off [again?] I wouldn't have thought it very common.

Paging Dr Tom...

I cant see 3d either and have always wondered why. It just doesnt seem to work. Im apparently colour blind so maybe this has something to do with it

jim

That's what I thought too, so I had my eyes tested last week. The eye testy woman there said it could be due to colour blindness or inaccurate depth perception; she tested for these things along with the standard eye test and found I had nothing wrong with my eyes at all and didn't even try to sell me any glasses!

Klangster1971 wrote:And, whilst the effects were good, you can’t escape the fact that they were all CGI.

This saddens me a great deal. I miss things actually happening. I remember when Terminator 2 was shot, for all of it's special FX they still actually blew up the Cyberdyne building. I think at the time it was the biggest movie explosion ever.

It’s not the same sense of awe that you feel when you see great camera work – That reverse dolly shot in Vertigo, Scorsese's extended take on Goodfellas, the sheer majesty of those vistas in the great John Ford Cinemascope westerns.

It's more difficult to actively engage if there is a lack of reality but more importantly many directors/producers/writers etc. these days seem to think state of the art CGI is more important than a great storyline, excellent acting and perfect direction.

Unfortunately by making Avatar the highest grossing film in history (not allowing for inflation of course) we have confirmed that they are right, for the majority at least.

My worry is that TV/Movie producers will look at the box office returns and try and shoe horn 3D into every major release from now on...

Sean

I think this is the way things are going anyway in an attempt to "combat" internet piracy. The truth of the matter is the electronic media companies have been caught with their pants down and have been far too slow to respond to a changing market. People want films to be instantly available, they do not want to wait 3 months longer for a release than a country they go to on holiday to, they do not want to pay £35 for one film when they know the majority of that money is profit for all the middle men.

I have noticed that there are "3 media" releases of certain films now, DVD, Blu-Ray and SD Card but I still think the electronic media distributers are missing the point. The next big electronics company will be the one that reaches an agreement with Hollywood to make films available in the same way iTunes did for mp3's.

eBooks will be the next thing, which is a shame as I quite like dusty old bookshops.

A_n_t wrote:eBooks will be the next thing, which is a shame as I quite like dusty old bookshops.

I disagree, I don't think that they will ever replace book shops, there would be uproar. Not everybody likes ebook in comparison to normal books. There is too much change!

The 3D effect is making a substantial minority of people sick -- not just in Avatar, but in all the current crop of 3D movies.

Somebody commenting in the papers last week proposed a reason for this, and it sounds right to me. Although we've evolved to perceive a three-dimensional world, it's a stable world and we see it from one viewpoint, our eyes. But it's the nature of a movie to cut from scene to scene. One moment we're gazing out over a vista to the horizon, the next we've got a close-up of someone's face, then maybe we're looking down onto a forest from above while zooming quickly over it. The brain just isn't equipped to cope with these jumps.

Beardy wrote:

A_n_t wrote:eBooks will be the next thing, which is a shame as I quite like dusty old bookshops.

I disagree, I don't think that they will ever replace book shops, there would be uproar. Not everybody likes ebook in comparison to normal books. There is too much change!

I said the same thing about records and DJ'ing. I was adamant that purists would always spin vinyl and CD's would eventually shut up. On the contrary CD's are starting to make way for MP3's now.

For a short film that contains humanity, suspense and (believable) CGI check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmbv8kevQ-E

Movie is called 'Spider' and Nash Edgerton is definitley a name to watch. He made a full length feature called "The Square" which was just about the best film I saw in the whole of last year....

I hope Avatar doesn't sound the death knell for films/filmmakers like this!

cheers,


Sean