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Post by Level 03 on Jul 18, 2009 19:40:51 GMT -5
12 years of reflexion about his next movie since TITANIC. A fuking revolution about the 3D special effect and 3D screening live. James Cameron screened 24 minutes of his highly-anticipated Avatar at the Cinema Expo in Amsterdam on Tuesday and scooper 'The Insider' witnessed the footage and sent us this exclusive report! The footage utilized the RealD XL Cinema System. The 3D presentation was on a 55-foot screen with nearly 10-foot Lamberts of light, delivering the largest and brightest 3D presentation at Cinema Expo. I've just returned from a preview screening of James Cameron's hugely anticipated movie "Avatar" at the Cinema Expo in Amsterdam and I'm still feeling the after effects of this jaw-dropping experience. First off, I'm really not a fan of the so called 3-D craze, that's currently taking Hollywood by storm. Before the "Avatar" screening, Fox showed us "Ice Age 3" in 3-D and although the movie is pretty entertaining, I don't understand why it has to be in 3-D. What is the added benefit? I just got a headache from the whole experience. For some reason or another, my eyes just can't get used to the 3-D experience. With it comes the fact that 3-D until now has been used as a gimmick. Would "Avatar" change my mind? With anticipation I directed my attention to the 20th Century Fox show reel. After some pretty disappointing clips from other movies like "Gulliver's Travels" you could feel the tension in the theater. Then it appeared on the screen: AVATAR. After a brief introduction from cast members Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang and Sigourney Weaver, we were asked to put on the 3-D glasses (really uncomfortable, especially if you already wear a pair). Most of the scenes were from the first half of the movie. In the first scene we see Sam Worthington's crippled ex-marine Jake Sully, who just arrived on the planet 'Pandora.' He's in a wheelchair and just rolled in to hear Colonel Quaritch, played by the impressive Stephen Lang, talk to the troops. He's giving a classic speech that every military leader gives at the beginning of a battle. Jake listens as an outsider to this speech. A melancholic smile appears on his face. Although the scene is in 3-D, I haven't really noticed it. Finally a director who doesn't feel the need to stick it in the audience's face with cheap tricks like pointing objects at the camera. In the second scene Sigourney Weaver's Dr. Grace Augustine explains to Jake how the process of transporting your mind into an Avatar works. Although the scene is mostly exposition, we've got a good look at the lab and more importantly we get a first glimpse of the Avatars, the Na'Vi lookalikes. These tall blue creatures lie in water tanks, waiting for their human to 'jump' in their bodies. Besides Weaver and Worthington, the scene introduces Joel Moore's character Norm Spellman. As is usually the case with Moore, his character is the comic relief. It's the third scene where my heart begins to pound like crazy. Jake and Norm will inhabit their Avatar for the first time. They enter some sort of capsule and - flash – their mind enters the blue creatures, now lying on hospital tables. And not before long Avatar Jake wakes up. And it took my breath away. I thought--just like you guys--that I've seen it all with Gollum, or The Hulk, but Cameron has done it again. These creatures seem so real, that within minutes you forget you're watching an enormous and very blue CGI character. Even the eyes are totally convincing. The characters have real personalities and a soul.In the fourth scene the Avatars of Jake, Norm and Grace explore the jungle of Pandora. The surroundings remind me of a planet that appears briefly in "Revenge of the Sith." A lot of massive colorful flowers and plants grow everywhere. Jake's unbridled enthusiasm works on Grace's nerves. And not before long they have their first confrontation with some creatures. Some sort of rhino with a flower sticking out of his head looks like he will kill Jake, but he's not scared and he let's out a scream. The 'rhino' runs away, but not because of Jake. A more dangerous creature – a wolf? – jumps at Jake from behind. In the next couple of scenes Jake meets Na'Vi Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). Jake finds himself alone at night in the jungle with only a torch as protection against some evil looking dogs. Eager to fight them, Jake says: 'What are you waiting for?' When one of the 'dogs' attacks him he slams the torch in the creature's face. A fight ensues that Jake can't win by himself. Lucky for him, there's Neytiri who with her trusty bow and arrow helps Jake chase away the creatures. Just when Jake wants to offer his gratitude, Neytiri knocks his reached out hand away and says to Jake that killing these creatures is a bad thing. When the scene fades out to black, my mind begins to work overtime. How the hell is it possible that I never once felt like I've been watching a movie where almost everything comes out of a computer?The most beautiful scene follows directly after the one I've described above. When Jake wants to take his torch with him, Neytiri takes it from him and throws it in the river. Like magic the flowers and plants – even the grassy soil - begin to glow in the night. The beauty completely takes my breath away. Meanwhile we get to learn more about Neytiri and her people. Everybody who knows the story of Native American Pocahontas and John Smith, will recognize a lot of similarities. Before you can sing "Colors of the Wind," Neytiri guides Jake through her world. Mysterious flowing and glowing seeds from a mystic tree appear out of nowhere. To Neytiri's surprise Jake attracts them. She has a look in her eyes like he's the 'chosen one.' And of course she's right. Jake has to lead the Na'Vi into battle against the massive army of Colonel Quaritch. In the next scene we meet the Banshees. The Na'Vi ride these fierce looking creatures when they hunt. After some exposition, where Neytiri explains to Jake that a Banshee first has to respect you, before you can ride it, she takes flight and another gorgeous scene unspools. The last scene wasn't completed. What we saw, was sort of a video-game version of the mother of all battles. Countless numbers of Na'Vi riding their Banshees attack Quaritch's fleet. I can't wait to see the battle fully rendered. Overall I was really impressed by what I saw. The effects are in a league of their own. After some disappointing or even pointless 3-D movies, "Avatar" may be the first movie where 3-D is properly utilized.
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Post by Level 03 on Jul 18, 2009 20:04:45 GMT -5
Teaser will be here in August... can't wait... 2D on our screens... anyway.....
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Post by matt on Jul 19, 2009 6:10:53 GMT -5
12 years since Cameron's last film?! Didn't realise it was that long!
Has this been in development for 12 years.
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Post by Billy Davey ツ on Jul 20, 2009 9:32:46 GMT -5
and what about Aquaman? 3-d huge battles sounds good!
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Post by matt on Jul 20, 2009 14:15:27 GMT -5
What has he been doing these past 12 years, apart from thinking he found Jesus's body.
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Post by R Kid from Denmark on Jul 24, 2009 18:52:29 GMT -5
I'm a mega fan of Cameron's work. Everything from "Terminator" and "Aliens" to "Titanic". He's just one of the best film directors of all time. So yeah, I am more than excited about "Avatar". Hopefully it will be the cultural phenomenon it has potential to be - and Cameron's best film yet.
Sam Worthington was great in "Terminator Salvation" too. He was so cool in his scenes with Christian Bale (Bale's my favorite actor).
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Post by Level 03 on Aug 4, 2009 20:04:42 GMT -5
Ohhhhhhhh tomorrow... Great stuff. This movie is gonna be the movie of the decade.
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Post by Level 03 on Aug 12, 2009 21:40:06 GMT -5
D-8 before the AVATAR DAY.A free preview of 15 min from the movie will be available in all the 3D cinemas in the world. The 21/08 the teaser will be here. More information here : www.avatarmovie.com/Awesome preview from the James Horner original soundtrack here. This movie is gonna be simply awesome. Go ahead, fire away, I’m your guy.” That’s the first thing James Cameron said to me, and I had to smile – I certainly had plenty to ask him about. I had just sat down and watched about 35 minutes of footage from “Avatar” and, to put it bluntly, I was dazzled. I saw more footage than fans at Comic-Con International (I saw, for instance, a tense scene toward the end of the film as Sam Worthington’s character, Jake Sully, is made a prisoner on the alien world of Pandora) and even found out how the film ends (don’t worry, no spoilers here). But let's get to it -- this is Part 1 of the Hero Complex interview with Oscar-winner Cameron, the 54-year-old Canadian filmmaker whose 20th Century Fox sci-fi epic "Avatar" reaches theaters on Dec. 18. GB: Jim, congratulations on the film, it’s very, very compelling. I'm excited to see it in its entirety and even more excited to talk to you about it. JC: Well, thanks; I’m really glad you liked it. And that’s what we were hoping for. We’ve been working like crazy on this for a long time. And what we want is for people to like it, so that’s nice to hear. GB: I have to say it was refreshing to see a big, special effects film that was not based on a bestselling novel, a comic book, toy, old television show. That’s rare these days, and it’s a treat to go in, sit down and have no idea where the plot and the characters were going to go. JC: It’s simultaneously one of the great strengths and one of the potential weaknesses. We have no brand value. We have to create that brand value. “Avatar” means something to that group of fans that know this film is coming, but to the other 99% of the public it’s a nonsense word and we have to hope we can educate them. Well, I shouldn’t say a nonsense word – it doesn’t mean anything specific in terms of a brand association. And in fact there may be even a slight negative one because more people know about the Saturday morning cartoon, the anime, than about this particular film. We’ve got to create that [brand] from scratch. On the other hand, ultimately, it is probably the film’s greatest strength in the long run. We’ve had these big, money-making franchise films for a long time, “Star Trek” and “Star Wars,” you know, “Harry Potter,” and there’s a certain sort of comfort factor in that; you know what you’re going to get. But there’s no kind of shock of the new that’s possible with that. It’s been a while since something that took us on a journey, something that grabbed us by the lapels and dragged us out the door and took us on a journey of surprise. GB: “The Matrix” immediately springs to mind… JC: Yes, yes, that’s a very, very good example. That’s something where we had no real way of knowing what that film was going to be about and it really just took us on a great ride. GB: And like “The Matrix,” this movie presents this immersive experience. The alien world and the technology you’re using to tell the story, it’s a big movie …. JC: The story is told very much from character. You go on Jake’s journey with him. It actually starts quite small. It starts close to him, in his apartment with him, and it just expands and expands in scope as it goes along. GB: I smiled at the “You’re not in Kansas anymore" line when the main character reaches the alien world. There really is this “Wizard of Oz” sense of transportation when the story reaches the planet of Pandora. JC: Yeah. It’s my favorite movie; I had to get it in there somewhere. The production designer was Rick Carter, who actually played that out. He thought how it was, in some ways, like Dorothy’s journey. I didn’t quite get as much of that [when I first wrote it]. You do things sometimes as a writer subconsciously, things you’re not even aware of. I’m always comfortable doing things instinctively because I see it as taping into this vein of archetype that works for a broader audience base. I don’t question what I’m doing if it feels right. There might be some other references there I might not be aware of. GB: You wrote the first script for this film almost 15 years ago. While you were waiting for technology to reach the point where it could be made, I’m curious how much of that very earliest story remained intact. JC: I had to rework to make it possible. My treatment was so expansive and novelistic that it needed to be necked down just to make it something that could be done on the screen. This film is done on an epic scale, but it's done within the parameters of a Hollywood movie. What I found is that instead a script I had written the outline of a novel, and it was just too much story, too much back story, too many secondary characters … but look, sometimes lightning just strikes; you have write everything down, get it done. Better to weed it out later and not miss an idea. It was essentially the longest script, in terms of the amount of time it took me to get a workable draft. The first time I tried, it ended up being more than 200 pages, so I had to go back and throw out big chunks, a lot of ideas went out. But I have to say the essence of all the big ideas stayed and I felt pretty good about that. GB: The heritage of the project and the mystery of it, since it’s not an adaptation, have created this fairly intense interest among the fanboy sector. That was obvious with the interest leading up to Comic-Con International. Do you feel you have to win fans over now to create the sort of success you want for this movie? JC: I think there are no real negatives because we aren’t going to get prejudged like “Watchmen” or even a Batman or Spider-Man movie because you don’t have all that history and that huge, brand-based mythology that you have to live up to. We aren’t going to piss anybody off because they don’t know what this thing is. Nobody read the novel, nobody read the graphic novel, we’re not going to be playing against expectation. They aren’t going to be viewing us as a disappointment or letdown before the movie even starts. This is a doorway and they don’t know what’s on the other side. We’re going to open it for them. There are a lot of fans of this kind of science fiction and fantasy film, and I think it's pretty fertile soil for us. I don’t want to sound like, you know, ‘Pride goeth before the fall,” or too much hubris, but I think we get those fans to support this. I think our greater challenge is the wider public, which isn’t as predisposed to embrace the movie like those fantasy and sci-fi fans. We need to talk to that audience and make them believe that this is a must-see even if they aren’t sci-fi fans. And I’m not putting down Comic-Con fans. When I go down there I’m among my peeps. It’s a great place to unveil “Avatar.” -- Geoff Boucher
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Post by Level 03 on Aug 19, 2009 22:40:03 GMT -5
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Post by Billy Davey ツ on Aug 20, 2009 9:53:43 GMT -5
thanks for the interview man
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Post by Iliad ♣ on Aug 20, 2009 10:41:57 GMT -5
Do you have to see this movie in a 3D cinema, or is it possible to watch the movie on your own normal TV?
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Post by Level 03 on Aug 20, 2009 14:23:11 GMT -5
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Post by Level 03 on Aug 20, 2009 14:28:06 GMT -5
You can watch it on a normal TV... but Cameron has develloped a special camera for the 3D... I think the better way is to watch this movie in 3D.
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Post by Level 03 on Nov 20, 2009 15:20:42 GMT -5
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Post by Way Cool Jr. on Nov 24, 2009 18:51:36 GMT -5
this is going to be some stupid "no blood for oil" political metaphor movie. yawn. next.
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Post by NYR on Nov 25, 2009 21:50:24 GMT -5
i don't know how good it is gonna be but it's gotta be better than '300.'
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Post by Level 03 on Dec 16, 2009 1:36:43 GMT -5
Simply a masterpiece ! I saw it last night in France in 3D. Wowwwwwww
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Post by Idol on Dec 16, 2009 16:36:09 GMT -5
Great, now you can shut the fuck up about it and stop bumping this thread.
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Post by Level 03 on Dec 16, 2009 16:51:33 GMT -5
Great, now you can shut the fuck up about it and stop bumping this thread. No problem
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Post by matt on Dec 17, 2009 12:17:51 GMT -5
Is it any good, or another overhyped piece of crap?
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Post by Level 03 on Dec 19, 2009 3:32:36 GMT -5
Is it any good, or another overhyped piece of crap? Have a look on the stars number : www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/I already seen this movie 3 times since the release. Dont be affraid, it's a million light years far away from the bullshits like 2012 or Transformers 2.
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Post by Poshbird05 on Dec 19, 2009 20:41:39 GMT -5
I couldn't be bothered to read all that above, but claiming anything is the next Star Wars is bullshit.
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Post by AKA... Frozen Eggroll on Dec 20, 2009 23:51:11 GMT -5
Dear lord, Avatar was amazing!
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Post by Billy Davey ツ on Jan 4, 2010 15:09:33 GMT -5
I saw it. on 3d. from 2nd row.
it looks great. I loved how colourful the planet is. but about the story... it starts good but the end is not really hard to imagine.
yet, the biggest western ever. only this time blue faces are the ones who shoot arrows
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Post by putthisin ® on Jan 4, 2010 15:31:53 GMT -5
It would have been perfect if it weren't for the cheesy/predictable story
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