James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing in cinema theaters

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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing ONLY in cinema theaters

Post by Geeheeb »

I haven’t been to a theatre to see a new movie since maybe the The Martian in 2015.
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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing ONLY in cinema theaters

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I think it was Dune that got me back into a theater
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I think Joe Rogan cannot turn his head - he spins his whole chair around - is this a known thing?

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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing ONLY in cinema theaters

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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR - now with more Lorax

Post by Necrometer »

Necrometer wrote: Sat Nov 12, 2022 10:46 amin the teaser trailer, there's a shot that has been hotly debated - is it CGI or is it practical?

some dork from the video linked below wrote:This shot right here, everything you’re seeing from the blue skin, to the water, to the straps, everything you’re seeing was generated by a computer…so why does the internet refuse to believe that that shot is generated by a computer?


they discuss the shot extensively (starting at 3:45), arguing that it cannot / would not be anything but all-CGI, because:
1. consistency: JC wouldn't add a random practical shot in an all-CGI movie
2. it's clearly not painted skin (you would need to tattoo the actor), skin is slightly translucent
3. it's not a composite (real water, CGI blue alien) - too hard to "paint out" the actor and add in the CGI alien

I agree with #3, but it's pretty easy to shut down arguments #1+2:
1. this is countered by the fact that the first movie has a rubber Neytiri hand prop for the shot when she puts the mask on Jake. if you focus on it (at home, looping it), it's obviously a rubber hand, but you'd never notice this in the theater. The shot is around 57s here.
2. na'vi “skin” is much less difficult to simulate IRL than human skin; it’s less translucent, which was probably a deliberate choice, to make it easier to render, especially in 2009. their skin looks relatively waxy, much more similar to what can be attained using paint. weta also has an incredible practical effects team, and I think they could paint someone blue reasonably well, matching the hue and sheen of the CGI output.

so hope is alive, right? IT GETS BETTER. some guy who actually worked on avatar 2+3 (he has an IMDb listing) weighs in (in the comments on the video above) and says the following:
But they did film live action water shots. Like the hand close up pulling the leather straps.
Considering I worked on the film and was standing there in the studio when they filmed this shot I think I might know what I’m saying. I’m not saying it’s 100 percent real but they did actually film it.
I’m not denying there’s lots of VFX elements in the hand leather shot but we did film it for real. The team at Weta are excellent and best in class but we did Film live action water scenes like the hand one with people. You’re right I don’t work in VFX I work in the camera department. I’m not sure why I would lie about working on the Avatar sequels.
I never said they used the water from what we shot live action for the final shot. As I said previously I’m not saying it’s 100 percent real. I never said the water in the shot is real. All I’m saying is that we filmed it for real with a guy painted blue, not in a MOCAP suit. If they used it or not I don’t know.
You’re right I can’t truthfully 100 percent comment on the VFX process or elements they kept or didn’t keep and neither can the Corridor crew or you unless you worked in the digi team on the film. Sure there’s patents and white papers or whatever but It’s all speculation guessing what’s real and what’s not. I also don’t need to prove to you my involvement with these films.
they filmed a painted-blue guy! it's gotta be all-practical :mrgreen:
finally, the truth! there's a painted-blue hand & a strap, but almost everything else is CGI

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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing ONLY in cinema theaters

Post by Necrometer »

y'all

these are your final three days of IMAX for avatar

quantumania comes out friday aka thursday

other fun box office news: avatar 2 & titanic are both in theaters right now, and are essentially tied for #3 worldwide/all-time :lol:
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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing ONLY in cinema theaters

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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing ONLY in cinema theaters

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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing ONLY in cinema theaters

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i will never understand
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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing ONLY in cinema theaters

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that one is some sort of satire of incel stuff, I think?

avatar 2 has limped past $2.3B - I don't think it will hit 2.4... and I don't think it deserves to. hopefully the next movie gets its shit together

although cameron has had three global mega-hits in a row, I think this one dropped the ball in that it had essentially zero love story. there was a bit of a flirtmance thing going on between two teens, but it's nothing compared to the central love story of titanic or avatar. I don't really care about this aspect that much, but global audiences eat it up, and I suspect it's a key component of the JC money printer firing on all cylinders. no idea if A3 will have a love story, but if it doesn't... I bet A4 will.

despite the movie lacking horny stuff, the weird fandom that's emerging is overtly perverted in that weird tumblr sort of way. lmk if anyone wants evidence - delighted to share
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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing ONLY in cinema theaters

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Please share.
Interesting points on the love story. Let's think
... Cameron's track record with love stories and the relative reception of the flick

T1 - Y, hit
Aliens - N, hit
Abyss - N, whiff
T2 - No, hit
True Lies - Y, whiff
Titanic - Y, hit
Avatar - Y, hit

Obviously I'm talking about romantic love. T2 and Aliens have a plot about parental love, maybe thats what Avatar 2 substituted for the valentine kind?
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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing ONLY in cinema theaters

Post by cxwx »

The Abyss had a semi love story with the Mary Elizabeth M and Ed Harris’s character being ex-es and the extreme tension where you assume
SPOILERSPOILER_SHOW
. The scene where she kisses him desperately while he has the face mask on is pretty iconic.

Edit: it was the number 2 movie during its premier week and made double the money that went into producing it. By no means a commercial failure but not a mega money machine.
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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing ONLY in cinema theaters

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Oh yeah good point.

And im definitely talking about general audience reception. True Lies is a classic in my book
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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing ONLY in cinema theaters

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Eight Bit Alien wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:32 amPlease share.
it's nothing too mind-blowing in terms of how extreme it is... it's just shit I've never seen for MCU or star-wars or other sterilized franchises.

lots of instances of "navussy" / "avatussy"

cake sully

calling jake a dilf
Interesting points on the love story. Let's think
... Cameron's track record with love stories and the relative reception of the flick

T1 - Y, hit
Aliens - N, hit
Abyss - N, whiff
T2 - No, hit
True Lies - Y, whiff
Titanic - Y, hit
Avatar - Y, hit

Obviously I'm talking about romantic love. T2 and Aliens have a plot about parental love, maybe thats what Avatar 2 substituted for the valentine kind?
this is awesome - thank you for doing the deep dive. totally agreed that this assessment is what puts global asses in seats - not whether it makes the movie "good" or not. I don't even like titanic but it clearly fuckin nailed something

if I had to characterize the JC recipe for success, it's: massive action, an accessible story, and a will-they/won't-they romantic arc. for the love story aspect, the "forbidden" variety probably hits hardest (just titanic & avatar had this)

the abyss kind of has a love story, yes, but I don't think it really delivered on the action front, and the story was probably a bit too weird

I don't think true lies had a relevant sort of love story. rekindling isn't all that thrilling?

brilliant point about T2 and the paternal aspect that clearly worked for audiences. that's a great comparator for what A2 was likely going for. it planted some seeds for a love story between two of the new young characters in the next movie - we'll see if they go there.
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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing ONLY in cinema theaters

Post by The Bill »

True Lies wasn’t a hit? I know it’s not Terminator 2 money, but I thought it did well. Huh? Underage Eliza Dushku got fondled for nothing.


P.S. “ It went on to gross $146,282,411 in the United States and Canada and $232,600,000 in the rest of world, totaling $378,882,411 worldwide,[5] making it the third-highest-grossing film of 1994, after Forrest Gump and The Lion King.”
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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing ONLY in cinema theaters

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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing ONLY in cinema theaters

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FINALLY going to see it tomorrow. Pray for me, these long movies are often murder on my back and I'm hoping for a good day.


Wisened sages - what would be a good scene to rush to the bathroom?? Xpost "old people stuff" thread
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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing ONLY in cinema theaters

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Eight Bit Alien wrote: Tue Apr 11, 2023 5:41 pm


Wisened sages - what would be a good scene to rush to the bathroom?? Xpost "old people stuff" thread
you just gave me a great idea for the next billion dollar tech startup
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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing ONLY in cinema theaters

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I recommend skipping the scene where the baddies are ... MILD SPOILERS LOL ... terrorizing some random coastal indigenous peeps (Ta'unui village), trying to get information about where Jake & fam are. nothing really consequential happens, there's a decent amount of bad acting from the human boy, and it left me feeling pretty gross overall

this scene is right after the "reunion with whale friends" sequence, about 1h45m into the movie (so kinda close to the halfway point)

tangential, but one cool thing about the ~4 min preview scenes shown after the first movie's re-release: you go into the movie with a couple of skippable scenes under your belt
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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing ONLY in cinema theaters

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FVBTVS wrote: Tue Apr 11, 2023 5:47 pm
Eight Bit Alien wrote: Tue Apr 11, 2023 5:41 pm


Wisened sages - what would be a good scene to rush to the bathroom?? Xpost "old people stuff" thread
you just gave me a great idea for the next billion dollar tech startup

Im sorry to do this to ya but I think that already exists. I wanted to poll opinions here because of love reasons.
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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing ONLY in cinema theaters

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Ross, oel ngati kameie.

- Oel ngati kameie, oe zene pivlltxe nì'ul to fìtxan. Oel payeng a tsam aylì'u a kllpxìltu, slä oel krr a tsam a fìtseng fwa pìwopx.
- Fìtrr lu pxasik, a fì'ut lu trr a lu nìwotx. Fwa zene ke omum, ke tsun nga kavuk tsnì hawnu nìNa'vi lu law. Slä keftxo, ke omum tsun nga pängkxo alu Na'vi
-Eywa ngahu rey'eng, oel kin pivlltxe fì'ut sìltsana plltxe, fpom srak?
-HFR ulte 3D a lu txur, ngal tsun poltxe kefyak. Oe hì'ang lu awngaru frapo a kllkxemu fmawn
-Tìrey ulte tìtse'a ke zene pay. Ke srak nga nìawnomum fìtut ke tsun zene Marvel.
-Nìteng a krr aylì'u. Pxan nga tivawm, slä tsam fìtìkangkem kea srungsiyu tsat.
-Oe txoa livu James Cameron aylì'u. Lì'fyat ayoengìl.
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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing ONLY in cinema theaters

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I don't think that worked
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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing ONLY in cinema theaters

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ChatGPT fucking sucks at na'vi and my good idea was ruined
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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing ONLY in cinema theaters

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I will write detailed thoughts later but...

Very glad I caught it in theaters. I have no doubt that I will never see anything quite like that ever again. The visuals were incredible, although unfortunately the HFR and color-dampening effect of 3D was extremely distracting.

I feel like the core of it was great but the execution was insane. This movie shot itself in the foot. As a fan of JC I was totally satisfied and I'm definitely going to continue watching these flicks - but a part of me is sad in realizing Avatar will certainly be the only movies he makes from here on out. It wasn't effective enough at being escapist to be a satisfying summer blockbuster.

Loved the kids though! And the whale's eye is the craziest thing I've ever seen in a theater. There were a few really remarkable moments, but that's my main pick.
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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing ONLY in cinema theaters

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glad you liked it!

yeah laser projection (some IMAX; all Dolby Cinema) is really the only way to see 3D - it finally pumps out enough brightness to overcome the 3D issues.

I totally feel you re: the lack of real showstopper moments. the glowy breadcrumb rescue sequence near the end has grown on me a LOT but that's about it.

I really prefer the first one and am really hoping that this sequel was really a "fellowship" situation where it's kicking of a massive arc, establishing stuff that will pay off later. if 3 sucks I'm going to be so pissed hahaha.
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Re: James Cameron's AVATAR 2 - now playing ONLY in cinema theaters

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these two absolute maniacs talking about the fine details of the astronomy in Avatar

at one point, a guy says:
There are some scenes though that were shot with a >50mm lens which you can tell by the objects in the foreground. [screenshot]
they're trying to estimate the distance between celestial bodies by eye, and factoring in the properties of the "camera lens" used for a 100% fucking CGI shot :drooly:

(I'm not sure if this is genius or idiocy)
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