Avatar Day by BigRichard

OTHER SCIENCE FICTION SERIES

Avatar Day

POSTED BY: BIGRICHARD
UPDATED: Saturday, August 22, 2009 14:21
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Wednesday, August 19, 2009 8:10 PM

A friend and I both won a double pass, so will be there tomorrow at Imax to see whether James Cameron's latest is a masterpiece or just another overhyped sci-fi effects extravaganza.

Anyone else going? Anyone interested in hearing what I think after I get home?

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Wednesday, August 19, 2009 8:58 PM

TUJIAOZUO

I wanted to, I desperately wanted to as Cameron stressed that the 15 minutes shown is entirely different than the 25 minutes he showed us at CC (and what we saw was absolutely mind bending). However my Imax didn't get picked up, and the nearest one is unfortunately 3 hours away.

I told my friends their job is to watch the fifteen minutes, then jump on Skype and tell me all about it in vivid detail.

Your Indian Pirate Lord,
Ash

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Wednesday, August 19, 2009 11:48 PM

MANGOLO

Quote:
Originally posted by BigRichard:

A friend and I both won a double pass, so will be there tomorrow at Imax to see whether James Cameron's latest is a masterpiece or just another overhyped sci-fi effects extravaganza.

Anyone else going? Anyone interested in hearing what I think after I get home?

I'm totally interest in hearing about it

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=86085840444

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Thursday, August 20, 2009 1:12 AM

BIGRICHARD

Sorry to hear you couldn't get there TuJiaoZuo, but at least you got to see the ComicCon stuff!

Will post up thoughts after I see it.

Hopefully it'll be amazing.

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Thursday, August 20, 2009 11:31 AM

MANGOLO

One of my friends in the biz showed me the trailer looks cool, but not much to differentiate it from Attack of the Clones or Revenge of the Sith in character designs, lighting, ships, and background matte painting. The story looks like it is going to be like Disney's Pocahontas.

I do like the flying steeds they ride- I can see a Dragonriders of Pern coming out of this!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=86085840444

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Thursday, August 20, 2009 12:39 PM

MANGOLO

Pics:

Hmmm. Looks strangely like a shot in Attack of the Clones

Dragonriders!

John Smith and Pocahontas

They even chose the same lighting!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=86085840444

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Thursday, August 20, 2009 8:09 PM

CLJOHNSTON108

Well, the Na'vi obviously have some feline DNA in 'em.

But I'm absolutely stunned by the creature design in Avatar! I've been going through the trailer frame-by-frame and studying things like the dental work on the forest predator and dragons, and the beautiful wing configuration on the dragons .

(I'm a little confused as to how the jaws above close so smoothly as to create the streamlined snout you see below)

I had a sneaking suspicion who was responsible, so I just now looked it up on IMDb, and yep, I was right!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/fullcredits#cast
None other than Mr. Wayne Douglas Barlowe!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Barlowe

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"Spry for a dead fella!"

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Thursday, August 20, 2009 8:42 PM

MANGOLO

Barlowe is awesome. I've been looking at his stuff for years!

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Friday, August 21, 2009 4:30 AM

BIGRICHARD

right...well...where to begin.

First off, I don't believe the trailer does Avatar justice. And I'm sure you'll hear this a lot and think "well, meh!" but honestly, the trailer looked pretty cool, but ultimately wasn't brilliant.

So, the 15 minutes of footage.
It honestly felt like it was over in a flash. It was either Cameron showing us 5 minutes and hoping we wouldn't notice, or I enjoyed the hell out of what I saw so much, that time positively FLEW by. In fact, even though I KNEW that I was only seeing a preview, the SECOND I realised it was coming to an end, what I was thinking wasn't "oh my god, I got to come to Avatar Day, and that all looked amazing," it was "HOLY SHIT I WANT TO SEE THE REST OF THE MOVIE NOW WTF PLEASE DON'T STOP!"

Now. I honestly don't want to hype this film up too much, especially for myself. I loved District 9, but I would've enjoyed it more if I'd seen it with lower expectations, because when I saw it, it was hyped so much that I wasn't overly surprised that it was good, if you understand where I'm coming from. A brilliant film is always better if you're not expecting it to be the second coming of Christ.

Briefly, I just want to say that the visuals are indeed amazing. The CGI and just the overall look and feel of the film is astounding. The 3D is never overplayed, and never felt gimmicky, there were no spears being purposely pointed out of the screen at the audience. And not only all of this, but you got quite a hint at a decent (and fairly epic) story as well. It really did feel a bit like two cultures meeting for the first time, and one of those being completely alien, yet beautifully real.

Obviously I think there will be people who won't like this film. It's a scifi film with aliens. It's not the sort of film I'd tell my mum or sister to watch. It's not Titanic.
With that said, I feel utterly devastated that I now have to wait until December to see the rest of the film, and that is all you could really ask for. And I assume that I've just given into Cameron's plan.
1. Get Avatar Day attendees to pay money to see the film on it's opening weekend.
2. Get them to tell everyone else to see it.
3. Amass an army to take over the world.

You might not like it, it might not be your sort of thing. To describe it, it really is a bit like Lord of the Rings meets Pocahontas meets Attack of the Clones (but not in a bad way, just style-wise). If you go into this film thinking about how "aliens don't exist, so this film is all a load of crap", then chances are, you won't enjoy it. But if you go in expecting a beautiful film with a great scifi/adventure story, then hopefully, when December rolls around, we'll all have an amazing time.

Anyway, enough of my going on.
If you have any questions about what I saw, feel free to ask, I'm more than happy to answer questions, (did I mention we got free drinks and popcorn!) and I look forward to seeing Avatar in December, hopefully being extremely pleased, and surely discussing it online with all you fine folks.

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Saturday, August 22, 2009 4:48 AM

PCCH7

what´s even more funny is the similarity to "Delgo", the biggest box office flop ever

http://img.denihilation.com/delgovatar.html

"Bam, said the lady"

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Saturday, August 22, 2009 2:21 PM

CRUITHNE3753

Liked the functional looking starship. But...

Floating rocks? Eh?

Blue magick pixies? Meh!

I'd scrap it and make a move of Niven's "The Mote in God's Eye"

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