Avatar = Natural Selection the Movie? [Spoilers]
Dee
Canada Join Date: 2002-12-15 Member: 10836Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
Canada Join Date: 2002-12-15 Member: 10836Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
in Off-Topic
Just got back from a screening of James Cameron's Avatar. Was it just me, or were the creatures on Pandora eerily similar to our beloved Kharaa?
Hammerhead rhino = Onos
Black panthery thing = Fade
Winged beasts = Lerk
Jackals = Skulk
Not to mention boatloads of Marines.
The only thing that might have been missing was the Gorge. Can't recall if I saw anything that quite looked like a Gorge, but the movie moved so quickly and the world so detailed that it would have been easy to miss...
BTW, if you can see this movie in RealD 3D, I highly recommend it.
Hammerhead rhino = Onos
Black panthery thing = Fade
Winged beasts = Lerk
Jackals = Skulk
Not to mention boatloads of Marines.
The only thing that might have been missing was the Gorge. Can't recall if I saw anything that quite looked like a Gorge, but the movie moved so quickly and the world so detailed that it would have been easy to miss...
BTW, if you can see this movie in RealD 3D, I highly recommend it.
Comments
If anyone from the NS2 team reads this thread, you guys should head out on a team-building/group-outing to see this movie. I think you'll find it quite inspirational. And again, the 3D. Goes without saying.
-Earth planet was going bad (probably a president or something). jk resources
-Humans find a new planet
-Inhabited by some fairy or whatever creatures
-One human gets shrunk down to their size
-Human joins them
Fural, forual.. I don't remember. Didn't ask my friend to spell it out.
Either way, Avatar seems cool. Just too busy to see it atm.
-Earth planet was going bad (probably a president or something). jk resources
-Humans find a new planet
-Inhabited by some fairy or whatever creatures
-One human gets shrunk down to their size
-Human joins them
Fural, forual.. I don't remember. Didn't ask my friend to spell it out.
Either way, Avatar seems cool. Just too busy to see it atm.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Almost sounds like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferngully" target="_blank">FernGully</a>
It was very much like fern gully, if it was remade with a $400 million budget
Honestly, I enjoyed Avatar. However, when it was over, I was thinking to myself, what the heck happened in that movie? Almost 3 hours, and you could recount the whole plot in about 5 minutes. I guess about 95% of the movie was just pretty pictures. but they were indeed pretty.
Honestly, I enjoyed Avatar. However, when it was over, I was thinking to myself, what the heck happened in that movie? Almost 3 hours, and you could recount the whole plot in about 5 minutes. I guess about 95% of the movie was just pretty pictures. but they were indeed pretty.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That pretty much sums it up. Don't go for the plot, but sit back and enjoy the show.
Now now, the plot was not THAT bad. A bit bland, but overall enjoyable. Just don't expect uber lines or zomg plot twist (here's a hint, the guy gets the girl. surprised? Also, the corporation is evil and kills ppl)
From the trailers and stuff I was expecting more silly looking things with bright colours (kind of muppets in space aka star wars meets the smurfs) but the flora and fauna were actually pretty cool. I didn't get that 'made with crayons' feel I was expecting (seriously, the creature design in a lot of things tends to annoy me) and the Navi were oddly convincing the whole way through.
As above the plot didn't really surprise and there's some gaping holes in it as per usual (seriously, is it that hard to write something that has less plot holes than a sieve? I can't remember the last film I saw that wasn't riddled with them) but it's fun all the same and that's all that really matters :p
One thing about the 3D that always really hits me is the glass. I noticed it in UP! too. It's one of those few things that makes the 3D really 'pop' for me along with the holographic displays and flies/fluff in the foreground. Outside of that the 3D effect is usually quite subtle :o
As above the plot didn't really surprise and there's some gaping holes in it as per usual (seriously, is it that hard to write something that has less plot holes than a sieve? I can't remember the last film I saw that wasn't riddled with them) but it's fun all the same and that's all that really matters :p
One thing about the 3D that always really hits me is the glass. I noticed it in UP! too. It's one of those few things that makes the 3D really 'pop' for me along with the holographic displays and flies/fluff in the foreground. Outside of that the 3D effect is usually quite subtle :o<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
QFT.
I love the subtle 3D effects the most. Like the overlay during the video logs. Or how it gives just a bit of depth to an actor's face. No weird gimmicky 3D effects. Sometimes when something hits the edge of the screen it messes with stuff, but otherwise it was amazingly tastefully done.
I think it deserves at least an oscar nomination for best special effects. The 3D effects aren't gimmicky like most movies out there so that's a great relief. Great acting overall for the cast but I was most impressed by Zoe Saldana, as the nav'i princess.
This is James Cameron going back to do what he does back. Sci-fi. And I'm happy he's back doing it.
just sat in their chairs loving what they saw unfold.
Everyone knows money sucks anyways.
--Scythe--
Like I say, I can pick holes in Avatar but at the end of the day I enjoyed it. That leads to a piece of news more interesting to me; Avatar was a test run of a lot of tech they're planning to use in his Alita/Gunm films. Now THAT better be awesome =D
Mr Cameron rather likes his anime and manga and he's supposedly a big Gunm fan. He's reportedly making it in 2 or 3 movies so he can adequetely cover things like the rollerball stuff (which was awesome :p ).
Come to think of it, I guess the Navi do kinda have 'Anime' facial proportions...
I'm hopeful but we'll have to see.
One thing I find interesting is this quote from his post-avatar interview with MTV:
<!--QuoteBegin-"James Cameron"+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE ("James Cameron")</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->The mixture of live-action and CG is a little trickier in 3-D than it is 2-D. Now we see it’s good to have done Avatar first before Battle Angel, because the tricky scenes are where you’re blending live-action photography, stereoscopic photography and CG.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Mainly because he basically hints that Alita will also be a real/CG mix. I mean, you'd have to use CG for half the rollerball cast anyway but I always imagined it'd all be CG like toystory or predominantly real like silent hill, the horrible chun-li movie or the joke that's the king of fighers movie :p
On a tangeant, I sometimes wonder if the Navi looked more convincing to me than usual BECAUSE of the 3D tech. As mentioned above the 3D was subtle but it did help give depth to the character's faces and make some features probably more clearly defined than they might be in 2D (like the little white bumps on their skin).
/signed , also THE RESEMBLANCE TO NS I FOUND CAN BE EXPRESSED POLITELY IN A VAGUELY RANDOM SENTENCE. oh yeah.
--Scythe--<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Which is why Cameron decided not to cast Micheal Bien as the Colonel cause he felt like ALOT of ppl would make the Aliens connection together with Weaver in it.
Going to watch the movie again today, really have to engorge myself with that awesome 3D-visuals in the cinema before it's too late to ever see it again.
<a href="http://yanai.blackmage.org/sky2/?p=3353" target="_blank">lookeh!</a>
<span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>One thing though... Do the smurfs really think the sky people won't be back? And this time with a military general that actually knows something about tactics and warfare. Just bomb the ###### out of them, with a high flying bomber, instead of a weird looking slow moving space shuttle that flies below the treeline... You're just asking for problems that way :D Heck if you completly want to kick the storyline in the nuts go ahead with an orbital bomber.
Ah well to be fair, the movie is nicer with this moronic type of warfare :D </span>
As for the tactics, they weren't necessarily bad in theory. <span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>He knew he had to wipe out the warriors that were there because they were amassing too quickly. This meant sending in the ground troops because bombs alone wouldn't cut it to wipe out the warriors. We also don't know the material available to him, those bombs seemed like a last ditch effort. The general had an overwhelming force(at that time), but also knew he wouldn't much longer if he didn't do something to break the spirit of the natives. That is why he was focused on getting to the tree, breaking morale, and killing the warriors there.
Also I doubt orbital bombardment was an option. They have a single base on a world six years away. Their goal isn't extermination, but to get the unobtanium(I can't decide if that's awesome or breaks the fourth wall too much) out of the ground for the least cost. Finally, it was mentioned that you need line of sight in the area the natives were staying several times due to electrical targeting/navigation not working. The orbital bombardment would likely have seemed a waste of resources compared to a focused attack using (presumably) overwhelming force against people with (presumably) merely bows and arrows.</span>
Well, obviously <span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>they had to get the unobtanium to build a ship to travel to the Earth's core, which had stopped spinning.</span>
"We will fight terror with terror."
"Do it for your childrens' children."
Bad one, Cameron. Bad one.