_Avatar_, directed by James Cameron

I wasn't born when Star Wars came out and I love it, tho

in terms of pure escapism video games have had movies beat for the past 10 years or so

uhhh

Dude, that's the thing! Why're movies competing w a medium they can't beat? Unless you can tell the characters what to do etc, this is a stupid principle to be acting off

xopost

except, most ppl don't play video games on cinema screens, with cinema sound systems.

immersiveness is a false grail imo

any good art should be immersive

yeah, when i want this kind of jolt, i just play a game

http://img.slate.com/media/1/122939/2207695/2237022/2238895/CA_091217_avatar.jpg

^^^think this is going to be indicative of the HARD JOURNALISM directed at this for the next 48 hours

really cannot believe in this day and age people are still talking abt movies and video games as if they do the same things

seems silly to think that the wonder of cinema consists of special effects w no decent context

Kinda agree there, but on the second hand I also think a lot of movies these days hinge wholly on plots that are so unbelievable and half-assed the suspension of disbelief is getting worn out. Maybe some big budget eye candy with no narrative would be a cool future for cinema.

pretty sure this movie would do roughly the same thing for me as playing uncharted 2

just not in all EYEPOPPING 3-D but i will trade you that for being in a theater on opening night any day

I might be more receptive to the idea of "all spectacle" if the spectacle wasn't so blandly unimaginative.

I'm sure it'll be a fun 3 hours and whatnot, but it still looks like Delgo with a bigger budget. Which is really just removing half of what was lame about Delgo.

yeah cause movies are always filled w/scenes of u trying to jump over a pit and falling on spikes repeatedly for two hours - movies and video games are less similar than wikipedia and a novel - they both compete for yr entertainment time but past that xp

That's a terribly poor point

yeah cause movies are always filled w/scenes of u trying to jump over a pit and falling on spikes repeatedly for two hours

don't give lars von trier any ideas.

as someone who's done his fair share of both, movies and video games do NOTHING like the same thing to me... even so-called cinematic ones like uncharted. i've never, ever been emotionally invested in anything that happens in a video game (or any character), never wondered how the story was going to develop... they are barely in the same universe for me

i saw this today. i won't say much 'til people have had a chance to download it or wahtever, but it was better than i thought it would be.

i just came back from it. basically slocki otm BUT

...

yeah i agreed with slocki's review, though the blue people didn't bother me as much. thing about them that i admired was that i it really didn't take too long for me to think of them as "people". there was no uncanny valley distraction (which is good because this movie would have failed utterly if it had, since the movie depends on the audience empathizing with them to work on any level).

it is TOTALLY ferngully with guns btw

...in a good way, mostly!

the earth mother gaia hooey does get to be a bit much after a while

yeah, and some of the more sentimental scenes sort of made me cringe. the two things i found the most annoying were the music and the accents. just this sort of generic indistinct ethnic otherness.

thing about them that i admired was that i it really didn't take too long for me to think of them as "people". there was no uncanny valley distraction

yeah, i was impressed the most by this. overall the f/x were great. they generally had a nice tangible, physical feel to them despite not being 100% photoreal.

also nice to see action sequences that had clear geography and were easy to follow. don't know why that's so rare in modern movies.

anyway that's not to excuse the film's flaws, just to say that it does the spectacle part very very well.

i will paste this everywhere

http://img.slate.com/media/1/122939/2207695/2237022/2238895/CA_091217_avatar.jpg

as someone who's done his fair share of both, movies and video games do NOTHING like the same thing to me... even so-called cinematic ones like uncharted. i've never, ever been emotionally invested in anything that happens in a video game (or any character), never wondered how the story was going to develop... they are barely in the same universe for me

― akira goldsman (s1ocki), Friday, 18 December 2009 08:00 (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^yes

well, see, no in my case. I've had some emotional involvement and intellectual curiosity about plot development with games and it feels about as properly placed as if I had same with a cameron film.
obvs this is personal so i don't feel the need to really argue a point here, but I will say that I don't need to see a big visual spectacular with no plot anymore and it ain't that I'm above it or something; it's just less likely to leave me really engaged. I've seen a gazillion lush gorgeous films and i'd rather do yimou than bay i guess; I gotta have some meat in the plot and characterizations OR i gotta be able to have physical control of the characters themselves or my mind wanders.

lol I'm not saying games = movies; I'm just saying in terms of spectacle/worldbuilding games do it better, and so far avatars big draw is how much of a spectacle it presents

I'll also freely admit that the last game I played was modern warfare 2 so that probably colors my viewpoint

as an aside, I see the PS3 can handle 3D apparently but we'll all need another telly upgrade or alternatively expensive glasses to use it

Flick was fun. Definitely some Starcraft moments (a friend said it was Terrans + Night Elves, so a cross-property Blizzard affair).

desplechin = video games
cameron = cinema

cameron = cinema
desplechin = video games life

I don't need to see a big visual spectacular with no plot anymore and it ain't that I'm above it or something; it's just less likely to leave me really engaged.

^This, basically. And the thing is, that isn't really how Cameron used to be. The reason why his older stuff (Aliens, The Abyss, the Terminators) worked is because it wasn't all spectacle. There was also an engaging (if somewhat facile) featuring characters you cared about somewhat. From everything that's been said about Avatar thus far, the story appears to be pretty weak, so if it's all just Arnie rampin' off an overpass in 3-D, I can prolly just wait for the home theater showroom demo at the Best Buy.

"engaging (if somewhat facile) story", I meant.

Deric otm! It's so disappointing because we have proof the guy was a great storyteller; he just didn't seem to care anymore when he could instead be playing with 3d blue titties.

also nice to see action sequences that had clear geography and were easy to follow. don't know why that's so rare in modern movies.

― krampus activities (latebloomer), Friday, December 18, 2009 7:41 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

this line alone makes me want to see it! we should do a thread on 00s action sequences that manage this

yeah cause movies are always filled w/scenes of u trying to jump over a pit and falling on spikes repeatedly for two hours - movies and video games are less similar than wikipedia and a novel - they both compete for yr entertainment time but past that xp

― ice cr?m, Friday, December 18, 2009 1:29 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

That's a terribly poor point

― The reverse TARDIS of pasta (Niles Caulder), Friday, December 18, 2009 2:01 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you are a terribly poor point

this guy

but I will say that I don't need to see a big visual spectacular with no plot anymore

the movie's problem is not lack of a story or plot. it's that the story is disappointingly conventional.

sub "no plot" with "no interesting plot" then.
bottom line is that if I'm going to spend two hours plus watching grandeur and neat-o shit i can totally get down with that, but i can more or less do that hanging out in times square. it's just colder. just as many furries tho

the worst moment in this movie is when they hook up to the forest internet and you can hear the sound of children laughing faintly in the distance as they experience all the na'vi's memories

from the local mpls paper review lol:

The Na'vi use a kind of organic USB cord to hook into the minds of their steeds, controlling them by mental osmosis. Watching "Avatar," I felt that Cameron had hooked into my mental circuitry, downloading gigabytes of pure moviegoing bliss.

item!

wait, so cameron was downloading gigs of pure moviegoing bliss from this guy? does he mean uploading?

hahaha