The _Avatar_ sequel, presumably also directed by James Cameron

when you're making these movies you have to figure out what the "camera" is doing even if that camera is just the way the frame moves. so... you're wrong

i'm willing to spend two hours watching mr. cameron's magicquarium if in the third hour i can see one of film's great set piece choreographers indulge in some of the most visceral and elaborately-staged (and surprisingly violent!) action i've seen in years

i mean, fair cop that a still frame from a marvel movie is totally empty garbage xp

when you're making these movies you have to figure out what the "camera" is doing even if that camera is just the way the frame moves. so... you're wrong

Words mean things, Brad. If a new word for what Cameron (or some Marvel hack) is doing is required, great — come up with one. But *shooting a scene* is one thing, and *creating a digital cartoon* is another. They are two different ways of approaching the same art form (cinema). I'm not saying that one is better or worse than the other. But to deny that they're two fundamentally different things is just foot-stomping.

i certainly get off on my share of brainless visual spectacles, but as i get older i find i'm more & more interested in visual spectacles that involve the human body. the way ppl are talking about enjoying the new avatar isnt foreign to me, its 100% how i enjoy martial arts & car chase/stunt movies these days, but i guess my bias is that theres something in my brain that is way more activated by the spectacle of human bodies in motion on planet earth and less & less blown away by planets where the sky is green or w/e.

the way ppl are talking about enjoying the new avatar isnt foreign to me, its 100% how i enjoy martial arts & car chase/stunt movies these days, but i guess my bias is that theres something in my brain that is way more activated by the spectacle of human bodies in motion on planet earth and less & less blown away by planets where the sky is green or w/e.

Me too — just keeping it to car stuff, I would much rather watch a movie like Lost Bullet where all the stunts are done by real human beings in real cars than one of the Fast & Furious movies where cars are leaping from one skyscraper to another or floating in space.

i'm willing to spend two hours watching mr. cameron's magicquarium if in the third hour i can see one of film's great set piece choreographers indulge in some of the most visceral and elaborately-staged (and surprisingly violent!) action i've seen in years

Yeah that's the other thing the movie has going for it which doesn't get mentioned enough — dude is one of the great action directors, and I for one did not get tired of the closing 40 minutes of mayhem because the action kept moving and changing.

Also, I don't pretend to understand everything that goes on in making such a CGI-dependent movie, but it's not only a cartoon, there are actual actors (in motion-capture suits, granted) actually moving, there are actual sets and actual cameras moving through them.

i do think there's a fundamental difference between mo-cap and pure cgi, and, to me, that difference comes across very starkly when comparing the action in this film to *insert marvel film here*

Yeah, the action feels much more visceral here.

Definitely some rad action stuff in the final third, but thought the final throwdown with the big bad was a little anticlimactic.

I agree but that's partly because he got away. And also because Sully himself had to be rescued by his kids, solidifying the movie as really being more their story than his.

the movie is all-digital sure, but that doesn't mean that cameron didn't use a boatload of practical effects. this is the guy who basically built an artificial lake for titanic, and he's back on his water bullshit again

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/16/movies/avatar-2-fx-cgi.html

it's hard not to be impressed with the scope of filmmaking ingenuity required to make this movie look as good as it does.

see also, this indiewire interview: https://www.indiewire.com/2022/12/avatar-3-james-cameron-interview-1234793007/

I haven't seen JC's last three movies. I'm watching them on a 30 year delay, looking forward to finally seeing Titanic in 2027.

When I think about James Cameron's movies, the first thing that comes to mind is honestly the characters, with the effects and action second (Even though the effects in action are usually pretty awesome). I don't remember anything about True Lies, maybe my least favorite movie from him, but I remember all the characters pretty vividly. Avatar might be the sole example of the opposite for me among his films, in that I remember the look of the movie pretty well, but nothing about the characters.

just rewatched ikiru, it’s still dope, the solemn piety, the measured pacing, the sudden lurch from present to future (past to present?), the disintegration of the funeral in the last thirty minutes where you feel the impact of death in the truest human way

people who don’t like it are nerds

how were the fx?

i’m sure you could devote this energy to a new tv show forks

the fx in ikiru are just fine and match the needs of the narrative well, which is a difficult thing to do! you wouldn't think so but juggling a meaningful story with memorable characters that touches on complex topics, presented thoughtfully and without facile metaphor is somehow harder to pull off than crafting an entire world in a computer.

i'm pretty good at devoting my energy across an array of topics and media, mostly because i manage a pretty consistent intuition as to where i'll emerge feeling that it was wasted.

i think it's part of cameron's point with these movies tho, that if you build a compelling enough sandbox and hit the right story beats, you don't need that stuff. it's pure cinema, removing any vestigial elements of the stage

― comedy khadafi (voodoo chili), Wednesday, December 21, 2022

I mean, there are plenty of guns planted in the first two acts to pay off in the third... but this is it right here. the last hour

that every beat in this movie is entirely predictable, down to gosh that's a long way to swim and we haven't seen the our whale buddy in a while I bet... is a feature not a bug. it's the cinematic equivalent of Larry Bird telling his defender exactly what he's about to do and then doing it.

whoops "the last hour" snuck in there as non sequitur. was just going to say it's up there with mad max: fury road as pure cinema. the efficiency with which Cameron ensures that we are fully on board with every last random henchperson getting what they have coming is extraordinary.

yeah it's not a complex story, but it's exceedingly well-executed

the complexity comes through the visuals and the imagination of another world, its people, and culture. that's the part that doesn't always resonate with me (all the spiritual stuff about the living world is woo woo nonsense), but the story is structured well enough that i do care about the world and the characters, even if i don't always remember names

hmmm y'all want me to watch this, doncha

cameron's work has always bounced off me; am i right in assuming this is a refinement of his process and not an overhaul?

dontcha wish your Avatar was blue like me

it's the cinematic equivalent of Larry Bird telling his defender exactly what he's about to do and then doing it.

that would be exactly right, if the entire audience were all furiously hoping to stop James Cameron from doing it

he didn't start the fire

don't ask me why

Rewatched the first Avatar with the kids to prep for seeing the sequel in the theaters. We’ve been working our way through the Marvel movies and I was struck by how good JC is at overall pacing and how well directed the action sequences are. No matter how chaotic things are, you always know where to look and it’s always very clear what is happening.

Brad is probably the only person who could make me be interested in Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) but I don't think it's gonna work

my reaction to the trailer was basically shock that over a decade of work he hadn't come up with anything

like if you make an animated movie and your characters aren't conveying anything about themselves through costume, silhouette, or movement, and in fact are scarcely to be distinguished from each other except by whether or not they have mechs(?), why did you make an animated movie

Brad labeling everyone who doesn't agree with him about the movie as just 'nerds who are trying to look smart' is... an unfortunate approach. But we'll all get over it, I'm sure.

silbs this is a deeply expressive movie on every level

didn’t you love alita? the same earnestness bleeds from this, on top of which the climax is like five cameron movies in a head-on collision, haven’t felt that since the matrix reloaded

the highway sequence specifically which i think even matrix sequels haters will acknowledge as cool and also heavily indebted to cameron, it was that kind of constant raising of stakes and complexity even though you were witnessing everything with total clarity

also whales are cool and there are so many whales in this movie

Brad labeling everyone who doesn't agree with him about the movie as just 'nerds who are trying to look smart' is... an unfortunate approach. But we'll all get over it, I'm sure.

― more difficult than I look (Aimless)

Aimless, you've been on this board too goddamn long not to understand how internet hyperbole works.

exaggerating for effect bc i am sure there are ppl out there who have totally legit reasons to dislike avatar and how can i account for that, how can i dismiss that all as unfettered nerdedry???? obv it’s ridiculous. however you’ll notice only nerds raised their hackles

We're all nerds yo

nerd, c'est moi

i am the kind of nerd who loves looking at cool shit and well-plotted action and these movies offer me a phantasmagoric portal into realm that is nearly 100 percent that. they are effective on that level. if you are looking for something that they are not offering, i can't take the objection seriously

vc otm that the new group of kids offers interesting characterization on top of the visual splendor, especially spider and teen sigourney weaver (i also will never remember any of the sully family's names except jakesully)

also whales are cool and there are so many whales in this movie

― flamenco drop (BradNelson)

Ok this is a genuine selling point, I guess I might watch this at some point and put up with the parts with Avatar guys

Never did see the first one either but it’s hard to believe that’s essential in any way

long-form James Cameron (everything from Titanic on) doesn't really appeal to me, but I get what he's going for and can appreciate what he's doing. one of the few people working on insanely expensive movies who understands scale and spectacle

there were some amazing scenes in this one and I ended up caring for the characters more than I did with the original. I didn't love it, but I appreciated it

silby you can totally skip the first one. I had only a vague recollection of the plot and there's enough summary and description that it makes the broad strokes of the first movie clear

you have to hand it to Cameron, he doesn't really do vague callbacks or require you to remember details

I don't even remember the last time I saw a movie in 3d, but I do know this is only one of a couple times I have done so and felt like it was worth seeing in that format

(oh wait, the last one might have been Gaspar Noe's Love. that was uh, maybe worth seeing in 3d for completely different reasons)

agreed that anyone interested in seeing this can skip the first one, there's basically an extended "previously on avatar" sequence that begins the film and tells you everything you need to know

i usually don't love 3d movies but i think in this instance it worked really well in tandem with the high frame rate to make the action scenes pop.

like i have no need for little floaty bioluminescent flowers to be in 3d, but i dug it during the climax

i liked the near-constant presence of bugs in the first act