Saw Avatar: Pretty awesome
I saw Avatar in 3D at the Metreon with Stacy. It’s pretty, awesome, and pretty awesome.
Totally beautiful, sumptuous visuals, gorgeous realization of an alternate world. And the aliens are totally hot!
I should write more about it but I’m short on time. So here’s bullet points:
the first 1/2 of the movie hurt my eyes with the 3D, maybe they were pushing objects forward of the screen with the effects instead of behind the screen? The 2nd half had less issue with this. Coraline was crisper in 3d, but that was at the Alameda theater and done with real claymation.
CGI or costumes?! Wow, it’s really hard to tell. Must have been both.
They got the helicopter sounds wrong! The most common flying machine in the movie is this totally awesome looking “scorpion gunship”. Each of the 2 “wings” has 2 co-axial counter-rotating 3 bladed propellers in a ducted fan. So it would sound a lot like the “woooooo” of a jet engine. Maybe with a bit of resonance, like “wooowooowooowooo” But the sound effect they used is that of a regular 2 bladed helicopter, going “Tuh Tuh Tuh Tuh”. Every time I heard the sound (which was a lot toward the end with all the crashing and smashing of those machines!) I cringed :-(
Ooo, pretty!
I can imagine it being worth seeing it in IMAX. But there were no good showtimes at the Metreon :-(
Yup, the 3D movie experience has saved modern cinema from being outmoded by large screen televisions in peoples’ homes.
Exploring the world reminded me of this fantasy book I read that had lots of word-play with real magical hangman trees and steaming bread trees… Argh, I don’t recall the name!
Update 3-14-10: Xanth!
Ferngully on steroids ( computer graphics). I won’t be seeing it, but I’m glad others like it.
Counsel, that’s a good analogy. When I was raving about The Matrix years ago, a friend told me “It’s simple. Guy figures out that life is a video game, he wins.” That took some of the wind out of my sails. :-) (I still love The Matrix anyway)
I am sure the movie is good, but I look for new story lines more than rehashes. I won’t be seeing the new karate kid(why it isn’t Kung Fu kid as it is in China, I don’t know) even though I think Jackie Chan will do wonders to the myagi-type roll. Same story, different picture. Of course, I likely would enjoy avatar as I liked Ferngully. :)
You are right about the sound, they would not sound like a 2 blade bird. I have worked with Black Hawks, until they spin up the blades all you hear are the turbines. Turbines at full power and not a blade moving. The sound changes real quick when they spin up the blades, from no movement to airborne in about 2 minutes. Check out the Russian long range bomber with counter rotating props, rumors were they could be picked up by sonar.
I’m not an expert, but I am an RC junkie.