I agree as well. A movie I never thought of again after leaving the theater many years ago. Cool 3D/effects, but if a movie doesn't have an interesting story and quality acting, it never resonates with me. When I read about the announcement of multiple sequels my first thought was, "Is anybody really excited for it or asking for sequels to Avatar?" All of that said, it will be interesting to see if this brings people back to the movie theater in droves, given most now need a spectacle that requires a big screen/big sound to venture away from home and their streaming services.
Saw it today in a Dolby Plus theater and found out after about 2 minutes it was in 3D. The girl who checked me didn’t say anything and it didn’t say 3D on my ticket, so back out I went to get glasses. Ah better. The movie is still a stunning 3D achievement and makes me almost miss 3D movies (rare these days). ‘whatever happened to Sam Worthington? Looked like he was gonna break big at the time. Strange to see Sigourney Weaver now and forgot Michelle Rodriguez was in it (she of the Fast And Furious franchise). ‘Jolly good time overall, a movie from a different pre-Marvel Universe era.
Seeing Avatar in glorious 3D, one can not think of ,if your a Yes fan, how Roger Dean the sky mountains look in the movie. A Yes album come to life though Roger Dean did lose his lawsuit back in 2014.
A few images from Avatar The Way of Water The Visual Dictionary to be released in December. RDA Recom Unit
Interesting article for camera gear-heads. The Underwater Cinematography Behind Avatar 2: 3D Beam Splitter and Nikonos Lenses - YMCinema - News & Insights on Digital Cinema The Underwater Cinematography Behind Avatar 2: 3D Beam Splitter and Nikonos Lenses BY YOSSY MENDELOVICH OCTOBER 24, 2022 Avatar 2 has been shot mainly underwater, by utilizing, for the first time, a specific camera tech. Besides the Sony VENICE, the underwater rig was built from a 3D Beam Splitter called DeepX 3D which was developed by inventor and cinematographer Pawel Achtel. The glass used was the Nikonos 15mm lenses, which are special old lenses developed by Nikon for underwater photography. This combination was assembled in order to grant clean, distortion-free 3D IMAX underwater imagery. All details (and credits) are below: Avatar 2 lenses: 1980s Nikon glass -Nikonos 15mm The lenses that were attached to the DeepX 3D System are old, and simple submersible lenses by Nikon. As explained by Pawel: “Nikonos 15mm sn #216940 and #202669 (2xxxx serial numbers were introduced in the early 1980s for UW-Nikkor 15mm f / 2.8 N) were the two lenses selected from a pool of over 100 lenses based on their consistent optical performance and sharpness extending from corner to corner. We have measured MTF (Modulation Transfer Function) in 5 points of the frame to evaluate and chose some of the sharpest optics ever created. These two lenses in combination with our patented DeepX 3D submersible beam-splitter offer incredibly immersive and breath-taking underwater images not possible to obtain using any other technology. It looks different because it is different. I hope you like the results as there has never been anything like this ever done before”. What James Camera is saying? Pawel was interviewed by Brett Stanley from the Underwater Podcast, regarding his invention being extensively utilized by James Cameron on Avatar 2. The podcast discusses underwater cinematography, optics, 3D, and the upcoming Avatar 2: The Way of Water, where Pawel’s innovation was used for the first time. Pawel supplied the lenses and the 3D underwater rig that was launched in 2015 (ahead of its time) and has never been used before. As stated by Pawel: “When I actually saw the underwater images coming from the 3D rig on the set of Avatar to the surface and displayed on a 4K 3D screen which is how James Cameron likes to see the images on set. And that was something that the entire team said Wow! The first thing that you noticed is that it looks like air. It doesn’t look underwater at all. There’s no distortion. You’re completely immersed in the image…the images are completely flat. James Cameron said that he has never ever filmed underwater with this quality before, by far”. Furthermore, Avatar is the only film that utilized this setup. No other project has used it. The DeepX 3D was not built especially for Avatar 2, but for IMAX-dedicated underwater productions. However, James Cameron found it on Pawel’s website and contact him. Pawel states that he knew this setup was perfect for the Avatar 2 production.
Huh? The first movie was mostly animation right? Why the push for all this live underwater footage with new cameras? Hasn’t every publicy footage from the new movie been from a indoor pool at a soundstage? Sure, they are filming stuff underwater, but certainly most of what you see is animated in the end no?
I agree with you 100%. The visuals of course were awesome. And when the plot dealt with the connectedness of things, I enjoyed that. But Stephen Lang’s character especially turned me off. Yeah, and as another poster said, Roger Dean was ripped off.
The making of Avatar documentary will explain it way better than I can (see below). What we are seeing is performance capture which is then converted into their non-human characters, CGI animation takes over to finish the job. from the New York Times - Oct. 25, 2022Updated 4:41 p.m. ET Movies like “Aquaman” and the upcoming live-action version of “The Little Mermaid” take place underwater but don’t actually submerge the actors. “Avatar: The Way of Water” does, and the actors had to learn how to hold their breath for several minutes to shoot some of its undersea sequences. What’s gained from doing it for real? CAMERON Oh, I don’t know, maybe that it looks good? Come on! You want it to look like the people are underwater, so they need to be underwater. It’s not some gigantic leap — if you were making a western, you’d be out learning how to ride a horse. I knew Sam was a surfer, but Sig and Zoe and the others weren’t particularly ocean-oriented folks. So I was very specific about what would be required, and we got the world’s best breath-hold specialists to talk them through it.
And there’s more Avatars to follow ye gads. The actual design reminds me of „Cats“ or a Michael Jackson video.
Well, I call that a publicity stunt. "No one" is going to tell the difference. It's weird that Cameron puts so much energy and work into doing things for real, but then he he just makes it an animation in the end. Just like Zemeckis. Old guys who loved the pratical stuff, but then they became the digital cgi lovers of Hollywood. But somehow they still likes to pretend that they are shooting a movie like in 1995. Just to keep it... real
You should stick to movies pre-1993 Jurassic Park....everyone in the industry is heavily indebted to the advances in CGI, the innovations in that area continue, Cameron and a few others are doing their part to keep pushing the innovations forward. How else do you bring Iron Man, 12' feet tall alien Na'vi to the big screen or have dinosaurs running along with Chris Pratt on a motorcycle? Weta FX is heavily involved in the Avatar sequels, they also worked on the Planet of the Apes trilogy.
Being a storyteller can have two different purposes. One, is to tell a compelling story. Another, is to make the story more compelling in the "telling" (in this case, the cinematography, the design, the very reason for doing the film). I don't think anybody's gonna remember Avatar The First, on its' original story. But nobody's gonna forget, the reason they will remember it.
I saw the preview during the Avatar re-release, the one with the guy and the whale, and it was astounding. I had to remind myself afterwards that most of what I just saw wasn't real. I can't wait to watch this in 3D Imax!
Trailer - World premiere on Wed-Nov 2 on Good Morning America Wednesday, Nov. 2 —Actress Angela Bassett (“Wakanda Forever”); actor Daniel Radcliffe (“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”); exclusive world premiere of “Avatar: The Way of Water” trailer; Oprah’s Favorite Things edition of Deals and Steals with ABC e-commerce editor Tory Johnson and Oprah Daily creative director Adam Glassman Tickets - Go on sale Nov 21. Although (un)confirmed the rumoured runtime is 3 Hrs 10 Min.
Uh-oh... now it looks like Cameron has lost a little confidence and is hedging his bets... The market could be telling us we're done in three months, or we might be semi-done, meaning: 'OK, let's complete the story within movie three, and not go on endlessly,' if it's just not profitable," Cameron told Total Film. "We're in a different world now than we were when I wrote this stuff, even," he added. "It's the one-two punch — the pandemic and streaming. Or, conversely, maybe we'll remind people what going to the theater is all about. This film definitely does that. The question is: how many people give a s--- now?" James Cameron is prepared to end 'Avatar' with movie 3 — pending sales The inside word is that he is STILL editing and mixing Avatar right now, racing around the clock to get it finished by the December 16th release date. Avatar was an amazing film back in June of 2010. But more than 12 years... there's always the chance that the fickle "seen it all" audience won't flock to the film in droves. Is it even possible for it to equal the $2.9 billion box office of the original film? Me... I don't think so. But I'll be first in line to see it in IMAX.
James Cameron could've saved a lot of time and money by suggesting to his studio that "PIRANHA 2: THE SPAWNING" be re-released to theaters instead of spending all this $coin$ and the stress that comes with it on a second 'Avatar' movie! How's that for a hell of an idea? ( The Piranha say "Peepuls (sic) taste like chicken . . . and we likes chicken'!" The Peepuls say !! Hungry little fishies! ).
You can make fun all you like, but unless reviews say its a total dud, I think this movie will do well. Maybe not break any records, but Top Gun Maverick money pretty easy.
