Movies discussion

[Quietus]

Ok so i just got back from seeing Avatar in 3D and ive got to say im pleasantly surprised at how good it was. Visually its fantastic and with teh 3D you really feel like your actually part of the world. I loved seeing how this "new species" lived and how the forest around them was practically one big USB stick. But i did have a few complaints. Firstly £10.10 for a frikking movie?? no wonder noone goes to the cinema nowerdays. That includes the 80p 3D glasses but i mean seriously i remember when i went to see the third LOTR film and it was about £4.90. Ugh, secondly the story was pretty weak, reminded me a lot of Disneys Atlantis and Pocahontas. And almost everything that happened was predictable. But still it was an interesting watch, and probably my favourite movie of 2009/2010(so far).

[ancestral]

I also liked Avatar, though I am still on the fence about the 3D. All the scenes with windows had an interesting effect, as did computer screens, and the captions were kinda neat, though everything else felt like it was piecemeal.

And to think I thought I spent a lot ($11) but wow, £10 is even worse. (I felt, since I paid so much, that I should keep the glasses, so I did.) The story was sort of a bit uninteresting, and you could tell a lot was left out, but it was well done.

And Michelle Rodriguez plays like the same kind of character in Avatar that she played in Lost.

[thespaceinvader]

She also plays almost exactly like Vasquez from Aliens.

I found the 3D a lot more immersive and less intrusive than other 3D efforts i've seen. it was used to add depth to the visuals, rather than shout about how awesome it is IYSWIM - there were no obvious things flying straight at camera, like in Beowulf for instance.

[Huston]

I'd have to say Avatar is my favorite movie currently. I went to see it in 2-d though for $7 (i'm cheap too cheap to see it in 3-d currently even though i could see it in 3-d for $9.25

[Limabean]

I've seen Avatar - TWICE! Neither were 3D though (the problem with living in the middle of nowhere in New Hampshire ). I have to put it on my top ten list just for the visuals. It makes me think that this is the future of movies. Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, and practically every other movie now seems primitive.

However, as a sci fi geek, I am extremely annoyed by the fact that the aliens weren't actually aliens. They're just tall blue indians, and there is no effort to disguise the fact. I don't care that it has the same plot as Runs with Wolves, I just wish they'd spent some of that $300 million creatively designing a new species and/or culture.

The best sci fi is at least somewhat plausible, and evolution does not allow 2 nearly identical species to evolve on different planets!!!

[thespaceinvader]

I was kind of irked by that as well. EVERYTHING else on Pandora that is mammalian-ish has 6 limbs. The Nav'i (on which note, the apostrophe is entirely unnecessary) have 4. Apparently, there's some kind of monkeylike thing running around which has upper limbs which have one shoulder and upper arm but two lower, but i didn't notice it, and it's a touch too handwavey for my liking. Besides, 6-limbed aliens would have been cool.

Though, you'd be surprised what evolution has and has not done - eyes have evolved apparently independently at least 3 times, and koala fingerprints are indistinguishable from human ones

[Midnight_Carnival]

Normally, I hate christmas movies, but on television these holidays I was pleasantly surprised.

I don't care what you think of me for saying this, but Monsters Inc. was a great movie!

There was another cg animated one called Monster House which looked fun, but my familly was slurping boiled brown lump pudding while watching it which caused me to storm off into the garden and swear at god for about three hours.

I was also pleasantly surprised by a movie called Bad Santa. The trailer suggested it would be really disgusting, vulgar and distasteful. It was, but it was also quite funny, and somehow managed to do the whole cheesey redemption of the worst trash alive because it's christmas in a way that wasn't.

-Don't watch it though.

[Cuyo Quiz]

District 9

So many things happening, most of them being resolved by the end of the movie. Sure, time jumps from scene to scene, but i won't slander the man who filmed that with only 30 m.

[Jetrel]

Regarding Avatar: Saw it in the theater, was pleasantly surprised at how it didn't suck like I'd expected it to (given the cringeworthy subject matter). Notable bits:

- they're finally getting CG out of the "uncanny valley"; getting past that horrible mannequin look and into living, breathing characters. Helped that they were aliens, but still.

- as others have noted, they're finally learning how to use 3d; 3d is there to give "breathtaking depth-of-field", not to give "shít jumping out at you" effects. The best use of 3d is to make the background expansive and atmospheric, and that's exactly what they did. By showing so directly how to do that right, I hope we'll enter a brave new world of 'good 3d cinema'; especially since it'd be a good draw to get people to actually go to a theater. I thought it being 3d was really cool, and I wish a bunch of other movies (the dark knight, lotr, etc) could get similarly good treatment; I'd love to see them.


- I think avatar is a perfect example of why the specific task of directing is important. Avatar had, frankly, a rather quaint and kinda [censored] plot. It's basically "pocahontas in space." It's the kind of plot that, under almost any normal circumstances, would result in a complete train wreck of a movie. And yet somehow, in spite of this, they managed to tell the story just tastefully enough, and managed to nuance it just right, so that it didn't come off as stupid. That it was compelling, in spite of itself. (I think another major tip of the hat has to go to good acting; imagine how low Nicolas Cage could have brought it. )

District 9

So many things happening, most of them being resolved by the end of the movie. Sure, time jumps from scene to scene, but i won't slander the man who filmed that with only 30 m.

District 9 was a good movie, but like "Watchmen", I felt like the director was a bit too into splattergore. There's realistic violence, and then there's "people made of jello" violence.

[Issyl]

District 9, The Dark Knight, and Sherlock Holmes were probably my favorite movies of '09.

I'm not much of a moviegoer though.

[Gambit]

I just watched The Dark Knight last night. It gets bumped to the top of my list. The writing was really really good. Dialouge was witty, and plot twists were unexpected. The only gripe I can come up with is that Batman's voice sounds like someone is running gravel through a wood chipper. I can't bring myself to believe it's the same actor playing Bruce and Batman.

[thespaceinvader]

It is - I've seen interviews with Christian Bale where he does the Bat-voice. What I have trouble with is the fact that he has to strain so much to do it - it's simply unrealistic that he should be able to use it with any facility whilst doing anything other than standing stock still. And the fact that it would simply murder his throat over long periods.

It sounds right, but it's just a little over the top.

[Redeth]

However, as a sci fi geek, I am extremely annoyed by the fact that the aliens weren't actually aliens. They're just tall blue indians, and there is no effort to disguise the fact. I don't care that it has the same plot as Runs with Wolves, I just wish they'd spent some of that $300 million creatively designing a new species and/or culture.

Actually it's Dances with Wolves Which does a far better job in terms of plot and character development. A highly recommended (if old) movie.* Anyway, I don't care either about the similarities with other films, but the deep 3d visuals of Avatar could have used a deep story to match. I guess that's too much to ask when there are $300 million dollars to earn back.

Spoiler:

btw I did hate the whole "yay I got a cool mount", and then "look guys, I got a flying mount!", and then "yeaaaahh I got the ULTIMATE EPIC FLYING MOUNT, ur pwnd suckers!!" thing. Terrible, just terrible.

*too bad Kevin Costner has done crap ever since (kinda like Mel Gibson after his good Braveheart).

[Jetrel]

Yeah, the dark knight kicked ass; it was one of the few times in history where someone has made a movie-adaptation of a thing I liked, and more or less did it perfectly. One notable thing that was great about it was how it shucked the usual, and great, but so overdone that it's painfully cliché narrative sequence of "intro -> build -> climax -> resolution". Practically all movies do that, and the [censored] thing about that is that .. you know what's going to happen. TDK was better because for the first time in years, I seriously had no idea wtf the writers were planning (apart from batman not dying). That sense of freshness and having no idea what to expect, was like being a kid again and seeing a cinema movie for the first time.

I just watched The Dark Knight last night. It gets bumped to the top of my list. The writing was really really good. Dialouge was witty, and plot twists were unexpected. The only gripe I can come up with is that Batman's voice sounds like someone is running gravel through a wood chipper. I can't bring myself to believe it's the same actor playing Bruce and Batman.

The point of the bat voice: when you talk in that gravelly tone, everyone sounds the same doing it. The bat voice isn't for intimidation, although that's a nice side-effect; the bat voice is for disguise. And easy, improvised, extremely reliable disguise, unlike some 'bat-gadget'.

[Limabean]

However, as a sci fi geek, I am extremely annoyed by the fact that the aliens weren't actually aliens. They're just tall blue indians, and there is no effort to disguise the fact. I don't care that it has the same plot as Runs with Wolves, I just wish they'd spent some of that $300 million creatively designing a new species and/or culture.

Actually it's Dances with Wolves Which does a far better job in terms of plot and character development. A highly recommended (if old) movie.* Anyway, I don't care either about the similarities with other films, but the deep 3d visuals of Avatar could have used a deep story to match. I guess that's too much to ask when there are $300 million dollars to earn back.

Doh, now i'm embarrassed
I have actually seen "Dances with Wolves", so I have no idea where I came up with "Runs with Wolves." I guess it was just a brain fart.