Monday, December 28, 2009

Movies

I watched James Cameron's Avatar online last night and considering I didn't have much expectation for the flick, I was pleasantly surprised.
Don't want to get into the story line, Ebert does a lot better job than I ever could.
Even though the pirated copy I saw (most first run movies that you can watch online get screen filmed in theaters, seems like mostly in Russia) lacked the 3D aspect and the picture was slightly condensed from letterbox, I thoroughly enjoyed it. They apparently threw a ton of money into this project and it shows. There was a lot of movie there and it was obvious that a proper viewing with the special effects on a big screen would be an awesome experience.
And I'd need to do that to say anything about the CGI and 3D aspect of Avatar, but will mention the representation of this alien world where the action takes place. You've got to hand it to the brilliant minds who brought such an imaginative place to life. Cameron and crew truly triumph in this - the alien flora and fauna are simply wonderful and we have to remember that they treaded a fine line there. Their intent was to invent an entire world's biosphere but they had to keep it realistic enough because one step too far along with the CGI and the project could have wound up as a laughable cartoon. Instead the avatar sequences felt beguilingly real and delightful.

If you want to see this lesser quality preview of the movie you can do so here. It's Megavideo, probably the most consistent quality and biggest screen with fewest ads for pirated movies, but if you aren't a paying subscriber the film will stop after 72 minutes. Just wait an hour and you can do another 72 minutes. Click through to start, then let it buffer for a while.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I saw it online like you did Nolo, and yeah, it was good. Cameron is an excellent film-maker.

I wonder how he got the "natives kick the Empire's ass" theme past the censors and meme controllers?

28/12/09 12:18 PM  
Anonymous greencrow said...

Hi Nolocontendre:

I saw the Real 3D version in the theatre on Christmas Day and also found it exceeded my (low) expectations for movies these days. One big problem is that it's at least an hour too long...Oh my aching rear end! Why can't they give up those useless chase scenes....it's like a Hollywood addiction. The moment I liked best in the movie was when the big tree fell over instead of crumbling vertically into dust in its own footprint. I said to myself....Ah Ha! James Cameron's a closeted Truthie!


Best wishes to you and yours for the new year, nolo.

gc

28/12/09 3:59 PM  
Blogger nolocontendere said...

At this point I'd say empire is so full of itself and confident that an anti militarist and anti exploitation message means little in the big picture. A case might even be made that it's "world religion" presentation fits into empire's new world order save-the-planet carbon cap and trade scheme.

Subtle propaganda or not, it's a great tale, wonderfully told, even with the obligatory boffo and loud climactic battle scene.

28/12/09 4:29 PM  
Blogger nolocontendere said...

Thank you gc, same to you.
Haha, tree toppling truthiness, you might be on to something there!

My favorite parts of the movie were the imaginative renderings of an alien world. They took earth realities and delightfully tweaked them to fit their fantasy environment.

28/12/09 4:39 PM  

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