Avatar Returning for Two Weeks

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Number6
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Avatar Returning for Two Weeks

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James Cameron's epic movie Avatar is returning for a two week run starting Sept 23rd. It will be reintroducing the movie before the first of four sequels to be released on Dec 16th. Although it's available on DVD and streaming Avatar is, IMO, one of those films best watched on the big screen. Avatar was a blockbuster when it came out and I think it's going to be the number one movie during it's short run and will easily make over $50 million dollars.
To help reacquaint audiences with “Avatar” — and with the 3-D filmmaking that dazzled audiences in 2009 — the first movie is being rereleased in theaters on Sept. 23. It’s a strategy that is, of course, intended to prime ticket buyers for the impending follow-up, but also to remind them of what was special about the original.

As Cameron said of “Avatar” in a video interview on Thursday, “We authored it for the big-screen experience. You let people smell the roses. You let people go on the ride. If you’re doing a flying shot or a shot underwater in a beautiful coral reef, you hold the shot a little bit longer. I want people to really get in there and feel like they’re there, on a journey with these characters.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/16/movi ... vatar.html
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ProfX
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Re: Avatar Returning for Two Weeks

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As a work of pure visual cinematography, nothing can beat the original film. It's breathtaking.

As a story, it is admittedly kind of cliche. It's a very old style white savior story with a new gloss. It's Dances with Wolves in space. The Na'vi are the indigenous, the Terrans the colonists who want their resources ("Unobtainium". No subtlety there.) But even though the planet is a goddess (Aywa) who is on their side, they need Jake to switch sides & to lead them to victory. After all, he knows the ways of the Sky People.

So all I can say is the long-awaited sequel "Way of Water" looks interesting. If we can say one thing, it's that James Cameron loves his underwater environments (see: The Abyss). It will assuredly be visually amazing again, and expensive, filming this stuff underwater (which he did, if in tanks) is not cheap. The only part of Pandora we didn't see much of last time ... we got the floating islands in the sky and the jungles of the surface ... were its oceans, and I guess we're going there now. Just like the Na'vi can mind meld with the planet's avians and land creatures, I'm sure we're about to find out they can do it with its cetaceans as well.

Again, looks to me the sequel will again be breathtakingly visually stunning, and probably another very cliche "save the oceans/whales" story. (I'm not against the cause ... but same problem I had with Star Trek IV ... the question is in the telling/showing). And will make some more billions. Sokay, I can think of worse people than James Cameron getting the money.
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Re: Avatar Returning for Two Weeks

Post by ZoWie »

They don't make them like that any more. Definitely the theater for that one, biggest format they screen in your town.

Cameron is fun to watch, but as a story teller he's not exactly Shakespeare.
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ProfX
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Re: Avatar Returning for Two Weeks

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Avatar 2: Way of Water -- official trailer has dropped
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9MyW72ELq0

OK. So we saw Pandora's skies and lands ... everything but its oceans.

Look, it's not like I can't predict the plot, even given how little is in the trailer. Looks like Jake and Natiri's daughter has a special gift for speaking with their goddess Aywa and will be the next priestess. The Sky people are back, and now they have submarines and warships as well as helicopters, war-mechs, and tanks. The Navi will pray to Aywa for help, and this time they'll get an army of whales and giant sea monsters.

Still, nobody does virtual ocean cinematography like Cameron, so we know it'll be visually stunning.
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ProfX
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Re: Avatar Returning for Two Weeks

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New official trailer for Avatar 2.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5F8MOz_IDw

Look, all I can say is you don't see the Avatar movies for original storytelling, you see them for breathtaking visuals.

Sky people are back, probably a new Ubobtainium deposit at the bottom of the ocean, looks like their attack boats are going to get wrecked by Pandora's whales instead of land animals, rinse, repeat.

This is one I think you have to take in in theaters, maybe even in Imax or 3D, as always practice safe cinema if you do.
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ZoWie
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Re: Avatar Returning for Two Weeks

Post by ZoWie »

Saw the trailer. It does look entertaining.

Yes after Titanic you can trust Cameron to deliver on water footage, real or animated.
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Re: Avatar Returning for Two Weeks

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I saw Avatar 2: Way of Water this weekend. Spoiler-free review, see this in theatres, IMAX or 3D recommended, it's worth it, the visuals will blow you away. But what about the story? I'm going to go there, so here comes the usual

** Super Duper Uber Tuber Spoiler Warning: you have been warned **

Jake and Neytiri now have three kids, five if you count the two strays they've adopted. Two sons, a young daughter are their bio kids. The other two are Kiri and Spider. "Spider" is not Na'vi, he's human, but got left behind because he was a baby and they can't be put into cryosleep for the trip. BTW, you find out his dad was Quaritch, the mad ass marine from the first film. Oh and he's not dead because, uh, apparently they backed up all his memories and downloaded them, now this time into a Navi body ... Kiri is Grace's Navi daughter, somehow she was pregnant when she died (how?), more mysteriously the child was able to be delivered after she died ... anyway, she is voiced also by Sigourney Weaver. Somehow, her immaculate conception gives her mysterious powers to commune with and control Pandora's wildlife by speaking to Eywa, including the sealife.

The Sky people/Earthers/RDF are back, and they are full bore committed to colonizing Pandora. This includes its oceans. It seems Pandora has whales, errr excuse me, tulkun, and apparently their whaling ships like to harvest some fluid from their brain that fights the aging process. Anyway, Jake & fam know they are being hunted, so they hide out with the Reef people clan, who are like other Na'vi, but apparently can bond with sea creatures as well as avians and land animals and are more adapted for life in the ocean.

Long story short: Jake & Neytiri lose their eldest son (although he seems, like Grace, to be with "Eywa" now), "Spider" repudiates Quaritch, they save the whales, errr tulkun, and Jake comes to the realization he can't run from the Sky People anymore, he has to stand & fight. Roll credits ... queue up sequel. Seems like Avatar 3 has mostly already been shot, as well.

As I expected, not original storytelling, same basic environmental message now with "save the whales" thrown in, Cameron's politics aren't exactly subtle, but for me that's quite OK. Since I agree with them. :D
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Number6
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Re: Avatar Returning for Two Weeks

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I watched Avatar on TV last night to re-acquaint myself with the story in preparation of seeing Avatar: The Way of Water today. The special effects were amazing and the colors brilliant and this is coming from someone with color vision problems. The Professor gave a good recap of the movie and the story is basically a retold story of many movies but then most movies are retold stories. The movie is three hours long but it didn't seem that long while watching it. As far as sequels go, this was actually a good one.

One thing I kept noticing throughout the movie is Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) Acatar looked a bit like Mel Gibbson in Lethal Weapon at times and Quaritch (Stephen Lang) sounded, at times, like Sylvester Stallone as Rocky.
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gounion
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Re: Avatar Returning for Two Weeks

Post by gounion »

I went to Nashville today to see it in IMAX 3D. Waited till after the holidays, and kids are back in school. I figure the theater would be pretty empty, and it was. BIG theater, which IMAXs have to be, and maybe 15 people total. No one near me.

Worth it. Pandora is really beautiful, the underwater scenes are astonishing.
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