Movie: Avatar

[Ryllharu]

There could be more, but the one I've read most about was the idea to use small cameras to capture the actors' facial expressions.

Here's a neat little featurette about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2_vB7zx_SQ

Really cool stuff, I saw the movie without knowing exactly how they accomplished it.

For anyone who has read Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age, this kind of technology sounds a lot like the precursor to "ractors." There actors are tattooed with embedded motion capture technology so they can take on any role from the comfort of a small sound stage. The makeup/costume is superimposed over their bodies the same way.

I found the part where Sigourney Weaver and Joel Moore likened this new style to stage acting really enlightening. A good enough actor shouldn't have any trouble with this or even green screens. However, there have been tons of other green screen movies where the acting is horrible, so it really is all up to the caliber of the actor you cast.

[Sapphire]

Wow from the description of Battle Angel Alita it sounds like Avatar was only pretty much a "test drive" from the gloriousness we will see in Alita. I am positively salivating at the thought of what's to come!!!

[Testarossa Autodrive]

It's awesome to see how they did it. The way the did the visuals was just absolutely stunning and I gave that, separate from the movie as a whole an 11 out of 10. It really was what kept me entertained despite the subtle annoyances like some shitty script writing and what not. If there's any hype around this movie, it's definitely around the visuals, but aside from that, there really isn't anything else to be wowed about.

[darkshadow]

Resident Evil 5's cutscenes were done in pretty much the same way.... He even says that they have one of the 4 cameras in the world, the other 3 belonging to cameron, spielberg and zemeckis.
And the facial motion capture stuff has been around for awhile also

[Testarossa Autodrive]

Yeah, it has been around. It's just interesting to see the many different things they're doing with it.

[XanBcoo]

Here's an interesting read...

Apparently the original script for Avatar had a bunch of stuff that didn't make it into the movie. Key plot elements were also changed.

The article goes into these differences in depth, but these were the major changes:

For those who don't want to read this all, some bullet points. Read the entire piece for in-depth description and analysis, but these bullet points are the main, stark differences between Project 880 and Avatar:

- Earth and its environmental problems are explored
- We see Josh Sully's Avatar being born
- It's revealed the Avatar program exists to train Na'vi to be an indigenous workforce for the Corporation, since it's so expensive to send human workers
- There are more humans, including a bioethics officer on the take, a video journalist, a head of the Avatar program and a second military dickwad
- There is an Avatar controller who is burnt out because his Avatar died with him in it. He committed Avatar suicide because he had fallen in love with a Na'vi girl who had been killed by the military
- The Avatars have a Na'vi guide named N'Deh, who is sleeping with Grace
- Grace survives the soul transfer
- Josh Sully gains the Na'vi trust by being a member of the community. He also excels in a major hunt
- Josh Sully shows his leadership not by taming a dragon but by leading a raid on Hell's Gate to rescue prisoners
- Josh Sully isn't the only Na'vi to ride a big dragon
- Pandora is a living entity and it sees the humans as a virus; it has been mobilizing the plants and animals to attack all along because it wanted to force the humans out
- There is no unobtainium beneath Hometree. The military just wants to wipe out the local Na'vi to send a message to all the tribes that they must be obeyed.
- Some of the humans and the Avatar controllers rise up in the final big battle
- Josh Sully tells the Earth that Pandora will give any humans that return a disease that will wipe out humanity

Source and full discussion here

[Assassin]

If they go ahead with a sequel to Avatar, i'd really like them to explore the oceans of Pandora....hell, even just a nature docu on pandora would be awesome.

[Testarossa Autodrive]

Now that they have a better grasp on the process of the visuals, I'd appreciate them focusing a little more on the character and story development, which, unfortunately, took a backseat to the graphics.

[Sapphire]

Philosophical discussion of Avatar what?

[XanBcoo]

The hell is up with that guy's accent? It's all over the place (coincidentally just like Sam Worthington's in this movie). The way he says his R's is clearly an affectation, but his regular accent sounds like it's American or Canadian.

Anyway that's an interesting summary of the growth of Jake as a character in the movie, but I disagree with some of his points about Empathy.

Mainly, the only reason Jake was about to become the Toruk Makto was not by empathy or passive harmony with the animals, but by exploitation (his trick of catching it) and domination. I suppose the Toruk did "choose" him early in the film: "It will try to kill you," but it was he, with his human tendency to dominate his environment that gave him courage, who became the Toruk Makto. I think there's something to be said for that.

[Testarossa Autodrive]

I was thinking his accent sounded a little off as well.

As for the video itself, there were definitely some interesting points that I agree with, but some of the things he mentions just didn't add up. I want to see the movie again after thinking more deeply about it and being disappointed with some of the elements, buuuut that would be another 7-10 bucks depending on if and when I do want to see it. :3

[itadakimasu]

Avatar was amazing.

[itadakimasu]

Here's an interesting read...

Apparently the original script for Avatar had a bunch of stuff that didn't make it into the movie. Key plot elements were also changed.

The article goes into these differences in depth, but these were the major changes:


Source and full discussion here

Thanks Xan. Anybody who has seen Avatar would probably find that interesting. I wonder how much of the original stuff they considered keeping? Avatar as it is runs 2 and a half hours... so you'd figure some of this stuff would add a good 30+ minutes minimum to the run time; or even make them consider splitting this epic movie into 2 parts.

It would have been good to show where Jake was coming from though... He makes reference to earth as being black at some point in the movie, but it doesn't mean anything because the movie starts w\ him in space already. And the writer of that article points out that this also shows why Jake is so taken with Pandora, because the earth he comes from doesn't have any plant life like that.

But I guess this is like when you read a book, and then watch a movie or vice versa and you're like... why did they change that?!

They probably should have kept some of the stuff in there, especially if they're going to refer to things that they cut out of the movie.

[animus]

Watched it a couple days ago in IMAX 3D, and got drunk as hell the same night.


Simply put, the movie is beautiful. No movie comes close to it's visual fidelity, which I guess is a given considering the budget the movie took and the amount of planning for development it's been in (10 years so I hear?).

The story quite obviously is not the strong point, it is very predictable. I still feel it was ridiculous how a former Marine, would so easily give up his race just because he spent 3 months and found some tall alien chick. Sure, it did show a good job of how simply beautiful Pandora is, and the way the N'avi live, but there wasn't any real solid transition that made him throw away his race. Sure, he could finally have his legs and all, but this is a Marine we're talking about, fight and die for your country and I guess in this case Planet?

I don't know, but still I was also expecting a lot more action. Couple friends told me there would be almost non-stop action, but there was really only one scene and it was near the end of this very long movie.

Anyways, besides my certain dislikes of the movie, I was totally immersed in the beautiful environments, the N'avi culture, the wildlife, etc. I enjoyed the movie greatly still.

[itadakimasu]

I still feel it was ridiculous how a former Marine, would so easily give up his race just because he spent 3 months and found some tall alien chick.

Read the article xan posted. "Project 880" was supposedly supposed to begin on earth w\ Sully so you can see what a wasteland earth has become in the year 2154. This would help develop his love for the pandoran world. It also says that there was originally no promise to have his paralysis fixed

It works in the movie, because you realize that he does have the option to go back to earth and regain the ability to walk and it becomes a defining point in the movie.

[XanBcoo]

I still feel it was ridiculous how a former Marine, would so easily give up his race just because he spent 3 months and found some tall alien chick. Sure, it did show a good job of how simply beautiful Pandora is, and the way the N'avi live, but there wasn't any real solid transition that made him throw away his race. Sure, he could finally have his legs and all, but this is a Marine we're talking about, fight and die for your country and I guess in this case Planet?

I think it would have been ridiculous if he had gone back to his Human life. What possible argument could you make for his return?

He came from a dirty and bleak Earth that had literally no use for him, his brother (and likely only family) was dead, and he was crippled and handicapped to the point where his muscles were severely atrophied. Even on Pandora, he didn't fit in. Grace and the scientists didn't want him around because he was just a Marine, and Col. Quaritch had no use for him aside from his mission because he wasn't a Marine. He seeks acceptance from both groups and finds it in neither.

Then he's figuratively and literally reborn as a Na'vi. He takes his first tottering steps out into the bright world with his new body and working legs. He's so ecstatic that he ignores protocol in favor of feeling the dirt under his toes. That alone would have been enough, but then he's completely accepted by a new society. He bonds, once again figuratively and literally with the beings of Pandora. He's taken in as an Omaticaya and becomes a respected member of their society. He spends 1/3 of the entire movie immersed in their culture and then the last 1/3 as its savior. Not only does he have value, but he's also found acceptance and experienced biological empathy with other living beings. There's no "solid transition" because it happens gradually over the course of 2 hours.

You're talking like he just took a short 1 hour vacation on Pandora and decided on a whim to stay there. The movie pretty explicitly demonstrates that he has nothing to gain and absolutely everything to lose by returning to his human life.

But yeah, I guess it would make sense to go back to his life as a cripple after his mutiny. If he's not thrown in prison, I guess he could find himself a nice desk job. He might miss the love of his life back on Pandora, but that's a small price to pay for not throwing away your race.

[animus]

He had surgery lined up for him to repair his spine as soon as he completed his assignment.

You make it sound like it's easy to betray your race that you were born into lived some odd 30+ years with. He spends 3 months with aliens and falls in love with an alien, and the experience of that culture along with the ability to use legs in a body that's not actually his own culminates as enough reason to betray your own race? I don't buy it.

Sure the humans were oppressive, despicable, etc. But like they said in the movie, if they decared war (which they did) the humans would keep coming back. There is no way the Na'vi would win a war. This human group was merely an industrial mining company who hired a small PMC. The ending made it look like the humans weren't coming back for retaliation, considering Jake gave up Turuk or whatever that giant red flying creature he used.

But according to your logic, the ability to walk again in a body and race that is not your own to spend your life with an alien wife among aliens who you've only spent 3 months with is worth the price of killing off and waging war against your own very race just because Earth is barren and desolate.

I still don't buy it. Not to mention he fell in love too easily with Netyri and her with him. Sure, they may be humanoids but they're still not human. And 99% of the time attraction comes first and foremost through physical/sexual attraction. I guess Jake Sully's just a furry and a weeaboo at heart.

[Testarossa Autodrive]

I'll give 'em 6 months.

[Sapphire]

I think it would have been ridiculous if he had gone back to his Human life. What possible argument could you make for his return?

He came from a dirty and bleak Earth that had literally no use for him, his brother (and likely only family) was dead, and he was crippled and handicapped to the point where his muscles were severely atrophied. Even on Pandora, he didn't fit in. Grace and the scientists didn't want him around because he was just a Marine, and Col. Quaritch had no use for him aside from his mission because he wasn't a Marine. He seeks acceptance from both groups and finds it in neither.

Then he's figuratively and literally reborn as a Na'vi. He takes his first tottering steps out into the bright world with his new body and working legs. He's so ecstatic that he ignores protocol in favor of feeling the dirt under his toes. That alone would have been enough, but then he's completely accepted by a new society. He bonds, once again figuratively and literally with the beings of Pandora. He's taken in as an Omaticaya and becomes a respected member of their society. He spends 1/3 of the entire movie immersed in their culture and then the last 1/3 as its savior. Not only does he have value, but he's also found acceptance and experienced biological empathy with other living beings. There's no "solid transition" because it happens gradually over the course of 2 hours.

You're talking like he just took a short 1 hour vacation on Pandora and decided on a whim to stay there. The movie pretty explicitly demonstrates that he has nothing to gain and absolutely everything to lose by returning to his human life.

But yeah, I guess it would make sense to go back to his life as a cripple after his mutiny. If he's not thrown in prison, I guess he could find himself a nice desk job. He might miss the love of his life back on Pandora, but that's a small price to pay for not throwing away your race.

Great reply Xan. Hey I would totally ditch the human race for that no questions asked.

WHO'S WITH ME!

[XanBcoo]

But according to your logic, the ability to walk again in a body and race that is not your own to spend your life with an alien wife among aliens who you've only spent 3 months with is worth the price of killing off and waging war against your own very race just because Earth is barren and desolate.

I think you really misunderstood the decision Jake had to make. His choice was not "Go back to being a human with legs or remain with the Na'vi and wage war on humans." There was literally no point in the movie where he was capable of making that decision.

Quaritch promised Jake his operation, then proceeded to destroy the Na'vi Hometree, mudering handfuls and destroying their home and way of life. Then he launched an attack on the Tree of Souls, threatening their physical link with the planet and primary means of subsistence. This was largely due to Jake's previous inaction, but the events of the story still force Jake into a decision.

His choice was then "Turn a blind eye to injustice or defend the world he was now literally bonded to." An entire hour and a half of the movie is devoted to showing why Jake would choose the latter option. Defending against injustice is not "betraying your race" and I can think of no logical argument why Jake would have not defended the Na'vi, ex-marine or no. After that point, he had literally no reason to return to being a broken and unwanted human. And even if he had, he would have returned to an Earth where'd he'd face ramifications for his actions. After killing Quaritch (even in self defense), his option for surgery was no longer present. His decision to defend the Na'vi nullified his deal with Quaritch.

He didn't "betray his race" in the same way a white girl from a conservative family doesn't betray their race by marrying a black man. He made a decision and lived with the consequences. It just so happens his decision was a moral one, at least from the narrative's perspective.

Now, you can argue about the implicit arguments in those consequences. The film intentionally blurs the line between "dreaming" and "reality" and does so from the get go. By the end of the movie it seems to be showing the idea of leaving behind a feeble body in favor of a perfect escapist reality in a favorable light. You can argue about the subtext all you wish, but Jake's motives are pretty explicitly justified in terms of the plot. There's absolutely no questioning why he would stay.

Your argument about Jake falling in love "too easily" is ridiculous and really not worth getting into.