Honestly never thought I’d see this happen: James Cameron’s Avatar has officially dethroned his own 1997 Titanic for the domestic box-office record.
It’ll probably last only as long as it takes Cameron and crew to make Avatar 2, which’ll make even gads more money 😛...
With Avatar still breaking box office records (it was #1 in theaters for the fifth straight weekend) and now starting to garner prizes (like at last night’s Golden Globes) James Cameron is talking about the practical application of the technology that he and his team came up with for the movie…
...Sure, it’s terrific for turning human actors into big blue alien Na’vis. But the photorealistic CGI technology James Cameron perfected for Avatar could easily be used for other, even more mind-blowing purposes—like, say, bringing Humphrey Bogart back to life, or making Clint Eastwood look 35 again. “How about another Dirty Harry movie where Clint looks the way he looked in 1975?” Cameron suggests. “Or a James Bond movie where Sean Connery looks the way he did in Doctor No? How cool would that be?”
In a way, Cameron has already pulled off this trick: Sigourney Weaver appears to
Last night I saw Avatar for the second time. And if you are set to watch this movie, I can’t but recommend that you consider seeing it more than once also. Not because James Cameron has pushed so many pretty pixels that this really is the most visually astonishing film made to date, but also because in spite of whatever you may have heard: there is a hell of a good story in this movie.
Yeah yeah, I’ve heard it too. “Thundersmurfs” and “Dances with Smurfs” etc. During the climactic battle scene I turned to my friend/fellow blogger Steven Glaspie and cracked that “Rambo Smurf is destroying the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier!”
Yeah, it borrows heavily from Dances With Wolves and Last of the Mohicans and even Forrest Gump among many others. Yeah, Avatar employs every American Indian cinematic trope without once being a movie about American Indians (but for good measure ...
And it was in digital 3-D too, which if at all possible is very sincerely the best way to watch this movie.
As for what I thought of Avatar…
…I can’t remember the last movie that left me feeling so many shades of conflicted.
I’m going to see it again tomorrow night with friend and fellow blogger Steven Glaspie. Between now and then I’m thinking enough of it will “sink in” and maybe I can absorb the story as much as I’ve already beheld the astonishing visual effects (easily the best I have ever seen in a film). I’ll attempt a real review afterward.
But for now: yeah, it’s good. It’s very good. But not without some issues....
Haven’t been able to find it on YouTube yet, so for the time being you’ll have to watch it in Quicktime format. Which may be for the best anyway, since Quicktime is much more high-res.
Avatar certainly looks good. So far as what the story is supposed to be about, I’m not quite jazzed about it. Yet, anyway. But hey, I’ve been pleasantly surprised about a movie before, maybe this one will too.
Avatar opens this coming December 18th....