Avatar (Cameron, 2009)

[animatedude]

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=61617

apparently,there's only 3 IMAX theaters in the middle east...Dubai,Doha and Kuwait.

[animatedude]

http://danacinema.com/

it says 3D!

[ayaa1977]

http://danacinema.com/

it says 3D!

If that is true then it would be fucking great!

[shariqq]

It's showing in 3D all over. Even MoE and Deira City Centre, who don't have 3D screens, are playing it on regular screens as 3D films. I guess this means those red-blue glasses...

[madali]

I'm guessing they would kinda suck on those screens. If I'm right, its probably IMAX or nothing

[X.]

It's showing in 3D all over. Even MoE and Deira City Centre, who don't have 3D screens, are playing it on regular screens as 3D films. I guess this means those red-blue glasses....

Yes, that would be anaglyph glasses -- worse way to experience 3D (lots of 'crosstalk' and chances of eye/headache). Speak with me directly to better understand the tech aspects.

Bottom line:
1) Go to IMAX Dubai (they should have polarized or active shutter glasses) with a gigantic screen.
2) If IMAX is not possible, then head down to Reel Cinemas (Dubai Mall) to watch it in Dolby 3D with THX sound.
3) And if for any reason you are unable watch it at IMAX or Reel Cinemas (Dolby 3D), then watch in RealD 3D at Grand Festival City. The issue here is the, relatively speaking, smaller screen size.
4) But please: *avoid* the regular 2D screens that pimp the 3D experience with anaglyph (red/blue glasses). Massive compromise.

[fizz]

IMAX or nothing.

[sandeep]

2,400 hours to make one second of action

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/film/2760950/Avatar-week-in-The-Sun-3D-secrets-behind-the-300m-movie.html

[fizz]

Know this fact, director James Cameron has made better films than Avatar. This is not to say that Avatar is either a failure or not the cinematic/technological accomplishment that many herald it as,  
but that it is simply overhyped by the fact that this it marks Cameron's return to filmaking after proclaiming himself King of the World over a decade ago.

Avatar has an emptiness about it that cannot compensate for the lack of sufficient live motion
scenes. While the planet of Pandora is vividly realised, it evokes cheerless memories of the world
created by the Wachowski's in latter films of the Matrix trilogy, one level above animation and every bit heavy laden with as much wall to wall CGI as your largest IMAX screen can contain. The storyline is a mishmash of predictable plot mechanics - a little Dances with Wolves sprinkled with the meeting of the Colonial British with native Indians from Pocahontas/The New world. Where Cameron and crew really succeed is in creating a fully realised alien world, complete with flora and fauna that is as fascinating as it is original. Not since Jurassic Park has the incredible seemed so believable.

What isn't so believable is the trite romance that takes centre stage in the film between Sam Worthington's military grunt Jake Sully and Neytiri, a young and vibrant female of the Na'vi race indigenous to the planet. Scripting has never been Cameron's forte, but making bold, engrossing, escapist entertainers has been, and while Avatar is certainly all of those things, it is also ridiculously sensationalized, especially in its third act that serves up a large scale war between the aliens and their human oppressors. Standard, recurring Cameron motifs including the mistrust of
the military-industrial complex and gutsy females ready to go into action exist here as well, but these are overshadowed by a messy message about mother natures fight for survival and some strange supernatural soul swapping at the end. Billed as a sci fi action adventure, this is really the stuff of fantasy intertwined with the persona of a confused war film. Are we supposed to cheer when Jake, in the guise of a Na'vi (his avatar) attacks and kills fellow human beings because he feels disenchanted with his own race?

Much has been made of the technical wizardry used to make Avatar possible as a film that feels real and fresh, and it certainly does. The visuals are crisp and clear, though watching it through 3D glasses makes it seem darker that it originally is. Even the 3D scenes aren't nearly as inventively used in aid of story or film as they have been in the films of fellow technophile director, Robert Zemeckis and despite everyone proclaiming Avatar to be the film that will change the face of cinema, it is really nothing more than just another Hollywood effects spectacle.

Rating: 3/5

[shariqq]

The one word I used to describe it is "Pretty".

I agree with most of what fizz says. On the surface level, it has set-pieces that are visually amazing. But really, such a predictable storyline with CGI characters that look like what Pixar could do if they wanted to?

As soon as I walked out of the cinema, all I could think of was the overwhelming experience I had been through - like really visiting another planet. I could only think of Pandora and the rich life it had. The visuals take care of that. But once the dust settled, the discussion with my wife on the drive back home was all about how mediocre the movie was, if not for the background CGI and 3D. Really, the movie can be watched without 3D (it doesn't add much), it makes the experience more immersive, but doesn't add to the movie.

I also agree with Fizz about the technology. The 2D cartoons of Roger Rabbit interacted with the live actors better than the Na'vi interacting with the live-actors here. There were scenes where people laughed (a Na'vi kissing a human on each eye)!!

Avatar is Independence Day turned on it's head. Avatar is retelling the American War on Iraq from an American's perspective of what the Iraqi POV is. Avatar is to boys what Titanic is to girls.

Like he did Ghosts of the Abyss documentary, I hope Cameron does a 3D documentary set in & exploring Pandora.

My rating --> 3.5 of 5

(I've discusses why I deducted the points. The action scenes are still awesome enough to garner it good points).

[shariqq]

Btw, ak, kaytee - this is not gonna be the expected WM bash now. Madali was at the same screening as I, and fizz has also seen it. And I don't believe any of us will watch it again...

[madali]

My friends wanted to go and I had to see it. Sorry guys.

[madali]

Avatar (Cameron, 2009)
IMDB Link

December of 2009 is a fantastic time for the release of “Avatar”, mainly because it has been a horrible year for big-budget, mainstream film that everyone can gather around and love. The IMAX showing I went to had people applause at the end, and while it is something I have always found a bit silly (it’s okay if the crew is at the showing, but otherwise…), it does show the enthusiasm of the general public.

The film is a great cinematic experience. I find that big screen home televisions with all the current advances in home theatre, going to the cinemas is not that impressive to me anymore. Usually I’d just rather watch it at home, than go all the way to the movies so I can watch a film mixed with people talking, phones ringing, lots of random coughs, and that irritating light from young teenage girl checking her blackberry. But a film like “Avatar” makes it a pleasure to go to the cinema, and in an IMAX theatre, it becomes such a unique visual experience that cannot be replicated at home.

I like the 3D. Well, let’s take a step back. I’ve always like 3D, even the shitty to average films from the last few years. I’m impressed by technological cinematic advances and it’s about damn time they get off their asses and do something new. And James Cameron has made a gorgeous alien world and there were several times I felt lost into it.

But wait, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. People have thrown “realism” at us, when it comes to CGI, since CGI was invented, but it still has that glossy, shiny, plastic feel to it. From a distance the world looks real, that one hits the mark, and we can cross that out from our list. But characters and live creatures have still a decade or so to go before I can buy the “realistic CGI” tag that they keep trying to attach to every film.

And the plot is a crowd-pleaser and fun to watch, but if the technological marvel was not behind it, I would have rolled it into a ball and thrown it in a garbage. I did not watch the trailer for the film, but if I did, I could have probably outlined the exact story. It is the same stuff we always see, a mixture of white guilt and ethnocentricity. The Whites are bad because they are oppressing the poor, innocent natives. BUT also, it is only The White that can stand up for the poor, innocent natives and save them. Being both the oppressor and the savior, to me, seems like it is placing the rest of the world (and now universe) in a position unable to control their destiny. Their destruction or their survival rests on the White Man. Like most stories with similar plot, the film has an inability to be complex. The invaders are almost cartoon villains, with no moral compass and find joy in killing, while the oppressed are all pure and good. It is easy for viewers to side in such situations. But it would have been more interesting to portray a situation with the bad guys spinning the war in such a way that makes it hard for the characters in the film and in the audience to know which side to support.

But this is not a subtle, political film, so there is no reason to do that. It is the year’s best cinematic, big-budget,  big-action, big-everything film and it is there that it succeeds. I can’t complain there.

4/5

[X.]

Btw, ak, kaytee - this is not gonna be the expected WM bash now. Madali was at the same screening as I, and fizz has also seen it. And I don't believe any of us will watch it again...

My friends wanted to go and I had to see it. Sorry guys.

As most of you know, I am less on watching movies, and more on making them, so please don't feel bad! Good to know a bunch of you saw it opening night; I will see it when the spirit wills (if it wills).

[fizz]

December of 2009 is a fantastic time for the release of “Avatar”, mainly because it has been a horrible year for big-budget, mainstream film that everyone can gather around and love.

I personally think Star Trek was everything Avatar was not - a real big budget, summer event film that everyone was pleased with. For all its visual eye candy, by the end of Avatar, my eyes hurt. The film is a sensory onslaught and one that is let down by its generic storytelling.

The IMAX showing I went to had people applause at the end, and while it is something I have always found a bit silly (it’s okay if the crew is at the showing, but otherwise…), it does show the enthusiasm of the general public.

People applauded at the end of the screening I attended as well. I think that indicates nothing except that people are in denial and will praise anything that they've invested time and money in simply to not look like total idiots. Its like every film that the local DJ's attend a premiere of, they end up giving glowing praise to next morning on the radio because really, they don't know better and to them there is no concept of watching films objectively. For them, if you paid 50 bucks and sat in a cinema for 3 hours and were not totally bored, well, its the best way of killing time on the weekend.