Recent Stories with tag cgi

No, that is not Jar-Jar Binks.

[ED: Audrey and Seth took in one of the first showings of Avatar last night. (Don't worry, the "six inches and a Bible rule" was followed). Audrey's review is below, with Seth's comments in italics.]

Shall we talk about the em-effing Avatar? (Yes, let's.) As you may recall from yesterday, I was feeling negative and schadenfreudey about the film until the 11th hour, when positive reviews convinced me it might actually be awesome.  Having seen it last night (with me! and first-night weirdos!), I can say Avatar is indeed fairly awesome—but it's not the Best Thing Ever.  And liking a film for what it is, when it took $350M to make, just ain't enough.  At that pricetag, every man, woman, and child in the theater deserves a religious experience. (Wait, I still pay $10, right? So who gives a shit how much it cost James Cameron to make?)

Ok, but first off, I have to laud the technical achievements and the level of time and work that went into creating the photorealistic future found in this film.  James Cameron has done some movie-making that is beautiful and transcendent and the best damn CGI you've ever seen. (Eh, don't care.)  It is enjoyable to merely gaze upon the flora and fauna of Cameron's world.  Every inch of the screen is chockful of beauty and rich colors and strangeness and luscious detail. (This is moved and seconded.)

And of course, there are big-time action sequences in which you can actually tell what's going on—because it is very important to know who is fighting whom on the banshee pterodactyl dragon things.  Avatar is all about the WOW factor, and in that regard, it is often fucking stunning. (I wouldn't say "stunning," that implies you'd be staring in disbelief. I found myself drawn into the world Cameron created, my eyes darting all over the screen to try to take everything in.)  It's a groundbreaking blend of digital and live-action, and you walk away thinking that you've never seen anything like that in a movie before. (Except the forest fight scenes, which gave me Endor flashbacks.)...

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