Avatar or Avatar?

[frunk]

You know the one thing I really hate about CG?  The point when a monster roars right at a person rather than biting them or killing them in some other way.  It's been showing up everywhere and it's pissing me off.

[Jacob]

I saw it, I liked it for what it was.

Yeah the story (and visualization) were drawing on established genre tropes.  I actually liked that they called it "unobtainium".  No fucking around with lame pseudo-science and gobbledeegook, just straight to the point - "for the purpose of this movie, the mcguffin is some sort of mineral reasource."  Done.

On another note, apparently the film is huge in China - people are lining up to go to the theatres to see it, rather than just pirating it; this is apparently unprecedented.

[crazy canuck]

I have long heard that something like up to 10% of the human population cannot properly process 3D movies because they don't have "full stereoscopic" vision (something that doesn't effect them in daily life because you can still have full depth perception without it because of other adaptations), because of my past experiences with 3D I assumed I was in that 10%. 

The explanation I was given is that my reticular activiting system does not screen out as much stimuli as the majority of the population and as I result I get very dizzy in things like surround picture or 3d type movies.

Either way, I didnt have any ill effects of watching this as well.  As I said in my initial review, after a while I was able to forget I was watching 3d and just enjoyed the artistry of the movie.

[crazy canuck]

people are lining up to go to the theatres to see it, rather than just pirating it; this is apparently unprecedented.

That will likely change when 3d TVs become available.

[Josquius]

As I said in the film thread this 3D was unexpectedly good.
In the cinema I went to the first 3D thing they showed was a advert for Sky TV which was  made in very bad old style 3D- some statue miscoloured all pinky spinning and popping out of the screen. It looked god awful.
Then though the movie trailers started and...wow. It looks real.
At first it looked just like there were 2 or 3 plains with the Toy Story and shitty dancing kids trailiers but with Avatar it all looked full proper 3D. Good stuff.

people are lining up to go to the theatres to see it, rather than just pirating it; this is apparently unprecedented.

3D does seem to have come at just the right time for cinema in the west.

[Jacob]

people are lining up to go to the theatres to see it, rather than just pirating it; this is apparently unprecedented.

That will likely change when 3d TVs become available.

That's what I said as well

Though they were going to see it in imax and regular theatres as well.

[Barrister]

3D does seem to have come at just the right time for cinema in the west.

The early 1950s?   

[Josquius]

3D does seem to have come at just the right time for cinema in the west.

The early 1950s?  

eh?

[Barrister]

3D does seem to have come at just the right time for cinema in the west.

The early 1950s?   

eh?

3D is actually a pretty old technology.  The first "wave" of 3D movies came out in the 1950s, and there have been various attempts to produce 3D flicks since then.  Now Avatar (and a host of CGI technologies) may now make 3D popular and mainstream, but it's not a new technology by any stretch.

[Josquius]

3D is actually a pretty old technology.  The first "wave" of 3D movies came out in the 1950s, and there have been various attempts to produce 3D flicks since then.  Now Avatar (and a host of CGI technologies) may now make 3D popular and mainstream, but it's not a new technology by any stretch.

You're not seriously suggesting I didn't know about that here are you?
Comparing old style 3D to the new stuff is comparing colossus to a imac.
This new wave certainly is very different to what has gone before.

[Barrister]

You're not seriously suggesting I didn't know about that here are you?

You're the one who wrote:

3D does seem to have come at just the right time for cinema in the west.

So yeah, it sure sounded like you weren't aware of it.

Now I'm not trying to beat you up.  I think it was just a poorly worded turn of phrase.  Avatar is clearly different than Creature from the Black Lagoon, but they are both still in 3D.

[grumbler]

3D is actually a pretty old technology.  The first "wave" of 3D movies came out in the 1950s, and there have been various attempts to produce 3D flicks since then.  Now Avatar (and a host of CGI technologies) may now make 3D popular and mainstream, but it's not a new technology by any stretch.

Is 3D a technology?

I think I understand what you are saying, but my understanding is that this version of 3D is based on a different technology than any of the others.

[Grey Fox]

Is it?

It's still glasses showing different images at different times, no?

[Barrister]

Fundamentally it's still the same - using funny glasses to show different images to each eye, thus providing the illusion of 3D.  But yes I understand there's quite a few changes in how it's done (for starters the old 3D could only be viewed in 3d, without the glasses it was blurry, whereas now you can see a 3d movie without glasses and have it appear in normal 2D).

[Malthus]

Heh, this is amusing.

http://failblog.org/2010/01/10/avatar-plot-fail/