The Great Unobtainium Robbery
From an L.A. Times report on the Avatar phenomenon:
There have been breathless reports that “Avatar” is so vivid and so powerful that moviegoers walk out feeling let down by the gray world here on boring old Terra. “Movie-goers feel depressed and even suicidal at not being able to visit utopian alien planet” may sound like a headline from The Onion but, nope, there it was in the Daily Mail of London and, a day earlier, on CNN, which quoted a forum post by someone named Mike who glumly said that the majesty of the movie has left him feeling, um, blue. “I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora and the everything is the same as in ‘Avatar.’”
Audiences overreacting — and a high degree of realism — to a groundbreaking new movie technology? Where have I heard this before? Oh wait:
Besides the breakthrough story-telling feature, another reason audiences liked “The Great Train Robbery” was because of the shooting scene at the end of the film. In this last scene, actor George Barnes plays a bandit who takes his gun, points it directly at the camera and shoots it. This movie scene has now become famous.
When people in the audience saw Barnes point his gun directly at them, they ducked and screamed. They had never seen anything like this before and their natural reaction was to duck.
I didn’t think much of Avatar as a movie — Cameron could’ve told the same story with ten times the kick if he’d actually developed the conflict into something more than a cartoon rivalry — but I was deeply impressed by the film’s 3D technology. Something tells me, though, that a few decades from now, we’ll look back on Avatar‘s CGI gimmicry and react roughly the same as we now do to this:
There gets to be a point though where you can’t make any more of an impact. Cameron has, I think, pretty much taken things as far as they can be taken. On a technical level, the film seemed Michelangelesque, something you can’t say of The Great Train Robbery.
— Thursday · Jan 25, 07:13 AM · #
Honestly, a lot of the world still seemed pretty damn cartoony to me — the big animals in particular, which all seem to have been for easy video game rendering: not much hair, smooth, glossy skin. The Na’vi were frequently (though not always) very convincing, and the flora and fauna were pretty believable too. But the rest of it didn’t look all that convincing to me.
— Peter Suderman · Jan 25, 07:46 AM · #
20 years ago, I saw Lawrence of Arabia during its theatrical re-release. The film was already 20 years or so old at that point.
During the intermission, I went into what I assume was a mild case of shock – shivering, sweating, blurred vision, etc. It was just that surprising to find myself in a theater restroom instead of the desert.
(Luckily, I maintained aim somehow, so it all ended well).
— J Mann · Jan 25, 04:44 PM · #
I was seen this movie it is really a very nice movie the graphics and the pindara Planet look so nice and this one example of the new and advance technology.
— buy pro duo · Jan 26, 06:38 AM · #