Although I was very critical of Avatar when I saw it in the theatre, and disliked the 3-D especially, I still marveled at the SFX and performances and so I always intended to pick up the Blu-Ray when it came out. I ignored the vanilla edition and instead got the 3-disc version that came out earlier this week.
I haven't had a chance to watch everything through yet, but I do have a few observations. As usual I'll probably get flamed for some of them - Avatar falls into the "thou shalt not criticize" category with some people alongside Firefly - but c'est la vie.
First, I'm convinced more than ever that Avatar did not need the 3-D aspect. And I mean this from a couple of different perspectives.
Just watching the first hour of the film, I noticed so much more detail, color, backgrounds, nuances, that frankly were utterly lost when I tried to watch the thing through those damn glasses, having to take them off every 10 minutes because my eyes began to water. Avatar is the most beautiful film I possibly have ever seen -- when viewed in 2-D. You don't need the 3-D; the images are vivid enough that your brain almost automatically makes up the 3-D aspect. You don't need the bells and whistles. It added nothing to the story. And if most people only went to see it for the 3-D, then frankly that invalidates Cameron's attempt at telling a meaningful story about the environment, IMO.
(It's worth repeating here that James Cameron himself conceded in an interview with Canada's Sun Media chain when the first DVD/BD came out that Avatar looks better in 2D.)
But beyond that argument, which has been made by me and others repeatedly, the evidence that the 3-D was not needed can be found if you watch some of the fascinating featurettes in the set. The fact, for example, that the film not only revolutionized motion capture techniques, but also introduced a form of "virtual set" directing that allowed Cameron to see the CG rendered in real time as he was directing the actors. I'd never even heard of this before watching the discs. It's an incredible technique, and that alone, frankly, was enough to justify the film as a game-changer. The 3-D was an unnecessary bundle of bells and whistles.
Other observations:
- Those of us keeping score as to films "borrowed" by Avatar can probably add Blade Runner to the list after watching the opening of the Extended Cut. It was nicely done, nonetheless - interesting that a number of scenes in the main trailer came from these cut sequences.
- The New Zealand haka ritual is one of the coolest things on the planet. There's a great bit of footage (repeated twice) of a group of NZ stuntmen doing one in honor of Cameron, which inspired him to actually get some of them to motion-capture a haka for the film, though sadly it got cut.
- I want Cameron to make Brother Termite next. I might get flame-slapped for this, but I actually found the three minutes of that test film (created to test some of the CG and motion capture techniques being developed for Avatar) to be more interesting than Avatar as a whole. I need to track down the novel it's based on.
- I really wish they'd stop putting text-heavy items on as special features. Both the script for Avatar and Cameron's original "scriptment" are included, and while I agree that reading these things on a big plasma HD set is a lot easier than similar items included on SD DVDs, I'd have much rather they'd have been included as a PDF file or something. Unfortunately the era of the "DVD-ROM"-style extra may be coming to an end until more home PCs are fitted with Blu-Ray drives (understandably, it was probably decided there was no point in including a DVD 4th disc just for a few megabytes worth of stuff).
- The Family Friendly audio track is hilarious to listen to. It's what I refer to as a "Scum-Bum" track. I coined the phrase based on the infamous network-TV version of Smokey and the Bandit Part II which had a good 25% of all the dialogue overdubbed by actors who sounded nothing like Burt Reynolds and Jackie Gleason, and who replaced all the swearing and off-color remakes with phrases that were total gibberish. Sheriff Justice's catchphrase, "Sum-bitch!" was replaced by "Scum-bum!" in that version. And so I now call any "family friendly audio" track that makes silly substitutions a "Scum-Bum" track. A few films have been released with these, such as one of the Crank films (which is intentionally funny) and the Avatar one, which isn't as extreme as Smokey's, but you still hear some pretty strange substitutions (Grace's four-letter reaction to leaning about Jake's horizontal mambo with you-know-who made me laugh).
- The packaging on this set sucks, Flimsy, pull-out envelopes that are a pain to slide back in loosely hold the disks, and don't make the mistake I did and assume the trays pull all the way out - they do not. As I nearly found out the hard way. I figure the packaging will fall apart within a year for anyone who plans to watch the film frequently.
- On Disc 2 there's a section called "Production Materials". I actually ignored this at first because I assumed this is where features I consider useless on a DVD/BD such as the photo gallery was housed. Actually, this section includes a lot of the test footage (including Brother Termite), and fans of Zoe Saldana will definitely want to check out her screen tests and an amusing sequence showing her getting a head cast. And there's also a bizarre comedy short shot behind the scenes featuring one of the motion capture extras acting all creepy-like.
- I wish they'd had an alternate video track showing the raw performance capture, as was done with the Beowulf Blu-Ray. Some of the real-life performances are fascinating to watch on their own merits, even before the CG is applied.
- After Avatar came out and the bandwagoning regarding 3-D began, Cameron lost a lot of my respect, in some ways, with how he really pushed and pushed the whole "let's make everything 3-D from now on" thing. You could almost see the dollar signs in his eyes. He regained some of that respect in his interviews here where he stressed how important the use of live actors was, and will continue to be, regardless of CG improvements. Hell, he even commissioned an entire costume department to create real-life versions of all the Na'vi outfits seen in the film, before any animation was done. This was one of the most pleasant surprises in the film - I'd assumed all the costuming was just the result of people sitting with tablets and styluses all day.
Some of my basic criticisms of Avatar from when I saw it in the theatre remain. I still think it's too heavy handed in its environmentalist/Angry American message (and a featurette depicting Cameron as environmental crusader come close to crossing the pretentious line). My 3-D criticism has been stated (and is moot in this 2-D release anyway). And I still think the film still borrows from too many other films (though in the main documentary one of the producers outright acknowledges the Ferngully comparison, and there's also a telling moment where Cameron talks about changing Dr. Grace Augustine's last name, which was originally Shipley and was considered too close to Ripley, Sigourney Weaver's Aliens character). All that said, I have nothing but respect for the technology behind the making of the film, Zoe Saldana should have been nominated for an Oscar, and I'm glad to have the film in my collection.
Alex
I haven't had a chance to watch everything through yet, but I do have a few observations. As usual I'll probably get flamed for some of them - Avatar falls into the "thou shalt not criticize" category with some people alongside Firefly - but c'est la vie.
First, I'm convinced more than ever that Avatar did not need the 3-D aspect. And I mean this from a couple of different perspectives.
Just watching the first hour of the film, I noticed so much more detail, color, backgrounds, nuances, that frankly were utterly lost when I tried to watch the thing through those damn glasses, having to take them off every 10 minutes because my eyes began to water. Avatar is the most beautiful film I possibly have ever seen -- when viewed in 2-D. You don't need the 3-D; the images are vivid enough that your brain almost automatically makes up the 3-D aspect. You don't need the bells and whistles. It added nothing to the story. And if most people only went to see it for the 3-D, then frankly that invalidates Cameron's attempt at telling a meaningful story about the environment, IMO.
(It's worth repeating here that James Cameron himself conceded in an interview with Canada's Sun Media chain when the first DVD/BD came out that Avatar looks better in 2D.)
But beyond that argument, which has been made by me and others repeatedly, the evidence that the 3-D was not needed can be found if you watch some of the fascinating featurettes in the set. The fact, for example, that the film not only revolutionized motion capture techniques, but also introduced a form of "virtual set" directing that allowed Cameron to see the CG rendered in real time as he was directing the actors. I'd never even heard of this before watching the discs. It's an incredible technique, and that alone, frankly, was enough to justify the film as a game-changer. The 3-D was an unnecessary bundle of bells and whistles.
Other observations:
- Those of us keeping score as to films "borrowed" by Avatar can probably add Blade Runner to the list after watching the opening of the Extended Cut. It was nicely done, nonetheless - interesting that a number of scenes in the main trailer came from these cut sequences.
- The New Zealand haka ritual is one of the coolest things on the planet. There's a great bit of footage (repeated twice) of a group of NZ stuntmen doing one in honor of Cameron, which inspired him to actually get some of them to motion-capture a haka for the film, though sadly it got cut.
- I want Cameron to make Brother Termite next. I might get flame-slapped for this, but I actually found the three minutes of that test film (created to test some of the CG and motion capture techniques being developed for Avatar) to be more interesting than Avatar as a whole. I need to track down the novel it's based on.
- I really wish they'd stop putting text-heavy items on as special features. Both the script for Avatar and Cameron's original "scriptment" are included, and while I agree that reading these things on a big plasma HD set is a lot easier than similar items included on SD DVDs, I'd have much rather they'd have been included as a PDF file or something. Unfortunately the era of the "DVD-ROM"-style extra may be coming to an end until more home PCs are fitted with Blu-Ray drives (understandably, it was probably decided there was no point in including a DVD 4th disc just for a few megabytes worth of stuff).
- The Family Friendly audio track is hilarious to listen to. It's what I refer to as a "Scum-Bum" track. I coined the phrase based on the infamous network-TV version of Smokey and the Bandit Part II which had a good 25% of all the dialogue overdubbed by actors who sounded nothing like Burt Reynolds and Jackie Gleason, and who replaced all the swearing and off-color remakes with phrases that were total gibberish. Sheriff Justice's catchphrase, "Sum-bitch!" was replaced by "Scum-bum!" in that version. And so I now call any "family friendly audio" track that makes silly substitutions a "Scum-Bum" track. A few films have been released with these, such as one of the Crank films (which is intentionally funny) and the Avatar one, which isn't as extreme as Smokey's, but you still hear some pretty strange substitutions (Grace's four-letter reaction to leaning about Jake's horizontal mambo with you-know-who made me laugh).
- The packaging on this set sucks, Flimsy, pull-out envelopes that are a pain to slide back in loosely hold the disks, and don't make the mistake I did and assume the trays pull all the way out - they do not. As I nearly found out the hard way. I figure the packaging will fall apart within a year for anyone who plans to watch the film frequently.
- On Disc 2 there's a section called "Production Materials". I actually ignored this at first because I assumed this is where features I consider useless on a DVD/BD such as the photo gallery was housed. Actually, this section includes a lot of the test footage (including Brother Termite), and fans of Zoe Saldana will definitely want to check out her screen tests and an amusing sequence showing her getting a head cast. And there's also a bizarre comedy short shot behind the scenes featuring one of the motion capture extras acting all creepy-like.
- I wish they'd had an alternate video track showing the raw performance capture, as was done with the Beowulf Blu-Ray. Some of the real-life performances are fascinating to watch on their own merits, even before the CG is applied.
- After Avatar came out and the bandwagoning regarding 3-D began, Cameron lost a lot of my respect, in some ways, with how he really pushed and pushed the whole "let's make everything 3-D from now on" thing. You could almost see the dollar signs in his eyes. He regained some of that respect in his interviews here where he stressed how important the use of live actors was, and will continue to be, regardless of CG improvements. Hell, he even commissioned an entire costume department to create real-life versions of all the Na'vi outfits seen in the film, before any animation was done. This was one of the most pleasant surprises in the film - I'd assumed all the costuming was just the result of people sitting with tablets and styluses all day.
Some of my basic criticisms of Avatar from when I saw it in the theatre remain. I still think it's too heavy handed in its environmentalist/Angry American message (and a featurette depicting Cameron as environmental crusader come close to crossing the pretentious line). My 3-D criticism has been stated (and is moot in this 2-D release anyway). And I still think the film still borrows from too many other films (though in the main documentary one of the producers outright acknowledges the Ferngully comparison, and there's also a telling moment where Cameron talks about changing Dr. Grace Augustine's last name, which was originally Shipley and was considered too close to Ripley, Sigourney Weaver's Aliens character). All that said, I have nothing but respect for the technology behind the making of the film, Zoe Saldana should have been nominated for an Oscar, and I'm glad to have the film in my collection.
Alex
