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It has passed $1 billion in ticket sales. Expected to only be second to Titanic before long. At its current rate it will be #2 all time in about 2 weeks.
Has anyone had issues with the 3D causing headaches? I haven't seen many 3d movies. I saw Superman Returns in IMAX 3d but that had about 25 minutes of 3D and didn't require much glasses viewing. Conversely, I recently saw UP (or as it was called where I saw it, The Adventure of the Flying House) in 3D and by the end I was ready to gouge my eyes out because they hurt so much. It probably also doesn't help that I wear glasses already. I've read that if you try to focus on too much (looking everywhere as opposed to just the main focus of the scene) that headaches are more common. Can anyone attest to this?
One final note with UP, I saw it in China and we saw the subtitled version, and I often found myself looking down at the symbols just to see what they looked like (and they looked kinda cool in 3d since they jumped out from the screen), so maybe it was the constant eye shifting that attributed to my discomfort?
One final note with UP, I saw it in China and we saw the subtitled version, and I often found myself looking down at the symbols just to see what they looked like (and they looked kinda cool in 3d since they jumped out from the screen), so maybe it was the constant eye shifting that attributed to my discomfort?
There were some subtitles in Avatar, and when they were on the screen, I noticed I had to refocus and that it caused some eye strain. That might have been what did it for you.
I really didn't have headaches or eye discomfort from Avatar, and I went in expecting it. It might be that much of the 3-d effects were jungle background, so the 3-d kind of became ambience instead of things you were expected to focus on.
In the latest edition of TV Technology, one of the advances that Cameron claimed was figuring out an optimum 3D space so as to minimize the eyes jumping back and forth trying to focus on different things.
What throws off most people is the fact that parallax yields the majority of the sense of distance. However, the eyes' focus distance to the screen is always the same, leading to the brain getting confused as to the actual distance. The brain says "the eyes are tracking this angle, so the object must be X feet away. Eyes, focus to X." However, the object on the screen is still S away, so it goes out of focus. After some period of time, you might get either a headache or eye strain.
What throws off most people is the fact that parallax yields the majority of the sense of distance. However, the eyes' focus distance to the screen is always the same, leading to the brain getting confused as to the actual distance. The brain says "the eyes are tracking this angle, so the object must be X feet away. Eyes, focus to X." However, the object on the screen is still S away, so it goes out of focus. After some period of time, you might get either a headache or eye strain.
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Saw it this weekend and enjoyed it. I went in with a slightly bad attitude as I didn't particularly care for the trailer(s). I ended up liking it quite a bit - but not enough to see a 2nd time. I was immersed in the CGI world and 99% of the time seemed real to me. Really good CGI.
planning on catching a matinee of this with my wife tomorrow afternoon... the theater we are going to has both the IMAX 3D and RealD 3D presentations of it. Is the IMAX 3D presentation worth the extra few bucks? I'm leaning toward IMAX, but was curious what the consensus is between the technologies...
Okay, well I saw Avatar in 3D IMAX and found it simply stunning. No headache, no eyestrain, 3D was breathtaking. I found it to be quite awesome and a completely enjoyable experience. I plan on seeing it a second time. 3D IMAX was the only way to fly I think.
I believe it was about $1.00 a ticket......in all honesty, I did not see the normal Real 3D version so I am not sure what the actual difference is, but the IMAX screen is slightly curved and much larger than a regular screen. I throughly enjoyed the experience.
Loved it though as others have stated here and across the rest of the world the story line was incredibly predictable and really made me wonder if Cameron had let Tom Arnold write it but that aside it was everything else that made it leap off the screen and that was seeing it in 2D.
IMAX 3D during a 12:20pm matinée... 3 observations:
1) The movie was alright, like others are saying pretty predictable; still a fun ride.
2) Would have never guessed that they'd sell out an IMAX auditorium for a non-holiday Wednesday afternoon showing...
3) ...don't arrive for this movie 10 mins before. We were five rows from the bottom (essentially the entry level - not down in the pit up front); far to the right.
If I knew the showing was already 80%ish filled; I would have gone to a later RealD showing... IMAX 3D from an angle was UNimpressive. You do get some sense of depth; but objects that are supposed to be floating in front of you, don't. Plus, it's flat screen IMAX and they must have had some kind of alignment problem with the cameras; we stayed through the credits and some suits were talking via walkie talkie after the credits to the projector room about the "blur". On top of all of that, headache. At least now I know it's RealD 3D for me, or nothing at all.
Oh, and about 2/3rds of the way through there is the guy who made something of a scene. He was sitting in the middle of the stadium. He 'cuse me/pardon me his way out to the isle... "excuse me" to each and every person in his row... then making some fairly boisterous complaint, "I'm not going to sit here and watch them continue to slander my marines! Un-American piece of trash" I watched the whole movie and I didn't see any marines... I saw some ex-marines working security for a corporation... but I didn't see any US Marines in the movie. If we can't detach ourselves from reality while watching a movie about giant blue people, perhaps we should stick to documentaries?
Despite all of this; was a fun afternoon...
1) The movie was alright, like others are saying pretty predictable; still a fun ride.
2) Would have never guessed that they'd sell out an IMAX auditorium for a non-holiday Wednesday afternoon showing...
3) ...don't arrive for this movie 10 mins before. We were five rows from the bottom (essentially the entry level - not down in the pit up front); far to the right.
If I knew the showing was already 80%ish filled; I would have gone to a later RealD showing... IMAX 3D from an angle was UNimpressive. You do get some sense of depth; but objects that are supposed to be floating in front of you, don't. Plus, it's flat screen IMAX and they must have had some kind of alignment problem with the cameras; we stayed through the credits and some suits were talking via walkie talkie after the credits to the projector room about the "blur". On top of all of that, headache. At least now I know it's RealD 3D for me, or nothing at all.
Oh, and about 2/3rds of the way through there is the guy who made something of a scene. He was sitting in the middle of the stadium. He 'cuse me/pardon me his way out to the isle... "excuse me" to each and every person in his row... then making some fairly boisterous complaint, "I'm not going to sit here and watch them continue to slander my marines! Un-American piece of trash" I watched the whole movie and I didn't see any marines... I saw some ex-marines working security for a corporation... but I didn't see any US Marines in the movie. If we can't detach ourselves from reality while watching a movie about giant blue people, perhaps we should stick to documentaries?
Despite all of this; was a fun afternoon...
Just came from a Real 3d version of the movie. Surprisingly I left without much of a headache, at least much less than from UP.
This is a movie you have to judge in 2 ways: As a basic movie containing a plot, actors, and script, and from a technical level. Avatar scores conversely equal on both fronts.
As a basic movie it is rather lacking. The story is cliche, the acting is rather campy, there's very little blurring of characters (they're either totally bad or totally good) and seeing humans portrayed as the bad guys isn't exactly a feel good story. Oh, and not to get political, but the movie definitely does take a very liberal stance on things. And to comment on what the previous poster said, no the movie does NOT bash US Marines. If anything, they'd have to be considered mercenaries or part of a PMC.
On a technical level, the movie is astounding. It looks like James has finally figured out how to make CGI not look like CGI. The aliens look like humans covered in paint (as opposed to something in a PS3 game,) the planet looks astounding, and human ships and computer technology actually look like something that would be used in the future.
So overall, yes this is a movie worth seeing, really because of amazing technological feat that it is. Of course, if you don't care about such things and want a good story and performances that move you, you're better off going to a family reunion.
This is a movie you have to judge in 2 ways: As a basic movie containing a plot, actors, and script, and from a technical level. Avatar scores conversely equal on both fronts.
As a basic movie it is rather lacking. The story is cliche, the acting is rather campy, there's very little blurring of characters (they're either totally bad or totally good) and seeing humans portrayed as the bad guys isn't exactly a feel good story. Oh, and not to get political, but the movie definitely does take a very liberal stance on things. And to comment on what the previous poster said, no the movie does NOT bash US Marines. If anything, they'd have to be considered mercenaries or part of a PMC.
On a technical level, the movie is astounding. It looks like James has finally figured out how to make CGI not look like CGI. The aliens look like humans covered in paint (as opposed to something in a PS3 game,) the planet looks astounding, and human ships and computer technology actually look like something that would be used in the future.
So overall, yes this is a movie worth seeing, really because of amazing technological feat that it is. Of course, if you don't care about such things and want a good story and performances that move you, you're better off going to a family reunion.
I watched the 3D version last night. It looked absolutely spectacular! I forgot that I had glasses in a few minutes and simply enjoyed the 3D picture! The glasses didn't bother me at all. The quality was amazing! It was very sharp and wasn't too dark at all!
However, I am still not convinced that the 3D version is a better experience. I was much more into the movie itself when I watched it originally in 2D. This time around I was thinking too much about the 3D thing, rather than I was following the action. May be this is just because I knew what to expect, but I thought the 3D effects, even though they were not too exaggerated, took some of my attention away from the action.
Overall a great experience! This movie will be a must-have when it comes out on Blu-ray 3D.
P.S. One thing that surprised me the most: the theater was packed. Almost sold out. And that's a month since the original release!
However, I am still not convinced that the 3D version is a better experience. I was much more into the movie itself when I watched it originally in 2D. This time around I was thinking too much about the 3D thing, rather than I was following the action. May be this is just because I knew what to expect, but I thought the 3D effects, even though they were not too exaggerated, took some of my attention away from the action.
Overall a great experience! This movie will be a must-have when it comes out on Blu-ray 3D.
P.S. One thing that surprised me the most: the theater was packed. Almost sold out. And that's a month since the original release!
It is on track to pass Titanic. It is #2 of all time now (worldwide), just about 200 million behind Titanic. It is 100million behind Titanic in the US market (#3 but about to pass Dark Knight to be #2).
