Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

Being a household a name does not equate being great. Now I don't like Steven Spielberg but I'll acknowledge that he's made some iconic films for the past decades and he's a great director. James Cameron, meh.

Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

What r u talking about,i can honestly say Avatar is the best movie i have seen this decade. Spielberg has niot made a good movie since Minority Report,in fact i think Spielberg has went down hill,hope he directs the next Star Wars Trilogy though.

Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

This post is just blah.

Avatar is not the best movie of the decade, do you forget Munich, Catch Me if You Can and The Terminal?, and their will not be another Star Wars trilogy.

Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

I tried very hard to forget about The Terminal. I think Cameron is a better director than Spielberg, although I do think Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can were excellent this past decade.

Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

The Terminal wasn't great, but it was a fun movie imo. I wasn't a huge fan of Minority Report for some reason, but I loved Catch Me if You Can. Cameron is better though.

Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

I think Cameron for the small number of films he's done is a better director than Spielberg. I love Spielberg but....he's become hit and miss for the most part. Cameron has been on the fucking ball w/ the types of movies he does. Again..I want him to do an R rated action flick. He just really knows how to make an action scene have a certain thrill that most entire action flicks don't.

Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

But he claims to be one.

Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

Terminator 3-D

Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

its my favorite movie of the decade. The terminal and catch me if you can are good movies but best of the decade? nope, Munich didnt really care for.

Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

You said that Spielberg has not made a good movie since Minority Report. You are contradicting yourself.

Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

I think that Cameron has always been good at making movies feel really "physical". The fights and action in Aliens, Terminator and True Lies had real weight to them..."real" punches, real guns, real explosions, real force behind everything.

That's one of the reasons Avatar left me so cold. I think that was completely lost when all of the action involves computer characters. I've used the "videogame cutscene" example before, and I think that's it right there. Even with all of the motion capture stuff, you are still watching one computer animated character fight another on a computer-generated backdrop...and there is just nothing I can "connect" to. The punches don't feel "real"...the explosions seem fake, the speed and weight of everything seems off. That just took a real step backwards for me.

Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

you got me mixed up with someone else. I didnt say that. I love Spielberg.

Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

no way, there was no video game cut scene feel to avatar. It felt very real, Everything carried weight. Explosions didn't seem fake, (plus most explosions in movies are usually enhanced anyways so they aren't real anyways), There were no problems of weight or speed to anything. If your problem is Computer animated character, then can you connect to a movie like UP? , Jurassic Park? What else they gonna do with a movie like Avatar thats set on another planet? Theres no way they could do that movie? You dont make sense.

Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

I was getting ready to say just that. I also will not discount "Bones" until I see it. I almost wept when I saw who he had chosen as it's star and hope he didn't ruin it (as he almost ruined Departed for me).

Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

UP was a cartoon - I don't expect it to have real physics and weight. I connect to that kind of movie through the story. I don't think for one moment that an old man can tow a house that's being held up by a few balloons. It's not even trying to be realistic. It's a fairy tale.

And the most effective scenes in Jurassic Park to me were the ones that used the animatronic dinosaurs. There were only a few quick moments with the CGI raptors that worked for me, and even then it was more of an appreciation for what the effects artists did.

I remember watching the big fight at the end of Avatar and thinking "man...the CGI artists must have been going nuts here". Never did I think "that looked like it hurt" when some CGI character punched another CGI character.

I have the same issue with the Star Wars prequels. The battle at the end of Return of the Jedi just feels so real to me, and that was model work. The (arguably) bigger and "cooler" battle at the beginning of Revenge of the Sith felt like a computer-generated cutscene...with no real sense of forward momentum for me.

It's hard to put into words. I could just continue to give examples...like the big sweeping battle shots in LOTR do nothing for me, but the up-close fights between small groups or individuals suck me right in. The space battles in the new Star Trek felt good because they mixed plenty of real explosions and real actors in with the CGI spaceship stuff. And so on...

I just wish they had brought more of a human element into the movie, instead of 65% of it being a cartoon that was supposed to look "real".

Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

I don't agree with you on the whole about the movie, despite the flaws, I enjoyed it quite a bit, but I do agree with what you are saying.

First Jurassic Park and Up are terrible examples. As you stated Up is a cartoon fairy tale that gets you connected through the story. Second 90 percent of Jurassic Park was Stan Winston. It always gets held up as this CGI pinnacle but most of the key scenes people relate to are all animatronic wizardry.

The end battle of Avatar didn't have much weight to it. HomeTree/Eywa coming down got me, that worked well enough, but after that it was very much George Lucas in the director chair. i.e. "Let's throw as much CGI shit on screen as humanly possible and it will look awesome! Especially in 3D!" Random soldiers getting shot with arrows, tossed off ships, etc. lacked any kind of "punch." Oddly enough the closing fight with the Mech and Jake & Ney'teri DID work.

Coincidentally when I read maingnon's post the first example that came to mind for me was also Return of the Jedi. Hate 'em or not, the Ewok battle had that "punch" that Avatar seemed to be lacking.

So like Draven, I cannot put it into words either, how to properly explain it. (I feel the exact same way about LOTR) Unlike Draven, I really enjoyed the flick though. :lol:

Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

Y'all sound like y'all are having a tough time suspending your disbelief.

Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

[QUOTE=Kurtie Dee;9947548]Has anyone encountered any <i>Avatar</i> porn yet? It has to be out there ...

Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

uhhh, you may wanna put a spoiler nsfw tag, while its 1:08 in the morning, so no one gets in trouble tomorrow

Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

No, I somewhat agree w/ him. Cameron's action had weight. Not to say I didn't like Avatar (I liked it a lot it's not #1 of 09 but it's up for being what it is in it's filmmaking feat). I liked the action in it but seeing ex: Arnold doing that shoot out in the public restroom made you feel it in a way. That was in True Lies.

Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

That's gonna get someone in trouble tomorrow.

(right-click, save as...)

Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

I started reading the "Making of Jurassic Park" book, and I was blown away at how *little* CGI was actually used in the movie.

Now I know why the FX don't look so horrible, most of them were practical.

Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

I don't think you can link to that, even if it's spoilerized.

Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

Cameron has a higher batting average to be sure. But Spielberg is more prolific and still has a larger catalog of great movies. And he proved with Munich he can still hit them out of the park.

ET
Jaws
Indiana Jones 1,2 & 3
Close Encounters
Duel
Color Purple
Empire of the Sun
Schindlers List
Munich
Jurassic Park
Saving Private Ryan

Re: So What Does Cameron Do Now?
 

I suspend my disbelief just fine when there is some element of reality to ground the picture. Avatar had very little to relate to as a live-action movie, since nearly everything was CGI or CGI-enhanced. As I said before, the Star Wars prequels suffer from the exact same thing.