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GXAlan

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I was impressed with the visuals. The visuals are solid and story creative enough to be entertaining. It’s mass entertainment (they want to recoup the investment) so you cannot expect a very deep, thought provoking story, but it’s an entertaining story. Definitely feels next level in terms of visual.

I didn’t love the 48Hz high frame rate. They felt like video game cutscenes rather than a movie. The cinema I went to had Klipsch cinema speakers. They sounded great but I don’t think it was running immersive Atmos.
 

okok

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is there any normal 2D 24 fps version out there? the 3d is eye-hurting, not a fan of it...
 
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birdog1960

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is there any normal 2D 24 fps version out there? the 3d is eye-hurting, not a fan of it...
i don't know the film speed but yes, there were 4 rooms with 2D and 4 rooms with 3D in the cinema I went to. Agree, after an hour my eyes hurt.
 

Jonas_h

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I don't think that is surprising. It is much easier to optimize sound and visuals for a handful of people compared to a large audience in a theatre. Just think for a moment the problems with peaks and nulls the poor sound engineer has to deal with, it is impossible to give everyone in the audience the same experience.
An off-topic comment to your response: The larger the room, the less peaks and dips throughout the listening area. So giving the audience a similar experience in a larger room is actually much easier than giving three rows in a smaller room the same experience.

The large room has some other challenges though which is easier in a smaller room.
 

Bow_Wazoo

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I saw it yesterday, and got out after two hours.
3D was impressive, but it still has the same problems as it did ten years ago:
the image brightness decreases significantly, and the frame of the glasses reflects inside.

What really got on my nerves was the HFR: VOLUNTARILY the frame rate jumped back and forth even during a scene.
That was absolutely annoying.
You can discuss whether HFR causes too high a soaping effect, but this permanent frame rate change is absolutely unacceptable.
 

Sal1950

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I watched it at the local IMAX 3D last night and thought it was excellent.
I don't know what some are expecting in a story, some chick flix BS
that makes the girls cry? It's a SciFi adventure-action film and was
mostly a 3 hour roller coaster fun ride, how the hell can that be bad?
The CGI and immersive sound track was incredible.
IMO, It was exactly what it was supposed to be, and that's a good thing.
I want to get my hands on a 4k blu-ray and see how it delivers on the small screen.
Can't wait for Avatar 3.

To those who didn't like it, stay home next time and save your $
I'd bet anything you knew you weren't gonna like it when you bought the ticket.
 

ed308

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Saw it with my wife in 3D at Cut over the weekend. Both of us liked it. The 3D glasses provided were some of the best I’ve used and wearing over my glasses. My only complaint was the dialogue. Found it difficult to understand the dialogue at times.
 

Newman

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Rotten Tomatoes ratings are 77% by reviewers and 92% by audiences. That's a very big thumbs-up overall.

I try to enjoy movies rather than be an arch critic. I watched it on Tuesday in 3D with my daughter and my wife. The enjoyment I extracted was around the native environment, the social interactions, and the spiritual connection between the various animal life forms and their planet (which the story analogises biologically with the 'melding of nerve ends'). The plot was full of holes. The fight scenes were the usual childish fare for American action movies. The narrative was utterly unexceptional, but not off-putting. I came out saying "there was enough to enjoy, but I'm not going back".

The choice of 3D was my daughter's: I haven't watched in 3D since disliking it 10 years ago. So this was going to be an interesting revisit: would I like it now?

Well, I must say, I thought the third dimension itself was tastefully done and very effective. I enjoyed it. BUT. Just like 10 years ago, every time I slipped the glasses down to see what I'm missing (and ignoring the 'double-vision effect of not using the glasses'), I thought wooooooowwwwww, look at the glorious brilliance, contrast and dynamic range to the image. And OOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMGGGGGGGG, the colours! Vivid, glorious, saturated, accurate (to the 2D edition), such an enormous jump in visual pleasure.

Put the glasses back on.... all gone. But hey, it's 3D now. To me the 3D is worth having and adds (say) 20% to the visual experience, but not at that cost, which subtracts 50% IMO.

Imagine if the option of stereo sound for music, instead of mono, was made available, but only by wearing cheap industrial earplugs, and not allowed to increase the loudness to compensate. All the dynamics and impact gone. All the frequency response accuracy gone. But hey, that stereo effect is quite nice. Would you take the stereo option on those terms?

cheers
 

Sal1950

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The choice of 3D was my daughter's: I haven't watched in 3D since disliking it 10 years ago. So this was going to be an interesting revisit: would I like it now?
3D doesn't mean much to me. I only went to it because that was all they showed on our IMAX screen, and that was important.
 

Newman

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Yes, one could only see it in 2D at the small-screen cinemas in our local complex. Which my daughter didn't want.
 

Sal1950

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Yes, one could only see it in 2D at the small-screen cinemas in our local complex. Which my daughter didn't want.
Boy the prices sure went down!
Last time I want to the theater was pre-covid.
Senior tickets for us IMAX 3D were $12.05 including all the BS.
I swear they were double that before pandemic
 

Andysu

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Saw it with my wife in 3D at Cut over the weekend. Both of us liked it. The 3D glasses provided were some of the best I’ve used and wearing over my glasses. My only complaint was the dialogue. Found it difficult to understand the dialogue at times.
what cinema was it where was you sat any pictures video to understanding the common dialog issue ?
 

Sal1950

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what cinema was it where was you sat any pictures video to understanding the common dialog issue ?
I had the same issue with dialog but then I often do with my 72 yo ears. :(
 

FrantzM

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disagree. it's allegorical with clear religious, historical (fascism/authoritarianism) and sociological (classs/social status) references. Perhaps "hunger games " does the deep stuff better but it's there. Snow piercer is better at it than both but they all, at least, try.
A bit OT.
Star Wars is not good , enjoyed it when it came out in 1977 but..

Andor takes Star Wars to the next level IMO.
Great Tv Series.

Peace.
 

Digby

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I thought Avatar 1 was one of the worst films I've ever seen. The idea of the alien world and the CGI was interesting, but the American Indian come African people living in harmony with everything (on a planet where everything was immensely hostile :rolleyes:) vs the evil capitalists (Americans?) was just too heavy handed. It is possible to make an enjoyable film like this, but it needs to be a little less over the top and patronising. It seems like it was aimed at the 10-12 year old demographic.

The worst part is that, given the setting and the potential for a decent story, it is just intensely dull and drags and drags. It should have been less than half the runtime.

Also, unobtanium....uh, really, unobtanium...are you taking the pish, Cameron?
 

Keith_W

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I'm with you, Digby. I have had it with leftist self-loathing, and Avatar 1 was the ultimate self-loathing movie. You walk out hating the effing human race ... hang on, who are we again?
 

Digby

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There is probably a decent critique to be made about humans and our relationship with the environment, but I just don't want to be hit over the head with it. I'd prefer to be convinced, with nuance, and a decent story thrown in to boot. The story is main thing. If the story is good, then everything else becomes (almost) immaterial.
 

Sal1950

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Story wise is mostly predictable,
Good guys vs Bad guys, Good guys win.
Same story as most of todays entertainment.
Making it fun/enjoyable is the hard part.
you mean Marley a boon to Jamaica? He is a source of enormous pride to the people. more than Hussain Bolt imo. InN hotel bars you can hear nothing but his songs for an hour or 2. Every cover band and even reggae bands on the charts play his songs. It is actually a bit too much.
Nope, it's actually WAY too much, BLAH! LOL
 

Bleib

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I'm with you, Digby. I have had it with leftist self-loathing, and Avatar 1 was the ultimate self-loathing movie. You walk out hating the effing human race ... hang on, who are we again?
lol, so what does that make rightwingers? Emotionless robots or worse, humans who get high on suffering?
Yes, the movies are OTT popcorn movies but we actually are a really OTT destructive species too. Without humans life on this planet would flourish, instead we are the ones causing mass extinction, and yes it's for profit. Maybe there is something to actually learn here?

We even have religions which are centered around the idea of massive end of days destruction.
___
Just saw 2 in 3d, OK movie with some plotholes here and there, but quite enjoyable. Quite weird that they are now after something else.
 
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