Comments on: What James Cameron Should Have Done with His CGI

By: James

James — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:50:12 +0000

The only reason he got away with the price tag on this film is because he projected a cost efficiency increase by the elimination of “extras” and then supporting actors over a certain period of time, and has a major inferiority complex involving The creator of the star Wars..

He is a micro-managing yin yang that could not give one iota of compassion to anyone but himself and this movie “did NOT” fool me in the least as I have seen better renderings then he produced.. even the motion capture is so 1980's in technology and I have yet to see any movie that can fool my senses..

By: Mike Wilkerson - 2GuysTalking

Mike Wilkerson - 2GuysTalking — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 22:23:10 +0000

Something else you mention that I like a LOT is PROJECT SECRECY. I think that AVATAR did a lot to hide what they were doing in general until the end and just dancing on the overall arc of the project. Sadly, gone, are the days where projects like this one CAN be veiled and a sense of anticipation and "congenital" cinema hype can be pulled off and I so want to be able to revisit that.

Ahh, the sweet irony of me conveying my affirmative opinion of project secrecy on an Internet Message System that helps to convey what's going on in Hollywood! :)

A LOT could be garnered for both the film makers and watchers alike with things like that. I don't have the fix, but often, the more "in the dark" on movies I am the more satisfying the presentation. A true double-edged sword to be sure.

By: Mike Wilkerson - 2GuysTalking

Mike Wilkerson - 2GuysTalking — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 22:17:42 +0000

"...what Cameron should have made was a movie set in modern times, in a normal American town with zero science fiction or supernatural elements..."

Oy - they're already calling Avatar "thin on story."Imagine removing the fantastical paradise of Pandora, the aliens, the flying lizard/bat things and all of the elements of culture that were represented for the Navi' to a suburb?

Wow.

I like your concepts but that sounds gooney at best. With the movement of a sequel, could the cries of "crappy story/Dances with Smurfs/where's the story" be quelled with more exposition and storytelling in another chapter? I say yes.

With the DRECK that was much of cinema this year, I call Avatar satisfying. Does it cave Cameron's previous extravaganzas (Aliens, Terminator and T2)? Nope. But it IS a very solid addition to his gunbelt that I was happy to see pulled off and sorry that it took so long to do so.

By: jay

jay — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 03:38:13 +0000

I felt more emotional attachment to the robots in Wall-e and the characters in Up then I did to the Navis in Avatar. You tell me, why? Something was terribly missing in Avatar. Soul, heart, interesting characters, I don't know but I felt no emotional involvement to the film or the characters whatsoever. And I think that was Cameron's goal..to make people feel emotionally attached to computer generated things. Failed in my book. And the story was Ferngully and Pocahontas. Cameron, if you're going to steal a screenplay don't claim you've been hoarding it for fifteen years because the technology just wasn't there yet.

By: tkingsbery

tkingsbery — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:06:50 +0000

He should have made a movie more in this style. http://bit.ly/6f5nQc

By: moses

moses — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 02:12:47 +0000

The article reminds me of the Image Metric project thing. It surprised me, like James Cameron could have done with the whole CGI humans film. hahah (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYgLFt5wfP4)

By: Winnie_T

Winnie_T — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:15:19 +0000

Interesting idea. However I'd say all the extra cost that will be needed to make this work isn't worth it. If I could make the same movie with real actors that can deliver the same premise at a much smaller budget, why wouldn't I? It's the fantasy/sci-fi element, i.e. bizarre ecosystem, alien race, that makes this method worth the while. All the same, I think it'll be a great experiment; maybe add a dash of fantasy/sci-fi to thrill the premise up.

Or do it documentary style, and finish the movie off with a short movie-within-a-movie. Or have the computer-generated characters observe the real human beings and learn off them, haha.

By: r4i kaart

r4i kaart — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:53:40 +0000

Hi guys..
Pay attention to what James Cameron has done with his truly spectacular looking Avatar. This, my friends, is the right way to create a 3D film experience.

By: Mladen

Mladen — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:28:48 +0000

Cameron has already said that he's not interested in animation, but performance capture.
No matter how your dress the physical appearance of the character, it still would have been performed by a flesh and blood actor.

Either way, you couldn't justify the enormous budget needed for what you're proposing.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:45:00 +0000

Of course I’ve played a video game, and the characters in Avatar are far more realistic-looking than Q-Bert! What an absurd thing to say.

And, yes, I’m using sarcasm to point out that comparing the visuals in Avatar to a videogame is saying that Gears of War looks like Q-Bert.

By: Chancethe Gardener

Chancethe Gardener — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:55:00 +0000

Have you never played a video game? We are light years away from an audience being fooled that completely…light years.

By: Aleric

Aleric — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:41:35 +0000

Sorry TJ, but Cameron has now become the next George Lucas. Story doesn't matter, all that matters is selling McDonalds Hamburgers and getting 8 year olds to buy the toys based on the movie.

By: Aleric

Aleric — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:39:47 +0000

Obviously you have not watched any movies in the last 20 years.

By: michaeldance

michaeldance — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:31:23 +0000

Heh yeah I thought I was the only one who saw that movie. It's from the writer of Gattaca and the Truman Show, and yet it's stunningly, stunningly awful.

By: Cole_Abaius

Cole_Abaius — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:37:20 +0000

Ah, I didn't say I found the story lacking. I said that a lot of critics did.

I really enjoyed the story. I was blown away by the whole damned thing actually.

By: Wonkers

Wonkers — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:53:00 +0000

How do we know that CGI humans created using this tech would still be as convincing as watching a real actor on stage? Cameron created blue cat-like aliens that would have an easier time crossing the uncanny valley because we’re so unfamiliar with them.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:42:00 +0000

Blashphemer, you will be cast out of Nirvana for uttering those words against the movie Guru.

By: Darren Albert

Darren Albert — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:28:02 +0000

This article misses the whole point these aren't CGI characters in Avatar, they are motion captured actors with a CGI layer. Cameron would not have been able to create “new human” characters without the underlying human actor. As it stands, that technology does not yet exist.

By: TJ Wells

TJ Wells — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:44:58 +0000

And honestly, assuming he stays in this world for his next film, the script will HAVE to be better. We have to remember that he spent twelve years working on Avatar; the fact that maybe the script wasn't the #1 priority in his mind shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. This time, without having to worry about getting all the technology up to speed, he should have a lot more time to devote to an original script.

By: TJ Wells

TJ Wells — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:42:57 +0000

That sounds a little too much like Simone, one of the worst movies I've ever seen.