Evening Reading: Christmas Down

As a light snow continues to blanket my little corner of northeast Indiana--"the unmiddle," as the airport signage advertising local industry calls it--I find myself finally getting into the holiday spirit, just in time to yank all the ornaments off my tree and pawn the prickly fire hazard off to someone else for proper handling and disposal.

But before I get around to accidentally stabbing myself with pine needles, the news:

Now, it's tree-tackling time. Maybe I'll even get lucky and have enough time left over to make some holiday returns. The lines can't be that bad on a Monday night ....right?

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    December 28, 2009 5:00 PM

    Avatar 3d ftw

    • reply
      December 28, 2009 5:01 PM

      Do you get to take the glasses home with you?

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 5:04 PM

        You recycle them. IMAX had snorkel-size goggles, while normal 3D used what looked like sunglasses.

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 5:15 PM

        My friends and I use fandango and each one of us walked in with our own slip, somehow each of us got 3 glasses each and there was no collection bin at the end.

    • reply
      December 28, 2009 5:02 PM

      [deleted]

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 5:03 PM

        Well, I haven't seen the 3D version yet (only the regular) - but I kinda regret not watching it in 3D the first time around.

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 5:04 PM

        There are some very cool 3d shots in the movie.

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 5:14 PM

        Its borderline not worth watching in 2D. I probably won't pick up the Blu-ray.

        • reply
          December 28, 2009 8:00 PM

          i dont get this at all. while the 3d was great and all i really didnt feel like anything would suffer that much and detract from the gorgeousness of this movie without 3d. I went into it thinking that i HAD to see it in IMAX and then would probably never pickup the blu-ray and i left saying, yeah im definitely getting that blu-ray

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 5:29 PM

        It pretty much has to be seen in 3D.

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 5:39 PM

        it makes the movie worth watching

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 5:44 PM

        Absolutely. It ads a lot of depth and realism to the environment and helps sell the CG as reality.

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 5:48 PM

        It makes it awesome

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 6:06 PM

        No. It doesn't add anything substantial.

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 6:12 PM

        at first you'll think it's a gimmick and worthless... then you'll realise half way through the movie that you can't imagine it without the 3D.

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 6:14 PM

        Yes, yes, and yes.

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 6:59 PM

        without it you'll wonder why you went to see a 3 hour cheese movie filled with montages

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 7:14 PM

        Fuck yes.

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 7:30 PM

        [deleted]

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 7:40 PM

        Yes yes yes.

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 7:41 PM

        [deleted]

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 7:45 PM

        When the scene comes where he's (not really a spoiler at all) walking on the tree branch way up high in the giant tree, and looks down to see how high up he is, you'll be hooked.

        • reply
          December 28, 2009 8:30 PM

          You nailed the exact scene where I got vertigo and realized the power of the 3D.

        • reply
          December 28, 2009 9:56 PM

          The Valkyrie shuttle cockpit with the full bubble HUD was amazing.

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 7:46 PM

        For this movie? Yes.

      • reply
        December 29, 2009 4:46 AM

        [deleted]

      • reply
        December 29, 2009 6:00 AM

        Only if you want to visit Pandora

    • reply
      December 28, 2009 5:07 PM

      Loved the tech, the movie was almost unbearable. Can't wait for future movies using this tech tho, the sci-fi genre is gonna be exploiting the hell out of it. in a good way :D

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 6:24 PM

        The Forever War is using it. Can't. Wait.

        Now John Scalzi just needs to get a studio to pick up Old Man's War and use the same tech and I could die a happy man.

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 7:34 PM

        I agree that the movie was almost unbearable.

        Another thing I noticed about the tech, however, is it seems only to work in fully CG environments and/or in "enclosed" areas (IE the close up dense jungle or indoors). Was this a limitation of the tech, or was this just James Cameron's use of it?

        • reply
          December 28, 2009 9:49 PM

          It's really hard to use in large scenes, or panorama scenes where there isn't a clear focal point. If you took off the glasses for a second during the movie you'd realize that the main object in every shot is perfectly in focus even in 2D, while everything else has double vision to make it look further or closer than the primary object. They do this because trying to make your eyes focus on something in the "distance" in 3D is really hard and causes headaches. For shots with a high visibility range, they often turn off the 3D completely because otherwise you could get nauseous as your brain tries to focus on different objects at different distances.

    • reply
      December 28, 2009 5:41 PM

      i went to see it today and its sold out :(

    • reply
      December 28, 2009 5:44 PM

      got tickets to IMAX finally. 10:45pm showing on friday night lolz

    • reply
      December 28, 2009 6:47 PM

      The 12pm show was sold out today when I went to see Sherlock Holmes. Sold out on a freaken monday afternoon.

    • reply
      December 28, 2009 7:06 PM

      Is it a pretty safe bet that it'll still be showing on IMAX screens in mid-January? They don't seem to be selling tickets past this weekend, but I can't imagine the run ending so soon..

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 7:19 PM

        I can't imagine it disappearing in the next few weeks, no.

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 7:34 PM

        It is booked in IMAX until March when Alice in Wonderland comes out.

    • reply
      December 28, 2009 7:21 PM

      haha, the movie was greated, but the damn 3d part hurt my eyes. First I was wearing the things and my eyes were hurting and those glasses washed out part of the color, but then when i took it off i had to deal with a blurry screen that still hurt my eyes. Gah!

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 7:24 PM

        or maybe it was just me or the glasses the theater gave me to wear

        • reply
          December 28, 2009 7:38 PM

          I started to get sore eyes at about the 2 hour mark. Hopefully most movies tie it up around then. lol.

        • reply
          December 28, 2009 9:52 PM

          It was probably the theater, I would guess that they didn't calibrate it properly or something. Maybe they tried to cheap it out by using a lower quality projector bulb. Both times I saw it in 3D (non-IMAX), the image was super-bright and colorful.

    • reply
      December 28, 2009 7:21 PM

      just saw it this afternoon and the regular world seems bland and colorless after watching Avatar 3D

    • reply
      December 28, 2009 7:30 PM

      haha I knew Avatar would beat TDK for the 2nd biggest weekend.

      Also the movie will have 3 months run in IMAX.

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 7:50 PM

        $600M worldwide in just 2 weeks. Redonkulous.

        • reply
          December 28, 2009 7:54 PM

          Next: The Oscars. The movie will definitely get nominated for the Best Picture of the Year, as well as Best Director. Obviously, its going to sweep all of the technical awards.

          • reply
            December 28, 2009 8:50 PM

            i'm hopeful it'll sweep the technical awards, but i think district 9 will be a strong challenger

            • reply
              December 28, 2009 9:06 PM

              District 9 isn't really a technical accomplishment except in terms of what they did for the budget. It's nowhere even close to Avatar in terms of the effects otherwise.

              • reply
                December 28, 2009 9:09 PM

                The aliens were totally convincing, both from a realism and performance standpoint. All the effects in that movie were great.

                • reply
                  December 29, 2009 5:10 AM

                  Except that they were all just outclassed by Avatar in every way possible.

          • reply
            December 28, 2009 9:59 PM

            Check this out:
            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2_vB7zx_SQ

            The movie was not done like an animated movie. Not just motion capture, but acting capture.

            • reply
              December 28, 2009 10:03 PM

              They even motion captured a fucking horse!

            • reply
              December 28, 2009 10:22 PM

              Why had I not seen this video before? Really nice behind-the-scenes stuff.

            • reply
              December 28, 2009 10:22 PM

              what still blows my mind is that all of the vegetation on screen is all cgi. It's mind blowing how photo realistic everything looks in the movie.

              • reply
                December 29, 2009 4:36 AM

                They had programs running that would insert bugs and birds flying around in the background just to make it seem more alive.

            • reply
              December 28, 2009 10:47 PM

              whoa.

            • reply
              December 28, 2009 11:20 PM

              Slightly extended version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6JXUoWeZ7Q

            • reply
              December 28, 2009 11:24 PM

              The extra content on the disc set is going to be so god damn awesome.

        • reply
          December 28, 2009 8:11 PM

          That's actually really good news, considering how much it cost to make. More Ridley Scott awaits us!

    • reply
      December 28, 2009 9:04 PM

      Gonna see it on sunday with some friends in glorious IMAX 3D!
      It'll be my first time seeing it, I'm excited :D.

    • reply
      December 28, 2009 9:53 PM

      Question for those seeing it in non-IMAX: Were there lines, or did you have to get there fairly early to get good seats (middle, not too close)?

      Already saw it at IMAX, but thinking I might go see it in a normal 3D theater next.

      • reply
        December 28, 2009 10:40 PM

        There was a line when I saw it a second time in Real D at 2 PM on a Sunday

    • reply
      December 28, 2009 10:14 PM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      December 29, 2009 7:01 AM

      [deleted]

Hello, Meet Lola