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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ART!" data-source="post: 9491128" data-attributes="member: 79926">I'd move the Avatar movies lower, and The Abyss higher.I've seen the first Avatar movie, and maybe made the mistake of not seeing it in 3D when it came out, because I found it mostly trite and dull. Also, as pretty as it is, a lot of what I see are the clever shortcuts Cameron took in realizing the aliens. On the one hand they're smart shortcuts/tricks, but once I noticed them or had them pointed out I can't unsee them. I'll list them below in spoilers, because I don't want to ruin anyone's enjoyment of that movie.The Abyss is just a personal favorite, even though I find the very ending (either of them) unsatisfying. I'm a big fan of...whatever genre it is where people in extreme environments already have to face basic maintenance and lifestyle challenges, and then the $#!+ hits the fan. Add to that Cameron's strengths.[spoiler="visual stuff in Avatar that bugs me"]1. The Na'vi (because they're naive - get it?!) are gangly because if they had more human-like proportions their movement would be harder to make look natural.2. For similar reasons, their facial features are just barely alien enough to eliminate uncanny valley problems.3. Their hair is like little tendrils, becuase hair is hard to animate.4. When they walk around in the forest the ground glows, because it's hard to make cgi figures interacting with complicated (real or cgi) objects like leafy plants and grass look natural. A lot of that has to do with shadows, so making it glow eliminates that problem.5. I feel like there's one more thing, but I can't come up with it right now.As a visual artist these shortcuts are very noticeable, and seem like really obvious shortcuts, but are arguably really smart/clever decisions. I appreciate that to push the efffects envelope you have to do stuff that doesn't quite work.[/spoiler]</blockquote>

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