I remember people talking about how realistic the blue guys looked. I didn’t see it for several years when I came across it on TV. What the heck? It does not look real in any fashion. To me it is just a well done cartoon.
No, I thought it looked like cut scenes from video games. But I feel like at the time I was in the minority who didn’t like the movie either.
I don’t remember “realistic” really being a word to describe it. Obviously anything about big blue aliens is going to look a little cartoon.
But you’re also comparing a TV version that’s probably 720p or may 1080p vs the image in a movie theater.
Yep, and I saw in IMAX 3D and it was an amazing visual feast. I still remember it being stunning. Story was meh, but was worth every penny for those visuals
I asked my friend, a nine-foot-tall blue-skinned Venusian. She got this annoyed look on her face, and explained that it was totally unrealistic, and people were cracking stupid jokes to her about it.
The alien look of the Na’vi make it impossible for me to see it as realistic. For it to look real to me, I think they’d have to intentionally make it look like humans with painted skin or color alterations, rather than trying to mimic some sort of animal-like skin.
So You’d have to ask if the environment looks realistic, not the aliens.
It’s like anything else- it looks good at the time, considering what the state of the art is then.
I mean, I recall seeing some 320x200 256 color images and thinking they were amazing back in 1989 or so. And I remember seeing the animation in old games and thinking about how great it was. But looking at all that from a 2023 perspective, it looks like crap because our capabilities are so much greater than they used to be.
I’m not at all surprised that a 14 year old movie would look dated in terms of its visual effects when comparing it to present day efforts. But in 2009, that was absolutely amazing. It might not have been 100% realistic, but it was essentially close enough, especially in the action scenes.
2007-2009 was basically the time frame when CGI started looking real enough to be integrated into live action shots as a matter of course. Plenty of movies came out that year that involved serious CGI and live action elements- District 9, Avatar, Terminator Salvation, Iron Man, and several others come to mind.
It was the combination of perfect motion capture, improved CGI especially for eyes, which eliminated the Uncanny Valley, and the 3D being used so effectively, that made it seem more realistic than anything we’d seen like it before.
In plain 2D and after ten years of similarly advanced CGI, it’s not as impressive anymore.
Not the people in the movie perhaps, but there’s a scene in the movie where they end up resting on a rock in the ocean, with clouds in the background. I don’t know if the background in that scene was CGI, but if it was, it was amazing. If that rock was CGI, it made me better appreciate quality of the rest of the scenes, including the people.
When the original Avatar was released, I had a friend who only saw it on TV. Like the OP, he was really disappointed and puzzled about all the hoopla. On the other hand, I’ve never seen it on TV except for a few minutes here and there, and yes it looks like a typical cartoon in that format. It really needs to be seen on a large screen.
Kind of agree with you. The story was okayish, but the visuals were the most amazing I have seen in a movie. I’ve also watched it in 3D and I’m still under impressions. A whole new world built to the tiniest detail.
Same. I’ve never felt inclined to watch it on TV. I’ve only caught a couple minutes here and there. In the theater, on a high quality screen in 3D, it was amazing. I don’t see many movies anymore in theaters but the new one I made sure to see and it is also visually stunning.
I was in that same minority. I think I posted on this board back then that I didn’t like it and the following poster asked me if I had seen it in the theater.
Interesting. I haven’t seen it, but at the time I didn’t hear any of my friends, at least, say the movie itself was particularly good. Just that it was stunning to look at in the full 3D experience. Which ALMOST made it the last movie I would have seen in a theatre, but my wife didn’t want to go, so I didn’t end up seeing it, and the last theatre movie I have seen was from a few years before Avatar.
Well, not to go too far off in the weeds for this thread, but in my opinion the plot was predictable and clunkily handled - and honestly a little off-putting in its insensitivity. All the special effects in the world can’t overcome bad writing - no matter what screen you see it on.
But again, just my opinion and I know I’m in the minority.
To bring it back to the OP, I didn’t think the blue people looked particularly realistic. It was amazing for what they were able to do to create that world, digital-wise, but not particularly realistic.