Avatar: Way Of Water *spoilers*

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Shroom Man 777
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Re: Avatar: Way Of Water *spoilers*

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

To avoid being off-topic:

Look at this wicked ass Way of Water concept art!

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LadyTevar wrote: 2023-01-12 03:37pm Do we need a separate Thread for this discussion of "WhiteWashing"?
I think it's very tied to the nature of Cameron's work so sorta-tangents are fine? Splitting the thread would disconnect the flow of the conversation and separate them from their contexts.
ray245 wrote: 2023-01-13 07:47am That's the problem with viewing everything via a western lens, which is ultimately an extension of the European lens. Like it's hard to argue that Africa has a collective identity the same way Europe has other than the fact that they were all colonised... but even then you would say North Africa is very different from South Africa for example.

Even the notion of "Southeast Asia" was a term invented by military generals during WW2 because it makes it easier to command forces there, but no one was ever thinking they are the same culture.

Until the Cold War kicks in and one of my history professor told us how American unis lump and make everyone from SEA sit together because they are somehow the same culture, nevermind the fact that places like Singapore will have more in common with places like Taiwan, Hong Kong than say Thailand or the Philippines.
Europe is much smaller and anyway even the European lens is something that other less-showcased "minor Europeans" chafe under and lowkey dislike. Like, I love how The Sopranos has segues where they highlight how fractured and regionalist the paisan (Italians) are lol.

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Re: Avatar: Way Of Water *spoilers*

Post by bilateralrope »

This article popped into my news feed.

‘Avatar’: The Way of the Restroom
The movie’s three-hour-plus run time, which includes scene after scene of churning seas, is a recipe for repeated bathroom breaks.

By Callie Holtermann
Jan. 13, 2023


Alex Brizard deliberately did not buy a beverage when he went to see a 9:30 a.m. showing of “Avatar: The Way of Water” this month. It did not matter: He still had to run to the bathroom three times over the course of the movie’s three hours and 12 minutes.

“It was honestly all the water,” said Mr. Brizard, 29, who works in finance and lives in Scottsdale, Ariz.

The sea gushes, gurgles and sprays across the screen in James Cameron’s “Avatar” sequel, which immerses viewers in the richly textured aquatic world of a clan of reef-dwelling Na’vi. These photorealistic ocean sequences make up the bulk of a lengthy epic that many are watching in theaters with vats of soda in hand, creating a perfect storm for moviegoers to need to take one or more bathroom breaks.

The water scenes are especially vivid in IMAX 3-D, according to Mr. Brizard, who moved to an aisle seat after his first trip to the restroom so he wouldn’t have to step over other audience members on subsequent visits. “All the splashing noises, it’s all a constant reminder,” he said.

Mr. Cameron, who has encouraged fans to see “Avatar” in theaters, saw this coming.

“Here’s the big social paradigm shift that has to happen: It’s OK to get up and go pee,” he said in an interview with Empire magazine. He added that he did not want anyone “whining about length” when people are perfectly willing to watch eight straight hours of television. (Television, it must be said, is easier to pause than a movie in a theater.)

In November, Mr. Cameron told The Hollywood Reporter that moviegoers should go to the bathroom “any time they want” during the movie. “They can see the scene they missed when they come see it again,” the director added. Representatives for Mr. Cameron did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

Getting the water exactly right was one of Mr. Cameron’s preoccupations. To ensure that it appeared appropriately aqueous, he submerged the film’s actors in a 32-foot-deep tank that held about 90,000 gallons of water. Cast members got scuba certifications and trained with a free-diving instructor, and the movie’s sound mixer kept four microphones constantly running in the tank to capture underwater background noises.

Mr. Cameron’s attention to detail may be part of the reason many theatergoers have reported having to take bathroom breaks. In a 2015 study, the sound of running water increased the flow rate of urination among men with lower urinary tract issues. The sound of running water is also a commonly recommended component of toilet training for infants.

“The theory is, mainly it’s just a conditioning phenomenon,” said Dr. Kent DeLay, a urologist at Lexington Medical Center in West Columbia, S.C. Since the sound of water is so often present in the bathroom, many already associate it with urination. Among Dr. DeLay’s patients who already experience incontinence, urinary urgency can be worsened by just the sound of running water. “I would think that the visual would have some impact as well,” he added.

Like Mr. Cameron, Dr. DeLay encouraged moviegoers to step away as necessary in order to avoid damage to the neural pathways around the bladder. “For the most part,” he said, “when you have the urge to void, you should.”

Many are taking his advice. Gene Naumovsky headed into a movie theater on West 34th Street in Manhattan with a combination meal of a flatbread pizza and a large Sprite.

“At first I thought I’d kind of see what happens and, you know, ride the wave,” said Mr. Naumovsky, 23, an executive assistant. “But an hour and a half in, it was an inevitable problem.”

He made a break for it when the movie’s protagonists, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), greeted the water clan, because he expected a lengthy training montage rather than a major action sequence or a plot twist.

Matthew Aryeh, 26, a lawyer who saw the movie at a theater in Nassau County, on Long Island, said he had often insisted on rewinding sections of movies at home that his family had talked over.

But during “The Way of Water,” which he described as “long and slow at times,” he left for a minute-and-a-half bathroom break. His brother took one about half an hour later.

In response to the film’s length, some have suggested bringing back the intermission, which was a common feature when movies were screened using multiple reels of film. Intermissions were included in lengthy epics such as “Gone With the Wind” (3 hours 42 minutes) and “Lawrence of Arabia” (3 hours 38 minutes).

Mr. Naumovsky said “The Way of Water” would have benefited from a brief intermission. Mr. Aryeh disagreed.

“I think a better fix for this movie would have been to just shave 45 minutes off,” he said.
I had forgotten that the sight/sound of water can encourage people to pee. But this is the part that really gets me:
In November, Mr. Cameron told The Hollywood Reporter that moviegoers should go to the bathroom “any time they want” during the movie. “They can see the scene they missed when they come see it again,” the director added.
How many people really go to see a movie multiple times in theaters ?
Is Avatar 2 the kind of movie that earns repeat viewings ?

An intermission or two would have solved this problem, maybe while boosting theater profits through increased snack sales.
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Re: Avatar: Way Of Water *spoilers*

Post by Crazedwraith »

I've occasionally seen movies twice at theatres most often because two different groups wanted to see it (once with family, once with friends) only rarely because I wanted to see it twice. (Iron Man and Endgame are the ones that come to mind. Saw Endgame when it reissued to see it in a different more comfortable theatre)

I really wonder how serious that comment from Cameron was, I took at as a joke but with the surrounding comments how knows.

One cinema I go to with the family puts intermissions into all the films and sells icecream in it. The one I went to see Avatar and The Way Of Water put a break into the Avatar but not TWOW. They said they had to ask Disney's permission to do it.
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Re: Avatar: Way Of Water *spoilers*

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

Space Odyssey esque intermissions would be great for not just this movie but others such as LOTR-like affairs. I think penny pinching theaters might not like it as it could slow down film turnover time? IDK.
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Re: Avatar: Way Of Water *spoilers*

Post by LadyTevar »

Shroom Man 777 wrote: 2023-01-15 03:10am Space Odyssey esque intermissions would be great for not just this movie but others such as LOTR-like affairs. I think penny pinching theaters might not like it as it could slow down film turnover time? IDK.
As mentioned, its not the movie tickets that float the theaters, its' the concession sells. A intermission means there's more chances for people to be tempted with a drink refill, or more popcorn/candy.

In those high-end theaters that do booze and food, the intermission could be a chance for a dinner/movie combo.
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Re: Avatar: Way Of Water *spoilers*

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

Image "DO YOU WORSHIP HOMOSEXUALS?" - Curtis Saxton (source)
shroom is a lovely boy and i wont hear a bad word against him - LUSY-CHAN!
Shit! Man, I didn't think of that! It took Shroom to properly interpret the screams of dying people :D - PeZook
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Re: Avatar: Way Of Water *spoilers*

Post by Composeure »

First time poster, long time lurker.

Obligatory headcanon: Eywa is an ancient alien biotech experiment and the Navi are an "artificial" species. It's honestly too obvious, between the bio "jack in" ports, the "spirit trees" (which were probably using all that so-called "unobtanium" for computation), and the wildlife that also doubles as a aqualung when the Navi use it (??), not to mention the bevy of "natural" plants that, if the Pandora guidebook is to be believed, are capable of effects that supersede Earth medicine in the year 2154.

More on topic, I think the fact that Earth actually needs to be abandoned and Pandora made the new home of humanity represents a huge stakes raise that is bafflingly put aside in favor of fulfilling one guy's vendetta. This is literally now a matter of extinction. Also, the fact that the immortality making drug (which probably violates science but we'll ignore that) is considered of use at all when if anything it seems a reduction in population is needed. I suppose the idea of it is that the rich on Earth are paying for it (the same with those tin can ships) so they can get a first ticket out of the place AND immortality in the bargain, so that doesn't change much (though it implies intense political/governmental breakdown).

Fwiw, JC's Avatar 3 is supposedly going to feature Navi as villains (and probably won't need another FIFTEEN YEARS to make) so there's that.
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