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Movies, migraine and pics
I saw Dances with Smurfs Avatar on Saturday. It doesn't suck. I completely understand why so many folks are calling it racist, and I agree...but I don't believe it's racist in the hateful sense. Sure, the allegory is pretty blatant and clumsy, and with that in mind, there are things which irk, but overall I enjoyed the film. The plot is unoriginal but not bad, and the characters are well drawn. The animation is just beautiful, especially the night scenes.
I also came out with a splitting headache and spent Sunday in bed with the curtains firmly shut. I don't say the movie caused this - I was about due for a new migraine - but I don't think it helped.
What I will say is that Cameron seems to understand 3D better than any other 3D film I've seen so far. One of the biggest problems with 3D is where the eye tries to focus. On regular 2D film, the camera decides what you're looking at by how the scene is blocked, by blurring out the background and so on. With 3D, if the 3D image is done well enough that you "see" it as you usually see, there's a tendancy to try to focus, occasionally, on details the camera doesn't want you to be looking at. And because things stay blurry when you try to focus on the "wrong" part of the screen, it makes the 3D illusion very uncomfortable. With Avatar I didn't find that happening. Cameron uses lighting and colour to draw the viewer's focus to the "right" place, rather than relying on camera blur. Though the blur is still there, it didn't get in the way as it so often does in 3D.
I plan to see it again if I can find time...but in 2D next time.
I woke this morning to find what I thought was snow everywhere.
This is the scene at Tesco about 8.00am; just because that's where I was when it occurred to me to take a pic.
That's about as heavy as snow usually gets around here. Except this isn't snow - it's ice. It might have been snow last night, but this morning it was solid ice. Dangerous.
Still, Amber enjoyed exploring...
And, because I promised, this is my little Gothic Christmas tree:
I also came out with a splitting headache and spent Sunday in bed with the curtains firmly shut. I don't say the movie caused this - I was about due for a new migraine - but I don't think it helped.
What I will say is that Cameron seems to understand 3D better than any other 3D film I've seen so far. One of the biggest problems with 3D is where the eye tries to focus. On regular 2D film, the camera decides what you're looking at by how the scene is blocked, by blurring out the background and so on. With 3D, if the 3D image is done well enough that you "see" it as you usually see, there's a tendancy to try to focus, occasionally, on details the camera doesn't want you to be looking at. And because things stay blurry when you try to focus on the "wrong" part of the screen, it makes the 3D illusion very uncomfortable. With Avatar I didn't find that happening. Cameron uses lighting and colour to draw the viewer's focus to the "right" place, rather than relying on camera blur. Though the blur is still there, it didn't get in the way as it so often does in 3D.
I plan to see it again if I can find time...but in 2D next time.
I woke this morning to find what I thought was snow everywhere.
This is the scene at Tesco about 8.00am; just because that's where I was when it occurred to me to take a pic.
That's about as heavy as snow usually gets around here. Except this isn't snow - it's ice. It might have been snow last night, but this morning it was solid ice. Dangerous.
Still, Amber enjoyed exploring...
And, because I promised, this is my little Gothic Christmas tree: