{"title": "Avatar: The Way of Water is a sublime experience", "timestamp": 1734410350.9538984, "description": "I made myself review both Avatar movies in one day, which was something I had to do to see the progress, or lack thereof of James Cameron. And there is progress. A lot of it!", "author": {"avatar": "https://blenderdumbass.org/pictures/favicon.png", "bio": "Aka: J.Y. Amihud. A Jewish by blood, multifaceted artist with experience in film-making, visual effects, programming, game development, music and more. A philosopher at heart. An activist for freedom and privacy. Anti-Paternalist. A user of Libre Software. Speaking at least 3 human languages. The writer and director of the 2023 film \"Moria's Race\" and the lead developer of it's game sequel \"Dani's Race\".\r\n\r\n[My Story](/about/who_is_blender_dumbass_)\r\n\r\nMore links to me ( view page source to see how I did those ):\r\n\r\n![internetarchive](https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22J.Y.Amihud%22) ![imdb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm15214305) ![notabug](http://notabug.org/jyamihud) ![odysee](https://odysee.com/@blenderdumbass:f) ![codeberg](https://codeberg.org/blenderdumbass/)", "invited": ["AngryAlien", "Erwinjitsu", "trueauracoral", "Cricetus", "elban", "Troler", "johny", "RowdyJoe", "adgbeveridge", "doublelion", "alkyilcycloalke", "jedi66", "WanchaiMike", "Trolli123", "ddd", "ByteBlast", "dolphinana", "Madiator2011", "Uriel_Cohen", "mk-la", "TestUser", "Mr._MotherFucker", "MorsMortium", "cptbichez", "dbbs", "Xavi", "test", "Ozoned", "Tcll"], "invited_by": "blenderdumbass", "title": "Blender Dumbass", "website": "blenderdumbass.org", "mastodon": "@blenderdumbass@mastodon.online", "username": "blenderdumbass", "email_verified": true, "jami": "", "peertube": "https://peer.madiator.cloud/c/blender_dumbass/videos", "activity_pub": {"pub": "-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----\nMIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEAqzwMvWrEKQfGdoyZHn/x\n1XbAxaFagX29NlP7JVC8O7rZWB9jYMzJsn5jWC8+8aWOoBUVDTIY8CZQR+pUiIBc\nBr5XW760pgPGeVCqE50Ts9lhehjr2z+rh0sdeUrNbYyiZ9HB+Wz74M3b08Xde7lj\njzH416uxh1727m+wz04TC4pGOQq4Bzgqyid2RFG44bw150n7QhGwDBqN9vcyS8iR\nJnoUMABFHdu/AhDgoTjHIvXNieNwLKDDfp0a9aWfEEIPxo4SWm9y7azZASZY3KgC\n3JDHvGTtOnGG7nfMSsGSB1gU/vEG0HJ67dOmLt9HQlgkpJCiVYQ4ZuHUWdk1WExA\n7wIDAQAB\n-----END PUBLIC KEY-----\n", "followers": ["https://shark.madiator.com/users/a48b85shv6zk0001", "https://shark.madiator.com/users/a8nizbgfpor600c4", "https://social.dl4ax.radio/users/alexander", "https://mstdn.social/users/lefractal", "https://mitra.social/users/silverpill", "https://mastodon.online/users/blendernation", "https://freundica.de/profile/zeitverschreib", "https://swiss.social/users/rettichschnidi", "https://mastodon.world/users/lesmccann", "https://mstdn.social/users/gwendolenau", "https://sharkey.flauschbereich.de/users/aeeeefmt1fhn0007", "https://mementomori.social/users/levi", "https://mastodon.social/users/schnatterick", "https://mastodon.social/ap/users/115611070628088773", "https://mastodon.social/users/The_Escapist", "https://btfree.social/pub/actors/firesidefedi", "https://cupoftea.social/users/magnetichuman", "https://mastodon.online/users/troler", "https://btfree.social/pub/actors/ozoned", "https://mastodon.social/users/simonwood", "https://mastodon.social/users/rowdyjoe", "https://todon.nl/users/soloojos"]}, "css_posts": "", "css_personal": "", "css_user_global_priority": false, "fandomhood_gifts": {"@blenderdumbass@mastodon.online": 80, "@ozoned@btfree.social": 150, "@rowdyjoe@mastodon.social": 47}, "url": "https://blenderdumbass.org/account/blenderdumbass"}, "thumbnail": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/54/Avatar_The_Way_of_Water_poster.jpg/220px-Avatar_The_Way_of_Water_poster.jpg", "license": "cc-by-sa", "views": {"amount": 50, "dates": {"2024-12-17": 22, "2024-12-18": 2, "2024-12-20": 2, "2024-12-21": 1, "2024-12-24": 1, "2024-12-26": 1, "2024-12-27": 3, "2025-01-13": 1, "2025-01-18": 1, "2025-01-29": 1, "2025-02-12": 1, "2025-03-25": 1, "2025-06-18": 1, "2025-07-22": 1, "2025-09-09": 1, "2025-11-08": 1, "2026-01-07": 1, "2026-01-16": 1, "2026-01-22": 1, "2026-01-28": 1, "2026-02-17": 1, "2026-03-05": 1, "2026-03-23": 1, "2026-04-22": 1, "2026-05-04": 1}}, "recording": "", "comments": {"comments": [{"text": "> As I wrote in the review of the first film, the technology in 2009 was rather limited compared to what is possible to do today. Blender's Cycles Render which comes gratis with Blender is capable to do more impressive renders than those of Avatar 1, because it is a true path-tracer. The difference is, in 2009 they had to resort to faking a lot of the ways the light interacts with objects. For Avatar 2 they had the path-tracers, that would simulate the light instead. Resulting is an enormous jump in quality.\r\n\r\nAnd visual clarity, might I add. The first movie isn't always most clear what and where is going on, although it is not that major of a hurdle. Avatar 2 is mostly about the environment, so visual clarity takes the step forward. \r\n", "username": "Troler", "id": 0, "timestamp": 1777926360.7663481, "p_index": {"2": 3}}, {"text": "> I touched briefly in my review of the first film on the criticism of the plot, which was being apparently not very original, and I drew similarities of it to something like Hamlet. I think James Cameron was very self aware that he bases the stories of these movies on something preexisting. There is even a sequence referencing Hamlet directly, where one character picks up a scull in a dramatic manner. And knowing that the movie will be accused at rehashing Free Willy James Cameron chose to end the movie with a direct homage to Free Willy in a form of a shot of a whale jumping over a sunset.\r\n\r\nAnd it had a giant train derailment. Just to please Spielberg.\r\n\r\n", "username": "Troler", "id": 1, "timestamp": 1777926639.3002713, "p_index": {"2": 15}}, {"text": "> Seeing both films one after the other gave me an unusual connection to the characters prompting me to tear up towards the end. Which I thought was interesting. Even though the writing in this film is not as consistent as in the first. For example in the first Na'vi spoke their Na'vi language and humans spoke English. And some Na'vi knew English and some humans also knew Na'vi. And all of the scenes where a mix of both in a more or less realistic way. In the second film early on Cameron is trying to tell us that Jake knows Na'vi so well that it sounds for him like English, transitioning to English, when by the plot they apparently speak Na'vi. Which is fine. But then is other scenes they actually speak Na'vi. And it is kind of strange.\r\n\r\nIt makes quite a bit of sense. If the emotional impact of the scene lands harder when they speak Na'vi, then the audience do not struggle that much with the plot. For instance, when the marines pointed guns at the sea Na'vi, they shouted in their language. That was raw, that was emotional, that was better!", "username": "Troler", "id": 2, "timestamp": 1777927108.276101, "p_index": {"2": 27}}]}, "tab": "reviews", "url": "https://blenderdumbass.org/reviews/avatar:_the_way_of_water_is_a_sublime_experience", "hashtags": ["Avatar", "Avatar2", "AvatarTheWayOfWater", "JamesCameron", "Film", "Review", "Movies", "Cinemastodon", "VFX", "CGI"], "likes": ["Troler"]}