Avatar / The Yamazaki 12 (with Bonus Avatar: The Way of Water Review)

0:00 Some whiskey Nation. Do you ever think about Awards course he do you drink whiskey and watch movies which means that, you know, that nothing is validated until a group of random people say hey we love what you're doing. The awesome thing about doc Swensons, whiskey is that it isn't just some group of schlubs that are given them Awards. They have been winning attention from some of the most important whiskey experts that you can imagine. They've been voted best distillery in Washington state by the New York International Spirits competition. They've been voted the best independent Pendant bottler by the Ascot Awards as well as the best finished bourbon from the Ascot awards for their La. Mente exploratory Cask their exploratory Cask series is where they release some of the most fascinating and adventurous experiments.

0:43 If you're ever checking out, docks line up and see a white label is a really good chance that that's the only time you'll see that bottle. So, make sure you snatch it up. Doc Swensons has been offering just phenomenal finished and Blended whiskies for quite some time. Now, you can find them online at Doc's, whisky.com. That's the OCS whisky.com in 2009, director, James Cameron, and star. Sam Worthington gave the world. A 3D thriller that promised to advance the world of CGI in unprecedented ways in 2022. We returned to Japan to try a whiskey with a budget about as large as this movie. The film is Avatar. The whiskey is yamazaki 12, it will review them both. This is The film and whiskey podcast, welcome to the film and whiskey podcast, where each week, we review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey. I'm Bob book, I'm drinking some really good whiskey Bob. You already you're diving right in, huh, dude? This yamazaki is really good.

2:06 And what's your name? Drinker of whiskey? Oh, Drinker of whiskey, I like that. Oh, cool. With that. I'm Brad. Gee, everybody. I have not tried this whiskey yet. I'm very excited to dive into it. Brad, we have not tried a Japanese whisky in a long time. Yeah, yeah. I'm really excited for you to try it, man. There's a lot going on and when I looked at the price tag, Ugh. I felt like there should be a lot going on. Yeah, I think the theme tying together the movie and the whiskey today is budgetary excess. That's a great. Great term. Thank you very much, sir. Yeah, today we are looking at James Cameron's, 2009 epic of CGI. Proportions Avatar.

2:51 We're starting a mini series of films by James Cameron who Brad is still on the fence about for some reason and I don't understand it. Because James Cameron is quite possibly, the best action director of all time. And I'm hoping that by the end of this miniseries and in addition to Titanic, which we've already reviewed on this podcast, that Brad will come around at least a little bit because it seems like, Brad thinks of James Cameron. The way, most people think of Michael Bay and I think in both cases, they're wrong. But also like, don't don't don't do my boy, Jim Cameron like that man. That's very astute. You are 100% right on.

3:35 Now I will say like a majority of the reason that you seem to be hesitant about doing James, Cameron is this movie. And so, I kind of figured like, let's just do this one first and knock it out. We'll line it up with the release of Avatar 2 and spoiler alert. If you hang around. Till the end of this episode, I will be giving my thoughts on Avatar to. I'm gonna go see it opening weekend and so I'm going to rush back from the theater record. My review, tack. It onto the end of this episode. Sewed. I asked Brad, if you would go with me and he said, no, look, he's just already grunting out Avatar. The way of water. I'm not driving two hours up to see you spending three hours in the theater over three hours plus, you know, all the other stuff and then driving two hours back. Here's here's the thing is, though, they're showing it in theaters by you.

4:21 Like I just want you to go see it and then, let's talk about it afterwards. Yeah, yeah, yeah, idea. Scare you away for four hours to see a Movie is just a lot man. Yeah, okay, whatever. Well, I'll be here at the end of the episode 2 review that. Now, if you are new to the podcast, what we're doing this season is we're doing little mini series of directors that we really want to knock out some of their major movies on our show. And so, like I said, we've done Titanic but this is going to be our second James Cameron film. We're going to go back to the mid-1980s with his classic aliens next week, and then we'll finish it out with his to Terminator films of the original from 4 and T 2, Judgment Day to wrap things up, Brad. You've now watched Avatar and Titanic for this podcast, what are your thoughts on Cameron so far? As we just kind of like get settled into James Cameron as we come out of David?

5:16 Lean territory? Hmm, David Lane he knows how to shoot a Vista. Am I right? Yeah, so here's the thing, if you want to know the origin of my bias against James Cameron, It actually came from when I was like, probably 15. Maybe 16 my best friend. Mike and I were awake at like 3:00 in the morning playing video games and we turned on the cable and guess what was playing Terminator. And at the time I had no idea who James Cameron was. But I remember watching Terminator and I might have had my first like movie take of all time and not even So about the movies but you know how I hit the 80s, I do. Yeah.

6:03 With with a passion her Terminator was the origin of that because Mike and I were watching it at like 4:00 in the morning. And we were like, why is there hair the way it is? Why is the music the way it is? Why is there close the way it is? This is all terrible. And so James, Cameron actually like started. My take that the 80s suck. Wow, dude, you are coming out of the gate with hot takes. When you alienate our audience, in the first few minutes of the episode, you gotta Save the Alien puns for next week bahahahahahaha. All right, we'll get around to your bad Terminator. Takes when we get there. But okay. So now you've seen Titanic and you've seen Avatar. So, you've seen Cameron at his most ambitious like magic. Say yeah, romantic to, with his largest budget, certainly, but also in kind of creating these these big big worlds, It's for his characters to inhabit and Avatar is obviously like the, the Pinnacle of that.

7:05 So I don't know man. What are your impressions of him as a director? But also, as kind of, a crafter of worlds, I think that Cameron has a really incredible ability to direct action. Honestly, we'll just go back to the Michael Bay reference like Michael Bay can direct him. The hell out of an action sequence as can James Cameron. I think the the difference is that Cameron really spends a lot of time giving you people to care about in the midst of that action in a way that bay Doesn't always, although I will say, I don't know if I've honestly seen a lot of Bay films, like the main ones would have been the first Transformers, oh gosh, yeah. Do so judge him on those.

7:55 Yeah, so I'm genuinely not judging Bay. I'm just saying what I've heard. That's like, that's like being like yeah, Peter Jackson, I'm not a fan. Although I've only seen The Lovely Bones. Like don't do that. Oh man. So I guess getting back to to Jimmy cam, I think that he is over-ambitious with the plot development and he is spot-on with almost a Christopher Nolan desk just swinging for the freaking fences when it comes to the action and the emotional payoff that that action is going to bring.

8:38 Does that make sense? Yeah, it totally does. I like that comparison. And while we're in this Zone, let's go ahead and segue into America's favorite segment, which we call Brad explains. So again, if you're new to the podcast, or I mean, if this is your 300th time listening, we want to encourage you, listen to more of our episodes, first of all. But also you can find out more about us on our patreon patreon.com film whiskey, where you can support us at three different tiers at each tier, you get access to a special discounted server that we're on every single day, talking with members of film and whiskey Nation at the upper tiers. You get uncensored content. You get early episodes at the uppermost tier, you get episodes that we make just for the the friends and family.

9:21 What's that package called the viscosity package? If your viscosity Patron? You can like Brad, we it's not a lot of thick as thick as hell. It's so thick, with two Seas, we produce a lot of episodes in a season, and if you're a viscosity Patron, you get even more episodes. It is, it is the film in whiskey. Plus, we should be calling it more Bob. More Brad. So again, you can find us on patreon.com film whiskey. As we move into Brad explains, this is the part of the podcast, where Brad breaks down the plot of the film that he has just seen often for the first time Brad. This was probably only your second time seeing Avatar. I might have seen it twice in theaters. I feel like you have very strongly asserted in the recent weeks.

10:11 Like I haven't seen that movie since the I'm never going to watch it again afterwards. So that's what I'm saying. Like, I think I saw it twice with friends. Okay. And that and that was it since I saw it in theaters that was it? I could be wrong. They do. Okay. So you saw it twice in the theater and now this is time to degree, got it. Like it's kind of like when end game came out like I wasn't a big Marvel person but I went and saw an opening night and I had to dude cry behind me for half the movie and on Monday. Me and to my best friends went and Saw it as a matinee at like 10:00 a.m. and, you know, and just kind of talk the whole time. So it was like us and five other people in this massive theater, we, you know, we just kind of chatted and discuss things throughout. So I'm like, I don't care for Marvel but I still went and saw and game twice, you know, I love you to death. But the more I hear about your movie-going habits, the more I'm like you, you seem like the opposite of the ideal person to accompany me to the movies.

11:10 Hey, but I did go and see JoJo rabbit in theaters. On a whim know. So okay. So you know three years ago All right, we have put 60 seconds on the clock. Brad, you have one minute to break down the plot of this movie and go Avatar is a film about a crippled Marine named Jake. Sully who's Brother twin brother is killed. And now Jake is able to because of his genetic similarities. Is able to take over a massive scientific Endeavor to create an avatar for him, too. Embody through his mind and Science and all that stuff. So they go to this planet called Pandora. He embodies this blue person who is a part of the navi race which is a tall lanky blue humanoid race and the goal is that they would make contact with the navi and help them relocate away from the largest deposit of unobtainium, which is really valuable metal.

12:13 He becomes a navi Warrior and ends up falling. In love with the princess of the tribe and becomes one of them and fights for their freedom from the evil human Sky people. There you go. That's a Tatar baby, bro. That might be one of my best Brad explains ever. That was a pretty good one. You even use the word crippled in the first three seconds just to be as unhappy, see, as possible avatars about a cripple. I really thought about it like the word was And out of my mouth, I was like, wait, what's the right way to saying that?

12:54 All right, let's talk James Cameron here. Because, I mean, we're going to be talking about him for four weeks. There are some recurring themes that will come up with James Cameron and I think that it is possible for James Cameron to be both one of the best worldbuilders in cinema and one of its absolute worst dialogue writers. Like he and George Lucas should collaborate on a project. To outdo one another in the bad dialogue department. And of course, one of the big knocks on this movie and we'll talk about the story elements that people knock. But one of the big Knox is the dialogue. And as I asked Brad because I expected him to have just pure and utter disdain towards this movie. I said, Brad, maybe the best way to structure. This episode would be to talk about your major grievances with the movie and the first one you listed was the dialogue, so yeah, I do.

13:48 No man. Take it away. What what are your impressions of Cameron's dialogue? I will say, as you brought up George, Lucas, I'll get your point in a second. Bob, I realized that one of the things people talk about a lot with the prequels is that they're like, more political thriller type things. I'm like, what? If Aaron Sorkin wrote episodes, one, two and three and leap and Lucas directed and built the world. I did all that stuff. Emperor. Palpatine is just like walk with me, talk with me. Yes, this walking through the corridors. Yeah, it went this, the opera scene would have, would not have been seated. They would have just been walking ran with SLI.

14:30 I think that the dialogue and Avatar struggles on two points. First off the dialogue sucks. It is uninspiring. It does not make me fall in love with the characters. It honestly reminds me a little bit of Rogue one. We're like the first half of Rogue one, you're like supposed to like fall in love. With these people who are going to die and in act two and like act 2 is awesome. And it feels like a Star Wars movie and it's really well made. But the First Act is rough, and a large part of it is due to the dialogue. Now, the acting in Rogue one is actually pretty good. Other than Zoe Saldana who is a little more active. You know, maybe like 30 to 40% in the movie on she is spectacular.

15:17 She's great dude. Other than her, would you give anybody higher than like a b-minus on acting? No, probably not. And I think I'd give the be - to Sigourney Weaver because I know like, you know, we're going to watch Aliens next week a movie that she is nominated for best actress for because she's so good. And like I know she has it in her and I also know that Cameron has not set her up for success with this dialogue, like that early scene of her and Giovanni Ribisi, BC where they're like, he's like come into my office and he holds up the Rock and he's like this is why we're here unobtainium, it cost, 20 million a kilo or whatever he says and it's like she knows this.

15:59 She's been here for like 15 years. Like, I know that you're trying to introduce the audience to the stakes and the MacGuffin and like the, the driving force, but it's so bad but also unobtainium unobtainium. We can't obtain it. So we have to get rid rid of the blue people. I love it. It's so fast. I love the. He was just like, you know what? It's gonna be called unobtainium, and they're like James, no, please like anything else. He's like, no, it doesn't matter. It's going to be a little Janie. Mm, I directed Titanic! Damn it! Okay. So we've touched on the dialogue, let's talk a little bit of a little bit about Cameron himself, by all accounts.

16:44 He believes in himself, a lot and his lead his self belief. Leaf comes across in many ways. As how do I phrase this tolis - and a lot of people have not liked working with him because he is so I don't even miss a full of himself but just so self-confident. And have you heard the story about him and Neil deGrasse Tyson? No, but those sound like two of the most insufferable people that you could ever put in a room together. So Neil deGrasse basically tells him hey, the stars in the sky. When You know, Rose is talking to what's his face and Helios fallen into the ocean. Like he's like the stars in the sky wrong. That's like the Southern Hemisphere and, and James was like, okay, whatever.

17:30 And like, 20 years later, Neil deGrasse runs into him again. Because, oh, hey, by the way stars are still wrong. I noticed you did a re-release or something and apparently, James pulls up Wikipedia and he looks at Titanic. He goes, huh? It's made over a billion and a half dollars and walks away. that's exactly how Neil deGrasse Tyson deserves to be treated but like, okay, but some hundred percent back to Cameron He is very confident in his abilities but he's also, he really has earned it in a lot of ways. He worked his way up from just being, like a crew member on these really, really low budget horror films working for Roger, Corman to the point where he started directing and his first theatrical film is called piranhas to.

18:18 Like it's a, you know, it's a low-budget, crappy horror movie. But even in that and working on a shoestring budget, there were some really ingenious things that he was doing behind the scenes. He gets this idea, DF or Terminator, he makes that on a shoestring budget. It makes a hell of a lot of money for what it was supposed to cost. And there's this recurring pattern that with pretty much. Every successive movie, he gets more and more ambitious with the stories he wants to tell in the world. He wants to build the studio, comes close to pulling the plug. They always go over budget. The studio doesn't believe in him. He has to do something like sacrifices on directors fee or tie it to the prophets of the movie. And not take anything up front and then lo and behold they always Make a ton of money and he proved everybody wrong and it's like it's gotten to the point where it is such a pattern that it almost seems performative now and it's happening right now with this new Avatar movie.

19:10 Like, so many people are counting him out and I have no idea how it's going to turn out with Avatar. But I've read the reports that this is going to have to be like the third or fourth, highest grossing movie of all time, just to turn a profit. And I'm also like, you know what, like if anyone can do it, it's James Cameron, who made back-to-back highest, grossing movies. Ever, you're just hitting me with all sorts of news about James Cameron, I think. That Avatar did not deserve to make that much money. Hmm, if I'm being very blunt. I think that Arie. I mean I remember this. This like Bob you and I were like 18, 19 years old and this was like in the prime of our like, you know, older teenage years. This was like this was set up to be just the introduction of 3D to the world.

20:00 Like all other 3D has sucked. You know, you were wearing red and blue glasses from the 50s compared to You're going to have now and so for me, Avatar always will be second-rate, almost cut rate in my opinion because it never lived up to its billing. And when I watch it, I feel like I'm watching an animated film for half of it and then a live-action film. When, you know, Sam Worthington is playing his human character. Sure. And so, I just like CGI has come a long way since then. You know, especially because of what Marvel has done. But even with the, the newest Marvel films, I find myself going.

20:42 Yes he jie. I just isn't going to cut it for me. And so in my opinion, be between the terrible story. The really really rough dialogue the bad acting. There's not enough in Avatar to me. That justifies it wears like. I watched Titanic and Titanic is a hell of a film. Yeah. Truly An incredible film. And so I just, I don't know if I see Avatar is deserving its place in the pantheon of Hollywood. All right, so here are my two thoughts on that and I'm going to say I'm both because I'll probably forget the second one, and I'm going to need you to help me.

21:22 Help me recall it. So, first, I think we need to talk about the historical context that this movie gets released into and then, secondly, I want to talk about Cameron's sort of filmmaking prowess or like his encyclopedic knowledge of Cinema. So first of all, I think you have to keep in mind that this movie was so revolutionary when they released it that we're watching it now through a lens of 13 years of technological development that all rest on the shoulders of Avatar, right? Like Iron Man comes out the year before Avatar. and if you just traced Iron Man, 2 endgame Without Avatar, in in a vacuum, I don't think Marvel gets there.

22:12 I'd like Cameron was doing something with computers that had really never been done before. I mean, the closest that you ever got to something like this where it was a completely CGI world with motion capture is those crappy, Robert zemeckis movies that like when he did The Polar Express and Beowulf that's the closest I can think of anything and that looks horrible and so that he can talk a little bit about About how like especially in the early scenes of this film, I did feel like I was watching a video game, cutscene a little bit like I really did and yet there's something about the fact that he uses that motion capture and that he does such a good job. Even in 2009 with the way that he captures facial expressions and body language that you can tell that these characters are not completely built in a computer, they're too realistic in the way they react to things.

23:04 Their facial expressions really come through and so, like, Does it seem a little bit chin? See, when you comparing it to the very best 2022, VFX maybe. But I also think that, like, you could probably release this in the theater today. And it wouldn't look any worse than 90% of the stuff we're getting today. And I think that is a real credit to the film, you know what I mean? Like you have to take a step back and be like we're judging this based on 13 years of technological, advancements that Only happened because this movie worked. I get what you're saying, but I had this take in 2009.

23:44 Yeah, that's a good point. But that's again, that's part of the historical context thing. Like how many do you? I don't know. If you remember the stories around Avatar Cameron was trying to get the theaters of America to install new equipment so that they could show his moving like yeah, no one had 3D equipment. No one was sewing. Like high frame rate stuff. Hello most of the digital projectors back then were not even Showing movies in 4k. And I watched this movie on my 4K TV last night. Just through streaming. So like, it probably wasn't even really 4K as probably 1080, this movie looks great, dude. Like, I really think that it probably looks better at home now because of the advancements in technology than it looked in the theater in 2009, because he was so far ahead technologically of what the actual I don't know, mechanics, that were available on the market could even do. Yeah, I don't know if my nine-year-old TV can boast the same quality.

24:44 I'm probably watching it at about 2009 level. I come over to your house and it's still like an old Square TV. It's not far off, man. Like what is it? Like think it's for like 2013. Oh yeah, yeah. Oh, I think that this, this is just me being curmudgeonly. Bob, I'm a crotchety. The old man. I don't like CGI. Yeah. Like that's 100% of bias. I think the other bias for me was truly, not just the CGI, but the fact that this movie was supposed to usher in the new era of 3D like you were when they were trying to push 3D televisions. Yep.

25:26 Like it was all in this era and I just always firmly from the start was like f.3d it sucks until I am. Literally sitting in a holographic world and it's happening around me. Like, that's the only three dimensional media. I want to consume. And so I guess I just beyond the graphics being what they are. And there's Beautiful Moments. This might sound small, but the little, like, Worley bugs, God, he like touches. And they like flip into this. Almost like a, like a Japanese origami and, you know, like not crane They look more like flying jellyfish like yeah, sure. That like beautiful.

26:11 Yeah, absolutely beautiful. The, the trees that they like connect to to hear the memories. Beautiful. Like there's there's parts of this movie that are incredibly well done but the overall movie is about people, whether it's the humans or the navi and I just think the navi don't look good. All right, so let's let's go in on that a little bit because I think you're right I think that there's Something kind of rubbery about their skin. And they never for me the moments that the navi looked. The worst is the moments where, like, at the end of the movie, where they're overseeing sending the humans back to Earth. Yep. And it looks like these are two completely different. Like, this is a green screen and like these people, these people are fake.

26:54 These people are not fake and they never look. They never do a good job of making them look like they're it happening the same environment. Yes. However, I will also say that seeing the navi for the very first time in this movie is like, oh my God. Is this house? This movie is going to be like when Jake first goes into the Avatar, I'm like, oh God, this is gonna be bad. However, it kind of distracts you for a little bit from the fact that everything around them is completely computer-generated. And like you hadn't seen something like that. Since maybe I don't know, like, what talk about attack of the Clones again. Like that, looks like a PS2 cutscene yes. And you like by the time that we get to the point where we're nearing, the end of the film, where they're all nervous. Vez.

27:37 And they're kind of flying into the battle. And the one guy gives them a head nod and he looks over at neytiri and they're like, ready to go into battle. I was like, oh, like this is a super immersive World. None of this exists. It's not as if they're just rotoscope being in a blue person in everything else. In the shot is real, like nothing in this shot is real. And I think it's like it kind of flies under the radar a little bit. How detailed and how good of a job. Cameron does building this world visually like there. Everything that he doesn't do in the script to World build, he captures perfectly visually like you've you get to learn so much about like the the botany and the biology of this planet and even in that crappy like training montage, where she's showing him how to fall and catch on to those big. Leaves, as they fall down the canopy of the Jungle. Like that comes back into play at the end of the movie. And it's, it's not dwelt, like, dwelt on. It's not something that's like beaten into your skull. It's just a nice little visual callback and I think that camera does a really good job using the CGI in ways that you almost forget.

28:51 Everything is fake. But if there's one thing that you're right, it does still seem fake. It's the navi now, Kind of almost willing to sacrifice that, though. Like, I would rather like it reminds me of how Pixar will make their characters look like cartoons, but everything else, besides the characters looks photo, realistic. And you forget that they designed that to, Bro, the, the short film Piper. Hmm. With the little Saint Bernards. Yeah. They zoom up on the crab and the bird and it looks like real sand, right? Like, it's amazing. What Pixar can do, I I think that the best moment with the navi like easily the best moment of animation and and mocap is when neytiri pushes the the douchebag other guy? Yeah.

29:42 If you don't mind the Trope and like crouches over Jake's, you know, lifeless for the moment body and is like snarling, hissing at him. Yep, bro. That that's a, that's a hell of a moment and they capture her. Raza T just incredibly. Yeah. So you know, I'll give him that they have moments. So this segues into that. Second point, I wanted to make about Cameron's film making abilities. And I really went in on this and our Titanic episode that what makes Titanic work so well, is that camera knows how to direct a horror movie and those scenes where Jack and Rose are kind of Trapped Under Deck and it's just gets quiet for a while and the Panic sets in and you start to hear the croaking of the ship as it's the leaks come through, it's hot, it's terrifying, dude, that movie is terrifying. And people don't remember it being a horror movie, but that's half the reason it works and he knows how to shoot horror. He knows how to shoot action, but he does it by establishing the world and then by working within it in a way that makes sense to the viewer from like a geographic standpoint. And it happens in this movie too. And I think the thing that you really have to carry over is think about The best sequences in Titanic, and how he shot those and then, how he does the exact same thing here, but he isn't working with real sets.

31:08 He's building all of it in a computer, and I think it's almost more admirable that he brings out so much emotion and so much Clear action on screen because, honestly, Brad, we've seen so many of these DC and Marvel movies, now that you see the behind-the-scenes pictures, and they look just like Avatar, like it's just A guy on strings with blue all around him and they fill everything in. But, you know, when you go see a movie, like, what's the one that just came out with The Rock black? Adam, everything looks flat, everything looks grey, there is no sense of geography. There's no sense of like wait to the things that they interact with on screen because it's also fake.

31:49 And this movie, there are so many moments where I'm like, oh yeah, the navi looked fake but I forget that everything they're interacting with on screen is also fake. And so I don't know, man. I just feel like you have to give Cameron Credit even if you don't like cg4 doing more with CG than almost any director in terms of making it feel cinematic, I mean, does the credit kind of shift away from Cameron then into the, you know, computer Graphics team? Oh, I'm sure. But you know, he's certainly the kind of guy that has his fingerprints all over that too. Yeah, no. Yeah. You're right. He's definitely Festa Deus about His movies. But I yeah I guess I'm just not quite on the same page as you Bob because I don't respect CGI.

32:37 Yeah. That much and that like I don't know if that's just like douchey of me to say because I know it takes an incredible amount of work. Like I read an article the other week about how Marvel is just grinding the CGI Community into the dust and how how brutal it's been to work for them. And you know, all this stuff is like, I know it takes Incredible amount of work to bring these places to life and I don't want to discredit that at all. What I'm saying is I watch a movie like, Lord of the Rings that has a similar epic feel to it. The, you know, as what Cameron is shooting for here and I never once have to believe like, I think to myself, how does this feel realistic or not? And yet with any movie that is like largely CGI, I find myself going.

33:30 Now that doesn't look really. Yeah, that's that's oh yeah. And it just it reduces from the movie going experience for me and so I'm with you, I like it's crazy amount of work. There's a lot of it. That's really beautiful but I'd rather see real stuff. I'm more of a lean Ian if you will. Yeah, I mean I'm with you there. I just think that there is something to be said, you know, I just saw today that Cameron is Cameron is really out here just hitting me. All with left, hooks left and right. Like, he's just non Marvel all over the place and he's talking about how, you know, like they're fully CG characters. Just don't have the level of expression of the navi, especially in this new movie, which to be fair. I have not seen to verify, but I read the comments as I tend to do and I shouldn't, and of course, it's like a bunch of Marvel Bros.

34:22 Who are like, can you even imagine if Marvel, took 13 years, to make a sequel to Infinity War? Like, Cameron took? And I was like, I I wish Marvel had taken 13 years, like hahaha. Because even if even if this CGI as we get older Brad, if if it shows its age and it looks crappy 50 years from now, it will still when we hold it up against its peers you can see the level of care and attention to detail and there's a reason that it took so long for them to make this movie and like yeah, I think you have to separate out the quality by 2022 standards from Cameron versus his peers and it gets back to your point about the 3D stuff too.

35:05 Like the reason 3D sucks is because as soon as Cameron did all the heavy lifting and did all the work to get it in place, then 50 copycats or not even copycats but opportunists came after him and dumped crappy versions of 3D into movie theaters. And so after a couple of years we were all sick of it because they did a steady job. And I remember when they re-released Titanic in 3D because Cameron had gone back in and Ernst achingly added depth and layers to the 3D like by hand, essentially, and that movie looked amazing in 3D. And I think the thing I'm like, you just have to acknowledge that. A lot of the things that Cameron has helped Pioneer.

35:47 We ston now but it's because we're jaded at the people who came after Cameron and took advantage of how hard he works by giving us a subpar product. And I think sometimes we Back on to Cameron's stuff. Things that aren't really fair to him because if everybody had been as painstaking about the 3D or the CGI or whatever as he had that I think we'd have a lot better, cinematic movies like this, to talk about, you mean that people are prone to cut Corners to try and make a quick buck in Hollywood you say Hollywood no, dude, I don't know if I'll ever have another place to talk about this.

36:29 I had just forgotten. Forgotten about the 3D re-release epidemic that happens 10 to 15 years ago and yet, I remember going to see Jurassic Park in theaters because I was like, it's being re-released in 3D, but I'm like, when will I have a chance to seize, your assets, your ass, in the park, in the theaters ever again in my life and I couldn't have anticipated the pandemic, and how you can now rent theaters, and, and all that. But like, I went to see that I went to see the Star Wars prequels rear, Least in theaters even though I saw those in theaters as like a, you know, 10 11 12 year old, I was like, when will I have a chance to see these in theaters again, and yet for the 3D so bad, it was so bad, man. All right, hey, let's hit pause here, let's drink this. Yamazaki, what do you say we're like 35 minutes in this episode. Let's do it.

37:32 Alright. Today we are trying the yamazaki 12-year Brad. This is our first Japanese whiskey of the season. I think I don't think we've had any other this season. Have we probably only like our fourth or fifth overall. Here's the thing is Japanese. Whisky is finally starting to become more popular in the United States and as I go to the liquor store, like the Japanese whiskey section has expanded from like four. Holes to four shelves, do anything? Like there's probably 50 of them now. It's still the smallest whiskey section in the store and so I struggled to know what's what or what to try. It's also pretty pricey. Like, it's probably even pricier than Scotch if you're like taking it as like a one-to-one ratio and considering import fees and all that.

38:18 So I just don't know a lot about Japanese whiskey. But I also don't think we've ever really tried a bad one. Brad yeah everything that we've tried has Good. I mean, heck the which one was it? That had the awesome know, the Nica's golden gold. Yeah, that was that was just really, really cool and I yeah I think that every single Japanese whiskey we've had--we've at the very least been like oh, this is like really solid and if not really, really good. Well, this one today is a beast and it is known for being one of the best offerings to come out of Japan. The yamazaki Distillery is pretty famous, it's owned by suntory. Why? So we get to say for relaxing times, make it suntory time which I come on I love doing that every time we get a chance. Let's go.

39:03 Bill Murray. They've been releasing this product since 1984 dates for 12 years at The yamazaki. Distillery, it's 100% malted barley in the mash Bill Brad, what is this clocking in? At proof wise Bob. This bad boy is clocking in at 86, proof points, just like with Scotch, we talked a lot about how you don't usually get high proof points. Now, there's always exceptions. Options, there's Nika straight from the barrel, which people, I think it's called which people really, really like. So we're going to try this one. It's 86 proof, Brad. You've already been sippin on it and raving about it. What do you picking up on the nose here, dude? The nose is honey, just all sorts of nice thick, honey, cherry vanilla Oak. And then on the, on the back end, after I sat with him for a while, I got a lot of cinnamon coming through I this is an incredible knows Bob, I give it a 9 and a half out of ten. It's very delicate and it really toes. The line between a nice bright Irish whiskey and like an entry-level Scotch, like there's not a lot of smokiness to it and I'm not even talking about Pete, but I'm talking about that kind of like weightiness you get with Scotch even at the kind of the lower levels of scotch.

40:21 This definitely keeps it nice and bright. There's a lot of floral NE To it. There's I'm definitely getting some Citrus, I think you're right about orange. I think that there's some melon here as well. I'm getting a little bit of Honey Dew on this. I really like it. I just don't know, like in a vacuum. If you put like, 10 similar smelling whiskies in a row, I don't know that. There's anything about this. That's making me like go crazy. I know you gave it a 9 and a half but for me this is kind of like, oh, this is a really, really nice bright Irish whiskey sent. So I'm only going to give it a seven and a half. The nose man, you're crazy, Bob go home the the palette here.

41:02 I think that you get a lot of vanilla and honey up front. There was a there is a bunch of like coconut refreshing sweetness in the middle. And then at the at the back end of my tongue, I got a little bit of Oak with some like lightly roasted coffee beans. It got just a tiny bit of that cocoa at the very end and I I died. Once again was a huge fan of the palette here and gave it a 9 and a half out of ten. This is interesting. I followed you like through the mid palate and you're notif. Coconut was interesting because I wasn't picking it up at first but it almost has more of like a coconut water. Hmm. Like it's not sweet but it's almost like that husk of coconut kind of thing.

41:47 I really like that it does get kind of hokey on the back end and for me there was just the faintest little wisp of I couldn't tell if it was Raspberry or strawberry, but it almost reminded me of, like, a strawberry short cake with coconut shavings on top. Really interesting, really, really good. Not at all. Like the nose though, not. I don't get any of that Citrus. I don't get any of the, the melon that I got. So very different, but still really consistent. If that makes sense. I'm going to give it an eight point five on the palate, Bob with his oxymoronic tasting notes. Differently consistent, if you will. I think that it's slightly tails off. At the end of this experience.

42:33 It leaves you with a really beautiful honey and I almost got like a little bit of pear on the back end, it doesn't turn bitter at all. It does get a little bit, okey it just didn't have quite enough punch. I think if this was like 90 proof or 92 proof, it would it would last a little longer throughout the Hold drinking. I think I gave it an eight and a half on the finished. Bob. Yeah man I really like the finish on this. It get Sookie towards the back. I think some of that almost like almost smokiness comes out there but it's more of just like a nice burnt wood kind of thing. And like so you're really getting the inside of the barrel here with the Finish. But then there's a layer of a can't quite place it Brad. But it's like some sort of almost a candy for me. Just a wisp of it way out.

43:24 After I swallow that shoots back up my tongue. It almost reminds me of like, the, like the green Laffy Taffy. Like there's a, there's like a like a sour apple kind of thing going on. And its really, really good and it's super refreshing and so at every point in this tasting, I'm getting fruit coming through and that's what's keeping this from being just kind of like a generic scotchie taste. And you know, you had that knows that note of Did coconut. I had melon, I had orange. We talked about strawberries, we talked about raspberries we've talked about Apple at this point. This is a super complex whiskey especially at only 86 proof and like, a good scotch.

44:07 I actually don't think it needs to be higher proof. I think the alcohol makes itself known in this feels full-bodied enough and complex enough that I don't just think making it more potent would do a lot to add to the flavor. And in fact I think it might mask some of these more subtle. Flavors were getting here. So I've actually let me get my Square. I'm gonna bump it up to a 9 on the Finish. Yeah, I just think just a few more proof points would lengthen the experience all the way through the finish? That that's all. Well, you're wrong. So we gonna do that. I think that the balance is a nine and a half out of ten like this is an incredible balance of like delicate complexity that never overwhelms itself and I I was really impressed with what they're doing here. Yeah I'll also give it a nine point five. I was going to give it a 9 but I like what you said it is a. It's a balance of a lot of delicate flavors and that's part of why I think that increasing the proof really would swallow some of those up.

45:10 I don't think I've ever had a whiskey. That reminded me of so many different fruit flavors at so many different points of the tasting experience. It is a really complex very delicate whiskey that man. I really would recommend commend anyone to try tasting this. So I'm gonna give it a nine and a half and that gets us into value, which is where things are going to go a little bit sideways. Hmm, I think that, if you get this at price it is priced at $180 in the state of Ohio. If you're able to find this for 180 bucks, a you're not in the mid-tier whiskey range. Like, if you're going to spend over 100 $150 on a whiskey, you know what you're getting into.

45:55 So I'm pricing it for those types of people. Hmm. I would give it an 8 and a half. Wow, at $180. Wow, I think that if you're going to spend this much on a whiskey, it had better be a damn good whiskey. And I think that this delivers, you know, even if I wish it was a few points higher on the proof range. Like I think this is an incredible whiskey. The problem runs in that you run into is the fact that you can't really find this for 180 bucks. You can find it for 350 to 500 dollars. And at that point, I'm like, Like, like I, it's not worth that much money. Bob, yeah. And here's the thing is like, we haven't had enough Japanese whiskey to say, like, how this fits in amongst its peers.

46:41 Like we're really only comparing this to Irish and scotch, and that's mostly just because of the mash bill. And if this was a scotch, I'd be like 180s too much. You can get better Scotch for cheaper, but I don't know that that's true for Japanese. So this is really hard because part of me wants to get it like a five-and-a-half on value, you're giving it an eight and a half. I think I'll split the difference here. I'll give it a seven on value 180, is more than I would pay for, almost any whiskey. And so, I really don't think that I would shell out $180 for this, but it is probably the most complex. Japanese whiskey that we've had so far. And I would heartily recommend trying it, assuming you can get a poor of it for less than, like, 30 or 40 bucks. Yeah, yeah, I'm in the same place. Like if you can get a bottle of it, you know, and split it between you and two other three, you know, two or three other people like, great go for it.

47:37 If you're able to buy yourself awesome. But yeah, if you can find a poor for twenty to thirty dollars, I think this is a really good whiskey and worth the experience. All right, what do you coming out? To bread, I might at 45.5 out of there now. So you're at your over, the 90 Mark here. Yeah. I'm at a 91 out of 100. Holy shit. Okay I am at a 41.5 so I'm a little bit lower than you but that still brings us out to an 87 out of 100 or 43.5 out of 50. Now anything over 35 is where we typically start recommending anything over a 40 is, like, you gotta try it or get a bottle. And I think again, you know, if you can Find it.

48:18 And you're willing to Shell out that much money to have a really good Japanese whiskey. It might be worth it, but it is certainly worth trying. And I would recommend that with no hesitation, yeah, easily recommend it along with a movie that I don't know if I'd recommend Bob. Whoa, okay, let's get back into talking about Avatar. Yeah, let's get to it, man. All right, everybody. That was yamazaki 12 and expensive whiskey. That pretty much is worth it. Bob, yeah, nice. I mean, pretty much. Yeah. No, that's a good way one rephrasing. It is pretty much worth it. You know what else is?

48:59 Pretty much worth the cost of admission, Bob, I don't Canada's favorite segments of the podcast to fax in a falsehood. I'm getting to the point where I just don't enjoy this anymore. Your Being me week in and week out I need to start cheating. Yeah, you probably should have you need to start eating? You're not trying. I was gonna say I need to start employing the Brad G quite of Destiny approach. We're bro, I will not. Have you impugn my honor in such a way? If there's anything I take seriously. It's chance, what a quote that's a quote of the Season. All right, let's hop into two facts in a falsehood. This is where Rad presents three items to meet as fact, one of which is completely made up.

49:45 And I have to try to guess which one is the lie. So Brad, hit me with your two facts and a falsehood. Alrighty, Bob, fax number one in preparation for the film Cameron had the cast do long hikes through the jungles on some of the Hawaiian islands and on these hikes. Zoe Saldana would wear a warrior outfit with a tail appendage to help her gain confidence in her role. So you're telling me she's she's a furry. Hey man, this is like 2008. All right, there weren't such thing as for his back fact, number two. Zoe Saldana is reunited in Avatar with Joel David Moore, who plays Norm, who also played a small role on the pirate crew of 2003's Pirate of the Caribbean curse of the Black Pearl. Nice fact.

50:37 Number three. Zoe Saldana has appeared in. In three out of the five highest grossing films of all time a feat, not achieved by any other performer. Her films have grossed more than 11 billion worldwide. I think three is true, right? Because I mean she's definitely got this. She's definitely got endgame and I assume Infinity Wars up there. I'm not going to tell you if it's true or not. Bob well, I'm just kind of talking out loud because that I'm gonna really be pissed if you're like Infinity Wars number seven, huh. I'm gonna assume 3 is true for now, okay.

51:18 Number two sounds like it could, be plausible. I mean she did play a small part in that movie and so did. Well I don't know if the other guy did but sounds plausible. Number one about Zoe Saldana being a furry Maybe just because I really did. See my like Zoe Saldana, she seems very genuine and down-to-earth and I just don't want to think that she would do that kind of a thing. And I'm like, reading into it. Like it's just, she just wore a tail. She wasn't actually a furry but I'm like, no. Not my girls though. The the furry fastest thing. Yeah. I'll say number one is a falsehood and I have no other reason for that. Then like I just don't see, Zoe doing that. But I don't know her at all and that's my answer. According to IMDb fact, number one is a truth. 100% true Faith news, which was the falsehood was. So I'm not going to lie, I was doing research on Zoe Saldana because I decided that she should be the theme because she was the best actor in the movie.

52:24 And so I did not know that she was in Pirates of the Caribbean. So I completely made up that Joel, David Moore was also in that movie As this movie was playing out, I had to look up Joel David Moore because when he was in his Avatar body at the end of the movie, mmm. And he was like on Horseback and firing a machine gun and then he was like getting knocked off his horse and going. Whoa I was like oh my God, I think that that guy played linguine in Ratatouille. Oh that's the Ratatouille guy. Is it turns out his not but It was a lot of fun out there. Bob well but it ruined part of the ending of the movie for me because then I could only think about Linguini from Ratatouille in like on Pandora like just running around like little chef. What are you doing?

53:20 It's like at the end of I guess that's been out for a little while at the end of everything everywhere. All at once with raccoon, raccoon e. Yeah. They're just running through the forest. Oh man, fun fact. Old David Moore, my wife is watching this and she heard his voice ago. So he's somebody and immediately starts Googling it. He was a regular on the TV show Bones for anybody. Any bones fans out there? Yeah, yeah, cool. Thanks. Thanks, Haley. All right, come Brad. We've talked a lot about this movie. Do you have anything else? You really want to say or should we just kind of go right in to make it a double?

54:00 Wow, I think one of the few takeaways I had From this movie that I think might be unique to me. I mean, it's the internet. So nobody has original thoughts. One of the things I found myself pondering, as I watched this film was in the midst of kind of the the training sequence. If you will when you know Jake Sully is going through the rights of becoming a navi Warrior or you know, whatever the name of their tribe is. I realize I was, like, our culture, the Western culture in general. I, you know, I can't necessarily speak for like, France or Germany or Britain, but I feel like this might be true for them as well. We don't really have any healthy Rites of Passage for what it means to be a man or a woman in our culture. And I think that there's something really powerful about having a clear-cut pathway.

55:03 Of like hey these are the things. It takes to be a man in our culture or a woman in our culture and I know that that might I'm not trying to be controversial here. I know that being a man and a woman is in a very unique place in America right now. But I guess if I had to broaden it out the navi, have a very specific understanding of how you gain purpose and meaning. In your life and our culture doesn't really have that. And I think that Avatar actually really gives you a beautiful picture of the importance of community and helping people know why they are here on this Earth.

55:48 Yeah, I don't know. Is that like way too deep for Avatar? I don't think it's too deep. I think that because you and I come from a like Christian Church background. I think we might need to add context to what you're saying because I think I know what you're getting at which is Like we don't really have rights that indicate like already or coming of A tes. Yes and yeah I mean we kind of do in like a very casual way, right? Like we have your high school graduation and like you know if you're Jewish you have your bar mitzvah. But like even that in America has become secularized to the point where like I'm 13 now.

56:29 So it's my bar mitzvah, you know what I mean? Like, it's not so much. Give me presents. He's right and so I get what you're saying, you know, we before we press record you were kind of kicking this idea around with me and you talked about how, you know, even on Pandora. It's like okay now that you have achieved this this level or whatever and you have been considered a man quote-unquote. Now you can choose a woman and we were talking about like the dangerous gender politics of that. But but also, I think there's something to be said about like, You are not ready to pick a life partner until you're mature enough in all these other areas. And so like it seems super regressive, right? But then there's also the idea of like there does need to be some sort of, how do you know?

57:17 Yeah, not standard, but like, a rival into adulthood and we do a really bad job at that in America and I think Cameron, you know, to his credit and he he does beat you over the head with it. And these are themes that we will see. All through his movies, especially in Aliens next week. And he talks about it himself that the idea of a greedy Corporation who is also backed by military force and your Heroes, having to go up against that to win the day. Like that's all through here. Cameron really hates the idea of like the military being used by force and he really, really hates greedy billionaires, which is why he take such pleasure in like sticking it to the Man and given them the finger, every time he makes a movie.

57:59 Cause he's like, I'm going to make it for a billion dollars and there's nothing you can do about it. What's the name of the? What's the name of Kate Winslet's fiance in Titanic? Oh, that one's name is in the movie but it's Billy Zane Factor do it, bro. Billy Zane's performance. Represents everything you're talking about. Yes, exactly. So yeah, I like I like that you pointed it out. I don't think it's really a major theme in the movie, but I think it gets back to this idea of something that is Holy Foreign to American eyes and ears that actually writes have some value to it. Yeah, I will say the whole like transferring Consciousness from one being to another had, some real weird Vibes to it and I didn't know how I felt about it.

58:49 Well even just the idea of like they built the navi from a mixture. The and this is the thing about Cameron. He's like, I'm not going to dwell on the how like we're just going to get into the bodies and then Then The Wonder of this world is hopefully going to sweep you up and I kind of respect it because it's like at the end of the day, who cares? Yeah. And he kind of knows who cares but the way they try to gloss over it which is like we built these things from a combination of your DNA and Navi DNA. And I'm like, that's not weird. It's a little weird. But also like how do the mines actually sync up? They don't really, I mean, you get into a machine and then your mind is just synched up and I'm like how but also Why didn't they just synthetically build Navi if they have Navi DNA? And then just like, educate them if you know what I mean to go be emissaries.

59:44 Like why did you have to develop this whole program where they have to be mind-controlled by? He'll it just seems so much easier to just be like, hey Sigourney Weaver, like just teach the new train, nothing mean I don't get, we're getting we're getting right back to attack of the Clones. Why don't you just hire the cloners on kamino? To make look loan. Not now the Army. Should we be making this a double with attack of the Clones? Oh, I call it, I'm putting it in there attack of the Clones or watch it. Well to officially preview it. We have a segment that we like to wrap the episodes up with called, make it a double where we pair this with another film to make the ideal double feature. And it sounds like Brad is using. Maybe the most reviled of all Star Wars films, attack of the Clones to pair up with Avatar of film that I Objectively like, but recognize it's my least favorite of the Six Original films.

1:00:40 I think that this is hard to pair up with anything because it's like it has pieces and parts of everything. I feel like I've seen this movie a hundred times but the James Cameron element of that. I'm like, I've never seen anything like this before, so pairing it up. With something is kind of like a moot point because, you know, you could I could pick 100 white, savior movies and they would line right up with this. I could pick 100 Sci-Fi movies where people go to a different planet and the line right up with this. I guess the most obvious one would be the Matrix where you plug in with your mind to another body in a different world than like, so I, you know, the Matrix is, I think great movie and it's ready player, one, ready player one, that might be an okay one and I actually liked that movie a lot more than apparently most people did. I'll go with the Matrix just because that movies rad. And I actually think that from the midpoint of this movie on, it gets really, really Good too.

1:01:33 So yeah, watch The Matrix and watch Avatar. Are we going to talk about the Pocahontas of it? All, I mean, here's the thing. It's been talked about to death, like we know we all know this make, it's a white savior movie. It's a Pocahontas movie, you know, is that an inherent flaw with the movie? I don't know. It depends on if you think this movie sucks. It's the way. The story is told in this movie, it's been told a hundred times before this doesn't do it. Really any better or worse than any of those other movies. So like, you know, it is what it is. Yeah, that's fair. Alright man, what's your final score on Avatar? Seven and a half, right?

1:02:14 Yeah, I think, I think it's solid. I think it's fun. I think that the first half is really rough. And then from the moment that they destroy the home Tree on, it's just I texted you. This, it's just pretty rad. Like, it's just, it's just really fun action movie sequences after action movie sequences. I think that he's not fully original in his action sequences Like and I'm not talking about the, the graphics or what you're seeing, it's more of like the style of them, they feel pretty wrote of like oh there they have a surprise attack and then they get pushed back and then something unexpected happens. And it's like, it's not like the action scenes move into new territory, but they're really well done. And they're fun.

1:03:02 So I yeah. I couldn't decide between an eight and an eight and a half and I was not expecting that. Because again, like the first 15 minutes of this movie, I was like damn it is Brad going to be right? Like am I going to have to go in there and be like have a chart does suck? I am right Bob, I think that this movie is an 8 out of 10 because there it's a flawed movie. But I think the technological advancement like I think with this movie represents, Is almost more interesting than the movie itself. Like it really did push the industry forward and I don't think you can take that away from Cameron. It's a pretty good movie. Sam Worthington is not good.

1:03:43 Zoe Saldana, knocks it, out of the park. And so I'll give it an 8 out of 10 and that takes us to an average of a seven point seven five, which puts us pretty much right in line with the general public, this has a seven point eight on IMDb. So for all the people out there that say, this movie sucks, it seems like you don't hate it that much because you rated it at just about an 8 out of 10. That's what we think. But we want to know what you think reach out to us on our social media accounts. If you hated Avatar, if you loved Avatar, if you're going to go see it this weekend, the new one, let us know you can find us on all of our social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram at film whiskey, or you can jump onto our Discord. We are on Discord every single day talking to you guys, the fans of the film whiskey podcast.

1:04:28 So if you want to join the conversation, you can download Discord and join our Channel. You'll find a link to it at the end of every single one of our show notes, hang on, for another couple minutes, I'm going to give you my impressions of Avatar the way of water but Brad and I will sign off here. We'll see you next week for aliens, which I'm freaking pumped about what a great movie. But until then, I'm Bob book, I'm Brad G and we'll see you next time.

1:05:22 All right, let's talk Avatar the way of water a little bit. I went to see this on Thursday night, 10:55 p.m. screening. The movie is 3 hours and 15 minutes long. So with trailers, like I got home at 3:00 in the morning. It is a long movie. Does it need to be 3 hours and 15 minutes long. Probably not. You know, like I think when you're approaching that length of a movie there has to be a reason. It has to say something like so deep and so profound that that it justifies being three hours long and in a lot of ways, this just feels Is like the second chapter in a an ongoing saga and so does it need to be like 40 minutes longer than the original? Probably not, but it also didn't feel like a drag to me, I know some critics are saying that, that s our really felt like it dragged for me.

1:06:06 It didn't feel that way. And Cameron really expands upon the universe that he created in the first one. I think we're is in the first one. He was very much interested in just like getting down to brass tacks. In this one, there's much more emotion behind everything, and he introduces, You to Jake Sully and Nate series family, and their four children. And all of the you know, many many plot developments that come from having four children, some of whom are teenagers, but you learn a lot more about like the Dynamics between the different tribes of the navi, you know, obviously the plot mechanism of this movie, is that they're being hunted by the Marines again. And so they have to flee to a tribe of people who Are like water people, they live on Islands, they're out on the water, they go under the water for long periods of time. And so you get acclimated to this new world just as Jake's Ali's family does but there's a much more. I don't know spiritual connection in this movie. The way that he played up the the spirit tree in the first movie.

1:07:11 This one goes so much deeper into the connection between all living things, you know. Like if you're not on board for a whale creature, having subtitles in Push while speaking whale. Then like this might not be the movie for you but I'll tell you what it worked for me. I thought this was a significantly better movie than the first one. It goes so much deeper emotionally. I think that the technology is Advanced like crazy, the level of detail on the navi skin. At this point is kind of Staggering like they make Jake. Sully look so much more expressive, and I think that was probably something that Cameron really emphasize this time around because Sam Worthington. His performance in the first one has drawn so much criticism, but it's really great.

1:07:56 It's a nuanced, layered performance and the technology has caught up a little bit. There are still moments with some of the characters. Wear, their skin looks a little bit rubbery. There are still some shots that are like, oh, they probably didn't spend as much time on that but I would say like, 90% of the visual effects are better than anything. You've seen since the original marble, or since the original Avatar and so much better than what Marvel's currently doing, That you kind of forgive the other 10% to me. It's like, go see it on the biggest screen possible. I saw it in 2D. If 3D is important to you then like God bless you but I always try to see a movie in 2D first just so I can determine does it work as a movie aside from the gimmick of the 3D.

1:08:40 I might go back and see it in 3D because Cameron, so good at using it. But for me, it's better than the first one. I cannot recommend it. Highly enough like it is a movie theater movie. If you saw top gun Maverick in the theater, Other than you, you owe it to yourself to see this one in the theater, 3 hours and 15 minutes. You're definitely getting your money's worth. I'm going to give it an 8.5 out of 10 and that's my review of Avatar. The way of water will see you next week.