CelticsStrong
Other Discussions => Entertainment => Off Topic => Movies => Topic started by: action781 on December 18, 2009, 05:33:10 PM
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PSYCHED to see this movie tonight at 7pm in 3D! I was nervous it wouldn't live up to the hype, but it averaged an A- review from the critics and A- reviews from Yahoo! users. The commercials don't really give any clue what the movie is actually about, so I wasn't buying all the hype so much at first, but then I saw the trailer and it looks like a pretty cool storyline. Check out the trailer link below and hopefully I'll post my thoughts for you all sometime tomorrow.
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809804784/video;_ylc=X1MDNzgyMDYzOQRfcgMyBGxkA2JsZARtcANibARwb3MDMzEEc2VjA290dwRzbGsDb3BlbmluZ1Byb2R1Y3Rpb25QaG90b3MzMQ--
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i hope to see it soon. if/when i do, i will be seeing it in imax.
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"AWWWWWWW SWEEEEEEET LOOK HOW EXPENSIVEEEEE THIS WASSSSSSSS MICHAEL BAY CRAWWWWWWWW BLAWWWWWW CRASHHHHHHH"
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Just got back from Avatar in IMAX 3D. It was unreal!! I was very impressed. The visuals were absolutely stunning. The animals, creatures and landscapes just jump off the screen. Cameron really set the bar from a film-making standpoint; I mean just changed the game. To me seeing this movie non 3D in a regular theater would be cheating yourself.
The only tough part is that it is a 3 hr movie and some people simply don't have the stamina for a movie that long. I really didn't notice the length because it keeps you wrapped up in a well crafted storyline. And a major plot device in this story It reminds me a lot of 2 great movies: The Last Samurai and also Tron for the video-game feel of the story. In fact the whole thing will have you thinking about the Playstation Network, or XBox Live. For those of you in your mid-30's and older you should know Tron and for those who aren't you need to educate yourself and see this movie because it all started here.
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Going to go see this in 3D tomorrow, looking forward to it!
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I saw it tonight. Bucknersrevenge has hit it. This is a visually stunning film that will change the Sci Fi genre forever-- and maybe the whole action genre. It isn't just the 3D. It's the total impact of the visuals: the colors, the scenery, the creatures, the sets, the motion, the computer animation.
And the rest of the movie is pretty good too. Good acting (Sigorney Weaver reprises her role as Ripley), good dialogue (for the most part), a good story (a reprise of Dances with Wolves) and a very imaginative creation of an entire alien culture. The aliens remind me of the Atevi in C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner series, but in a completely different setting.
I saw it at the Fenway Regal, and although it is a youngish crowd there (except for me), the audience broke out in spontaneous clapping and cheering at the end. I can't remember the last time that happened when I was in the theater.
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saw the movie here in manila the other day. fantastic movie, a real eye candy . the creatures look so real. goundbreaking . cant wait for the sequel.
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Yeah i saw it a couple days ago at an IMAX 3d screen. It was amazing. Totally recommend it. Just brilliantly beautiful. It doesn't do 3d in a gimmicky way. I'd say it isn't 100% necessary to see it in 3d, but it's definitely amazing to see it in that format. I hadn't seen a 3D movie in a long time... i was impressed how clear and crisp the screen looked despite the goggles.
The effects are out of this world. Definitely worth it to see it for that. Worthy of all the praise it is getting.
The story (as mentioned) is a bit like Dances with Wolves... kinda mixed with The Matrix and Princess Mononoke (for anyone whose seen that anime).
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Saw it tonight in 3D... found it awful. :-\
The graphics are stunning but the scenario sucks, the characters have no charisma at all, the dialogs are awful, and you know what's going to happen 10 minutes before it happens. Just a big production with no soul.
Sure, it's stunning and beautiful to watch but it's way too long, I got bored quickly and wanted to see it end. What's the point of having great graphics if there is no scenario?
Also, the 3D glasses didn't make that much of a difference, except for rare effects, I almost felt like I watched it in 2D...
Very disappointed from this movie, especially after all the hype about it.
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KG and Tommy out tonight... I hope KG is OK. ???
Edit : wrong topic. :-X
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I felt like the parker guy was just doing an impression of Jeremy Piven the whole time.
Otherwise it was good. haha
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This might be the greatest movie of all time. I had high hopes, but not this high! In fact, usually I get so hyped up for big movies, that I always end up disappointed, but not this time.
Avatar made me feel like a little kid again where everything is magical. Nothing else comes close to the fantasy world created by Cameron. Not only is it the most beautiful imagery I've ever seen in a movie but I became completely immersed in it.
It was one of those rare movies where there was a huge round of applause when the credits rolled. And I smiled non-stop for half an hour after that.
Don't wait for this to come out on Blu-Ray and DVD. You have to see this in the theatre and you have to see it in 3D (preferably IMAX). I've never recommended that before, but it wasn't a distraction. It added to the immersion by adding depth to the movie, rather than having things popping out of the screen at you all the time.
Incredible acting, casting, cinematography, animation, direction, music, and sound effects. This should win Oscars for everything. Yes, it's ground breaking, but it's also movie making at its best in all aspects.
(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z144/moogleslam/Avatar-movie-image.jpg)
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This is a great film, 3D or no 3D.
This film is bigger than its looks, and its looks are massive.
This film speaks to its audience, tells a grand story with social and political commentary.
5 out of 4 stars.
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Wife and I are headed on a trip tomorrow to see it in 3D (none of the theaters nearby have it). Looking forward to it. I've heard nary a bad word.
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I saw this today, and like most everyone else, I really enjoyed it. As others have said, in terms of plot the movie that immediately came to mind was Dances With Wolves. The end is a little (or completely) predictable, as it follows the exact same script of every other plot of its nature, but it's still an enjoyable experience. The film is visually beautiful and immersive, and the CGI is flawless. The main villain is a bit of an archetype, but it worked well enough.
Overall, I'd give this one an A/A-.
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Guess I should finally follow up on the tread I created...
I did end up seeing it opening night in IMAX. I have since strongly recommended this movie to everyone I know as a "must see" in theaters. Definitely in 3D also. Despite it being nearly 3 hours in length, I was enthralled throughout the entire movie I'd say. The thing that really did it for me was the incredible character and planet development. I really felt that Pandora and the characters were very real and agree with a critic who said that "you felt like you could reach out and touch the planet" not because of the 3D effects haha, but because of how well everything was developed. The movie made me want to move to Pandora - and feel like it is possible! The end almost brought a tear to my eye. The audience didn't give a standing ovation (which I generally don't like if there is nobody there to receive it), but it had that feeling that there would be one. A friend of mine just told me today that there was one at his showing.
Only thing I disliked about it was how much everything in the movie resembled something past or present from Earth so closely. It did have some useful symbolic effect, but I wanted something completely different. I guess that's hard to do, but it was just what I was hoping for.
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Great movie. Saw it twice - both times in 3D, once in a regular theater and once in IMAX.
Storyline is very good, CGI is maybe the best ever. Good cast in my opinion. In other words, I agree with most of the posts in this thread, so I won't go into unnecessary detail.
I actually hope they don't do a sequel - not unless they really put the time and money into it. Ten years went into the making of this movie, and it showed. I highly doubt that any sequel would end up having the polish that this has.
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Great movie. Saw it twice - both times in 3D, once in a regular theater and once in IMAX.
Storyline is very good, CGI is maybe the best ever. Good cast in my opinion. In other words, I agree with most of the posts in this thread, so I won't go into unnecessary detail.
I actually hope they don't do a sequel - not unless they really put the time and money into it. Ten years went into the making of this movie, and it showed. I highly doubt that any sequel would end up having the polish that this has.
The 10 years thing is not entirely true. I think it basically took 3 years. He finished the draft for this version of the movie around 2006, I believe. They say it took 10 years, because he had kicked around an Avatar script for a while, shelved it until the technology was ready, and rewrote the script.
Apparently Cameron says there are 2 sequels planned, but the rumor is that they might not take place on Pandora. Pandora was just one of the moons hovering that massive planet. I know both of the main characters are signed on for two sequels.
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I thought it was good, but almost exclusively because of the 3d scenery and overall beauty. I'd give it a 'B'
However, the characters are very one-dimensional, the character lines were unimaginative and standard, and the plot (including the ending) was pretty much figured out within the first 10 minutes.
On a rather related note, I saw Transformers 2 about a week before. I almost turned it off b/c the writing of it was so bad. It really bothers me that action films have become all about CGI and graphical effects, and don't put the effort into premier writing or endings. Instead of trying to make a truly great action movie, the industry knows it can get away with creating as many scenes of things being blown up and still generate good revenue.
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Great movie. Saw it twice - both times in 3D, once in a regular theater and once in IMAX.
Storyline is very good, CGI is maybe the best ever. Good cast in my opinion. In other words, I agree with most of the posts in this thread, so I won't go into unnecessary detail.
I actually hope they don't do a sequel - not unless they really put the time and money into it. Ten years went into the making of this movie, and it showed. I highly doubt that any sequel would end up having the polish that this has.
+1
Just saw it few hours ago. Liked it a lot. 3D is amazing!
I wanted Stephen Lang character to die so much... In my mind, i was gonna jump to the screen and do it myself :)
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In just 17 days, Avatar has surpassed $1 billion in the global box office. To put that in perspective, it took The Dark Knight pretty much its entire theatrical run just to make it to that milestone.
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In just 17 days, Avatar has surpassed $1 billion in the global box office. To put that in perspective, it took The Dark Knight pretty much its entire theatrical run just to make it to that milestone.
talk about global domination haha
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B+
Thoroughly entertaining so long as you don't think to much. Without the extraordinary special effects, the contrived story lines and awful voice over/dialogue throughout would have made this unwatchable. But it's hard to notice the pointlessness of it all when you are spending the whole 2.5 hours going "Ohhhhhhhhhh! Ahhhhhhhhh!" Well worth seeing on the biggest screen you can find, under the influence of whatever you can find...
Sidenote: shock of the whole film -- Michelle Rodreguez is apparently still alive...
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Really bummed. My wife and I had a rare night out lined up last night. No one around here was showing this in 3D, so we were all geared up to drive the 40 miles to the nearest theater doing so. Alas, the snow made the idea of a 40 mile drive to go see a movie seem like too much of a risk for the reward.
Still committed to seeing it in 3D though. Judging by how well it's doing we should have some time still.
It will be interesting to see how it does on DVD. It's become the rare theater experience movie. It's been a while since there was a movie that carried as much "gotta see it on the big screen" clout.
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B+
Thoroughly entertaining so long as you don't think to much. Without the extraordinary special effects, the contrived story lines and awful voice over/dialogue throughout would have made this unwatchable. But it's hard to notice the pointlessness of it all when you are spending the whole 2.5 hours going "Ohhhhhhhhhh! Ahhhhhhhhh!" Well worth seeing on the biggest screen you can find, under the influence of whatever you can find...
Sidenote: shock of the whole film -- Michelle Rodreguez is apparently still alive...
This is a thinking man's film.
The 3D and visuals overshadows the greater message.
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Strange, but I think in order to get a proper handle on how good this movie is, I think I'm definitely going to have to see it more than once. I was thoroughly entertained for the 3 hours or so I was watching this but I think it might have been due to the beauty of the movie and awe inspiring effects the IMAX 3D created. The story was good enough to entertain me without insulting me but after the movie was over and I thought about the story behind the movie, the more I wanted to go watch the movie and pay a lot more attention to the story itself and the subtleties of the gaia, the greater sense of meaning and the awareness of oneness with your environment and home.
I think I'll wait a month and then see it with all the sensory effects and see what I get out of the story of Avatar. For now though, I have to say I love the experience of watching this movie though I'm not sure that makes the movie a good movie or a good experience. I guess I'll have to reserve judgment until I see it again. In that respect, I guess James Cameron did his job as well as can be expected though again I'm not sure that makes it a good movie.
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B+
Thoroughly entertaining so long as you don't think to much. Without the extraordinary special effects, the contrived story lines and awful voice over/dialogue throughout would have made this unwatchable. But it's hard to notice the pointlessness of it all when you are spending the whole 2.5 hours going "Ohhhhhhhhhh! Ahhhhhhhhh!" Well worth seeing on the biggest screen you can find, under the influence of whatever you can find...
Sidenote: shock of the whole film -- Michelle Rodreguez is apparently still alive...
This is a thinking man's film.
The 3D and visuals overshadows the greater message.
I can't speak for Reggie's Ghost, but without the special effects the movie isn't particularly good. The greater message requires little thought to see, and there wasn't much depth in the lines either. Entertaining, yes. Deep, no.
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B+
Thoroughly entertaining so long as you don't think to much. Without the extraordinary special effects, the contrived story lines and awful voice over/dialogue throughout would have made this unwatchable. But it's hard to notice the pointlessness of it all when you are spending the whole 2.5 hours going "Ohhhhhhhhhh! Ahhhhhhhhh!" Well worth seeing on the biggest screen you can find, under the influence of whatever you can find...
Sidenote: shock of the whole film -- Michelle Rodreguez is apparently still alive...
This is a thinking man's film.
The 3D and visuals overshadows the greater message.
I can't speak for Reggie's Ghost, but without the special effects the movie isn't particularly good. The greater message requires little thought to see, and there wasn't much depth in the lines either. Entertaining, yes. Deep, no.
Hahahaha! Too funny (TP to you both)...
Yeah, the more you think about the story the worse it gets. Like I said, it would be unwatchable if it weren't such a visual spectacle, but with the break-through special effects you'd hardly notice the endless discrepancies, discontinuities, and errors in plot. Had a blast watching it tho...
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I saw (and enjoyed) the movie, not in 3D. Maybe it's my age, but while I (somewhat) enjoy the quality of the computer animation it still strikes me as high-tech cartoons.
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You have to look fairly deep to see the true meaning of the film.
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Some stories are just too odd to be made up
http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.ap.org/vatican-says-avatar-no-masterpiece-ap
I wonder if the Vatican will be taking on New Moon and Harry Potter next.
And I always kind of wonder who this person "The Vatican" is. The Pope. I know who that is. I don't know who "The Vatican" is.
It would be like if you read "New York says that Avatar is bad". Or "The District of Columbia says...."
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Some stories are just too odd to be made up
http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.ap.org/vatican-says-avatar-no-masterpiece-ap
I wonder if the Vatican will be taking on New Moon and Harry Potter next.
And I always kind of wonder who this person "The Vatican" is. The Pope. I know who that is. I don't know who "The Vatican" is.
It would be like if you read "New York says that Avatar is bad". Or "The District of Columbia says...."
The Vatican didn't have great things to say about Harry Potter, either, at least in years past.
I thought the odder story was the various authors and blogs complaining that Avatar is based on racist themes, of a white man "saving" natives. Of course, that neglects that it's the native that kills the villain at the end of the movie, and that it's really nature that saves the day, rather than a human.
Also, one wonders what would have happened if a black actor had morphed into a native in the movie. I can already picture the blogs complaining about how an African-American actor was being portrayed as something subhuman and quasi-animal. It's impossible to win with some crowds.
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Kind of makes Catholicism seem like an insecure girlfriend there.
"Yeah I guess the bartender is hot if you're into that kind of girl."
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Some stories are just too odd to be made up
http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.ap.org/vatican-says-avatar-no-masterpiece-ap
I wonder if the Vatican will be taking on New Moon and Harry Potter next.
And I always kind of wonder who this person "The Vatican" is. The Pope. I know who that is. I don't know who "The Vatican" is.
It would be like if you read "New York says that Avatar is bad". Or "The District of Columbia says...."
The Vatican didn't have great things to say about Harry Potter, either, at least in years past.
I thought the odder story was the various authors and blogs complaining that Avatar is based on racist themes, of a white man "saving" natives. Of course, that neglects that it's the native that kills the villain at the end of the movie, and that it's really nature that saves the day, rather than a human.
Also, one wonders what would have happened if a black actor had morphed into a native in the movie. I can already picture the blogs complaining about how an African-American actor was being portrayed as something subhuman and quasi-animal. It's impossible to win with some crowds.
Unfortunately there will never be a lack of intelligent, enterprising people willing to apply their brain power to twisting plots/story lines/substances of movies, (or other forms of entertainment), into fitting an agenda or propaganda line, regardless of the original intent. The ambiguities of most areas of society allow for the perversion of even the most benign of subject matter, and many are willing to oblige ... sadly.
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Visually stunning but I found the plot and character development woefully lacking. The dialogue was laughably bad and while "Dancing with Wolves" with aliens is an apt description, it discredits a fair superior film in the process. It was a spectacle in 3D and the art direction is to be lauded. The overall film was an overwhelming meh. B minus and thats generous.
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I loved it. Thoroughly entertained, and extremely impressed with how real and incredible it was.
To give anyone that hasn't seen it a real sense of how amazing the world Cameron created is.... there are literally dozens of people out there that are experiencing extreme depression and even thoughts of suicide because of how beautiful Pandora (the alien world) is and knowing they can never live there.
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I loved it. Thoroughly entertained, and extremely impressed with how real and incredible it was.
To give anyone that hasn't seen it a real sense of how amazing the world Cameron created is.... there are literally dozens of people out there that are experiencing extreme depression and even thoughts of suicide because of how beautiful Pandora (the alien world) is and knowing they can never live there.
Hey, Big Ticket!! I've missed you, man! This is the first time I've seen your avatar for a long, long time! I truly hope you're back with us on a regular basis ... miss your input and unique viewpoint. Hope all is well with you and yours ... and here's a TP, just cuz it's so good to see you. ;)
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I loved it. Thoroughly entertained, and extremely impressed with how real and incredible it was.
To give anyone that hasn't seen it a real sense of how amazing the world Cameron created is.... there are literally dozens of people out there that are experiencing extreme depression and even thoughts of suicide because of how beautiful Pandora (the alien world) is and knowing they can never live there.
Hey, Big Ticket!! I've missed you, man! This is the first time I've seen your avatar for a long, long time! I truly hope you're back with us on a regular basis ... miss your input and unique viewpoint. Hope all is well with you and yours ... and here's a TP, just cuz it's so good to see you. ;)
Hey there... did I ever get back to that message you sent me in October? I though I did but my outbox is empty.
I'll try to be around off and on. Unfortunately I don't have too much real insight to add these days, no time for watching basketball as much as I'd like to.
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I loved it. Thoroughly entertained, and extremely impressed with how real and incredible it was.
To give anyone that hasn't seen it a real sense of how amazing the world Cameron created is.... there are literally dozens of people out there that are experiencing extreme depression and even thoughts of suicide because of how beautiful Pandora (the alien world) is and knowing they can never live there.
Hey, Big Ticket!! I've missed you, man! This is the first time I've seen your avatar for a long, long time! I truly hope you're back with us on a regular basis ... miss your input and unique viewpoint. Hope all is well with you and yours ... and here's a TP, just cuz it's so good to see you. ;)
Hey there... did I ever get back to that message you sent me in October? I though I did but my outbox is empty.
I'll try to be around off and on. Unfortunately I don't have too much real insight to add these days, no time for watching basketball as much as I'd like to.
Sorry to hear that you don't get to watch many hoops ... I was in the Philippines last year, and had similar pangs of withdrawal. But I assume that means you're busy, and that often is for a greater purpose ... I hope it is such, and I hope things are good for you. Yes, I PM'd you when I got back this fall and you replied, that was the last I saw you until today ... a very pleasant surprise, my friend. ;)
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I loved it. Thoroughly entertained, and extremely impressed with how real and incredible it was.
To give anyone that hasn't seen it a real sense of how amazing the world Cameron created is.... there are literally dozens of people out there that are experiencing extreme depression and even thoughts of suicide because of how beautiful Pandora (the alien world) is and knowing they can never live there.
Hey, Big Ticket!! I've missed you, man! This is the first time I've seen your avatar for a long, long time! I truly hope you're back with us on a regular basis ... miss your input and unique viewpoint. Hope all is well with you and yours ... and here's a TP, just cuz it's so good to see you. ;)
Hey there... did I ever get back to that message you sent me in October? I though I did but my outbox is empty.
I'll try to be around off and on. Unfortunately I don't have too much real insight to add these days, no time for watching basketball as much as I'd like to.
Sorry to hear that you don't get to watch many hoops ... I was in the Philippines last year, and had similar pangs of withdrawal. But I assume that means you're busy, and that often is for a greater purpose ... I hope it is such, and I hope things are good for you. Yes, I PM'd you when I got back this fall and you replied, that was the last I saw you until today ... a very pleasant surprise, my friend. ;)
Thanks man.... busy, and just not so much online foruming these days. At least not as much about bball. Been a pretty rough new year and end to 2009 so hopefully the good people at CB can cheer me up :) .
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I loved it. Thoroughly entertained, and extremely impressed with how real and incredible it was.
To give anyone that hasn't seen it a real sense of how amazing the world Cameron created is.... there are literally dozens of people out there that are experiencing extreme depression and even thoughts of suicide because of how beautiful Pandora (the alien world) is and knowing they can never live there.
Hey, Big Ticket!! I've missed you, man! This is the first time I've seen your avatar for a long, long time! I truly hope you're back with us on a regular basis ... miss your input and unique viewpoint. Hope all is well with you and yours ... and here's a TP, just cuz it's so good to see you. ;)
Hey there... did I ever get back to that message you sent me in October? I though I did but my outbox is empty.
I'll try to be around off and on. Unfortunately I don't have too much real insight to add these days, no time for watching basketball as much as I'd like to.
Sorry to hear that you don't get to watch many hoops ... I was in the Philippines last year, and had similar pangs of withdrawal. But I assume that means you're busy, and that often is for a greater purpose ... I hope it is such, and I hope things are good for you. Yes, I PM'd you when I got back this fall and you replied, that was the last I saw you until today ... a very pleasant surprise, my friend. ;)
Thanks man.... busy, and just not so much online foruming these days. At least not as much about bball. Been a pretty rough new year and end to 2009 so hopefully the good people at CB can cheer me up :) .
We'll do our best, Bra ... more TP's if you keep coming back. ;)
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Kind of makes Catholicism seem like an insecure girlfriend there.
"Yeah I guess the bartender is hot if you're into that kind of girl."
HA! Good one.
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Some stories are just too odd to be made up
http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.ap.org/vatican-says-avatar-no-masterpiece-ap
I wonder if the Vatican will be taking on New Moon and Harry Potter next.
And I always kind of wonder who this person "The Vatican" is. The Pope. I know who that is. I don't know who "The Vatican" is.
It would be like if you read "New York says that Avatar is bad". Or "The District of Columbia says...."
The Vatican didn't have great things to say about Harry Potter, either, at least in years past.
I thought the odder story was the various authors and blogs complaining that Avatar is based on racist themes, of a white man "saving" natives. Of course, that neglects that it's the native that kills the villain at the end of the movie, and that it's really nature that saves the day, rather than a human.
Also, one wonders what would have happened if a black actor had morphed into a native in the movie. I can already picture the blogs complaining about how an African-American actor was being portrayed as something subhuman and quasi-animal. It's impossible to win with some crowds.
For the record I'm Catholic as all heck, but this just struck me funny and you're absolutely right...sometimes you just can't win.
I sorta had this Family Guyesque vision of the Pope and a cardinal doing the Siskel and Ebert thing with an accent saying "Iiiii did nuht a like eett.. I give it 2 holy thumbs down."
and the Cardinal saying "I didn't like it either. It was kinda preachy. I give it three crosses down and an unhappy chalice face!"
The Vatican ought to stop acting Holier than Thou.
(I really wanted to say that. I plaigerized it from a college roommate that wondered aloud if the cardinals ever say that about the Pope privately.)
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Funny thing today. Mrs. eja was like "Did you hear the Vatican really doesn't like Avatar" and I said yeah.
Then she says "Now I want to see it."
I guess if I tell her it's also been accused of being racist she'll circle a date on the calendar
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Also, one wonders what would have happened if a black actor had morphed into a native in the movie. I can already picture the blogs complaining about how an African-American actor was being portrayed as something subhuman and quasi-animal. It's impossible to win with some crowds.
I don't know - all the major alien characters were just CGI-skinned black or Native American actors, and I haven't heard anyone complaining about that.
I really liked the movie, but anything this successful always gets overanalyzed to death. I did think it was funny that the plot can be summarized as "white guy joins the tribe, in 3 months learns to do everything better than them, their hottest, highest-status female falls in love with him, and then he becomes their leader and teaches them to stand up for themselves. Oh and he quasi-rapes two pterodactyls along the way." But you really have to stretch to get offended by something like that.
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Also, one wonders what would have happened if a black actor had morphed into a native in the movie. I can already picture the blogs complaining about how an African-American actor was being portrayed as something subhuman and quasi-animal. It's impossible to win with some crowds.
I don't know - all the major alien characters were just CGI-skinned black or Native American actors, and I haven't heard anyone complaining about that.
I really liked the movie, but anything this successful always gets overanalyzed to death. I did think it was funny that the plot can be summarized as "white guy joins the tribe, in 3 months learns to do everything better than them, their hottest, highest-status female falls in love with him, and then he becomes their leader and teaches them to stand up for themselves. Oh and he quasi-rapes two pterodactyls along the way." But you really have to stretch to get offended by something like that.
Well in that case I think we owe a huge apology to all the blue guys and girls on other planets out there, and to Little Big Man, Dances with Wolves, and The Last Samurai for plagiarism.
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Some stories are just too odd to be made up
http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.ap.org/vatican-says-avatar-no-masterpiece-ap
I wonder if the Vatican will be taking on New Moon and Harry Potter next.
And I always kind of wonder who this person "The Vatican" is. The Pope. I know who that is. I don't know who "The Vatican" is.
It would be like if you read "New York says that Avatar is bad". Or "The District of Columbia says...."
The Vatican didn't have great things to say about Harry Potter, either, at least in years past.
I thought the odder story was the various authors and blogs complaining that Avatar is based on racist themes, of a white man "saving" natives. Of course, that neglects that it's the native that kills the villain at the end of the movie, and that it's really nature that saves the day, rather than a human.
Also, one wonders what would have happened if a black actor had morphed into a native in the movie. I can already picture the blogs complaining about how an African-American actor was being portrayed as something subhuman and quasi-animal. It's impossible to win with some crowds.
Well as someone who I suppose could speak to that inference I know I didn't really take it to that place. Though I most certainly did catch some some socio-political tones in the movie which seemed like a metaphor for our Iraq War. The way some people felt we were really invading Iraq and taking it over was really for the oil was something I couldn't help but draw a comparison to.
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My wife and I drove 50 miles to see this in 3-D last weekend (sadly no theaters on Cape Cod are showing it in 3-D). We had been convinced that it would be worth the trip, and I have to say it was. I really liked the effects of the trees and plant life. I'm a big fan of gigantic trees anyhow...The floating dandelion puff type things were cool too.
It was strange how they went with some very cliche army macho characters. I guess they wanted to accentuate the juxtaposition of the two races.
All in all, well worth the trip.
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Also, one wonders what would have happened if a black actor had morphed into a native in the movie. I can already picture the blogs complaining about how an African-American actor was being portrayed as something subhuman and quasi-animal. It's impossible to win with some crowds.
I don't know - all the major alien characters were just CGI-skinned black or Native American actors, and I haven't heard anyone complaining about that.
I really liked the movie, but anything this successful always gets overanalyzed to death. I did think it was funny that the plot can be summarized as "white guy joins the tribe, in 3 months learns to do everything better than them, their hottest, highest-status female falls in love with him, and then he becomes their leader and teaches them to stand up for themselves. Oh and he quasi-rapes two pterodactyls along the way." But you really have to stretch to get offended by something like that.
Well in that case I think we owe a huge apology to all the blue guys and girls on other planets out there, and to Little Big Man, Dances with Wolves, and The Last Samurai for plagiarism.
I just saw The Book of Eli and in the movie, Denzel Washington (a black actor) was killing a bunch of white guys in order to protect society. Is that racist?
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My wife and I drove 50 miles to see this in 3-D last weekend (sadly no theaters on Cape Cod are showing it in 3-D). We had been convinced that it would be worth the trip, and I have to say it was. I really liked the effects of the trees and plant life. I'm a big fan of gigantic trees anyhow...The floating dandelion puff type things were cool too.
It was strange how they went with some very cliche army macho characters. I guess they wanted to accentuate the juxtaposition of the two races.
All in all, well worth the trip.
Finally saw it myself last night. Did the 3D experience in a regular theater here in downtown Chitown.
I was blown away by the visual effects and the technological achievements this film made. Seeing it in 3D is a must in my opinion.
The story wasn't terribly original and pretty predictable but still very entertaining. I thought Stephen Lang did a great job playing the evil Colonel. I think Cameron really scored with capturing and presenting the scenery of Pandora. Seeing things floating around in 3D and jumping out at you is pretty cool. Also liked Sigourney Weaver's character. She really does an excellent job of capturing strong women as an actress. Kinda underrated these days because we don't really see her too much.
I'd probably give it A-/B+ territory. You HAVE to see it in 3D, though.
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My wife and I drove 50 miles to see this in 3-D last weekend (sadly no theaters on Cape Cod are showing it in 3-D). We had been convinced that it would be worth the trip, and I have to say it was. I really liked the effects of the trees and plant life. I'm a big fan of gigantic trees anyhow...The floating dandelion puff type things were cool too.
It was strange how they went with some very cliche army macho characters. I guess they wanted to accentuate the juxtaposition of the two races.
All in all, well worth the trip.
Finally saw it myself last night. Did the 3D experience in a regular theater here in downtown Chitown.
I was blown away by the visual effects and the technological achievements this film made. Seeing it in 3D is a must in my opinion.
The story wasn't terribly original and pretty predictable but still very entertaining. I thought Stephen Lang did a great job playing the evil Colonel. I think Cameron really scored with capturing and presenting the scenery of Pandora. Seeing things floating around in 3D and jumping out at you is pretty cool. Also liked Sigourney Weaver's character. She really does an excellent job of capturing strong women as an actress. Kinda underrated these days because we don't really see her too much.
I'd probably give it A-/B+ territory. You HAVE to see it in 3D, though.
Mind you I haven't see a whole lot of 3D movies, but the stuff I found especially fascinating was when some of the scenery (usually a plant) would sort of wrap around the action. That seemed pretty original to me. The fallout after the big tree explosion definitely felt like it was dropping down on the theater seats too.
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My wife and I drove 50 miles to see this in 3-D last weekend (sadly no theaters on Cape Cod are showing it in 3-D). We had been convinced that it would be worth the trip, and I have to say it was. I really liked the effects of the trees and plant life. I'm a big fan of gigantic trees anyhow...The floating dandelion puff type things were cool too.
It was strange how they went with some very cliche army macho characters. I guess they wanted to accentuate the juxtaposition of the two races.
All in all, well worth the trip.
Finally saw it myself last night. Did the 3D experience in a regular theater here in downtown Chitown.
I was blown away by the visual effects and the technological achievements this film made. Seeing it in 3D is a must in my opinion.
The story wasn't terribly original and pretty predictable but still very entertaining. I thought Stephen Lang did a great job playing the evil Colonel. I think Cameron really scored with capturing and presenting the scenery of Pandora. Seeing things floating around in 3D and jumping out at you is pretty cool. Also liked Sigourney Weaver's character. She really does an excellent job of capturing strong women as an actress. Kinda underrated these days because we don't really see her too much.
I'd probably give it A-/B+ territory. You HAVE to see it in 3D, though.
Mind you I haven't see a whole lot of 3D movies, but the stuff I found especially fascinating was when some of the scenery (usually a plant) would sort of wrap around the action. That seemed pretty original to me. The fallout after the big tree explosion definitely felt like it was dropping down on the theater seats too.
I think it was the last movie I've seen in 3D since Captain Eo at Epcot back in the late 80s.
Its definitely made big time advances. (As it should in 20+ years)
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I live in a slightly rural area and FINALLY saw this last night.
I can't say how bad I thought it was. Just absurd. Most overhyped fall short type movie since Waterworld, which I kinda liked better. And the special effects were just not that special.
Granted I didn't get to see it in 3D, but maybe that's good.
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I live in a slightly rural area and FINALLY saw this last night.
I can't say how bad I thought it was. Just absurd. Most overhyped fall short type movie since Waterworld, which I kinda liked better. And the special effects were just not that special.
Granted I didn't get to see it in 3D, but maybe that's good.
I haven't seen it yet (yes, that is actually true) but you are the first person I've heard of that didn't like (or even love) it.
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I live in a slightly rural area and FINALLY saw this last night.
I can't say how bad I thought it was. Just absurd. Most overhyped fall short type movie since Waterworld, which I kinda liked better. And the special effects were just not that special.
Granted I didn't get to see it in 3D, but maybe that's good.
I can understand someone complaining about the lack of originality of the story, bit to complain about the visuals seams out of left field. What exactly was bad about them?
And seeing that you have a star wars prequel avatar, do you think the star wars prequels were better films than avatar?
Also I need to ask, did you go into the theater looking to hate the movie, or did you go in with an open mind?
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I live in a slightly rural area and FINALLY saw this last night.
I can't say how bad I thought it was. Just absurd. Most overhyped fall short type movie since Waterworld, which I kinda liked better. And the special effects were just not that special.
Granted I didn't get to see it in 3D, but maybe that's good.
I haven't seen it yet (yes, that is actually true) but you are the first person I've heard of that didn't like (or even love) it.
I've heard a lot of people say they were underwhelmed by the movie, and really, it's a lesser Dances with Wolves with fancy visuals. I'd put it in the "good but not great" category, but I can see where some might be even more let down than that.
Eja is probably the first person I've heard who wasn't impressed with the visuals, though. I imagine part of that is a factor of hype, though.
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I live in a slightly rural area and FINALLY saw this last night.
I can't say how bad I thought it was. Just absurd. Most overhyped fall short type movie since Waterworld, which I kinda liked better. And the special effects were just not that special.
Granted I didn't get to see it in 3D, but maybe that's good.
I can understand someone complaining about the lack of originality of the story, bit to complain about the visuals seams out of left field. What exactly was bad about them?
And seeing that you have a star wars prequel avatar, do you think the star wars prequels were better films than avatar?
Also I need to ask, did you go into the theater looking to hate the movie, or did you go in with an open mind?
Let me explain. First I went in expecting to loooovvvveee the movie, which may be part of the problem. I heard stuff like "Will change movies forever".
The visuals were good. Very good. I was just expecting visuals I had never seen, and I just can't say that I think that the cgi was that much better than say the dinos of Jurassic Park, or the clones, droids, space battles, Yoda, etc of Star Wars, or the Matrix stuff, and that was years ago. I'd say it might be a toe step forward, but not much more than that.
I definitely thought all Star Wars was much better.
But let me go into some depth
SPOILER ALERT.
It's a sci fi film, so I will try to get by the interstellar travel 154 years from now. I'll allow for the 5 years of cryogenic hybernation. I'll even go so far as to allow for combining dna from humans and aliens successfully, even though currently scientists find it more likely to combine dna from a human and a cucumber, but now we're pushing it. I'll even allow for the avatar technology. I'll even go so along with the huge brain of a planet that's interconnected.
However I'm a little tired of these disguised no war for oil films where the evil military is evil just cause it's evil, and in 154 years we will be even less culturally and sentient rights sensitive than we are now.
I won't go along with a people essentially in the stone age successfully fighting modern weaponry 154 years in the future. Not only are they stone age...they're pre-agricultural, yet we have nothing that they could want. Oh gee. Let's see. We have traveled to your planet, can recreate things that look like you in a pod, have weapons way way stronger than yours, but we can't possibly have anything they want.
I also don't buy this whole "Oh we have sooo much to learn from nature" BS that Hollywood finds sacred or something.
Also it didn't help that they took a plot I've seen at least three times now and stretched it into something like 3 hours, or at least it seemed that way.
I was just expecting to see something original and good, and didn't get either. I don't want my money back or anything. I just reject the premise of the film in a big way. If I can't buy into a film I don't usually like it.
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I live in a slightly rural area and FINALLY saw this last night.
I can't say how bad I thought it was. Just absurd. Most overhyped fall short type movie since Waterworld, which I kinda liked better. And the special effects were just not that special.
Granted I didn't get to see it in 3D, but maybe that's good.
I can understand someone complaining about the lack of originality of the story, bit to complain about the visuals seams out of left field. What exactly was bad about them?
And seeing that you have a star wars prequel avatar, do you think the star wars prequels were better films than avatar?
Also I need to ask, did you go into the theater looking to hate the movie, or did you go in with an open mind?
Let me explain. First I went in expecting to loooovvvveee the movie, which may be part of the problem. I heard stuff like "Will change movies forever".
The visuals were good. Very good. I was just expecting visuals I had never seen, and I just can't say that I think that the cgi was that much better than say the dinos of Jurassic Park, or the clones, droids, space battles, Yoda, etc of Star Wars, or the Matrix stuff, and that was years ago. I'd say it might be a toe step forward, but not much more than that.
I definitely thought all Star Wars was much better.
But let me go into some depth
SPOILER ALERT.
It's a sci fi film, so I will try to get by the interstellar travel 154 years from now. I'll allow for the 5 years of cryogenic hybernation. I'll even go so far as to allow for combining dna from humans and aliens successfully, even though currently scientists find it more likely to combine dna from a human and a cucumber, but now we're pushing it. I'll even allow for the avatar technology. I'll even go so along with the huge brain of a planet that's interconnected.
However I'm a little tired of these disguised no war for oil films where the evil military is evil just cause it's evil, and in 154 years we will be even less culturally and sentient rights sensitive than we are now.
I won't go along with a people essentially in the stone age successfully fighting modern weaponry 154 years in the future. Not only are they stone age...they're pre-agricultural, yet we have nothing that they could want. Oh gee. Let's see. We have traveled to your planet, can recreate things that look like you in a pod, have weapons way way stronger than yours, but we can't possibly have anything they want.
I also don't buy this whole "Oh we have sooo much to learn from nature" BS that Hollywood finds sacred or something.
Also it didn't help that they took a plot I've seen at least three times now and stretched it into something like 3 hours, or at least it seemed that way.
I was just expecting to see something original and good, and didn't get either. I don't want my money back or anything. I just reject the premise of the film in a big way. If I can't buy into a film I don't usually like it.
I guess I could see how it would be hard to enjoy this movie with those perspectives.
On the effects issue alone though, I'd say it's hard to properly judge this film w/o seeing it in 3D.
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One thing I don't understand about 3D is whether you can just take any movie and make it 3D or if AVATAR did something fundamentally different with the 3D. If so then I guess I'm totally wrong there
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One thing I don't understand about 3D is whether you can just take any movie and make it 3D or if AVATAR did something fundamentally different with the 3D. If so then I guess I'm totally wrong there
I haven't seen a ton of them, but there definitely was a much more "natural" feel to, and a greater depth of the effects.
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Still need to see it.
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There have been three seminal sci fi movies that changed the genre forever:
2001: A Space Odyssey
Star Wars
Avatar
After Avatar it is not possible to go back to space opera, even good space opera. What makes Avatar special is the beautifully imagined and depicted ecology of Pandora and anthropology of the Na'vi.
On top of that it is simply a good yarn with good acting. Sure, some of it was derivative. Signourney Weaver is Ripley in a different setting, and Giovanni Ribisi's corporate villain is reminiscent of Peter Boyle in Outland, right down to the golf scene.
But I can probably analyze Western ever made by saying that some portion of it was lifted from William S. Hart. Ingmar Bergman even stole the final scene in the Seventh Seal from William S. Hart. Kurosawa's Ran was stolen from Shalespeare's King Lear. That doesn't make the Ran or the Seventh Seal bad movies. In fact, they are two of the greatest ever made.
If I were Warren Buffet I would offer to finance Cameron for two projects: films of C.J. Cherryh's Serpent's Reach and the Faded Sun Trilogy.
Incidentally, the concept of powered "gates" to travel between planets in the various Stargate movies and TV shows was probably taken from Cherryh's Morgaine tetrology, although the current Stargate space operas do not attempt to deal with the issue of time dilation, as Cherryh does.
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Magnificent
Spectacular
Cliched
Downright stupid juvenile dialogue -- all too often
all that money and time and he can't come up with something better for an alien world than mimicking native american culture--what an idiot.
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Was it any more cliched than Star Wars, with robots taken straight out of Forbidden Planet, released 25 years earlier? Or how about Serenity, which stole from just about everywhere? It was still a [dang] good movie.
It's the nature of the sci fi genre. For starters, if you want to make money, you have to appeal to the young preteen to teen demographic. They are the ones that will buy the video game-- and make no mistake, there will be several.
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Love, loved, loving this movie. Young people went crazy for it. Graphics were incredible. It was worth paying more for the IMAX picture. The good vs. evil is always good to watch.
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There have been three seminal sci fi movies that changed the genre forever:
2001: A Space Odyssey
Star Wars
Avatar
After Avatar it is not possible to go back to space opera, even good space opera. What makes Avatar special is the beautifully imagined and depicted ecology of Pandora and anthropology of the Na'vi.
On top of that it is simply a good yarn with good acting. Sure, some of it was derivative. Signourney Weaver is Ripley in a different setting, and Giovanni Ribisi's corporate villain is reminiscent of Peter Boyle in Outland, right down to the golf scene.
But I can probably analyze Western ever made by saying that some portion of it was lifted from William S. Hart. Ingmar Bergman even stole the final scene in the Seventh Seal from William S. Hart. Kurosawa's Ran was stolen from Shalespeare's King Lear. That doesn't make the Ran or the Seventh Seal bad movies. In fact, they are two of the greatest ever made.
If I were Warren Buffet I would offer to finance Cameron for two projects: films of C.J. Cherryh's Serpent's Reach and the Faded Sun Trilogy.
Incidentally, the concept of powered "gates" to travel between planets in the various Stargate movies and TV shows was probably taken from Cherryh's Morgaine tetrology, although the current Stargate space operas do not attempt to deal with the issue of time dilation, as Cherryh does.
TP, Brick. Add Jurassic Park to that list, and you pretty much have the foursome films of visual effects break-throughs.
Each movie used technology that had been pioneered by other films, it is just that they did it on a level unmatched. In the case of Avatar, you've got a fully realized immersive environment, and a new level of detail using motion capture that hadn't been achieved before.
The mocap work on Gollum now looks silly next to Avatar. (The LOTR films themselves are just as good, if not better - i'm purely speaking about the visual effects.)
Heck if you want to expand the list, Metropolis, King Kong and Forbidden Planet significantly raised the bar in their respective eras.
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Was it any more cliched than Star Wars, with robots taken straight out of Forbidden Planet, released 25 years earlier? Or how about Serenity, which stole from just about everywhere? It was still a [dang] good movie.
It's the nature of the sci fi genre. For starters, if you want to make money, you have to appeal to the young preteen to teen demographic. They are the ones that will buy the video game-- and make no mistake, there will be several.
Sorry Brick, Star Wars isn't a good example for me--I believe the only reason the earlier movies work is the actors saw them as tongue in cheek, camp. The later movies where the actors took George Lucas seriously are boring--at times non-sense.
For me the Lord of the Rings was great movie making --great story telling, great acting--probably fantasy not sci-fi in your interpretation?
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I'm finding some comments here very fun to read. Some of the enthusiasm is infectious.
Brick...would you say the new Star Trek series will have to raise the bar or something now? I guess I consider that space opera, whereas I'd have said Avatar is adventure/action film.
I thought everything in Lord of the Rings looked awesome.
The last sci-fi thing I remember watching that I thought looked awful was when Lucas reinserted a horridly drawn Jabba the Hut into an old cut scene and Han walked on his tail. Who the hell walks on Jabba's tail?
I love scifi. There are very few sci-fi films I disliked. Events Horizon and the Sphere come to mind.
I also think when you do scifi the science needs to be at least slightly responsible. If it's amazing science we have very little way of understanding then it needs to be either really far in the future or somewhere really far away not involving us. I thought Avatar was a little over the line. Also if the environment is toxic is it a good idea to use flame throwers? Are there toxic gases that aren't flammable? I interpreted it as methane, but wiki says it was just "toxic". To me that's a little like leaving on the wrist watch in a middle ages film.
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Also sometimes I think a sci fi advance can be made too much of. The movie still has to be good and the special effects differences have to be noticeable to try to get credit for that.
I guess Birth of a Nation had the first live horses. But somebody was going to do that at some point. It doesn't matter a lot to me that they just happened to be the ones that did it.
Avatar looked like what I expected. I didn't see the upgrade over Clone Wars.
Also I remember now I didn't like 2001 Space Odyssey except as a potential sleeping aid
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Hmm... The plot of the movie seems somehow familiar...
(http://www.saltypopcorn.com/images/avatar-pocahontas1.jpg)
When I saw Avatar 3D I didn't realize this until I saw this picture.
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WETA Digital in NZ did the computer animation for both Lord of the Rings and Avatar.
I suppose Lord of the Rings falls into the "Sci Fi/Fantasy" genre, but if you start to include fantasy the classification becomes unmanageable. You would have to include every movie involving dragons, movies like Jason and the Argonauts, Conan the Barbarian, The Golden Compass, Grindhouse, Jumanji and even The Polar Express. I don't view any of those films as real "Science Fiction."
As for Star Wars, I thought the series declined significantly after The Empire Strikes Back.
For me, "Science Fiction" involves the following elements: science (or at least pseudo science), space travel and alien species.
I think you also have to distinguish all of the movies based on a "post apocalyptic" future as a "sub genre" of science fiction. I'm talking about movies like Mad Max (and its progeny) the Terminator (and its progeny), Logan's Run, This Quiet Earth (nice little speeper), all of the Planet of the Apes flicks, Waterworld, the Postman, The Book of Eli, Children of Men, etc.
Then there is the "monster movie" sub genre: The Thing, Them, Predator, King Kong, and the Jurassic Park series.
My list of very good (but not seminal) Sci fi flicks would include Forbidden Planet, The Day the Earth Stood Still (the original with Michael Rennie), Blade Runner (directors' cut), Alien, E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Silent Running, Pitch Black, The Wrath of Khan, Outland, Event Horizon, Serenity, The Abyss, The Matrix (only the first one)Supernova and Stargate (the movie). I guess I would also include the following TV series: the original Star Trek, Firefly, Babylon 5 and the new Battlestar Gallactica.
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Brick--as my original post Avatar = magnificent & spectacular--but simply weak dialogue and story telling, why not hire a writer to go along with the movie making skill --cameron's ego wouldn't permit it and the storytelling aspect of Avatar is just not up to the rest of the movie--IMO.
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Hey Brick, while we're at it I think the Harry Potter movies are good.
In the end a sci fi film is the same as a lot of other films. Come on up close to the fire and let me tell you a story you've never heard before.
Only Avatar I keep hearing again and again.
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I live in a slightly rural area and FINALLY saw this last night.
I can't say how bad I thought it was. Just absurd. Most overhyped fall short type movie since Waterworld, which I kinda liked better. And the special effects were just not that special.
Granted I didn't get to see it in 3D, but maybe that's good.
I can understand someone complaining about the lack of originality of the story, bit to complain about the visuals seams out of left field. What exactly was bad about them?
And seeing that you have a star wars prequel avatar, do you think the star wars prequels were better films than avatar?
Also I need to ask, did you go into the theater looking to hate the movie, or did you go in with an open mind?
Let me explain. First I went in expecting to loooovvvveee the movie, which may be part of the problem. I heard stuff like "Will change movies forever".
The visuals were good. Very good. I was just expecting visuals I had never seen, and I just can't say that I think that the cgi was that much better than say the dinos of Jurassic Park, or the clones, droids, space battles, Yoda, etc of Star Wars, or the Matrix stuff, and that was years ago. I'd say it might be a toe step forward, but not much more than that.
I definitely thought all Star Wars was much better.
But let me go into some depth
SPOILER ALERT.
It's a sci fi film, so I will try to get by the interstellar travel 154 years from now. I'll allow for the 5 years of cryogenic hybernation. I'll even go so far as to allow for combining dna from humans and aliens successfully, even though currently scientists find it more likely to combine dna from a human and a cucumber, but now we're pushing it. I'll even allow for the avatar technology. I'll even go so along with the huge brain of a planet that's interconnected.
However I'm a little tired of these disguised no war for oil films where the evil military is evil just cause it's evil, and in 154 years we will be even less culturally and sentient rights sensitive than we are now.
I won't go along with a people essentially in the stone age successfully fighting modern weaponry 154 years in the future. Not only are they stone age...they're pre-agricultural, yet we have nothing that they could want. Oh gee. Let's see. We have traveled to your planet, can recreate things that look like you in a pod, have weapons way way stronger than yours, but we can't possibly have anything they want.
I also don't buy this whole "Oh we have sooo much to learn from nature" BS that Hollywood finds sacred or something.
Also it didn't help that they took a plot I've seen at least three times now and stretched it into something like 3 hours, or at least it seemed that way.
I was just expecting to see something original and good, and didn't get either. I don't want my money back or anything. I just reject the premise of the film in a big way. If I can't buy into a film I don't usually like it.
Eja117: When you go see a sci-fi movie, you need to let go of reality and probabilities for the future. Relax and enjoy the ride. It’s fantasy. Not everything has to align with what you know and expect. Seems like you let this ruin a great movie for you.
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I live in a slightly rural area and FINALLY saw this last night.
I can't say how bad I thought it was. Just absurd. Most overhyped fall short type movie since Waterworld, which I kinda liked better. And the special effects were just not that special.
Granted I didn't get to see it in 3D, but maybe that's good.
I can understand someone complaining about the lack of originality of the story, bit to complain about the visuals seams out of left field. What exactly was bad about them?
And seeing that you have a star wars prequel avatar, do you think the star wars prequels were better films than avatar?
Also I need to ask, did you go into the theater looking to hate the movie, or did you go in with an open mind?
Let me explain. First I went in expecting to loooovvvveee the movie, which may be part of the problem. I heard stuff like "Will change movies forever".
The visuals were good. Very good. I was just expecting visuals I had never seen, and I just can't say that I think that the cgi was that much better than say the dinos of Jurassic Park, or the clones, droids, space battles, Yoda, etc of Star Wars, or the Matrix stuff, and that was years ago. I'd say it might be a toe step forward, but not much more than that.
I definitely thought all Star Wars was much better.
But let me go into some depth
SPOILER ALERT.
It's a sci fi film, so I will try to get by the interstellar travel 154 years from now. I'll allow for the 5 years of cryogenic hybernation. I'll even go so far as to allow for combining dna from humans and aliens successfully, even though currently scientists find it more likely to combine dna from a human and a cucumber, but now we're pushing it. I'll even allow for the avatar technology. I'll even go so along with the huge brain of a planet that's interconnected.
However I'm a little tired of these disguised no war for oil films where the evil military is evil just cause it's evil, and in 154 years we will be even less culturally and sentient rights sensitive than we are now.
I won't go along with a people essentially in the stone age successfully fighting modern weaponry 154 years in the future. Not only are they stone age...they're pre-agricultural, yet we have nothing that they could want. Oh gee. Let's see. We have traveled to your planet, can recreate things that look like you in a pod, have weapons way way stronger than yours, but we can't possibly have anything they want.
I also don't buy this whole "Oh we have sooo much to learn from nature" BS that Hollywood finds sacred or something.
Also it didn't help that they took a plot I've seen at least three times now and stretched it into something like 3 hours, or at least it seemed that way.
I was just expecting to see something original and good, and didn't get either. I don't want my money back or anything. I just reject the premise of the film in a big way. If I can't buy into a film I don't usually like it.
Eja117: When you go see a sci-fi movie, you need to let go of reality and probabilities for the future. Relax and enjoy the ride. It’s fantasy. Not everything has to align with what you know and expect. Seems like you let this ruin a great movie for you.
I view it the opposite way. Good sci-fi is about setting up an alternate reality and then see what follows. What follows should all be reasonable based on premised made clear early on and there should be no Deux ex machina.
Nevertheless, if you didn't see Avatar in 3D, then what is the point? The story is pretty dumb. It is all special effects. I liked it because I saw it in imax. If I saw that on DVD or in a normal theater, I would say it was crap.
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Hey Brick, while we're at it I think the Harry Potter movies are good.
In the end a sci fi film is the same as a lot of other films. Come on up close to the fire and let me tell you a story you've never heard before.
Only Avatar I keep hearing again and again.
I only saw 2 of the harry potter movies, including the first one. The first one had one of the worst endings I have ever seen in a movie with so much hype. He just touched the bad guy and the bad guy died. What the heck is that nonsense?
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James Cameron flexing his muscles...
The arguement between Mr. October and Eja are both correct in my opinion: Was it overhyped? yes. Was the story/plot contrived to a degree? yes. Were some parts over the top? yes. However i'd still describe watching Avatar in 3D as a "fun" experience. I enjoyed the hell out of the movie despite the shortcomings.
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Here's a trailer for the sequel:
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1931118
It looks awesome.
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i finally saw avatar the other day. i really liked it and will be looking forward to the sequel!
on a side note, i couldnt help thinking they were on the planet felucia. ;D