Just got back from seeing Avatar

[megoscott]

Lol!

For starters, I liked Crystal Skull, Iron Man, Ghost Rider, the first Pirates of the Caribbean and Star Trek. I'm also still holding out hope for The Wolf Man even though hollywood's recent vampire re-imaginings have been poor, in my opinion.

I have my reasons for disliking Avatar.

[Edit]

I also think the new A-TEAM movie looks fun.

Well, then I wish you'd see it, then you could school us on why it sucked. I'd be interested to hear your review. I haven't heard from anyone who wasn't impressed.

[Werewolf]

Well, then I wish you'd see it, then you could school us on why it sucked. I'd be interested to hear your review. I haven't heard from anyone who wasn't impressed.

I have no interest in seeing Avatar when Dances with Wolves already did the story and did it better.

Finally, In Dances with Wolves, all the Native characters were portrayed by Native actors instead white actors painted red and speaking in broken English. After decades of some really ugly portrayals of Native people by Hollywood, Native people were finally humanized. They weren't primative inhuman animals anymore.

This humanization is lost in Avatar when the Navi designs amount to twisted wank fodder for furries. There's also the "white messiah" syndome. No, I didn't coin that phrase. It's a term that is used to describe the long standing Hollywood tradition of having/needing a white savior come to Native people because they are unable to do it themselves.

I'm not trying to ruin it for people. To each their own. But I have personally zero interest in seeing it.

[Hector]

I have no interest in seeing Avatar when Dances with Wolves already did the story and did it better.

But that's what Scott is saying...how do you know it's better...if you have NOT seen it...

[TrueDave]

How do you direct a cartoon?

I thought it was too graphic on the violence. Its the best CGI I have e ever seen but none of those characters "acting" compares to a Ferengi or Louis Gosset Jr from Enemy mine.

The only really bad spot I saw on the animation was when the cockpit came off the Army Mech Suit in the final showdown.

I think we are seeing the end of live action films.

I have heard about a Hong Kong company making a new Bruce Lee movie that is a computer study of his movements. And I heard Graceland stopped a company from making new Elvis songs using a program they developed that studied everything he ever recorded.

Has anyone else ever seen the movie "Looker?"

[4NDR01D]

I'm also a avid video game player and less impressed by computer graphics than a lot of people seem to be. So the wow pretty graphics is lost on me and just looks like any other video game to me..

Um, sorry, but.... no. I too am an avid gamer, but if you think UT3, CODMW2, Crysis, GoW2 or any other recent (and very cool looking) games even come close to looking as good as Avatar, well you're only lying to yourself.

Other than that, I respect your opinion to not watch it based on whatever your beliefs are. but don't kid yourself, this movie is unlike anything you've seen yet.

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

I haven’t really wanted to see this either; mostly ‘cos every review I’ve read is the same: “the story’s derivative, the characters are minimal... BUT IT LOOKS GREAT!” That doesn’t thrill me. Effects are nice, but I prefer ideas. I want the strange characters, and the plot twists, and surprises.... THAT’S the sort of thing I find entertaining.

But if that’s you thing; more power to you. I just find it weird that folks can’t seem to understand that there are some of us that look for something different from our stories.

>couple of years from now people will look back and see how truly average and derivative it is.

I think this is true; but for sort of different reasons. The technical side of things seems to be what impresses most folks, and in a few years EVERY film will look like this. So, to the then current audience this’ll seem old hat. I don’t think it’ll have lasting appeal beyond that ‘cos I don’t think it made a real emotional connection with the audience. You never hear folks refer to any of the characters by name, for instance. Nobody refers to any scene they find particularly exciting, or any moment they found sad or touching.

Think back to Star Wars. Nobody said “Harrison Ford’s character was very entertaining.” It was all “‘an when Han shot that green guy! ZAP!!!! And then they blew up the Death Star, an’ it was all.... KABOOOMMMMM!!!!!”

>How do you direct a cartoon?

Cartoons get more direction than live action since every aspect has to be controlled. CGI moreso; them strands of hair don’t move themselves....

>the movie didn't have much positive hype at all - everyone expected it to fail.

Well.... I saw a lot of reviews that WANTED to say the didn’t like it, but never quite got there. It seemed like they were afraid to say anything REALLY negative ‘cos they didn’t want to look stupid when it became a big hit. So you got the “it’s typical BUT LOOKS AWESOME!” thing a lot. Always felt like a compromise to me.

>I haven't heard from anyone who wasn't impressed.

I have a friend who hated it.


SPOILERS AHEAD:



He hated that the movie really didn’t have to happen. So.... the evil humans show up, thump the heck out of the one tribe of blue people, and start mining the unobtanium. Which was located in the one spot. Had the Na’vi just avoided that spot you wouldn’t have had the big fight scenes.


....and seriously....? WHY does everyone call the blue people sexy?

Don C.

[4NDR01D]

That doesn’t thrill me. Effects are nice, but I prefer ideas. I want the strange characters, and the plot twists, and surprises.... THAT’S the sort of thing I find entertaining.

But if that’s you thing; more power to you. I just find it weird that folks can’t seem to understand that there are some of us that look for something different from our stories.

I think most folks would agree, it's plot twists, surprises, character development, etc that truly makes a great movie. But, IMHO, if you watched 100 movies in the past year, and 99 of them you watched for the listed reasons, this is the 1 film to watch for the effects/visuals.
It's ok to make an exception once in a while, people acting like every film should be Citizen Kane is just pretentious.

>couple of years from now people will look back and see how truly average and derivative it is.

I think this is true; but for sort of different reasons. The technical side of things seems to be what impresses most folks, and in a few years EVERY film will look like this. So, to the then current audience this’ll seem old hat. I don’t think it’ll have lasting appeal beyond that ‘cos I don’t think it made a real emotional connection with the audience. You never hear folks refer to any of the characters by name, for instance. Nobody refers to any scene they find particularly exciting, or any moment they found sad or touching.


Don C.

Yeah, I agree with most of this. Now that it's been a couple of weeks since watching it, I don't really remember any particular scenes specifically. or characters names etc. But if this is the future of film making, what's not to be excited about? But, let's not kid ourselves, it's going to still be a long time before movies this good looking become the regular theater going experience.

[ctc]

>It's ok to make an exception once in a while

Well.... for me it's not an exception; it's a personal taste thing. I just don't get into the spectacle of a film. It's not what I like.

>But if this is the future of film making, what's not to be excited about?

I think it depends on what you like in a film. To me, it's more of the same so I don't get thrilled over it.

>it's going to still be a long time before movies this good looking become the regular theater going experience

I dunno.... CGI techniques are pretty easy to disseminate once you’ve got the template done. I think you’ll see a lot of this sort of thing used in video games first; where it’ll get perfected, and then filtered back to film. I’d bet within 5 years this will be the new standard. Hell; that’s what everybody’s been going on about. How this has “changed movies forever!!!”

Don C.

[Werewolf]

Saw this posted on RTM. It's pretty spot on how truly cut and paste the plot of Avatar is.

http://failblog.files.wordpress.com/...-plot-fail.jpg

[Goblin19]

The story is derivative, but it is still well told. It is possible to be both. There are literally thousands of boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy get girl back, but the good ones still know how to tell the story right (though most do suck).

[Hector]

Saw this posted on RTM. It's pretty spot on how truly cut and paste the plot of Avatar is.

http://failblog.files.wordpress.com/...-plot-fail.jpg

You might get a kick of this one too...lol...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9bsHAXwaEE

[JDeRouen]

Most movies have been done before. Star Wars was done before, many times. Sure, the setting changes, but hero boy against his evil father? It was done many times before, and many times after. So what? It was still a good, entertaining movie.

[Hector]

Agreed.

I was just trying to bring a smile to Werewolf...

[Werewolf]

I was just trying to bring a smile to Werewolf...

Thanks man. It's all good.

[jessica]

I really hate CGI but I loved this film. I just saw it this morning, on IMAX 3D (still sold out!), so luckily we got our tickets online. What a fabulous feast for the eyes. I want to see it again.