Can you dig it?
Well...no. But District 9 is better! It is!
Last edited by Dolemite; 27 Dec 2009 at 07:31 PM.
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The Darkest Soul
District 9 told a better story of human/alien relations/prejudice, on the fraction of Avatar's budget. No one says here that Avatar was a bad movie, it was decent. But overly hyped to the 10th degree, and if it DIDNT had the super 3D emersion tech it wouldnt be all that glamorous.
So, I saw Avatar tonight.
Not to bore you with details or anything, but FUCK yes. My problem was my eyes never fully adjusted and I kept getting motion sick. So, I was taking them off and then putting them on. SHOCKER! IT STILL LOOKED AWESOME!
Wah Wah Wah ... no story. Shockingly, neither did Transformers and Revenge of the Fallen. Wah Wah Wah ... 3D immersion = if done in 2d it would suck.
Here's that point. If you defend Transformers and RotF ... then you have no excuse NOT TO like Avatar. NONE. If you do and continue to say this drivel. Then please hand in your movie pass and never see a Blockbuster again or at the very least comment about story. Cause Bayformers and its sucky sequel had NO FUCKING STORY AND I Liked Both Transformers and Revenge. So, I overlooked the updated Dune/Dancing with Wolves mashup. I saw people I actually cared about and I saw visuals that were utterly amazing. The acting was fucking superb. The story while cookie cutter, at least did NOT drag.
My one gripe? The music. After seeing how music should be done in a movie (see: Sherlock Holmes), this movie had the music amped WAYYY up and it sometimes took me out of the moment.
Will I see this again? Maybe. The thing about this film is ... I don't think you can capture the feel of the film and how it transported you to a different world via a TV. I'm sure DVD sales will be unreal, but I'm sure it won't feel the same.
I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
I think most people agree that Trasformers and especially RotF are shitty movies, they just went to go see them anyway for some reason.Originally Posted by Advocate
Darksider
The standards are different. Michael Bay usually puts out flashy drivel. James Cameron is known for excellent story-telling and good characters.
I enjoyed it well enough, but Avatar does fall more on the flash-over-substance side. Sometimes a cliched story can be told in a more refreshing way (i.e., The Last Samurai), and I expected Cameron to pull that off, but it didn't happen with this movie. It seems like so much effort went into the visuals that they didn't have any creativity or time left for a better story.
The characters are also not as strong as in Cameron's other works. They're all pretty much as by-the-numbers as the story. You have the corporate douche in Parker (Burke was also a corporate douche in Aliens, but he was a more believable character), the over-the-top-tough-as-nails military guy in the colonel, the tough-on-the-outside-but-caring-on-the-inside strong woman in Grace, etc. I never felt invested in any of them.
This might be unfair, but if this movie was done by any other director, even Steven Spielberg, I might praise it more. However, given Cameron's track record, I expected something with a little more cake to go along with the frosting. It's still an enjoyable movie, though, and I wouldn't mind seeing it again.
I don't know how true this is outside of the Terminator movies. It's obviously not true of Titanic, and even True Lies is more fun than it is a good story.
This is an apt comparison, but I honestly did feel like it worked as well here as in Last Samurai.Sometimes a cliched story can be told in a more refreshing way (i.e., The Last Samurai), and I expected Cameron to pull that off, but it didn't happen with this movie.
I actually think it was more that they were going for conventional and accessible with the story in order to please a mass audience. This is a movie meant for kids, adults, men, and women. It's true that this leads to a sort of middle ground that a cynic could call mediocrity. But make no mistake, it's quite intentional and not the result of laziness.It seems like so much effort went into the visuals that they didn't have any creativity or time left for a better story.
You don't make a $500,000,000 movie that challenges the audience. Life doesn't work that way. It's part of why I usually don't give a fuck about these kinds of movies, but we all knew what this was going into it either way.
That was more or less aimed directly at our Russian Ambassador.
I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
The Darkest Soul
I see movies cause, you know I like seeing.. movies. Some stories work for me, some don't. As I said several times, Avatar is a good film with a very derivative story and message that was overly preachy for my tastes. Rotf, has even worse story, and many more plot and logic holes, but I guess that fighting robots from space, do appeal MORE to ME than space Indians and tree hugging
As Nash pointed out, Last Samurai, shared a common theme with Avatar, yet, it did it WAY better. I felt for the characters there, where in Avatar, I felt it was more of CG creations, made that way to deliver director's message.
I still don't feel bad for spending my $9 on Avatar, since 3d exprience was worth it. But I dont think I will be seeing it again. Well, I might rewatch last 20 minutes or so, mostly for Quatrich in the Mech.
I find it peculiar that people would call this preachy. What is it preaching? That genocide is bad? It's such a simplistic, universal message, chosen precisely because it's a shared value of virtually everyone on earth. I can't imagine what kind of psychopath you'd have to be to feel like that message is imposing on your value system. It's like saying Snow White is preachy because pretty bitches have it coming.
Last edited by Frogacuda; 28 Dec 2009 at 12:53 AM.
I go to movies so I can be entertained. To be taken to a place far from reality. Guess what Avatar accomplished that goal. I, like Frog do not understand the preachy thing. I didn't see the preachyness. And if it was trying to be preachy ... it didn't work for me.
__I was hoping the humans dropped the bomb.___
When that didn't happen I wasn't upset, cause it didn't matter to me. I was amazed at the world Cameron created. I was astounded at the realism of the world.
------------------------
Here's whats more amazing.
Frog is being Despair-ish, while Despair is being Frogacuda-like.
Its like Bizzaroworld.
Last edited by Advocate; 28 Dec 2009 at 12:55 AM.
I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
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