Avatar

[Merusk]

Caught part of this on blu-ray at Sam's Club this weekend while picking up some detergent and other bulk staples.   If you didn't see it in 3d I pity you, because it looked like ass in 2d, even on the giant 240hz TVs.

[Mrbloodworth]

If you didn't see it in 3d I pity you

 

[Samwise]

That's a relief, I was afraid I was going to have to Netflix it just to see what the fuss was about.  It sounds like I'm better off just forgetting it ever existed.  As everyone else will the next time a 3D movie comes out that isn't slapped-together ass on a stick.

[UnSub]

I haven't looked, but are a lot of "Avatar"'s DVD reviews realising how ordinary this film is without 3D?

[KallDrexx]

I'm sure they are.  I saw it again on Dvd the other day and I wasn't too impressed.  I would pay to see it in 3d Imax again though.

[Mrbloodworth]

Its still beautiful in 2D, however 3D push's it over to incredibly awesome and extremely more epic.

[Merusk]

It loses a lot, though.  And I mean A LOT... particularly if you're picky about plastic-looking CGI bipeds.  The 3-d effect in the theater gave enough of a softness/ blur to the Navi that I didn't notice.  However, on a 54" LCD it was very, very apparent.

[Musashi]

I just saw this.  This movie is Dances with Wolves with a half hour cut out of it.  It's pretty much the exact same thing, except in this there's the vacuum of space in between factions, and so the guys with sticks get to win this time.  Basically, I'm saying this is an average story with a billion dollars worth of cgi heaped on top of it.  Quite frankly, if I was Kevin Costner, I'd be pissed.  Then I'd look at my Oscars and lol.

[Zetleft]

I still like the movie and the 3d was really well done but it really is just the same story in a new skin. 

[Lakov_Sanite]

My question is, who cares? Is anything original anymore? Off the top of my head. "wolfman" "ironman" "a-team" "batman" "predators" and that's just with 20 seconds of thought.  You could list half the movies in a year as being unoriginal, maybe more.

 Good movies don't have to be original ones.

[Zetleft]

As long as the goal is to only make good movies and not great ones then yes originality is wholely unneccesary.  But this is hollywood so actually it doesn't even have to be good as long as it sells.  Yes I realise this is not even an original statement on Hollywood but that doesn't mean it should not be pointed out when it's so blatant. 

As I said I liked the movie in spite of all this so I'm part of the problem :p

[Musashi]

I don't know if Avatar is going for originality.  I do know that when I see a movie as heavily promoted as this one and it turns out that Kevin Costner - who I hold in no high esteem - has already made (he directed it) a better version of the movie you're selling, you've pretty much failed in my eyes.  Obviously succeeding in my eyes costs you close to a billion dollars.  I'm aware.  I didn't like Titanic either.

I will admit Avatar was pretty though.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Dances with wolves won an oscar, but it was also boring as hell.  I'm not even the biggest avatar fan, hell I only saw it once but dances with wolves was not a great movie.  Go back, re-watch it.

[Ratman_tf]

Good movies don't have to be original ones.

I wouldn't call Avatar unoriginal. That's too tame. It's Cameron rattling off the Successful Movie Formula. Which is (IMO) why it was so sucessful and panned for it's story anyway. And not just CBG nerdranting. Everyone knows Avatar was a boring story, on some level.

[Musashi]

Dances with wolves won an oscar, but it was also boring as hell.  I'm not even the biggest avatar fan, hell I only saw it once but dances with wolves was not a great movie.  Go back, re-watch it.

Oh, Dances With Wolves sucks ass.  I couldn't agree more.  But it's a better movie than Avatar in every quantifiable way, except special effects.

[Abagadro]

Mere mention of Dances With Wolves makes me burn with the rage of Tommy DiVito.

[HaemishM]

My question is, who cares? Is anything original anymore? Off the top of my head. "wolfman" "ironman" "a-team" "batman" "predators" and that's just with 20 seconds of thought.  You could list half the movies in a year as being unoriginal, maybe more.

 Good movies don't have to be original ones.

No. Originality is not a requirement, and I actually think it's overrated. But even if it's unoriginal, it needs to be INTERESTING, or at the least ENTERTAINING. Without the 3D, Avatar was neither of these things. It also had plot holes you could drive a knife-wielding mech through.

[Johny Cee]

Mere mention of Dances With Wolves makes me burn with the rage of Tommy DiVito.

Tommy DiVito?  Who's that?  Is he some sort of clown?

[Draegan]

My question is, who cares? Is anything original anymore? Off the top of my head. "wolfman" "ironman" "a-team" "batman" "predators" and that's just with 20 seconds of thought.  You could list half the movies in a year as being unoriginal, maybe more.

 Good movies don't have to be original ones.

No. Originality is not a requirement, and I actually think it's overrated. But even if it's unoriginal, it needs to be INTERESTING, or at the least ENTERTAINING. Without the 3D, Avatar was neither of these things. It also had plot holes you could drive a knife-wielding mech through.

Yet you loved the way Lost ended!

[Samwise]

Ba-zing!

[HaemishM]

My question is, who cares? Is anything original anymore? Off the top of my head. "wolfman" "ironman" "a-team" "batman" "predators" and that's just with 20 seconds of thought.  You could list half the movies in a year as being unoriginal, maybe more.

 Good movies don't have to be original ones.

No. Originality is not a requirement, and I actually think it's overrated. But even if it's unoriginal, it needs to be INTERESTING, or at the least ENTERTAINING. Without the 3D, Avatar was neither of these things. It also had plot holes you could drive a knife-wielding mech through.

Yet you loved the way Lost ended!

And?

[Draegan]

The comparison needs to be explained?   

[HaemishM]

I loved Red Steel too. You wanna make something of that too?

[Draegan]

I never played it.

[DraconianOne]

I go away for a bit. I come back. I find that Haemish is still one of the voices of sanity here.






All is right with the world.

[Pennilenko]

I go away for a bit. I come back. I find that Haemish is still one of the voices of sanity here.






All is right with the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca9GuwuOVZc

[Draegan]

Well done.   

[Ironwood]

Finally saw this;  It was ok.  Almost Good.

[Ratman_tf]

I had my second viewing over 4th of July weekend. Mom wanted to see it, and there was nothing more interesting to do, so I watched it too.

The native american tropes really grated on my nerves. "Apache Chief, INYUK-CHUK!" I know it's a movie, and having the Na'vi act like a human culture is just mass media sci-fi, but it still grated.

[Yoshimaru]

For those who missed it the first time around, it's being re-released on Aug 27th with additional scenes.

Twentieth Century Fox is to release "Avatar: Special Edition" in theaters worldwide on Aug. 27 in a limited engagement and exclusively in Digital 3D and Imax 3D, the studio announced Thursday. The version will include more than eight minutes of extra footage including new creatures and action scenes.

I'm hoping I can catch it in Imax this time, although that will mean traveling a minimum of 2 hours. If you haven't seen it yet, this is the perfect time (or... wait until the re-re-release in a year).

[Mrbloodworth]

A friend of mine has two children, he took them to see this movie. Apparently, during the great tree destruction scene, they both broke into tears.


Adults are broken and desensitized.

[Murgos]

A friend of mine has two children, he took them to see this movie. Apparently, during the great tree destruction scene, they both broke into tears.


Adults are broken and desensitized.

And also smart enough to realize that the whole scene was contrived to the point of being absurd.

I'll say it this way, the scene was designed to jerk tears out of people with childlike mentalities.

[Mrbloodworth]

A friend of mine has two children, he took them to see this movie. Apparently, during the great tree destruction scene, they both broke into tears.


Adults are broken and desensitized.

And also smart enough to realize that the whole scene was contrived to the point of being absurd.

I'll say it this way, the scene was designed to jerk tears out of people with childlike mentalities.

So you are saying that by using overly brutal means to wipe out an entire city of a society that has zero ways to stop it is not something that should elicit an emotional response?

Remove the slowmo, remove the dramatic music, and you still would have something that humans should be reacting to.

[Lakov_Sanite]

It's an old trope, that doesn't mean it needs to be put on a shelf and never used again.  No one is arguing that this isn't basically 'dances with smurfs' the thing is that there's no such movie like that for a generation or two and that's what makes this one so powerful(to many) a lot of people haven't been exposed to that tired old trope, so it resonates with them.

[HaemishM]

Remove the slowmo, remove the dramatic music, and you still would have something that humans should be reacting to.

Maybe they would if it hadn't been done in such a ham-fisted, obvious, moustache-twirling way. You know, if the story or characters had any depth whatsoever, or offered any surprises at all.