That review is amazing. When I saw Avatar (about a week after it opened) about half the (packed) theater gave it a standing ovation at the end. WTF? Did the rest of the audience just see a different movie? Avatar = overrated pile of s***. If it wins Best Picture the Oscars will have lost what little credibility they have left (The Departed and No Country For Old Men are both ace).
I thought it was… ok. I had the same issues with plot and character that the reviewer had, as well as not seeign what the deal was with the 3D, which didn;t really impress me much. That and I had a *serious* problem with the evolutionary biology of the critters of Pandora. Not that I had so much a problem with the NaVi looking so human… but that they didn’t fit in with their own ecosystem. Specifically… just about every other critter they met had not four limbs, but six… and not two eyes, but four. And then there were the lemurs, which used yet another wholly different body plan.
The first time through I was happy, nice effects, pretty images, sadly inadequate and plagiarized story line, but hey, its scifi and a Jim Cameron agit-prop vehicle, what do you expect. Second time through was EXCRUCIATING. What a piece of sh*t. Not a single original thought in the entire thing. Not. One.
I can’t wait till this new CGI technology is used for a decent movie, Avatar ain’t it.
I too thought it was… okay. Cool CGI and background, but completely unoriginal plot, and just impossible to miss all the messages (capitalism = evil, military = psycho goons, humanity = rapacious plague, Save the Earth!).
I wholly concur with what Brianna says. I’m fed-up with these apocalyptic visions of humanity. And at the end of the movie, I was left with the irrepressible desire of watching them humans letting drop a big chunk of rock on those dastardly natives from orbit. What’s more, I told my wife I wished for the sequel that the humans return in force and take their planet again. What’s so bad about a successful commercial/industrial operation? What’s so bad about making profit from whatever goods nature has to offer?. I want to watch a movie about that, where the good guys are the productive ones, the ones with the knowledge and skills to make a difference. It was oh-so-19th-century and oh-so-live -the-sixties-spirit-again. It left me intellectually exhausted.
Hey, I didn’t say that if I’d been in Avatar I’d have been on the side of the crazy Colonel whats-his-name. The planet belonged to the Na’vi regardless of whatever cool stuff was under the ground in it. What I disagreed with were these ideas:
1) Humans are on track to destroy our world, in the name of capitalistic greed
2) Laissez-faire capitalism fosters exploitation, murder and oppression in the name of profit
3) The idea that any single good could become so simultaneously scarce and valuable that it would merit being called something like “unobtainium” and command a price so lucrative that it’s worth wholesale murder in order to get it. That’s usually long past the point where it becomes economically viable to come up with some sort of substitute.
4) The military is a bunch of brainless baby-killers and murdering psychopaths
5) The general (and incredibly stupid and false) idea nature is this benign, harmless thing that holds no peril for human beings so long as they live in proper “tune” with it.
6) The communing with nature and the tree-hugging.
I saw the movie and it made me physically ill. The 3-D effect was wasted on me.
Plot, character development, underlying theme, etc; all were as other have posted, poor, inconsistant, shallow, plagerized. The only semi-original thought here was to slam our military and corporations in one fell swoop by making the army a private one.
Shrug. 3 hours of eye-candy. Some nifty vehicle designs.
I found the movie to be entertaining. But I also found “2012” and “Day After Tomorrow” and “Godzilla” entertaining. Hell, I found “Battlefield Earth” entertaining, if not exactly for the reasons the film makers might’ve wished.
I have neither the rage nor adoration at “Avatar” that many people have. if you switch off your brain, it’s enjoyable enough. But if you engage your brain for smart-making, you realize that it is what it is.
Yes, it’s making a lot of treehuggers go all giggly. But it’s also makign a lot of them suicidal because real life ain’t as utopian as Pandora. Well.. if’n they want to remove themselves from the gene pool, humanity would be better off.
That review is amazing. When I saw Avatar (about a week after it opened) about half the (packed) theater gave it a standing ovation at the end. WTF? Did the rest of the audience just see a different movie? Avatar = overrated pile of s***. If it wins Best Picture the Oscars will have lost what little credibility they have left (The Departed and No Country For Old Men are both ace).
> Avatar = overrated pile of s***.
I thought it was… ok. I had the same issues with plot and character that the reviewer had, as well as not seeign what the deal was with the 3D, which didn;t really impress me much. That and I had a *serious* problem with the evolutionary biology of the critters of Pandora. Not that I had so much a problem with the NaVi looking so human… but that they didn’t fit in with their own ecosystem. Specifically… just about every other critter they met had not four limbs, but six… and not two eyes, but four. And then there were the lemurs, which used yet another wholly different body plan.
The first time through I was happy, nice effects, pretty images, sadly inadequate and plagiarized story line, but hey, its scifi and a Jim Cameron agit-prop vehicle, what do you expect. Second time through was EXCRUCIATING. What a piece of sh*t. Not a single original thought in the entire thing. Not. One.
I can’t wait till this new CGI technology is used for a decent movie, Avatar ain’t it.
I too thought it was… okay. Cool CGI and background, but completely unoriginal plot, and just impossible to miss all the messages (capitalism = evil, military = psycho goons, humanity = rapacious plague, Save the Earth!).
I wholly concur with what Brianna says. I’m fed-up with these apocalyptic visions of humanity. And at the end of the movie, I was left with the irrepressible desire of watching them humans letting drop a big chunk of rock on those dastardly natives from orbit. What’s more, I told my wife I wished for the sequel that the humans return in force and take their planet again. What’s so bad about a successful commercial/industrial operation? What’s so bad about making profit from whatever goods nature has to offer?. I want to watch a movie about that, where the good guys are the productive ones, the ones with the knowledge and skills to make a difference. It was oh-so-19th-century and oh-so-live -the-sixties-spirit-again. It left me intellectually exhausted.
By the way, nice effects, and ships and hardware.
Rafa
Hey, I didn’t say that if I’d been in Avatar I’d have been on the side of the crazy Colonel whats-his-name. The planet belonged to the Na’vi regardless of whatever cool stuff was under the ground in it. What I disagreed with were these ideas:
1) Humans are on track to destroy our world, in the name of capitalistic greed
2) Laissez-faire capitalism fosters exploitation, murder and oppression in the name of profit
3) The idea that any single good could become so simultaneously scarce and valuable that it would merit being called something like “unobtainium” and command a price so lucrative that it’s worth wholesale murder in order to get it. That’s usually long past the point where it becomes economically viable to come up with some sort of substitute.
4) The military is a bunch of brainless baby-killers and murdering psychopaths
5) The general (and incredibly stupid and false) idea nature is this benign, harmless thing that holds no peril for human beings so long as they live in proper “tune” with it.
6) The communing with nature and the tree-hugging.
I saw the movie and it made me physically ill. The 3-D effect was wasted on me.
Plot, character development, underlying theme, etc; all were as other have posted, poor, inconsistant, shallow, plagerized. The only semi-original thought here was to slam our military and corporations in one fell swoop by making the army a private one.
Knowing now that Avatar offers me nothing, why should I spent the money to see it? Why should we support further it in any way?
>why should I spent the money to see it?
Shrug. 3 hours of eye-candy. Some nifty vehicle designs.
I found the movie to be entertaining. But I also found “2012” and “Day After Tomorrow” and “Godzilla” entertaining. Hell, I found “Battlefield Earth” entertaining, if not exactly for the reasons the film makers might’ve wished.
I have neither the rage nor adoration at “Avatar” that many people have. if you switch off your brain, it’s enjoyable enough. But if you engage your brain for smart-making, you realize that it is what it is.
Yes, it’s making a lot of treehuggers go all giggly. But it’s also makign a lot of them suicidal because real life ain’t as utopian as Pandora. Well.. if’n they want to remove themselves from the gene pool, humanity would be better off.