It'll be an even worse reflection when Avatar is at #1. Let's hope a decent film surpasses both soon... no, that'll never happen. The masses have no taste.
Ah, that's something I miss from my Uni days, people going on about the tasteless masses for doing something they have also done. Does it burn you up inside that your $32 is contributing to that total?
Riffing on the college kid analogy upthread, this is like the college communists, with their Che' t-shirt...and their iPhone and Macbook and 2009 BMW and their fat platinum Visa that Daddy pays off for them every month. Actually I guess it makes perfect sense that those kids are commies. They get everything from someone else's hard work and don't actually have to do anything themselves.
If you would like to read the original idea, just google Avatar Scriptment and real 144 - 240 pages in the story. It give a different plot to the movie, written aroung 1996, and gives a lot of back story to make a few things make more sense.
Gee, really? Yes, I'm completely aware that got some real Natives to play the voices of the space Indians, that's why I made a point of saying Native American characters. You know, someone in the movie who could slap the shit out of one of the people who called the furries "savages" every other word, or who could possibly relect on history and/or their own culture in the context of what's obviously history repeating itself. Oh, and I can't remember who posted this link, but I got pissed off enough at it that I actually wrote a reply for it. Since it will undoubtedly be added to the comments list, I will post my response here for all to enjoy: Wow, talk about easily offended. It almost makes me embarrassed to be offended by certain aspects of this movie itself, aside from just not liking it for being such an anvillicious movie that insists on making all but a few humans complete bastards and is essentially a hippy propagandist film that vilifies mining, corporations, and the military, all while slapping us continually in the face with its "let's all be one with nature!" message. Well, there are a couple of things about your little post that compel me to respond, mainly the bits that you claim as offensive. I hate to break it to you, but for someone who was born with the use of his legs and was an active member of the military, using the use of them and having to use a wheelchair would mean that they were absolutely confined to a wheelchair. They can no longer do the things that they used to be able to do, and this is especially traumatizing to someone who it happened to not all that long ago. So the premise that this character would get to walk again through the use of this alien avatar while getting paid pretty well probably would sound all kinds of awesome to someone who was robbed of their legs because some druggie wanted the contents of his wallet to buy their next hit with and couldn't afford to the operation to undo the operation. Which brings me to my next point. Yes, to someone who was born with the use of their legs and lost them due to a gunshot, something that that would need to be fixed. We aren't talking about race, gender, sexual orientation, or anything else a person happened to be born into, we're talking about the spinal cord of a man being severed. To be entirely frank, we're also talking about how the human body was designed. But hey, the good news in this movie is that by the time it takes place, medical science has found a way to repair spinal cord injuries. Unfortunately for the main character, military pay still sucks in the future and he can't afford to have the operation to restore him to the way he was before he was mugged. As to the reference to getting his "real legs" back, you might have been able to figure out why they put it like that even without having seen the movie if you weren't so busy being offended. Think about it - this man has lost the use of his legs and really wishes he could afford an operation to repair his spinal cord. Through the use of this "avatar" he has been able to walk and run and jump and to everything he was able to do before his spinal cord was run through by a mugger's bullet. So technically he can walk again, but only through the use of another creature's body, e.g. not his "real legs". Part of his reward for participating in this operation was the guarantee by the colonel that as long as he basically acted like a spy for the mercenaries this mining company has hired to kill Pandora's natives... I mean protect their assets, that he wouldn't just get paid enough to have his spinal cord fixed, but he'd get to keep that money and the company would actually pick up the tab for his operation and push him to the front of the line to get it done just as soon as he got back to Earth, hence he would get his "real legs" back. Oh, but you're offended. I can't help but roll my eyes at your offense to the idea someone who has been injured in what today would be a permanently crippling way would want to have that injury fixed so they could go back to the way they were. I'm actually a bit offended at how selfish and arrogant that attitude is. Do you really think someone like Christopher Reeve wouldn't have wanted to have his body back? Or do you think he liked being a head trapped on a body he couldn't use? The man literally couldn't even breathe on his own! And I'd wager a guess that anyone who couldn't walk unassisted would resent having to use a wheelchair as soon as they came to a set of stairs and there wasn't a ramp or an elevator for them to use, or an un-shoveled sidewalk during the winter, or anything else they would have had an easier time with had they only been able to walk like a human beings are supposed to be able to.
Saw it tonight. Blah. I'm glad I did it, but I won't bother seeing it again. The Good: -The novelty of the whole thing was neat for the first 1 1/2 hours. That's it. The Bad: -This movie, like all 3D, gave me a splitting headache. Maybe I sat too close to the screen or something. Needless to say, I have no interest in owning this technology for myself. -The dialogue was on par with Star Wars: The Phantom Menace -The acting was mostly crap. I can't stand this Sam Worthington guy. What the hell kind of accent is he trying to pull off? -All of the storyline comparisons I've heard were spot on. Especially the Dances with Wolves comparison. The aliens were straight up Indians. No creativity whatsoever. They ride horses, shoot arrows, whoop and holler, say 'thank you' to their food, wear leather loin cloths, beads, and war paint, and their name for themselves means "The People". Good lord. -So many Hollywood catch phrases and rhetoric. "Shock and Awe", "Fight terror with terror" (this quote didn't even make sense in the context it was given), "idiots with guns" (several times), "tree hugging traitors" (several references made, of course, by the bad guys). It was just mindless. The caricatures were somewhat amusing though. The Ugly: -The length of this movie is ridiculous. I usually love long movies. With good movies, I don't want them to end. This movie had me squirming in my seat and checking my watch with over an hour left in the film. Part of that was the eye strain and the boring story line. Even still, they could have cut out massive chunks of this thing and not damaged the story telling. They got carried away with showing off all the effects and I'm just not impressed by that crap anymore. Overall Grade: D+
I thought the acting was fine. Also, I was rather impressed by the sheer badassery of the general. I wanted to slap the words "FUCKING EPIC LEVEL" on the screen when he jumped outta the burning ship!
Yeah, the Colonel was pretty fierce. If he hadn't been the bad guy, some of those moments would have been hero level stuff. My favorite is when he just busted out of the door to shoot at the good guys with complete disregard for the poisonous air he was exposing everyone to. Single minded hard ass. He is one of the entertaining caricatures that I was referring to in my previous post.
Bad guy? Colonel Quarritch is the hero of the movie! His downfall at the hands of the species-traitor Jake Sully is what makes the film such a powerful tragedy.
The Black Hills War of the 1870's - most noted for the destruction of Custer's forces at Little Big Horn - was fought primarily because the US government wanted access to the Black Hills, an area set aside to the Souix by treaty. The reason for that was gold, the unobtanium of the era. And I do not think it inaccurate to say that in the case of Avatar, American soldiers, responsible to their national command authority, would have ignored corporate demands to attack the Na'vi and would have referred the issue to higher authority. You may recall this is one reason cited for the use of private security firms in Iraq, because these firms were not held to the same standards of accountability as the American military. Therefore, had those not been mercenaries on Pandora, the issue of conflict with the Na'vi would be moot.
This just in: Cameron is planning a trilogy! http://ca.movies.yahoo.com/feature/movie-talk-avatar-trilogy.html
Meh - I really liked Avatar, but after seeing it, I think the idea is complete. I don't know what else needs to be said about the situation or characters.
Someone probably told him about the huge plot hole he left at the end of the movie - namely that there's nothing to prevent the real military from heading to Pandora and doing a little orbital bombardment. Of course as the low-altitude bombing run in the movie showed us, I have no doubt that the next movie(s) would basically be a repeat of those same stupid Hollywood tactics.
I just saw it today. 3D. It was cool; didn't get a headache and wasn't constantly bothered with flotsam appearing to fly at your eyes all the time the way other 3D films have. Did I miss something - the two main characters had sex under the glowy willow tree which was then bulldozed, then later after the hometree is destroyed everyone gathers around the glowy tree again? Were there two different glowy trees or something? Did it grow back? Did I fall asleep? The 'noble savage' parts bothered me all through the film. I was wondering why it is we're supposed to think the Na'vi are closer with 'nature' - because they spend all their time frolicking through the forest and convening with animals? What about the people who understand how nature works well enough to create spaceships? Or who have figured out how to create a body and transfer a consciousness? That takes quite a bit of understanding of nature, and the humans don't have the advantage of a pony-tail plot device with which to do it.
Well it officially passed Star Wars this weekend and is now the third-highest grossing movie of all time (not inflation-adjusted), just behind The Dark Knight and Titanic.
Where are you getting your numbers from? According to Box Office Mojo Avatar is now in second place with 1.6 billion and is 500 million above its next nearest competition and only 240 million away from overtaking Titanic.
Oh well, at least Abrams Trek didn't win. Would have been better if Inglorious Basterds had won, but I guess its VFX wasn't expensive/flashy enough.
Seems weird to focus on just North American numbers given that it has done less than a third of its takings there.
I agree. My bad. I was just showing you what webpage I was looking at so you didn't think I pulled those numbers out of my ass.
Just came back from seeing the 3d Avatar... unfortunately the 3d IMAX was sold out... It was better than I was expecting. Yes, it is basically Dances With Wolves in a science fiction setting. But I don't really have a huge problem with that. The basic message is a good one and I don't mind seeing it repeated here and there. Considering most sci-fi shoot-em-ups these days have no message at all... I can cut them some slack here. There was a lot of action, but it didn't seem mindless. There was a point to it all. The plot was weak and derivative but the visuals were nice and I got involved with the characters, and I appreciated all the thought and attention to detail that went into creating the Navi culture and the whole ecology of the planet. Actually, the 3D aspect of it was the most disappointing part. I'm fairly certain I would have enjoyed the movie even if I was watching it on a regular screen without the glasses. It adds a bit to the immersion and its makes the movie going experience more fun but it doesn't dramatically alter the movie. I'd like to see more 3D movies (saw a preview for Alice in Wonderland 3d) but that doesn't mean I necessarily need to recreate that experience at home. The story is the important thing. The 3d effect is just a novelty... not integral to the movie at all.
Worldwide, it's the 2nd highest grossing movie. Domestically, it's still behind The Dark Knight and Titanic.
