James Cameron's "Avatar"

[David Meek]

That's a relief. I can deal with glasses, but goggles would have been a strain.

[Race Car Driver]

Avatar has made 1 billion $ in just 17 days. wow......

[Brandon B]

Add my $50 for the family to see it today.

Quite enjoyable. My 12 year old keeps remarking that he forgot he was watching 3D almost continually through the movie, except every now and then when something would break frame.

All the comments re the story quality are true, but didn't keep me from thoroughly enjoying it.

[DelRay]

I thought it was great. After a few minutes getting used to the glasses, no problem. Luckily, I'm not a critic. When I go to the movies, I go to enjoy myself. Not pick apart the movie (plots,story line,etc etc). A must see in 3D.

[David Meek]

Hehe, there's an article on CNN's website about Avatar "Blues" you've got to read. :blink:

[Race Car Driver]

Ever since I went to see 'Avatar' I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na'vi made me want to be one of them. I can't stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it," Mike posted. "I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora and the everything is the same as in 'Avatar.'

Really......

Too bad most dont realize Earth IS Pandora, and the human race is destroying it day by day..

Oh well. Good movie.

[Chris D]

Uhhhhh... seriously? Some people are such sheep. :roll:

[Race Car Driver]

bahhhhhhhhhhh

[wettou]

I am one of those people taht have a problem with 3D through glasses it makes me puke and give me a migraine ops:

So I will wait for the Blu Ray plus three hours I need a break in the middle :B

[Race Car Driver]

I am one of those people taht have a problem with 3D through glasses it makes me puke and give me a migraine ops:

So I will wait for the Blu Ray plus three hours I need a break in the middle :B

You could see it in the theater as a non 3d showing. :T
IMO this is a must see in the theater, even if you plan on buying it.

[Brandon B]

Ever since I went to see 'Avatar' I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na'vi made me want to be one of them. I can't stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it," Mike posted. "I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora and the everything is the same as in 'Avatar.'

Actually, while lacking the emo kid extreme this guy is taking it to, I can empathize. I was sort of down the entire day for the same reason. Beautiful world they created, and with the 3D, CGI and everything, it is so immersive you really do feel like you're there.

And then I come out and I am in Los Angeles. I live here 'cuz the guy in red to the left of my post here is the only one who employs people that do what I do for the amount of money I make, or I'd certainly live somewhere green, where they know a tree is not 50 feet of stalk with 8 leaves at the top.

I used to have similar sort of withdrawal after finishing really good scifi book series when I was younger. First time a movie has done it to me though.

[Brandon B]

I am one of those people taht have a problem with 3D through glasses it makes me puke and give me a migraine ops:

So I will wait for the Blu Ray plus three hours I need a break in the middle :B

Made my wife feel pukey too, but she felt it was worth it. Even willing to see it in 3D again.

[impala454]

The article is kind of funny to me, but if your think about it this really is the first baby step towards a holodeck. People already easily get lost in massive online games. Think about if you could combine an extremely immersive graphical element with the concept of MMO games. People will lead alternate lives, just like in the movie. Except the complete transfer over to the alternate life won't be possible as it is at the end of the movie :P

[numberoneoppa]

I've heard that this is like Ferngully in space. If that's the case, I'll be passing.

[David Meek]

It's NOT Fern Gully in space. If you want to boil it down, it's more like Dances With Wolves which is not a negative IMHO.

I get a kick out of people that wanted a Citizen Kane-like dramatic performance. They need to get over it. This is a horse-opera in space. It's fun, it's fast, it's rollicking. It pulls you in and doesn't let go. And, I'll guarantee that you haven't ever seen a better visual presentation (the 3D version anyway). I'm just waiting to see how (and if) the 3D can be translated into home theaters.

FWIW, you should make the effort to see this on the big screen in 3D if you can (Sir George, are you listening?). I unabashedly give it :5:

[Brandon B]

Saw it for the 3rd time Friday as a department outing.

Have to say I thought the IMAX (digital, not 70-15 film) 3D was a step up from the RealD at our local theater.

The bumout period from seeing it is now down to a few hours for me.

Also went back and reread the 1975 Alan Dean Foster book Midworld. Pretty clear in my mind Cameron must have read this in his younger days and sublimated a lot of the content. They even refer to their "home tree" same as the people in Avatar. The story may pay some homage to Dances and Pocahontas, but a lot of the concepts for Pandora are pure Midworld.

[Chris D]

I still haven't seen Avatar--I'm on vacation in Hawaii, so maybe I"ll see it here while I have a chance to experience it in 3D.

That being said, I appreciate what the Meek one is saying. From the beginning, George Lucas said that Star Wars was made as a "Space Opera". So those that criticize Star Wars for not having the aforementioned Citizen Kane-like dramatic performance miss what it was intended to be. (I mean, come on... you can't expect "Spartacus" from a movie with lines like, "... but I was going to Tarshi station to pick up some power converters!") There are similar critiques of the Matrix trilogy.

So... appreciate a movie for what it is.

[Brandon B]

Oh I appreciate it. I haven't been to see a movie 3 times in the theater since probably 1983 (guess which one). I absolutely love this movie. I just also very clearly see the aspects which a lot of people level as criticisms.

But I think they are expecting a little too much. All those points are basic criticisms of Cameron's usual style. Not to mention, they are typical aspects of studio risk minimization, and if anyone thinks studio risk minimizers weren't operating on overload with a $500 million budget on the line, they don't know much about Hollywood.

So as you say, let go and enjoy it. There isn't anything else like it to substitute.

And Chris, go get your butt in an IMAX theater. I have a 10' screen, a JVC RS1, and about 8000 watts of pretty decent sound system, but seeing this at home isn't going to cut it. Even the middling 3D I saw the first two times is worth a trip, and if you can swing an IMAX, you'll be extra glad you did.

[George Bellefontaine]

FWIW, you should make the effort to see this on the big screen in 3D if you can (Sir George, are you listening?). I unabashedly give it :5:

I'm listening, Tex.

[Bob]

I read an article that said that "when adjusted for inflation", Gone With The Wind is still the highest grossing movie of all time and Avatar would actually be in 20th. place.

[Brandon B]

Yep. I believe ticket prices were a nickel when GWTW was released, and in numbers of tickets sold, it is the Thriller of movies, more than double ahead of everything else. Star Wars sold more tickets that Avatar has as well, prices then were $2-4.

[Chris D]

Okay, so I made sure I went and saw it on big screen 3D while in Hawaii. This caliber of movie deserves some good discussion, so I'll post several thoughts here, although it's been several days since I've watched the movie.

Bottom line, this was a good, enjoyable movie, more good than bad, although my points to talk about may seem more negative. As I mentioned above, I take a movie for what it is. I think it's obvious on this one that Cameron did NOT intend for "Avatar" to be just mindless entertainment, or brainless action, and purposefully put in social commentary, so I'll evaluate the movie as such.

3D VIDEO: I saw this on big-screen in 3D--thought I was seeing on the IMAX screen, but the IMAX showing in that theater was on a different screen an hour earlier. :M Grrrr... still looked great. I thought the 3D was overall very well done, and not just over-applied in the common "make things stick out of the screen just because we can". And it was better 3D technology overall than I've seen used before. However, I did NOT see enough evidence from the movie to convince me that 3D technology is the standard staple of the future. Thus, I'm still concluding that 3D is a "niche" technology, still a semi-gimmick. It's one thing to tell your family, "hey, let's sit down and watch our favorite TV show/movie tonight", and it happens to be in 1080p with Dolby Digital 5.1 that you can take advantage of if your equipment supports. It's different being in 3D, that you can take advantage of if your equipment supports AND if you feel like watching in 3D, and putting on the glasses--and unless there are two channels/screens, if you don't feel like watching in 3D, you're stuck with an unwatchable blurry image. I'll go to theaters and watch some more movies in 3D. But I DON'T want every movie to be in 3D. The glasses didn't give me a headache or anything, but I did notice 3D focusing errors here and there, and screen edge limitations. And since I don't wear eyeglasses in real life, they started to give me some minor discomfort just having them on my face towards the end of the movie. Until we figure out how to make hologram movies that don't need glasses, I don't see 3D becoming fully mainstream--sorry, folks. I'll give big credit for the 3D being better than ever before, though, with much less eye/brain strain. Before, I thought Robert Rodriguez did it best with PORTIONS of "Spy Kids 3D" being in 3D, with breaks were the audience could take off their glasses.

PICTURE AND AUDIO QUALITY: Great as expected. As everyone comments, the colors in the Pandora wild were AMAZING, and they'll look great on my home theater screen when I eventually buy it. (which I probably will, although I won't be in a rush) Yes, some great sound in there, and I'm sure the tree destruction scene will rock your home theater's subwoofer. CGI was astounding, and as my friend commented, there were many parts where you didn't know what elements on screen were real, and which ones were CGI.

STORY: Overall, good. Right up front, I'll give HUGE kudos to Cameron and any writer/director like Lucas, Wachowskis, or others that create an entire alternate planet/universe with its own back story, languages, rules of physics, animals, "human" customs, etc. That's always fun to experience when masterfully done, as Cameron does here. The remote avatar control aspect was also reasonably groundbreaking, although suddenly it's a very common theme in media that's being released at the same time! (and not just as "Avatar" copies--think "Surrogates", "Caprica", etc) When you get down underneath the totally unique setting, though, this is NOT a unique story by any stretch of the imagination. We've seen this several times before. As the Meek one points out above, this was pretty close to "Dances With Wolves" in space. (I've never seen "Fern Gully") The intentional story parallels with the white man's imperialistic domination of native Americans is blatantly obvious. Okay, okay, Cameron, I GET it... "Unobtainium" is oil, the Na'vi are the Indians, they relate to animals they hunt, their sacred burial sites were desecrated, they used bows and arrows against superior weapons, etc, etc.

SOCIAL COMMENTARY: I found this part tiresome. Yes, the imperialism and ecocentric themes of the movie have been done over and over and over again in science fiction. Did this movie really raise any new eye-opening issues? Make us see it in any shockingly different light? I think Cameron could have eased off the preaching, or even done complete without it, and still made just as strong of a movie. His other films haven't been anywhere so overt on the preaching, so why this one? Did he have a crisis of conscience?

At times, I was rolling my eyes at the things that were said, and themes that were presented. Cameron stepped back into pure stereotypes sometimes, so obvious it was frustrating. I get it--the message is mankind is bad. Planet good. Plants good. Animals good. Mankind kills planets, destroys animals. Bad mankind... bad. I'm a little tired of coming away from these kinds of movies, though, impressed like the director wants me to feel dirty for being part of the human race that is so evil. Honestly, I think this is part of why some of the public is having those wild feelings of depression and even suicide after seeing the movie--Pandora is portrayed as pure good and nobility, that the evil man trampled upon. Walk out of the theater after the movie, and you remove Pandora, leaving only the sullied real life of this world.

SIDE NOTE: As a member of the military, I've got to say I am absolutely, positively, sick and tired of the axiomatic Hollywood stereotype of the military. The stereotype is that the military is nothing more than the force/violence organization that does the bidding of evil empires and corporations for imperialistic, monetary profit. Individual members of the military are portrayed as evil, corrupt individuals that thrive on violence and bloodshed, having complete disregard for any value of life, natural beauty, integrity, etc. There is no conscience, just robotic obeying evil orders. There is usually one soldier in the movie with integrity and a conscience, portrayed as being rogue and disdained by the rest of the military for doing the right thing. As one film critic put it, (I think it was Roger Ebert) Cameron takes an interesting stance by setting up the story and background so that the audience cheers in celebration when a US Marine gets his head ripped off. It's evident to me that Cameron and the other director/writers like this not only have never been in any role with purposes similar to the military, but also have no idea what the military really does. Sad. Sure, I'm certain Cameron's explanation would be, "well, this is science fiction, and those aren't real soldiers". Or that they were positioned as mercenaries this time. To that, I'd only ask, "so were the Na'vi just blue aliens in this movie, not representing anything else either?" The character of the Colonel just summed it up for me. In the end, as everything unraveled, he still was just as content, even thrilled, to just fight the hero.

Again, overall I liked the movie more than not, and it was a good piece of work. It was enjoyable, with a few significant detractors for me. I'm waffling between :35: and :4: out of :5:

P.S. Brandon, I'm not familiar with Midworld myself, so I appreciate your insight on that! I might have to read it myself someday.

P.P.S. Sikoniko, I agree with you, that there are portions of the backstory that could be expanded further. Perhaps the extended Blu-Ray will be able to do that with extra time, such as the twin brother's death, or involvement with the Avatar program, or the discovery of Pandora, or how they developed the Avatar technology, or others.

[Brandon B]

Being a navy brat, it's pretty plain to me Cameron doesn't know many, if any, real military people as well.

However, one could rationalize the 1 dimensional types in Avatar as the kind of military people who would later end up working for Blackwater or similar outfits, since they seem to have been hired in, rather than deployed by a government.

If one wanted to try and rationalize it.

[Hdale85]

I was going to say the whole base of the story was the fact that they were after a very precious resource that couldn't be gotten anywhere else, I'm not saying our military would go to those extents but as Brandon pointed out they seemed more "hired" then actual deployed soldiers. Based on human kinds past I could see something like this happening where the native beings are inferior to us and there for not worth acknowledging. Of course I don't think this would happen with a real military deployment but if it was hired out and there was as much money involved it wouldn't be a stretch of the imagination. They did try and take the peaceful approach from the beginning of course and I'm not sure sure that the ENTIRE military in the movie was really all that bad it seemed mostly to be the head guy there.

What I found most impressive with the movie is the depth of detail of the new planet and the lengths they went through to develop it as it's own place as well as it's people, plants, animals and such. There was great thought that went into all the details and it really made it a believable story! When I first saw the previews for this movie I really didn't think it would amount to much but it's probably the best movie I've seen this year.

Unfortunately I did not see the 3D version. We have crappy theaters around here anyways and it probably wouldn't be the best of experience. I do believe 3D technology will eventually become the normal but not until we can do it without glasses. I really would like to see this in 3D though but I would have to go somewhere else to find a decent theater.

[kpodolski]

Avatar has made 1 billion $ in just 17 days. wow......

Well, there is no accounting for peoples taste.

I just finished watching Avatar on disc. Wow, what a waste of time. Had I spent my money to see this in a theatre I would have demanded my money back. I actually fast forwarded through about 40 minutes of this dreck. I felt like I was mind raped. Bob is right in his first post, we have a new champion of hokey. Maybe it can win a Razzie Award? I feel sorry for all of the people that will line up like lemmings to buy this on disc. Maybe I'm wrong, but this film will be relegated to the dustbin of mediocrity. Who watches Titanic any longer besides 13 year old girls? I think the last good film Cameron made was True Lies...