_Avatar_, directed by James Cameron

^^^yep. see: GnR video

yeah, but of all the films I mentioned, it was also the only sequel. And sequels, by definition, get hyped and anticipated. But c. that GNR video, no one knew T2 would change movies and make "morph" a household word.

i did! and i tried to tell everyone! and i got shoved into a toilet for my troubles....

Well, I mean, I did, too, but I was under embargo at the time.

T2 et al didn't have special effects in every single frame, though.

I'm not sure what that has to do with anything.

I mean, those movies were absolutely packed with effects, regardless. Heck, half of "The Hangover" appears to have been shot against green screen. As far as all-effects arbiters go, "Phantom Menace" was all FX, all the time, and that was ten years ago.

four stars from rog:

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091211/REVIEWS/912119998

And Cameron and his artists succeed at the difficult challenge of making Neytiri a blue-skinned giantess with golden eyes and a long, supple tail, and yet--I'll be damned. Sexy.

Glenn Kenny

RIP Embargo I guess

yeah all the cool kids are saying PWN.

i think he's joking?

feeling more and more like i'm gonna be a lonely voice in the wilderness on this one.

um, not that i'm expressing any of my reactions to this movie.

Titanic was hailed by a huge number of critics as a masterpiece when it came out, and I'd like to see how many have changed their minds. I think people are just wrapped up in it. Or, more likely, once the embargo is officially lifted, there will be a healthy number of naysayers.

i mean, it ain't the phantom menace, but this is getting ridiculous.

Cameron's Twitter is terrible. Decrying 'best of decade' lists before people have seen Avatar.

yeah even i think these initial reactions are kinda over the top, and i'm on board

never underestimate the super geekdom of film critics i guess

but damn if i'm not seeing this again asap

i think these initial reactions are kinda over the top

Yeah, it makes the months of internet chucklehead snarking look sober by comparison. What am I saying, no it doesn't.

i think the embargo is in place bcuz avatar marketing ppl will know that the only people to break the embargo are the people w/ positive reviews bcuz those people know they won't get bitchslapped in the future by said marketing team. therefore early word of mouf is all positive and momentum builds, etc...

someone up thread may have already suggested this.

http://io9.com/5424663/the-public-explains-the-plot-of-james-camerons-avatar

great punchline

So the embargo is lifted today, right? Can those who have seen it here give us their thoughts?

not till thursday im afraid

http://picturingamerica.wiki.ccsd.edu/file/view/10231137A~Freedom-Of-Speech-Posters.jpg/94225332/10231137A~Freedom-Of-Speech-Posters.jpg

Gah. Thursday daytime is the only time I can go see it before next week. Can anyone at least signal whether I should bother to make the effort or just wait until next week?

interest for this film (712 posts) is as bemusing to me as the tiger woods story is confusing; shrug.gif

http://www.anbg.gov.au/images/flags/semaphore/semaphore.gif

Avatar is the corniest movie ever made about the white man’s need to lose his identity and assuage racial, political, sexual and historical guilt.

Only children—including adult-children—will see Avatar as simply an adventure film; their own love of technology has co-opted their ability to comprehend narrative detail. Cameron offers sci-fi dazzle, yet bungles the good part: the meaning. His undeniably pretty Pandora—a phosphorescent Maxfield Parrish paradise with bird-like lizards, moving plant life and floating mountains—distracts from the inherent contradiction of a reported $300-$500 million Hollywood enterprise that casually berates America’s industrial complex.

http://www.nypress.com/article-20710-blue-in-the-face.html

Leave it to Armond to attack this from the "boo white people abandoning their culture" angle

Cameron emulates the boy-plus-car symbiosis of Transformers—but with pulsing loins, veins and orifices.

luv ya Armond don't ever change

While technically impressive, Avatar’s basically a daft version of the Transformer movies’ sci-fi, techno fantasy.

I mean, this is way more of an indictment of the movie than the "contradiction" that his central thesis or the "white man's guilt" sidestep.

always lolsome when he brings out Transformers 2, but he's really upped the stakes with his 'Gamer is avant-garde' claims.

i feel free breaking the embargo to say that this movie is a shitty dumb piece of shit

nb i havent seen it

Avatar, however, invents an alternate world to make the airy-fairy pronouncement: “There’s a network of energy that flows through all living things.” Alien-girl Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) teaches Sully how to bond with a tie-dyed, eagle-like creature by docking his wriggly tail into it.

wait, waht

no doubts now. seeing this on Thursday.

bond with a tie-dyed, eagle-like creature by docking his wriggly tail into it.

Cronenberg should've made this movie

lololololololololol of course there's also a positive Joseph Conrad reference in there

man the space ghost ad for this!

lol gawker w/the mea culpa http://gawker.com/5427160/apologia--avatar-amazingly-does-not-suck

btw was i the 1st on this to predict the awesomeness of avatar

you and i are now locked in an eternal death struggle over whether or not this movie is good

i recommend that neither of us actually see it--that will be the best way to continue our blood feud

s1ocki's rapturously positive review is what will end up making me see this

wouldve thought youd already have yr imax tickets xp

i object to this movie on moral grounds

"i, max object to this movie on moral grounds"

Cameron's going to spend twenty more years making a film just to win you over and he's going to call it "2 THE MAX"