_Avatar_, directed by James Cameron

shakey aren't you an atheist?

metaphor for what?

I am definitely not an atheist!

good day, sir!

xp oh, ok.

also if they're really connected to a super being that can ~command all creatures~ why didn't they ask for its help BEFORE the humans blew up their damn tree

Because they convinced themselves it wouldn't answer? Didn't Jake have this exact conversation with CCH Pounder in the movie?

i don't remember, and i left my ponytail at home otherwise i'd look it up

Erik Davis on Avatar, ayahuasca, etc

probably because the tree will only listen to a badass who flies on a giant red dragon

avatar 2: the tree whisperer

Shakey Mo, Erik Davis writes very badly. What was his point?

O RLY shamanic cultures would tend to disagree with you

to paraphrase an old philosophy lecturer of mine, the shamanic cultures are JUST WRONG.

criticized it for flirting with modern doctrines that promote the worship of nature as a substitute for religion

religion is a modern substitute for the worship of nature.

maybe the issue is the 'flirting', the pope's never been too hot on that.

the shamanic cultures are JUST WRONG.

otm. nature is not in harmony. it is just as hobbes said imo.

and the life of man, solitary, poore, na'vi, brutish, and short

shart I mean

http://1.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kw17rsfST71qa9g6uo1_500.jpg

Boris Strugatsky (of the Brothers Strugatsky, of Stalker fame) is evidently accusing James Cameron of ripping him off?

Finally saw this today, in IMAX 3D. The story was kind of worse than I expected actually, totally predictable and laughable at times. But I'll be damned if the visuals didn't keep my eyes glued to the screen every second. I pretty much have no desire to ever see it again, but I'm glad that I saw it in the big format.

having a funny convo w/ a friend who agrees with me about everything except that he loved it

*****: the pivotal scene in avatar
*****: is the one where america launches a 9/11 attack on sioux jerusalem
me: lmao
*****: and it only gets more convoluted from there
*****: i love it

*****: the heroes are afro-arab pacifist treehugger warhawk jihadist 9/11 victim aztecs
*****: i just love that they are animist buddhists at peace with nature, but also mongol human meat grinders

What was convoluted about the movie? It was pretty fucking straightforward.

i think what he means is pretty clearly conveyed in the above quotes

Goddammit I want to go see it in Imax 3d but those shows are still totally selling out and I want to be in a theater that is half full at best.

Being a peasant I don't think I've been to see a 3D movie before and I was astonished by this. However, although I quite enjoyed all the running round the jungle the story was pretty excruciating. I think, regardless of whether you find the

it's the embarrassment of watching a film which is all about the peace and love but whose narrative and aesthetic is almost entirely 'we need american football style jocks and nubile big-eyed scantily clad maidens (although with blue buttcheeks) to make out and we need a massive fight with a big baddie at the end who won't die' ie the opposite of the whole aesthetic. Cowboys and indians (almost literally) but in a mantle of second-hand spiritual stuff.

Yep, that's what's going to save earth.

Also, I know he's supposed to be a moron, but really - 'She told me how everything was interconnected, I think I'm beginning to understand.'

Of course I wasn't thinking that at the time, I was just wincing and pulling a face every now and then, but in retrospect I think that was at the root of most the wincing and face pulling.

Did anyone else's eyes hurt after seeing it? I wear glasses anyway, so I was wondering if it was that, but then I wondered whether it was a result of trying to focus on things that you couldn't really focus on.

3D was impressive. One eye watered a little towards the beginning, & the glasses gave me a head/toothache somewhere in the middle, but that went when I fiddled with them a bit.

Was most impressed by the solid, dirty, real-looking machines towards the beginning. Forgot how good Cameron was at military-industrial SF. More in awe at that than the Whirl-y-gig stuff.

Carried me along. Only got bored during some tribal life bits, smelt a bit of Consultant Anthropologist.

Whoops, unfinished sentence.

Was clearly supposed to read 'regardless of whether you find the EYWA'.

I suspect watching the movie with 3D glasses over my normal glasses was responsible for the headache I got a few hours after leaving the theater. I am one person who doesn't give a shit about 3D.

I finally saw this, with a few friends, and it was cool whenever something psychedelic was on the screen we'd look at each other and smile about how cool it was to see a 3D blacklight forest. The movie looks amazing but I've seen a RealD movie before and to tell you the truth the realism in the CGI was more impressive than the 3D in most instances. Still worth seeing though.

The story was ok, but the execution of everything was so contrived and 90s Hollywood that it really took me out of the world they were building with all the cool 3D and fantasy visuals. I hated the setting up of that one military bad guy to be indestructible and so OTT evil, it was worse than the end of District 9. It was so contrived and obvious. At one point there is slow motion Na'Vi running from fire and crying and stuff and it shows the bad guy and he just says "Die!" and I cracked up at that point. Ridiculous.

There were so many cool fantasy ideas and imagery they could have developed that were undermined by the dumbed-down Hollywood Action Movie nature. Specifically dialog like this, introduced early on in the forest as spoken by an Avatar, which is like something a 16-year old boy would say while playing WOW:

Ha, ha! Yeah, come on! Show what you've got! Oh yeah, who's bad? That's right. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about bitch. That's right, get your punk ass back to mommy. Yeah, you've got nothing. You keep running. Why don't you bring some of your friends, huh?

Well, that dialogue was effective at doing what it intended, which was to make Sully look like an ignorant fratty jarhead, and to set up the comic moment of the hammerhead appearing and scaring the shit out of him.

But, you know, I'm sure you'd make very good movies too.

Sorry, that was a little bitchy.

Specifically dialog like this, introduced early on in the forest as spoken by an Avatar, which is like something a 16-year old boy would say while playing WOW:

I thought it was funny and very much how a lot of dudes would react to the situation (I have been known to act that way in competitive activities). also agree with lukas that it set up a good gag when the hammerhead thing came busting through right after and scaring him. I actually really thought the guy who played Sully nailed the character. I can't find fault with his performance.

I was impressed with how tiny and spindly Sully's legs were. Did he just pump up the rest of his body and ignore his legs, or was there some further CGI trickery there?

guessing the latter

yeah that was the single effect that impressed me most, actually.

Well, that dialogue was effective at doing what it intended, which was to make Sully look like an ignorant fratty jarhead, and to set up the comic moment of the hammerhead appearing and scaring the shit out of him.

But, you know, I'm sure you'd make very good movies too.

― counter-clockwise (lukas), Sunday, January 17, 2010 5:50 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

the dialogue in this movie was terrible
the dialogue in this movie was terrible
the dialogue in this movie was terrible
the dialogue in this movie was terrible
the dialogue in this movie was terrible

ok, but criticize it for the right reasons (it's hackneyed) rather than the wrong reasons (complaining about stupid characters saying stupid things.)

ok, but criticize it for the right reasons (it's hackneyed) rather than the wrong reasons (complaining about stupid characters saying stupid things.)

ok, but criticize it for the right reasons (it's hackneyed) rather than the wrong reasons (complaining about stupid characters saying stupid things.)

ok lol I am actually with you in general but how is hackneyed distinguished from stupid characters saying stupid things? /pedant

well, in the example above, the character is saying stupid shit because the character is stupid, not because the director thinks it's actually a k3wl thing for the character to say. like, there are actual howlers in the dialogue, pick on those!

My main problem with that dialog was that it was so out-of-place in relation to the rest of the story it worked against whatever 'immersive' 3D VR movie experience I felt Avatar was trying to sell me on. There was plenty of silly/stupid dialog in that I ignored because at the moment it didn't break the spell.

just realized if you crossed apocalypto w/avatar imax 3d itd be the fucking pinnacle

real talk right there

Article in EW says his spindly legs were prosthetic and modeled after a real paraplegic's legs. And his real legs often hidden with practical effects, too.

Ah, thanks for that. Makes sense.

I did forget to mention that there was a couple sitting next to us in their mid to late 20s and the girl sitting immediately to my left literally squealed with delight about fifteen to twenty times. It was fairly off-putting.

h8 delight

The success of this movie is finally giving me an appreciation for what Titanic dissenters went through 12 years ago.

I should really see Apocalypto one of these days.

u really should