_Avatar_, directed by James Cameron

I've been thinking about this movie recently, in regards to its huge success versus John Carter's abysmal failure (box office wise). They both have silly names dotted throughout and CGI alien people on alien worlds, and maybe the jungle paradise of Pandora with its fluorescent floating jellyfish is more appealing, but I would have thought the corny mother-Gaia vibes would have turned a lot of people off. My only real guess is that people say "James Cameron!" and then see Mech Warriors and are like "oh shit, bad ass".

I didn't care for Avatar when I saw in the cinema. I liked some of the visuals and the action scenes more when I saw it in 2D at home, but all the other bits were even worse.

The Town is a sub-Heat crime drama with a terrible ending, but I know a number of 'plebs' who rate it as one of the best movies in recent years because it's about as 'serious drama' as they'll likely see. Also, Renner's Cagney > Everything in Avatar tbh.

yeah, i was surprised that "john carter" wasn't sold as an avatar type sci-fi romance. the two films are similar in many respects, and avatar did quite well at the box office.

it was actually; when disney started full on freaking out, the ad campaign was "See the story that inspired STAR WARS and AVATAR"

and then people saw the title John Carter and thought it was a biopic about a controversial school administrator from the 80s

as opposed to when people saw the title Avatar, and thought it was about lj icons.

it kinda was

"They blew up the Hometree!"

Mood: SAD

yeah, that's generally the case when sad things happen in films

(whoosh!)

No badge to this, people can watch what they like and however many times they feel the need to get they want from it. I didn't get around bcz I usually have 10 films (old or new) I want to see every month and I only get round to about 3-4.

This is being premiered on UK TV tomorrow. Alas, I am instead attending a screening of a doc about an Iraqi Women's basketball team at the Human Rights festival.

But I'll have to check up on how indigeneous people were brutally destroyed by imperialist aggressors sometime. I'll get a bk out of the library or something.

it's a family-friendly adventure film, ffs. just hitting the basics of something like that is impressive enough.

jeez, just reread my defense from two hours back. so so so many dropped words and shitty constructions. yikes. not doing myself any favors there. and i think i used the word "very" like five times.

I don't really think the pro-indigenous/anti-imperialist-consumerist thing is THAT rare in Hollywood tbh. Ewoks weren't CEOs of the treehouse when the righteous Empire came marching in with their hybrid AT-STs.

hubristic edit, apologies in advance:

I don't full-on love avatar, but I do like it a lot. I saw it twice in the theater, in both 2 and 3D, and have seen it once on big-screen blu-ray since. By the third time through, it was starting to wear a bit thin (and long), but I still enjoyed it and will likely watch it again at some point. Rewatchability isn't the ultimate cinematic virtue, though. I probably won't feel compelled to watch Tarkovsky's Solyaris too many times in my life, but that takes nothing away from my admiration of the film. Anyway, the performances of Avatar's two leads were both quite good, I thought, and I loved the "10 foot tall blue people". it's a science fiction movie, and I'm an unrepentant science fiction fan. Giant blue cat people will always be a plus.

I agree that the plot is routine, but Cameron's sense of narrative flow and timing are still impeccable. Avatar builds effectively, compresses and expands just where it needs to, and pulls of its emotional effects with masterful aplomb. I found both the love story and the climactic popular uprising quite moving. Though it's troublesome with regard to its use of the "white savior" trope, I was impressed by the film's political message and commitment. Few popular action-adventure movies deal so directly and bravely with divisive political realities. Finally, i think Avatar does a great job of metaphorically telling the awful story of Western imperial conquest, and of giving that story the appropriate emotional and moral weight. That Cameron indulges himself in a crowd-pleasing happy ending does nothing to blunt Avatar's communication of the tragic truth. The fantastical elements of the story only drive home the differences between this imagined world and our own, where Gaia doesn't rise up at the end to repel technologically advanced invaders. As a result, i found it a very bittersweet film.

this movie might have been good if the lead character wasn't such a boring lump, it's aliens without ripley, the terminator without the terminator OR linda hamilton

also there's scenes involving mystical forest children laughing

Ewoks weren't CEOs of the treehouse when the righteous Empire came marching in with their hybrid AT-STs.

yeah, but ewoks do not so clearly stand for the victims of real-life genocide. and revenge of the jedi does not so bluntly drive home the message that the "evil empire" is us.

so what you're saying basically is that avatar is good because it ~makes u think~

I'm saying I appreciated its willingness to deal bluntly with some pretty heavy and divisive shit, both contemporary and historical. And I found the telling of the story involving and even moving. And it kicked ass, even with the laughing forest babies, white savior and shitty fonts.

Last Samurai and Dances with Wolves are just two examples of crappy movies that call out the US as the "evil empire".

As far as Gaia not rising up, I guess they can't all by Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

xpost

so what you're saying basically is that avatar is good because it ~makes u think~

i think what you're saying basically is "u liked avatar lol", which is cool, cuz i did

Last Samurai and Dances with Wolves are just two examples of crappy movies that call out the US as the "evil empire".

never seen last samurai. the similarities btwn avatar and dances with wolves are definitely there, and have been hashed to death besides. i liked dances with wolves at the time, but it's been ages, and i was rather young. no giant blue cat people, iirc.

also, Star Wars has its roots in coming up with a story from the perspective of the Vietcong fighting American Imperialism.

Avatar's message isn't bad, and I'm glad it's not a pean to the US Military-Industrial Complex the way the Transformers films are, but I don't think its bucking any trends. Hollywood roots for the underdogs.

also, i don't think that either the last samurai (rated R) or dances with wolves were quite as kid-friendly as avatar. in terms of the audience reached, the star wars films are a better comparison, imo.

My feelings are similar to Contenderizer's. I liked Avatar a hell of a lot. There's all kinds of things it doesn't do, but the things it does do are so abundant and wonderful. Ornament can be substance sometimes.

Maybe I missed it, but it seems shocking that certain elements of the Right didn't go after Avatar the way they've gone after The Muppets or The Lorax.

also, Star Wars has its roots in coming up with a story from the perspective of the Vietcong fighting American Imperialism.

Avatar's message isn't bad, and I'm glad it's not a pean to the US Military-Industrial Complex the way the Transformers films are, but I don't think its bucking any trends. Hollywood roots for the underdogs.

fine, but "rooting for the underdog" is not quite the same as making an explicitly political film about specific historical and contemporary issues. the fact that avatar tied the US invasions of iraq and afghanistan to the genocide of native peoples in the Americas, and opposed these things by unambiguously celebrating what might by some be called a "terrorist uprising" seems pretty impressive to me.

yes, pretty impressive for a hollywood movie to express liberal sentiments

oh, come on. they're not just "liberal sentiments". and it's not just a "hollywood movie". it's a family friendly summertime action-adventure sci-fi blockbuster. hardly the sort of place you typically find pointed critiques of american policy throughout history.

War of the Worlds has Tom Cruise actually grab an explosive and hurl himself into the belly an invading machine.

uh, okay...

i think that's a bit more subtle, but sure

"Avatar" was released during the respite when the American right was more or less cowed into brief submission, iirc. They had "lost." It wasn't until the summer of 2010 that they got their mojo back via the Tea Party, and by then we had all moved on from "Avatar" and onto something else. Health care reform?

I honestly enjoyed "Avatar" fine the one time I saw it, enough that I recommended it to the rest of my family ("you have to see it in 3-D!"), who between the three of them run the political gamut. They all came back from the theater with these accusatory glares, like I tricked them into seeing it. Anyway, along with, again, "Titanic," or "John Carter," or "The Hunger Games," I liked it fine and had no desire to see it again, and sense that if I did see it again, what I once appreciated wouldn't carry me through a second viewing. But this could be a generational thing. Are there some now grown folks who think back on and quote "Titanic" the way my generation may quote "Aliens?" Do kids who saw "Avatar" three years ago think of it the way some think of "Star Wars?" I want to say no, but I have no idea. It wasn't until a few years after the fact that I realized what effect the "Star Wars" prequels had on pre-teens in my neighborhood.

i admire the construction of the film and everything cameron achieved technically, but i wish it was a more interesting movie - something with more of an edge and less of a please-every-audience 4 quadrant mentality.

when i saw this was bumped, i assumed people were going to be talking about the fact that cameron is heading to the bottom of challenger fucking deep next week, in a submersible of his own design:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mBG0LbAoqk

http://www.bendbulletin.com/article/20120322/NEWS0107/203220366/
http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/03/22/a-giant-dive-for-mankind/

avatar 2's gonna be set in the oceans. i hope ed harris is in it!

best part of avatar (and the only 3d thing i've ever been like @_@ at) was the scene where they wake up in that big ol room in the spaceship

it's a family friendly summertime action-adventure sci-fi blockbuster.

<pedant>

Release date(s) December 10, 2009 (London premiere)
December 18, 2009 (United States)
</pedant>

BOO-ya!! contenderizer is 100% wrong!!!

yeah I totally saw it right before Xmas that year

*crosses arms, smiles smugly*

Pedantry 101

in australia it was summertime tbf

*uncrosses arms, frowns earnestly*

Yeah, but it was Christmas on Pandora. GAME, SET, MATCH.

*flails arms confusedly, face contorting into wild grimaces*

whoa had no idea cameron was headed for challenger deep, that is mega dope

ha that cameron sub teaser is pretty funny, hes got some super hi tech stuff to do something thats only been done once before fifty years ago, but they didnt get pictures well actually some pictures have been taken since then, but james cameron might DIE which admittedly would be p compelling

<pedant>

Release date(s) December 10, 2009 (London premiere)
December 18, 2009 (United States)
</pedant>

lol, got me there

Movie is so gay

not gonna let my kids see it due to bestiality with those flying things

This was on TV this evening and I unintentionally gave it another three hours of my time, so I begrudgingly admit it must have some power to captivate and entertain. The early forest scenes look far more cartoony in 2d though (oh shit have I inadvertently made an argument for 3d? my bad); and the finale with the most absurdly gung-ho military commander in movie history jumping out of an exploding plane in a giant exoskeleton and having a knife fight with jake (while still in exoskeleton) is RIDICULOUS.