_Avatar_, directed by James Cameron

i don't think it's funny/weird, the movie is really stupid and bad and everybody knew it at the time.

i don't think that's true at all. avatar received near-unanimous critical praise, and not just for the spectacle (though, yeah, that was a big part of it). that's what's funny to me about it's disappearance from the pop cultural viewscreen/mind. it was loved in its moment, loved by critics and fans alike. people went to see it over and over again, wept in their seats, made fan pages about wanting na'vi body mods, avatar-themed weddings, to live on a virtual pandora if possible. think pieces were written about how it was damaging people's souls by presenting a fantasy that reality could never live up to.

for the most popular movie of all time its kind of amazing how a year or two later it has zero cultural currency at all...

As someone who doesn't give a shit about cultural currency, I don't think Cameron has ever approached Aliens since, but Avatar was a defensible time-waster and I'd rather rewatch it than all the "relevant" Marvel wanks and spaghetti western tributes.

People were lusting for a fantasy that included, y'know, genocide? I missed that.

Also pretty sure Gone With the Wind is still the most popular movie of all time ($18 tix and history-blind industry hype still suck).

i saw it as a critic in fact and loved it and cried even and then a few hours after it was over i felt like i was coming out of a drugged-out haze! i think it has teh subliminal messages

i 98% loved it for its spectacle though

Am I the only person who found it Just Plain Boring from the first minute until the present? Not bad, good, embarrassing or anything except dull?

Hah, two of my friends were fascinated by that whole subculture, and started jokingly announcing to each other that they'd had a shit day in work via "I could really feel my tail today".

i recognize its flaws but think it's a solid and even admirable sci-fi adventure flick (of the family-friendly variety). defended it at length upthread, and don't wanna go through that again.

thought it looked stupid from the start and never saw it. hate Cameron for the most part.

watching it again, the only times i thought it was okay was when there were metal things onscreen

honestly, i think it's a victim of backlash as much as anything. the combination of familiar plotting, gaudy spectacle, wanton heartstring-yanking and massive hype somehow made it too big to not-hate (for most film buffs, or so it seems). cameron being a total dick bag didn't help, either.

Yeah i thought it was boring. BORING! It was like every second of the film was market-tested or something, like they were trying sooooo hard to make the Perfect Movie. Maybe people just love being pandered to. I'll take a messy, ridiculous, nearly incomprehensible Phantom Menace over this any day.

it was loved in its moment, loved by critics and fans alike. people went to see it over and over again, wept in their seats, made fan pages about wanting na'vi body mods, avatar-themed weddings, to live on a virtual pandora if possible. think pieces were written about how it was damaging people's souls by presenting a fantasy that reality could never live up to.

We're living in an age where the most extreme get a bigger representation in the media and thus the cultural narrative. The Tea Party Era. I don't doubt there are extreme fans weeping in their seats throughout the history of films, it's just now that you can blog about it, it gets passed around, people re-post it for LOLs, it ends up on Facebook.

i don't think it's funny/weird, the movie is really stupid and bad and everybody knew it at the time.

fair amount of people on this very thread prove otherwise

xp

ya even when it was raking in the cash it wasnt like there was na'vi mania in the streets or anything

it's 2012 and you guys are talking about avatar

Yeah i thought it was boring. BORING!

upthread you say it looked great and was worth seeing fyi

Just call me Mitt Romney.

Yeah i thought it was boring. BORING! It was like every second of the film was market-tested or something, like they were trying sooooo hard to make the Perfect Movie. Maybe people just love being pandered to. I'll take a messy, ridiculous, nearly incomprehensible Phantom Menace over this any day.

this was exactly my gripe with the movie. I didn't think it was necessarily "bad", but I still wound up hating it because it didn't really take any risks whatsoever besides having a monster budget. Basically the same thing I thought about stuff like Seven Pounds or whatever Will Smith does

We're living in an age where the most extreme get a bigger representation in the media and thus the cultural narrative. The Tea Party Era. I don't doubt there are extreme fans weeping in their seats throughout the history of films, it's just now that you can blog about it, it gets passed around, people re-post it for LOLs, it ends up on Facebook.

that last may be true in general, but i don't know that it says anything particularly useful about avatar. setting aside the most "extreme" fan reactions as outliers doesn't change the fact that avatar was a very big deal in its moment - embraced not just by needy supergeeks, but by critics and mainstream audiences alike. and super-hardcore fandom isn't irrelevant. that kind of extremity helped make star trek and star wars such enduring cultural landmarks over the years.

Xposting nu star wars was made to attract a new audience, cars was made specifically to give Disney something to market to boys. that's one big difference. And Beowulf totally started the new 3d fad. Avatar made it an event. But really, it was no more than that.

it didn't really take any risks whatsoever besides having a monster budget.

given that it was released in the midst of the iraq/afghanistan war, i'd say it too some pretty substantial risks

"too" = "took", it took some pretty substantial risks

I remember liking this at the time. I don't remember why I liked it though.

I guess seeing something on a huge Imax screen affects my enjoyment of a movie more than I'd like to admit.

i hope that Avatar 3 is tailor made to only be watched in under-water theatres while wearing scuba gear and 3D facemasks

and surround-sound headphones!

given that it was released in the midst of the iraq/afghanistan war, i'd say it too some pretty substantial risks

how so? this kind of dumb pseudo-commentary has been going around for years

avatar's 'super hardcore fandom' isnt comparable to star wars or star trek - like im sure someone has cosplayed as John Postman from kevin costner's sci fi epic The Postman before, but that doesnt mean it has a real fanbase

All big tech heavy action films like this do more to recruit than any other films, I bet. I bet people saw the space marines get their assess kicked in aliens and thought, hey, I want to be a space marine!

given that it was released in the midst of the iraq/afghanistan war, i'd say it too some pretty substantial risks
how so? this kind of dumb pseudo-commentary has been going around for years

avatar is a very pointed and obvious metaphor for the genocidal consequences (agenda) of specifically western imperialism. and it presents "terroristic" responses to an invasion by what looks suspiciously like the US military as unambiguous heroism. for a funtimes, family-friendly summer action blockbuster, that's pretty remarkable.

avatar's 'super hardcore fandom' isnt comparable to star wars or star trek - like im sure someone has cosplayed as John Postman from kevin costner's sci fi epic The Postman before, but that doesnt mean it has a real fanbase

star trek had a tiny fanbase in its day. it failed on TV, and its memory was kept alive for decades not by popular acclaim but by its importance to a small but dedicated minority.

contenderizer that is bog-standard hollywood liberalism with a 'save the planet' gloss, absolutely risk-free

it presents "terroristic" responses to an invasion by what looks suspiciously like the US military as unambiguous heroism. for a funtimes, family-friendly summer action blockbuster, that's pretty remarkable.

to expand on this: for a funtimes, family-friendly summer action blockbuster made during wartime, while america was collectively losing its mind in fear of terrorism, that's pretty remarkable.

contenderizer that is bog-standard hollywood liberalism with a 'save the planet' gloss, absolutely risk-free

i don't think that's true at all. i can't think of another major, family-friendly action blockbuster made in the last 10 years that stakes anywhere near so radical a position.

oops, it was a holiday release. i always forget that (second time itt).

i thought x-men was all about being a gay misfit

"while america was collectively losing its mind in fear of terrorism"

come on, it was '09 not '03

it is, but it doesn't swing anywhere near as hard at that target as avatar. maybe if you threw in some scenes of obviously gay populations being annihilated before rising up to completely smash the state.

well we can say that brian singer is a touch more subtle than james cameron

contenderizer that is bog-standard hollywood liberalism

Bullshit, especially now, when George Clooney is disappointed in progressives/Dems who are disappointed in mass-murdering warlord Obama.

To the electric chair with them all.

come on, it was '09 not '03

fair point, but that doesn't make its obvious allegorical implication and explicit anti-war/anti-military stance* any less remarkable, especially in a film of its type.

* conflicted, of course, by cameron's obvious hard-on for combat, tough-guy tropes and military tech

corporations bad, fighting good. noble savages better than a mean soldier or a kid with an MBA.

really arresting stuff here, never seen its like

re: lack of cultural currency, i waited until a few weeks after it came out, and then tapped a friend on the shoulder, looked deeply into their eyes, and whispered "I see you". and nothing happened. at that very moment i said to myself "this film really isn't going to have much cultural currency". i even whispered "I see you" to someone else later that month, and nothing. what a ripoff.

i admit, as always, that it's possible that no one knew wtf i was talking about

i hear you

corporations bad, fighting good. noble savages better than a mean soldier or a kid with an MBA.

really arresting stuff here, never seen its like

sure, but context is everything. try to think of another big, family-friendly action blockbuster of the post-9/11 era that makes a similar statement.

Wait until Step Up Revolution sees the light of day and this will all be moot.

the bourne movies?

or like the daring stance against big oil in the muppets

Most noble savages films don't actually end up with a tick in the win column for said savages.