_Avatar_, directed by James Cameron

I have never seen Avatar socks, Avatar backpacks, Avatar LEGO sets, Avatar leggings, Avatar hoodies, Avatar lunchboxes, or Avatar fold-up play castles, or even Avatar funko pop figures, and they make funko pops for fucking everything. I have, however, paid cash money for Frozen-themed all of the above.

We bought a toy of one of the dragon creatures (google tells me "Mountain Banshee" okaaay) that they fly on. We've got lots of different dragon toys but this is an odd duck that always gets chucked back in the toy box.

http://www.cooltoyreview.com/Mattel/Avatar/JakesBanshee/header.jpg

The only times I remember Avatar are when I see people with ponytails and think is like to pull on them and say "I see you"

Watched this last night with the kids -- their suggestion, they'd never seen it. I was surprised how well it held up, even on a 32-inch screen. The kids were enthralled from the jump and stayed with it straight thru all 160 minutes. All the things that were bad and dumb about it when it came out still are, but even without 3D it really is an immersive movie. It's just fun to watch, and if Cameron can't write to save his life, he's a genius at pacing. Pretty sure my kids will now want to see the sequels. And probably go to that Disney thing, too.

Substantively, the one thing I still give it credit for is being such a naked Iraq war parable. "This is how you do it -- when people are living on top of something you want, you turn them into the enemy and then you can destroy them."

And by naked, I mean naked and blue, with a tail.

Yeah, lotta hot blue ass for a kids' movie.

Kids: born naked, usually

counterpoint: if kids are either hot or blue, you're doing it wrong

what was up with all those blue guys

Asphxiation

http://49.media.tumblr.com/43398eb425c6e0e2b1aa2c911018933d/tumblr_ngpo0ughiU1u5f8joo1_500.gif

http://io9.gizmodo.com/james-cameron-just-announced-another-avatar-sequel-tha-1771026188

Well, now we have an idea why James Cameron has continued to delay his Avatar sequels. The director came to CinemaCon 2016 to announce that his vision for the world has expanded beyond the previously announced four films. Now there will be five.

Avatar 5 will be released Christmas 2023, following Avatar 2 at Christmas 2018, Avatar 3 at Christmas 2020, and Avatar 4 at Christmas 2022.

Each film will stand alone but also tell a complete story in this epic saga, Cameron said.

someone stop giving James Cameron mushrooms

coincidentally the villains in the next film are sentient mushrooms

Jesus, why bother? It's like he's designing the series specifically to shed light on each previous installment's inferior FX.

Fiiiinally saw this over the weekend. As a proof-of-concept for the ride I will riding at WDW next month, it was overlong but definitely got me jazzed to experience the excitement first-hand. As a movie, it wasn't quite as bad as I'd expected but if anything I'm even more incredulous about the notion of a sequel (let alone seventeen or however many Cameron has planned at this point). Like there were barely enough ideas to sustain a single feature. I scoffed at the idea of an Avatar Land in the Disney parks when it was first announced but that actually seems like where he should've put all his energy, a 360-degree sensurround spectacular that doesn't rely in the slightest upon a compelling narrative.

I like avatar. Do with that what you will.

avatar shows pretty clearly that cameron's 12 years (TWELVE YEARS ffs) away from directing features post-titanic did nothing to dull his ability to put together action sequences with a tremendous sense of space, but the script is... not good

it's incredible that sam worthington is gonna have a career on the big screen until at least 2025 thanks to his lumpen presence guaranteed in the sequels tho

still haven't seen this, but i'm figuring if it gets some kind of tenth-anniversary theatrical run this year, i'd give it a whirl

I figured that Cameron was actively making the sequels in an 'I'm an obscenely-wealthy man tinkering around with a massive project whose half-finished carcass my kids will have to figure out how to move out of the garage when I croak' sorta way but it looks like the next one is actually scheduled for release next year, huh. Hmm. Well.

and then one a year until 2025, it's gonna be lit

I hope the bad guy in the next one will wear a t-shirt that says 'VILLAIN' in a dripping blood font because I was very unclear who the antagonist was meant to be in the initial installment.

i somehow managed to miss that kate winslet is in the sequels until now

and david thewlis! who is almost certainly gonna be playing a villain because... thewlis

I wonder what it's like to be under contract with Cameron, to set out on a weekend excursion with your family only to get a call asking you to come strap in to your mocap duds asap because James needs some footage for the sequel to a film you forgot even making because the first go-round was two presidents ago.

Like every time Worthington had a shot at the superstardom we all know he deserves and were so sure he'd achieve, his pager started buzzing and he had to put the pen down before he could sign up to take on the James Bond reins or thrill us with the adventures of Luke Skywalker, Jr. 'Sorry, guys, it's Jim. I gotta go.'

i'm pretty sure sam worthington just sits motionless staring at the wall at all times until he's required in front of the camera

then he kicks into high gear and stands motionless staring at the wall until the director says 'cut'

I enjoyed the arc of his character, from utterly charmless and charisma-free to ever-so-slightly less charmless and yet still a complete sucking void of charisma.

How best to employ an actor who is almost literally an inert side of beef, oh yes motion capture that's how.

that actually seems like where he should've put all his energy, a 360-degree sensurround spectacular that doesn't rely in the slightest upon a compelling narrative.

this is exactly how to enjoy the film btw, for some reason i didn't find it that hard to just write off the plot + script and dig the 'experience'. Surely anyone who has enjoyed, for example, any 19th century opera, can relate. The story is absurd but the music carries it.

in avatar's case "music" = the whole sensory schmear

While watching it on the couch, I was comparing it in my head with Gravity, which (unlike Avatar) I did see in its optimal big screen presentation and which I've always assumed would lose a lot of its oomph when scaled down to living room dimensions. Except then there's the thing where much of the experience of Gravity from several years back is still irrevocably burned into my memory because it was a good movie which also happened to be good spectacle, whereas I'm struggling to remember much more than the broadest swaths of the cotton candy Avatar which apparently dissolved the instant it hit my tongue.

The Disney ride really made me want to like this movie/universe, it's pretty much the best ride I've ever been on. But that movie doesn't hold up (enjoyed it as a really long tech demo at the time) and the fact that there are 4 upcoming movies makes me actively cringe. I should laugh but I actually feel preemptively bad for everyone involved in those movies. Somebody should have really told James Cameron that making 4 of these at once is probably a bad idea.

avatar shows pretty clearly that cameron's 12 years (TWELVE YEARS ffs) away from directing features post-titanic did nothing to dull his ability to put together action sequences with a tremendous sense of space, but the script is... not good

It’s a movie that evaporates as soon as you’re done with it, but the one take-away I had was that Cameron still can do action sequences better than most anyone. Almost want to revisit to see how it stacks up against the weightless Marvel cartoon slugfests.

2028! There will be people who were conceived, born, raised, and able to cast their votes in a presidential election between Avatar 1 and Avatar 5. https://t.co/bcTgL0zc8R

— Jon Lovett (@jonlovett) July 23, 2020

a story in two parts pic.twitter.com/CEiNYJDiok

— jamieloftus 🏂 (@jamieloftusHELP) July 23, 2020

it would be a wild social experiment if you could somehow delete all the copies in existence to tell people this movie doesn’t actually exist and any impressions you have of it are owing to an elaborate marketing ploy. I guarantee you could sell it to 95% of the world https://t.co/FU8uSnsO5b

— kilgore trout, tiny desk carpenter (@KT_So_It_Goes) December 13, 2020

To dream a dream.

so do these sequels just come out on disney plus now or do they keep them until 2022? I've learned never to bet against the tandem of Jim Cameron/the stupidity of consumers but i gotta feel like there is NO WAY Avatar 2 through 6 are viable in a post-covid movie industry.

sorry, keep until "202X" was what i was going for; I saw the reschedule announcement. I just don't buy it.

I rewatched Avatar last night and it is both totally captivating and such egregious horseshit

^^ i've already said my piece all over this thread but this. it's also still the most effective example of theatrical 3D to date

It still cracks me up that the primary theme of the movie is "got a problem? CONNECT IT TO YOUR SPACE DICK"

Hahahahaha

I'm still expecting him (or someone) to just pull the plug on the whole misbegotten adventure and simply chop up these sequels into a Disney+ series.

still never seen this and i feel good about it

it was fun, dammit!!!

you get to see Sam Worthington's entire career arc in one film

My favorite part of watching this with our 9 year-old a few months ago (hey, quarantine means we have to dig deep to entertain him and it kept popping up on Disney+), was him going "unobtainium, dad, that's dumb".

Worthington was good in his Terminator, iirc.