Aside from the technical achievements, does anyone else think that Avatar is considered such a great movie simply because it isn’t a remake or a sequel? How many other SF movies this year were not remakes/sequels? What are your thoughts?
If I resolve to not go to any more “reboot” movies, will there be anything SF-ish left for me to see? This could be a huge money-saver.
My three favourite sci-fi movies of the year were District 9, Star Trek and Moon. Avatar was 6th, after Surrogates and Pandorum. Star Trek’s the only one I’d consider a reboot/sequel.
I think Avatar is considered such a great movie because it’s massively hyped. (it’s uncharitable to say that I think it’s because the general public are dumb.)
My own take on the story is much like other detractors…white man comes, learns knew ways, saves all. Same ol story told a different way. You take group A (could be white people, maybe just males, or just humans in this case) then you make them the source of both destruction and salvation for Group B. In both ways the focus falls on Group A.
Classic master/slave dynamic and it was crammed down our throats in the movie. You’re gonna get comments when you’re that aggressive with a message.
But on a more superficial level yes it was a beautiful movie on the screen. The attention to detail was astounding. I thought the blue skin of the Na’vi didn’t really fit life in the jungle but I realize that was probably an artistic choice. It clearly raises the bar for cgi and other production companies are going to have to work harder if they want to come close to this new standard in the future. It might be years before anyone can create anything similar…but I’m sure they’re trying as we speak!
I had not heard of Pandorum before just now. I might check that out.
“Have you seen Avatar? Do you feel life lost its meaning? Does the real world now seem grey? Feel disgusted with the sight of our world, and what we have done to Earth? If yes, then…”
sigh You did that on purpose didn’t you? Didn’t I just say…
Ok, everyone hold on. Rotational halt in 3, 2, 1…
Actually, that kinda sound like what the crew said on podcast 201 after seeing the movie now that I think about it… d:
It’s typical. Anything popular and people bust out their agendas.
Thanks! I added them to the good ol’ Netflix queue.
That’s one way of looking at it. Another would be that many popular things come with a built-in agenda of their own, and often shove down the audiences throats. I’m ok with that sometimes, as long as it’s original. Here, however, it wasn’t.
Yet another way of looking at it is there is no agenda and someone just wanted to create something. Another would be someone just wanted dump trucks full of cash. Point is that with any art it matters what it means to you and how it makes you feel. If you go in to anything with an open mind you will get a unique experience (good or bad). If you go in looking for something or expecting an agenda you will color your own experience. To me it seems like a very pessimistic way to go about things. Just cause bad media (News, Newspapers, Blogs, Radio and Magazines) is full of an agenda, that doesn’t mean everything is and if it is we are in no way obligated to pay any attention to it. 
Well, I didn’t expect to like this movie, but I did, very much. Yes, the story is familiar, but you need a familiar story in a world like this, so that people can relate to it. Besides, every story has been done already, the way I look at it.
I recently got into it with Adam Kempenar of the Filmspotting Podcast, because of his ripping apart of this movie. He actually said that the dialogue was, in his words, “Lucasian”.
I didn’t know how to respond to that…how the HELL do you even go about thinking that Avatar’s dialogue was as bad as ALL of the Star Wars prequels? What has James Cameron ever done in his life to ever deserve that kind of an insult? It may not have been Shakespeare, but Avatar’s dialogue was far, far from being that horrible. I didn’t groan even once.
And this defense is all coming from a guy who didn’t particularly enjoy Titanic. 
I sorta groaned at the “tree hugger” line. Well, I just rolled my eyes.
But, yeah. Far from Lucasian… Hell of an insult indeed.
Anyone watching SNL with Sigourney Weaver hosting?
Whoo hoo! Golden Globes for director and best film!
The conservatives are gonna have a field day.
“See?! Hollywood is anti-military and anti-capitalism!”
And anti-good movie
HEY-O!
Nah I kid
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34908811/ns/entertainment-movies/
?Avatar? surpasses ?Star Wars? at No. 3 all-time
Sci-fi saga raises domestic total to $491.8 million in early weekend returns?Avatar? now is closing in on ?The Dark Knight,? No. 2 domestically with $533.3 million. After that, only Cameron?s ?Titanic? at $600 million will remain ahead of ?Avatar? domestically.
“But at least Hollywood is pro-violence!”
I think this, the GWC podcast, put it best, when they said that the Humans on Pandora were NOT military. They were mercenaries, guys too scuzzy for the military, who wanted to work for people who didn’t ask questions.
And really, I don’t think anyone is really anti-capitalism, least of all Hollywood. I think what people are against, including myself, is this idea of uncontrolled, unrestrained, cowboy capitalism, as I call it. Plus, the stubborn idea that anything less than this cowboy capitalism is automatically communism.
Story-wise, you hit the nail on the head.
I’ll be honest, I’d amend that to say “anyone even remotely familiar with sci-fi in general, history, or experiences of colonialism”.
Radio Picon said what I was going to say, so I’ll just quote it. 
The story is problematic as hell but the actual technical side of making the film is really excellent.
I saw the movie in 2D and I have to say, as one of the people who 3D makes physically nauseos, I’m not a huge fan of the push to 3D. I wish I could see what it looked like since everyone raves about it, but I’d also rather not feel sick through an entire movie.
Another interesting note - I’m in a country that’s huge on piracy and after having seeing the film in the theater, a family member brought a DVD copy home so people could watch it again… which is pretty normal here, but it was on yesterday and they cut off the end because it didn’t fit on the disc. i.e. [spoiler]You see Jake’s human and Na’vi bodies getting connected and zooming in on his Na’vi face but you never see his eyes open![/spoiler] talk about changing the ending…
An interesting thought today: Most of the complaints made here about the Avatar story would apply just as effectively (if not more so) to all the Star Wars flicks. What is it that makes us accept and love older stuff yet roast the new?