breadlord said:
I was reading somewhere that this movie was influenced by that anime cartoon on a kids network.
Avatar, the Last AirBender? Got sued for the right to use the name. That's why when that movie comes out, it's only going to be known as "The last Air Bender" only. No Avatar. But the two movies are VERY far from each other in terms of plot, pacing and main message.
Mazty said:
3D movies haven't been around long enough to make such a claim that they don't age well, and even less of the new 3d movies are actually decent (My Bloody Valentine etc). And I'd disagree with T2 and Titanic. T2 is just a rerun of T1 (Still great though), just with a bigger budget, and Titanic is a good movie, but essentially just another tragic romance. Sure Avatar can be compared to many other films such as Dancing with Wolves, or Pocahontas, but it still holds it own with the sci-fi element of it (The connection to the planet), and also raises the bar for future cinema as the CGI seems to have broken the barrier of unrealistic.
Not necessarily. T2 is a rare example of a movie that took a concept and ran with it. Sarah Conner became Badass mom where in the first one she's more of a wuss that needed to be protected. A woman takes up for herself and it expanded a LOT of the Terminator mythos while making John Conner a confused boy that has to grow up rather quickly. All in all, I preferred T2 to what T1 is offering.
I'll give you Titanic because damnit... That whole deal with the tragic romance reminds me too much of Leo's Romeo and Juliet and I can't take him seriously. He cries too much.
But I highly, HIGHLY doubt that he raises the bar within the sci-fi community. Serenity has done a lot. He uses a lot of graphix to cover the fact that the story seemed rather simplistic. Around the middle, I could begin to surmise what was happening. That's not good storytelling, that's copying. And it was to my dismay that one tentative grasp is made to make this seem to be a better movie (namely the connection to the planet). The fact remains that we've seen this in better offerings. Namely "The Last Samurai" or even "Hero". I had a nice time watching it. I won't deny that. But CGI shouldn't be used as the main basis for storytelling. A movie should be able to stand on its own two feet, which I believe Avatar doesn't really do. It takes elements from Cameron's (as well as other movies) as more an expensive rehash.
If anything, I would have liked to see more of either earth or the Na'Vi world. More of the interaction with the civilian life rather than the scientists as the main voice of reason. I also wanted to see the damn MacGuffin used one time. What is it about the Unobtanium that's so great other than price? Power up one space rock for me and let me see. As it stands, we're shown the world, we're shown two sides, and Mother Earth picked one.
Ferngully
Dances with Wolves
The Last Samurai
I saw these. I understand the message. But it's lost if you lose me along the way. The Deus Ex Machina moment really made me just go *sigh*