Avatar is not the only story thats been retold

[Klepa]

90% of the movies made today are pretty much the same thing, and follow certain rules very carefully.
A site called tvtropes.org [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage] will make this extremely clear to you.

It's not about the result, it's the way it's told. Watching Avatar, we all know the Navi are going to win, even if we've never even heard of Dances with Wolves. The Navi are presented as sympathetic, we are made to like them, while most of the humans are intolerable assholes, or in other words, Bad Guys.

Bad guys very rarely win.

I thought Avatar was OK, but nothing special.

 

[REPLAY13]

"mean machine" was a british film that copied the story from somewhere else (can't remember where) which was then ripped off in "the longest yard" and probably some others.

 

[JEBWrench]

tvtropes.org [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage]

YOU SUNOVA.... I have work to do today!

 

[MiracleOfSound]

OT:

Star Wars = LOTR

You're gonna have to explain that to me.

OK... I'll do my best.

First off I don't actually think Star Wars = LOTR but in the context of people unimaginatively claiming that Avatar = Pocahontas/Dances With Wolves, like this guy:

Avatar = Pocahontas in space.

...it's the same principle.

In other words, my point is that almost every story is similar to another story.

For example Star Wars and LOTR:

Many estranged, different but essentially morally good races and cultures unite in order to face off against a common foe, a seemingly invincible evil antagonist who lives in an unpenetrable, ominous abode (Mordor/Death Star).

One central character goes through many tests and trials in order to become the ultimate pivotal point of the conflict.

That make sense?

 

[Superior Mind]

OT:

Star Wars = LOTR

You're gonna have to explain that to me.

OK... I'll do my best.

First off I don't actually think Star Wars = LOTR but in the context of people claiming that Avatar = Pocahontas/Dances With Wolves, it's the same principle.

In other words, my point is that almost every story is similar to another story.

For example Star Wars and LOTR:

Many estranged, different but essentially morally good races and cultures unite in order to face off against a common foe, a seemingly invincible evil antagonist.

One central character goes through many tests and trials in order to become the ultimate pivotal point of the conflict.

That make sense?

Ja, does a little. For the life of me I couldn't think of any similarities but yah, when you put it that way there are a few. You could also sy that after "A New Hope" that the efforts were to vanquish a foe that was rebuilding it's power, (new Death Star,) a'la Sauron.

 

[b3nn3tt]

"mean machine" was a british film that copied the story from somewhere else (can't remember where) which was then ripped off in "the longest yard" and probably some others.

Actually, Mean Machine was a British remake of the original Longest Yard, which was then remade again with Adam Sandler

 

[Noxshadow]

This should've been the first post, shame on you all.

http://www.cracked.com/video_18156_a-trailer-every-academy-award-winning-movie-ever.html

That was sheer gold. I want to make a movie trailer that follows that structure to the letter and see if anyone notices.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

OT:

Star Wars = LOTR

You're gonna have to explain that to me.

OK... I'll do my best.

First off I don't actually think Star Wars = LOTR but in the context of people claiming that Avatar = Pocahontas/Dances With Wolves, it's the same principle.

In other words, my point is that almost every story is similar to another story.

For example Star Wars and LOTR:

Many estranged, different but essentially morally good races and cultures unite in order to face off against a common foe, a seemingly invincible evil antagonist.

One central character goes through many tests and trials in order to become the ultimate pivotal point of the conflict.

That make sense?

Ja, does a little. For the life of me I couldn't think of any similarities but yah, when you put it that way there are a few. You could also sy that after "A New Hope" that the efforts were to vanquish a foe that was rebuilding it's power, (new Death Star,) a'la Sauron.

Indeed you could.

You get my point anyway, that Avatar is no more ripping off Pocahontas than almost every other movie is doing with something else.

 

[Robert632]

Most srories have been told a million times in one way or another, so trying to point out which ones aren't original is like searching for hay in a hay stack. It's to easy and pointless.

 

[bluejet]

Superhero movies, romantic comedies, the whodunit murder mysteries, and some action movies.

 

[ezeroast]

well its actually more original than 90% of movies

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

There are some theories stating that there are only seven archetypal stories, and only a handful (the number varies) of archetypal characters, so in theory every story ever has been retold in every possible way.

It's not about the story anyway, it's about the presentation.

 

[Brandon237]

Well most stories have a similar structure which is explained in "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" so you could say that almost every story is constantly being retold.

This is true. ESPECIALLY with action and romance. The same plots are done over and over in 99.9 % of mainstream movies. The thing is that the recipe works. It is like making a chocolate cake. It is hard to make it nice if the recipe is just a little... off. The problem is that by the time you have seen the media in action for a while, you have had 10 000 chocolate cakes and are now really in the mood for a milk tart.

 

[Eliam_Dar]

Well, most stories have been told over and over again (Noah's Ark was not original you know - yes I went there, even the bible is not original at all) but since most stories deal with human realities or perceptions, we will always have similar stories (some more similar than others). Avatar is really similar to Pocahontas and Dance with Wolves, in fact a friend of mine described it as "A Space version of Dance With Wolves". That doesn't mean that Avatar is bad, many people anjoyed the movie, and so did I.

 

[Bigeyez]

Every story draws something from one or multiple stories that came before it. There are no truly "original" stories left. Some element, somewhere in any new or past work is guaranteed to have appeared before in a story/film/whatever before.

Unless it's a completely blatant copy of a past work no one should get upset by someone reusing a past element or feature in their work. (Especially considering a lot of that happens accidently)

 

[Lord Krunk]

From the first couple of posts:

Lord of the Rings was based quite largely of the Nibelungenlied.

Star Wars = LOTR

It's kind of obvious but Eragon = Star wars

I'm seeing a pattern here. Now then, who copied the Nibelungenlied?

 

[Ledan]

.... In space movies there are more American/European people than Indians or Chinese people.
That's all I got.
That, and that I LOVED Avatar. Whoever says that it had poor acting or filming, don't know a good movie when they see one. The story was better than I expected, because I expected drivel.
It was the first movie in a looooooooooooooooong time that had me questioning wether or not the good guys were going to win. For 2 seconds.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

I'm tired of the old story - droid meets droid, droid becomes chameleon, droid loses chameleon, chameleon turns into blob, droid gets blob back again. Blob meets blob, blob goes off with blob and droid loses blob, chameleon and droid. How many times have we seen that story?

 

[Robby Foxfur]

we seem to have reached a point where we are going to be retelling something from somewhere, at some point in time so why cry about it? as long as the story can draw you in is told in a new and exciting why then why ***** about it?

When something is just retold, or blatantly copied (the modern bases for everything now a day) without adding anything then you can yell about it all you want.

 

[McShizzle]

The movie "Crash" was pretty much a big rip-off of a better movie "Magnolia".