Poll: Avatar, what's the big deal?

[MiracleOfSound]

It mad me feel exhilarated and it was magical, entertaining and emotional for me.

I already did in a post near the start of the thread

Yeah, I felt no emotional attachment to any of the characters aside from Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore in Space, and I couldn't take the Na'vi seriously. I guess it just didn't appeal to me on an emotional level.

Well then it obviously just comes down to a difference in what you and I consider to be entertaining, and which characters we find sympathetic.

I'll give you an example of a part I loved and why... the scene where Jake learns to fly.

As he went shooting down the mountainside with the big musical crescendo, you could feel the speed, the joy and the wind... I got chills all down my spine and felt excitement, exhilaration... I felt like cheering out loud.

The last time I got that feeling was at the end of Mass Effect.

 

[StigmataDiaboli]

Did you know Avatar is actually Ferngully: The last rainforest? Same storyline. WAY bigger budget.

Yes, but with more dogfighting and less Robin Williams.

Which is probably a good thing.

Thankfully.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Did you know Avatar is actually Ferngully: The last rainforest? Same storyline. WAY bigger budget.

Really? That never occured to me the first six million times people pointed it out.

As he went shooting down the mountainside with the big musical crescendo, you could feel the speed, the joy and the wind... I got chills all down my spine and felt excitement, exhilaration... I felt like cheering out loud.

Me and my friend were actually alone in the cinema during the second time I saw it.

I actually yelled 'Whoooo!' at that scene, completely involuntarily.

Yeah, it was awesome. The battle at the end was fucking mind blowing too... especially

Spoiler

Jake and Netyri vs Mech suit

 

[funguy2121]

OP: search bar!

 

[katsabas]

One of the best depictions of greed ever. I cried 'finally' when that soldier guy died. I got a bit iffy at the end. It was basically Pocahontas with aliens. Except the heroine doesn't turn into a ***** in part 2. Good visuals, original ideas here and there and action. And emotion. That's a win win for me. I was also glad it is a single movie. I thought there was gonna be a LOTR cliffhanger.

Definately not the best movie ever but I was impressed with what I saw and I am glad it is making money cause I've had enough with Titanic being first.

 

[Baby Tea]

Someone please explain to me why Avatar is so great.

Spoiler: Lol, Originality

Oh. That was clever.
You goto failblog too?

What is with people and originality? An unoriginal story or plot doesn't automatically make a film (Or book. Or game.) bad. It's how it presents that story! I don't like Avatar as much as Furburt did, but I did enjoy the film. It was visually stunning, but the story itself was a good retelling of classic themes. I was thoroughly entertained.

 

[Samurai Goomba]

It's conceptually unoriginal and its characters are stereotypical at best, but it's executed pretty well and has some amazing action sequences.

It definitely isn't the best movie to show up even in 2009 (Watchmen), but it's not even close to as bad as blockbuster hit Transformers.

I think even the people who like Avatar aren't saying it isn't a fairly average movie with amazing special effects. Nobody is saying this is the best movie ever. It seems to me that everyone's opinion of Avatar is that it's either on the good or poor end of "average." And hey, when unoriginal liberal hippy tripe like this is done THIS well, what does it matter how plagaristic or obvious it is?

Although I would like to find the writer who thought "unobtanium" was a good name for a material people really wanted to obtain and punch him square in the neck for being such a freaking dolt. There's subtext and then there's beating the audience over the head with your stupid ideology (especially the one that suggests a world of Internet Trees and flying dragons is directly (metaphorically) equivalent to a place of open plains and cacti.) For all that, however, I enjoyed Avatar way more than I had any right to.

And Beowulf sucks. The CG in that is HORRIBLE.

 

[DannyBoy451]

Wait, so the mistake I'm making here is trying to analyse it on an artistic and intelectual level as a piece of cinema, when I should just treat it as a popcorn movie?

Actually, yes. That is it entirely.

I'm not saying you shouldn't analyse it, but it shouldn't interfere with your entertainment of it.

Perhaps it's just because I lean more towards the Roger Ebert reviewing style of taking the movie as an experience on a whole, rather than dissecting the elements.

While the plot wasn't bad, it certainly was very basic, and the characters were somewhat 2 dimensional.

But you know what? I didn't care. I was sitting in the cinema with my snacks and my friends having the time of my life.

Surely that's what entertainment is?

There's a problem with treating Avatar as popcorn entertainment though, the problem being that Avatar isn't popcorn entertainment.

Avatar is a morality play about the oppression and exploitation of aboriginal populaces by white imperialists. This isn't me reading too much into the story, this is the very obvious subtext of the movie, and I think we can all agree on this. It rigidly follows the cliche plot of a civilized man who falls in with primitive natives, learns their ways, gets accepted as one of them and comes to understand their connection with nature, before joining forces with them to fight off his former people.

Because this movie is a morality play with a moral message, it is not simply entertainment, it's making a statement, and because of this you have to judge it by different standards.

When judged by those standards, Avatar falls short. The moral message is redundant and contrived, the moral dilemma it presents isn't a dilemma since it's extremely black and white: The humans are all evil imperialistic fucks motivated by greed, and the natives are these perfect, angelic, profoundly spiritual people who live in totally harmony with everything. This is simplistic and lazy storytelling.

Ignoring the ham-fisted message it's a pretty enjoyable action movie, although maybe a tad long with some dead air in the middle.

 

[Deadlock Radium]

Gigantic "MEH"

That!

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I had to stop watching for about 20 seconds and take the glasses off because my brain just couldn't handle the amount of stimulation.

[sub]So this is what fanboyism feels like[/sub]

Haha fanboy!

I'm as bad.

What is with people and originality? An unoriginal story or plot doesn't automatically make a film (Or book. Or game.) bad. It's how it presents that story!

Exactly. It's amazing how hard this is to grasp for some people.

The logic is screwed.

Star Wars: Different mildy mystical beings and various civilisations unite against an all powerful evil in a seemingly impenetrable lair.

So by that logic Star Wars = Lord of the Rings rip off.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

The humans are all evil imperialistic fucks motivated by greed, and the natives are these perfect, angelic, profoundly spiritual people who live in totally harmony with everything. This is simplistic and lazy storytelling.

It's not though.

The only 'evil' humans are the demented general and the sleazy corporate guy.

The military mercs are admittedly performing terible acts, but really they are just following orders and mercs are generally assholes anyway.

Most of the human populace were visibly traumatised by seeing what the mercs were doing to the N'avi.

It was realistic, because human nature is such that even if we don't agree with something an aggresive authority figure is doing we will rarely try to stop it due to fear for our own safety.

 

[RanD00M]

I loved it.

Sure it had it's ups and downs.But all in all,it's a solid film that you watch to enjoy,not to take seriously.

 

[RanD00M]

Spoiler

Jake and Netyri vs Mech suit

<spoiler=My 2 cents in here>The last stand with Humans Vs. Na'vi armies was so much better.The stand off with Jack and Netryi Vs. Mecha suit was great.But not as epic as the last stand thing.

Well,in my opinion anyway.

 

[rex922]

i would have bee better if

Spoiler: Note: Spoiler

he actually died instead of being saved

IMHO: it would have been so much better

 

[Summerstorm]

It was good... not much to say about it. Not my favourite, not bad. I gladly paid to see it on the big screen... but other than the end and the "overall quality of the graphics" i found not much too memorable.

7/10 (6 normal +1 for good execution and innovation in graphical integration)

If i see it for 2 bucks or so in a bin in a few years, maybe i see it again *g*

 

[TotallyFake]

It's conceptually unoriginal and its characters are stereotypical at best, but it's executed pretty well and has some amazing action sequences.

It definitely isn't the best movie to show up even in 2009 (Watchmen), but it's not even close to as bad as blockbuster hit Transformers.

I think even the people who like Avatar aren't saying it isn't a fairly average movie with amazing special effects. Nobody is saying this is the best movie ever. It seems to me that everyone's opinion of Avatar is that it's either on the good or poor end of "average." And hey, when unoriginal liberal hippy tripe like this is done THIS well, what does it matter how plagaristic or obvious it is?

Although I would like to find the writer who thought "unobtanium" was a good name for a material people really wanted to obtain and punch him square in the neck for being such a freaking dolt. There's subtext and then there's beating the audience over the head with your stupid ideology (especially the one that suggests a world of Internet Trees and flying dragons is directly (metaphorically) equivalent to a place of open plains and cacti.) For all that, however, I enjoyed Avatar way more than I had any right to.

And Beowulf sucks. The CG in that is HORRIBLE.

Unobtanium is a pre-existing concept. It's a joke engineers use. He got in on the joke. Especially as the word "unobtanium" is only said twice in the entire film, by the corporate goon. Might not even be it's proper name.

That said, it's a stupid name because people will associate it with The Core. Which was awful.