Whats the deal with the Avatar movie?

[clzark]

It's a fun movie?

I'm among those rare few it seems who don't expect every movie to be some sort of amazing insight into the nature of reality and out place within in. When I go to the theaters, I go to have fun, and bloody hell was Avatar a blast to watch! Dragged down a bit in the first half, but once the fighting kicks in strap-in because you're in for one helluva ride.

But apparently that's not enough. Ah well! I for one enjoyed the movie.

see, that's part of the problem. the Wolverine movie that came out didn't have a very good plot, but it had great action scenes in it. On the other hand, Kick Ass had better action scenes than Avatar. Avatar's action was not very good. I can enjoy most movies for what they are (I don't expect comedies to have a deep plot, I don't expect a drama to have explosions), but Avatar was just a bunch of "Hey, look, doesn't this fake cat thing look soooooo cool riding this fake dragon thing next to this fake mountain?"

which is fine, if you're into special effects. but personally, I'm not, and it bugs me when people claim it's the best thing to happen to movies since popcorn (not that YOU'RE saying that, but there are those people out there)

 

[TheRealGoochman]

I don't care what peeps say to be honest (good or bad).......Avatar in my book (personal opinion) is an awesome movie.....you know what sure it is similar to Dances With Wolves.....but who the hell cares.....it has that awesome SciFi flare to it.
The movie looks great, it kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time (all 8 times in theaters and 2 times at home), and it kept me immersed in it enough to where I actually cheered when he rallied the people and the clans. Personally I think if a movie does all that it is an awesome movie.
Again this is all person opinion!
now sure the story is not original, but as long as I am entertained I am happy.

That being said, after over 10 years of having One Flew Over the Coo Coo's nest as my favorite film...and then seeing Avatar......Avatar took the number one spot. Sure you can sass my choice all y'all want, but damn I loved me that battle scene

 

[IceStar100]

I always wonder what happend to orbital bombard ment went?

 

[Tdc2182]

Well, I thought it was beautiful yet extremely boring. I didnt get it.

As for you thinking the colonel was in the right, you are definately missing the point. Unless you hate nature. In that case its understandable. Stupid trees just... just... being trees.

 

[Xanadu84]

1) Why is it called Avatar? On the planet of Pandora, occupied by humanoid species called the Na'vi, whose home is now under threat by humans. Seems like a more fitting name would've been "Humans vs. Thundercats" (as all the Na'vi look like distant cousins of Panthera of the thundercats).

Do you know what an Avatar is? Essentially, it's a body which is an embodiment of a different being. The crux of the movie is the Na'vi body of Jake Sully. That body is his Avatar. Actually, I might be mis-remembering, but don't they refer to the Na'vi bodies as Avatars several times?

2) In the first 15 mins it becomes pretty obvious who the good and the bad humans are, seeing as all the Na'vi are good ... you can practically predict what happens next in the movie.

Well yeah, but that's not exactly uncommon in movies, even good ones.

3) Am I the only one who thinks the the colonel (yes, the big bad guy) was in the right?

You're...taking the Pro-Genocide position?

4) The movie creates a distinct impression that the humans and Thundercats are somewhat evenly matched ... that is until the fighting actually begins ... and the humans PWN the thundercats. This really got me thinking that if the humans were all that militarily superior to the Thundercats anyway, why in the world did the colonel employ Jake Sully to find weaknesses in the tribe? You don't need weaknesses to bomb em...

Well, militarilly, America is more powerful then Iraqi insurgents. and we all know that that superiority has led to no losses on the American side, and that just bombing the native population completely ended the war...

5) The movie has Sigourney Weaver in it ... as a scientist! I can't believe I watched a 2.5 hour movie with Sigourney Weaver in it and there wasn't a single scene of her machine-gunning someone or hammering someone with Mecha-armor (and this movie had guns and Mecha-armor too). To make matters worse, she dies .... and she doesn't even come back, as a thundercat or as a cyborg. (You'd think that after 4 Alien movies this was a given...)

Personally, I thought it was interesting to see her, not as a frontline soldier. I think she did a good job.

6) The colonel offers Jake Sully legs.... LEGS dammit. Who doesn't want legs!!! I can't help but feel that between LEGS and joining team thundercats .... LEGS was the right choice.

Now to be fair, if we are just talking personal gain, the choice was between legs, and bigger, faster, stronger legs to go along with a hot Na'vi chick.

7) "The Humans were sent back to their dying world..." Really? So Jake Sully chooses to live on a lush planet teaming with life, while condemning his fellow humans to die off with their world... I dunno about you but I think this looks as bad as genocide to me...

It wasn't a dead world, and it wasn't the entire race. The point was that the humans would have to try to fix what they have, be responsible for their actions, and if they come back, they would have to do so without the whole murdering indigenous population thing.

8) The humans lost 1 battle and its all over ?!?!? Why wasn't the colonel succeeded by a 2nd in command or something? Where are the nukes, dammit?

It was a pretty big battle, and the Humans pretty much had 1 outpost. And I'm sure he was succeeded by someone new. It just wasn't particularly relevant to the plot, especially since the humans were going home. And why the hell would they nuke? Would they cobble one together from the local rocks, and nuke them...for fun? They're a company, there's no profit to be made in that, not to mention that the PR backlash back on earth would be pretty horrendous.

 

[Con Carne]

Fern Guly, Pocahontas, Dances with Wolves, The Last Samurai and many other movies/ stories.
Avatar was in no way original. The only thing it did was make excellent use of technology.
But guess what? Polish a turd, it's still a turd. In this case it's a really nice looking turd lol.

 

[dangitall]

I think it's basically the story of John Caboto, or Christopher Columbus or Hernan Cortez (these are all real events in history, not some James Cameron Oscar entertainment) or something like that, but in the three events in history has the invaders winning in the end.

 

[Lord Kodous]

At this point in time it's nearly fucking impossible to make/see a movie that isn't predictable.

 

[deth2munkies]

I identified it more with Fern Gully than Pocahontas, but there wasn't a single plot point I didn't see coming and the 3D wasn't executed all too well. The CGI was well done, though, I'll give them that.

 

[Blindswordmaster]

Avatar isn't the best movie ever made, but I still liked it.
-The story was on we've all seen a thousand time before, it's a classic archetype. Complaining that the story had been done before is like saying that you hated Star Wars because it has essentially been done before. Of course it's been done, but it's all in the delivery.
-The Colonel ,though totally bad-ass, was in the wrong. It is wrong to exploit people for their natural resources, there I said it!
-On point 8: It's not over yet. Cameron has announced that he's working on Avatar 2. And the Colonel(Stephen Lang) has already signed on to reprise his role.
-On point 7: I do believe he was just being dramatic. If Earth was really dying, the humans would already be at the colonization and planet cracking stage of development. And no, this does not mean genocide.

 

[[BDS]Omega]

When i saw this movie my initial reaction was that it was a beautiful movie with excellently done CGI then James Cameron forgot to hire writers. Stock characters, predictable plot but overall a movie that i would probably watch it again. Still cant figure out why it got as much acclaim as it did. By no means is it a bad movie but most certainly not best picture nominee material, yet still more enjoyable than most of the movies nominated both this year and within the last 10

 

[PrimoThePro]

I do feel that Sigourney Weaver was wasted. She could have done SO much. [sub]so much...[sub]so so so much...[/sub][/sub]

 

[Dark assassin for hire]

I agree. Avatar was a mix between Pocahontas, Dances With The Wolves, and animals from the ice age. I did not see one original thing in that movie except that it stole it's material from other stuff.
All of the animals were real on earth except not glowing blue. And there was also already a blue thing called Navi (or however they spell it.) Also, he took stuff directly from a middle school text book. I can do better then that. There where for locations for the tribes: the FORREST, the PLANES, the... other two I forget but it's not original.
Also the humans should have one. Just because the main character get a bigger bird doesn't mean anything. Also his strategy to get the thing was terrible and should have killed him. "I'll just drop down on him, he won't see me ever. The I will put my braid in his thing and were friends." Seriously. Not only is that guy physically crippled, he's mentally crippled.
The Humans had guns. GUNS. It doesn't matter if your 20 feet tall, bullets will kill you. It doesn't matter if your a drugged-up rhino, bullets will kill.
This guy also made terminator and that's where he got his crappy acting and violence. He also made Titanic and if he could, he would make a sequal to it.

so here's something to expect, Avatar 2. Don't waste the money this time.

also if I wanted to see good animation that has story, space, robots, and entertainment, I would watch Wall-e... again. I LOVE WALL-E. WALL-E DOESN'T SUCK LIKE AVATAR!

 

[shemoanscazrex3]

I think you should have made a spoiler alert before you started your rant since I haven't seen the movie. Here's to hoping I forget all of what you said but its called Avater because thats what they called the fake giant smurf thingies

 

[vrbtny]

I think you should have made a spoiler alert before you started your rant since I haven't seen the movie. Here's to hoping I forget all of what you said but its called Avater because thats what they called the fake giant smurf thingies

Don't worry. There's no story for the spoilers to give away.

 

[Lavi]

Everyone who hates on Avatar is trying to be preteneous and COOLIO.

 

[Firia]

1) Why is it called Avatar? On the planet of Pandora, occupied by humanoid species called the Na'vi, whose home is now under threat by humans. Seems like a more fitting name would've been "Humans vs. Thundercats" (as all the Na'vi look like distant cousins of Panthera of the thundercats).

Just on the off chance this hasn't been addressed already; an "avatar" is an interim, a go-between, a representative of something else. Your picture icon is an "avatar" of you. The characters you play in MMOs are your Avatars. And the faux Na'vi in the movie that Weaver and the that marine guy inhabit are their avatars. Crippled Military guy is also an avatar from the human military carrying a message.

So that's probably why "Avatar" was the chosen name for this movie.

 

[NeutralDrow]

So I've just watched Avatar. Yes I know I'm a couple of months too late, but anyways...

The movie definitely did not live up to all the expectations drawn up for it by ppl who've already seen it. Sure, it wasn't a 'bad' movie, but other than the CGI, which I admit was amazing, I really found the movie to be somwhat disappointing.

1) Why is it called Avatar? On the planet of Pandora, occupied by humanoid species called the Na'vi, whose home is now under threat by humans. Seems like a more fitting name would've been "Humans vs. Thundercats" (as all the Na'vi look like distant cousins of Panthera of the thundercats).

An avatar is the physical incarnation of a god. It's what they named those artificial bodies.

2) In the first 15 mins it becomes pretty obvious who the good and the bad humans are, seeing as all the Na'vi are good ... you can practically predict what happens next in the movie.

Yes, you can.

3) Am I the only one who thinks the the colonel (yes, the big bad guy) was in the right?

Of course not. You're wrong, naturally, but you're not the only one.

4) The movie creates a distinct impression that the humans and Thundercats are somewhat evenly matched ... that is until the fighting actually begins ... and the humans PWN the thundercats. This really got me thinking that if the humans were all that militarily superior to the Thundercats anyway, why in the world did the colonel employ Jake Sully to find weaknesses in the tribe? You don't need weaknesses to bomb em...

Because we haven't really looked favorably on decimating native populations willy-nilly since the colonial era ended.

5) The movie has Sigourney Weaver in it ... as a scientist! I can't believe I watched a 2.5 hour movie with Sigourney Weaver in it and there wasn't a single scene of her machine-gunning someone or hammering someone with Mecha-armor (and this movie had guns and Mecha-armor too). To make matters worse, she dies .... and she doesn't even come back, as a thundercat or as a cyborg. (You'd think that after 4 Alien movies this was a given...)

...tough shit?

6) The colonel offers Jake Sully legs.... LEGS dammit. Who doesn't want legs!!! I can't help but feel that between LEGS and joining team thundercats .... LEGS was the right choice.

So what? He got legs either way. Some came with guaranteed tail, too.

7) "The Humans were sent back to their dying world..." Really? So Jake Sully chooses to live on a lush planet teaming with life, while condemning his fellow humans to die off with their world... I dunno about you but I think this looks as bad as genocide to me...

Considering they never brought up the idea of humans colonizing Pandora (they were just there for one specific resource), I think that "dying world" thing was poetic license.

8) The humans lost 1 battle and its all over ?!?!? Why wasn't the colonel succeeded by a 2nd in command or something? Where are the nukes, dammit?

The humans threw everything they had in that last battle, and they'd never moved beyond that one drop location. They were in no position to do anything after they lost.

And yeah...that's a great idea. You want something on a planet? Just nuke it! So what if it takes you a couple centuries before you can move in and actually gather the resources without dealing with fallout, if you don't just destroy literally everything.

Spoiler Alert: If you haven't seen Avatar and you've read the above, be happy. You don't need to see the movie anymore ^_^

Yeah, because you certainly described the cinematography, scenery, and breathtaking CGI with a short rant about not-actually-plotholes. You're just that darned eloquent.

 

[GoldenCondor]

Your number 4 is horribly wrong. He went in there to see if the Na'vi would relocate, and to see what the big tree was for. And your number 7 is wrong too, since he got both legs and a Na'vi body.