Avatar, Avatar's sequels and 3D

[Hamish Durie]

Oh, thank god! For a second I thought this was a thread about M. Night's Avatar!

Spoiler: Just imagine if he did make a sequel...

"I decided that Toph being blind was too bland, so she'll have her sight in this movie...

...and she'll be played by Angelina Jolie!"

*shivers*

Anyways, onto the REAL topic!

I actually liked the movie... Sure, the plot was unoriginal, (but then again, it's hard to find a movie that hasn't been done before), and I was rather impressed with the effects!

All in all, I'd watch the sequel to it...

I think M.nights avatar remake would go something more like

Spoiler

Tophs blindness is kinda bland
lets replace it with a religious latino stereotype
and lets have Angelina Jolie play it anyway

ohk back on track

I'm actually looking forward to this

 

[Saltyk]

I know I'll see the sequel. I actually enjoyed the movie. I was a little annoyed by it just ending, though. I felt like it ended a minute or two before it should have.

Now, I can see why people dislike it. The plot, story undertones, and characters have issues. But I personally liked it. At least it entertained me. That's all I ask for.

Also, I read a great theory that the whole plot was about the planet or nature (which was established as being a living organism) brainwashing the main character and trying to prevent the Navi from allying with the humans. Actually a good theory that puts the whole movie in a different perspective.

I disliked the film, rather a lot, just lots of little things annoyed me.

I didn't notice the 3D, let alone at ground breaking best 3D experience it was penned out to be, yes I had the glasses on and yes I was in the right screen.

I also noticed nothing in Tron: Legacy, I have only really noticed 3D on a demo 3D TV in Tesco.

On I will give credit where it's due though, the visuals were absolutly stunning.

While I actually enjoyed the film, I agree that the 3D was over-hyped. I had to point the 3D effects out to myself to actually notice them. About 20 minutes in, I realized that I wasn't even paying attention to the movie as much as I was trying to pay attention to the 3D effects to make the 3D worth my money. At this point, if I can see the movie without 3D effects I will. Not just because it's cheaper, but because it never adds a damn thing to the movie. Not even a little.

I still haven't seen it. To be honest, I've never thought much of James Cameron.

I'm 17 and I'm already left completely uninterested by films that are supposed to amaze me because they look good.

i couldn't careless.

thank you grammar nazi

Lol. I actually made a thread about Phrases that annoy people. That seemed to be the most popular response.

Oh, and according to my spell check Nazi should be capitalized.

 

[Saint_Zvlkx]

Look at it this way: Avatar was a chance for James Cameron to re-tell a classic story in his own style. The sequels will probably be predictable, genre stories, but if they're as well done as Avatar, I'll probably watch them.

 

[Sovvolf]

Mainly because I'm not on this silly hate bandwagon everyone jumped on.

Neither am I. I thought Avatar sucked before I knew anyone else did, when you could still be accused of heresy and burned at the stake for saying it. No, I hated it because it was unoriginal and wasted my time and money.

M'eh to each their own. I don't care that people hate it, just find it obnoxious that people started jumping on this bandwagon of hate. Where people started hating it cause everyone else is. Then calling it the worst movie ever... Yeah to each his own but anyone calling it the worst movie ever is an idiot.

 

[liquidsolid]

I think that the plot's unoriginality came from the need for the film to make a lot of money. They went with a gamble by pouring all of this money into visual effects, and if the film had bombed it would have been a financial disaster. Movies that have mass appeal, that makes soft points, with recognizable conflicts and character archetypes are more likely to generate the revenue.

I personally won't be watching Avatar again, I saw it in the theaters in an "altered" state of mind and I really loved it, but it just doesn't hold up on anything but the big screen in 3D. I may go to see Avatar 2 in the same "altered" state and I hope I enjoy my experience.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

I enjoyed it. Much better than Titanic. Yeah, the plot's not original and the visuals are amazing, but it was a good movie and what made it a good movie is that it appealed to a very large audience.

As far as the sequel goes, I don't believe Avatar needs it. Unless the film's plot is going to go in a completely different direction, it could possibly ruin the first film.

Also, I don't know why everyone is so excited about 3D; it's been around for years and unless they make it more interactive (King Kong 360 or Shrek 4-D), then it's not really all that impressive. If a 3D film last less than 2 hours, then it's fine; if it's more than that, however, then it just becomes an eyesore.

 

[Jakub324]

Mainly because I'm not on this silly hate bandwagon everyone jumped on.

Neither am I. I thought Avatar sucked before I knew anyone else did, when you could still be accused of heresy and burned at the stake for saying it. No, I hated it because it was unoriginal and wasted my time and money.

M'eh to each their own. I don't care that people hate it, just find it obnoxious that people started jumping on this bandwagon of hate. Where people started hating it cause everyone else is. Then calling it the worst movie ever... Yeah to each his own but anyone calling it the worst movie ever is an idiot.

Oh, it was far from the worst movie I've ever seen - Goal 3 still obliterates all competition on that one.

 

[Jakub324]

I didn't like the way the human's were the bad guys. I refuse to believe that someone would turn on their own species like that

I guess you must have missed the part where the humans started a ruthless campaign of genocide against the Navi so that they could dig out some natural resources to feed their ever expanding industrial economy.

I consider myself a nationalist, but it still baffles me how when people don't see the obvious problems in supporting their own faction in everything that it does regardless of what it is actually doing.

Patriotism is doing what you believe is best for your people, but its not blindly fallowing whoever is running the place at any given time.

What is it exactly that made you so baffled about the main character joining the Navi?

The Naavi were far from welcoming, if I remember correctly...

 

[DeadlyYellow]

....Why is it getting a sequel? That's just so... needless.

Can't say much for the first one. The graphics were good if it matters, but I couldn't watch it for several minutes without getting eyestrain. But since I didn't pay for my copy, I can't say I lament the money lost.

 

[Jakub324]

I didn't like the way the human's were the bad guys. I refuse to believe that someone would turn on their own species like that

I guess you must have missed the part where the humans started a ruthless campaign of genocide against the Navi so that they could dig out some natural resources to feed their ever expanding industrial economy.

I consider myself a nationalist, but it still baffles me how when people don't see the obvious problems in supporting their own faction in everything that it does regardless of what it is actually doing.

Patriotism is doing what you believe is best for your people, but its not blindly fallowing whoever is running the place at any given time.

What is it exactly that made you so baffled about the main character joining the Navi?

The Naavi were far from welcoming, if I remember correctly...

So what did they do that warranted the genocide of their people?

The Native Americans were pretty welcoming, and what happened to them? I'm not suggesting we haven't moved on from that time, but I think an arrangement could have been made that left the Naavi to their lives and the humans with their metal or whatever they wanted.

 

[Sovvolf]

I guess you must have missed the part where the humans started a ruthless campaign of genocide against the Navi so that they could dig out some natural resources to feed their ever expanding industrial economy.

I don't think many-a-people will disagree with you that the actions of the humans were bad. Think what most people role the eyes at is the fact that they preformed these actions in the first place. Remember, this is a movie, so someone had to write those actions, lines of dialogue and such.

Even as a fan, the humans being the villains annoyed me, not simply because they were humans but because they were such strawmen. I spent most of the movie rolling my eyes at their actions. Its the whole "All humans are evil" story that just annoyed the shite out of me and you get the strong feeling that this is what James Cameron thinks about us too.

Which is a shame really, Cameron is a pretty good director and writer and I think he could have done better with the villain and maybe given them a little more depth and motivation.

 

[x EvilErmine x]

I didn't like the way the human's were the bad guys. I refuse to believe that someone would turn on their own species like that

I guess you must have missed the part where the humans started a ruthless campaign of genocide against the Navi so that they could dig out some natural resources to feed their ever expanding industrial economy.

I consider myself a nationalist, but it still baffles me how when people don't see the obvious problems in supporting their own faction in everything that it does regardless of what it is actually doing.

Patriotism is doing what you believe is best for your people, but its not blindly fallowing whoever is running the place at any given time.

What is it exactly that made you so baffled about the main character joining the Navi?

The Naavi were far from welcoming, if I remember correctly...

So what did they do that warranted the genocide of their people?

The Native Americans were pretty welcoming, and what happened to them? I'm not suggesting we haven't moved on from that time, but I think an arrangement could have been made that left the Naavi to their lives and the humans with their metal or whatever they wanted.

Nope it could not have, if you watch the start where they show the human mining it shows that they are strip mining the ore out and using a slash an burn policy. Later in the film we learn that the planet is a giant interconnected organism and the trees an shit are like neurons in the brain. The mining destroys them so no compromise can be made.

OT
Avatar for me was dances with wolves warped in pure high def eye candy. It wasn't an awesome film but nor was it a bad one too. It was just a fun film that got hyped to the stratosphere so was never gonna live up to the expectation but never the less still managed to be entertaining. What it defiantly does not need is an Avatar 2 : Avatars .
Leave it alone Hollywood...leave it......*sigh*...bad Hollywood *reaches for the rolled up newspaper*.

 

[Jakub324]

and I didn't like the way the human's were the bad guys. I refuse to believe that someone would turn on their own species like that

You need to read more history.

Start with the First Nations in North America and the "white men gone native". Except for the ending, it is most certainly inspired by real life.

What, black people are a different species, now?

 

[Jakub324]

I didn't like the way the human's were the bad guys. I refuse to believe that someone would turn on their own species like that

I guess you must have missed the part where the humans started a ruthless campaign of genocide against the Navi so that they could dig out some natural resources to feed their ever expanding industrial economy.

I consider myself a nationalist, but it still baffles me how when people don't see the obvious problems in supporting their own faction in everything that it does regardless of what it is actually doing.

Patriotism is doing what you believe is best for your people, but its not blindly fallowing whoever is running the place at any given time.

What is it exactly that made you so baffled about the main character joining the Navi?

The Naavi were far from welcoming, if I remember correctly...

So what did they do that warranted the genocide of their people?

The Native Americans were pretty welcoming, and what happened to them? I'm not suggesting we haven't moved on from that time, but I think an arrangement could have been made that left the Naavi to their lives and the humans with their metal or whatever they wanted.

Nope it could not have, if you watch the start where they show the human mining it shows that they are strip mining the ore out and using a slash an burn policy. Later in the film we learn that the planet is a giant interconnected organism and the trees an shit are like neurons in the brain. The mining destroys them so no compromise can be made.

OT
Avatar for me was dances with wolves warped in pure high def eye candy. It wasn't an awesome film but nor was it a bad one too. It was just a fun film that got hyped to the stratosphere so was never gonna live up to the expectation but never the less still managed to be entertaining. What it defiantly does not need is an Avatar 2 : Avatars .
Leave it alone Hollywood...leave it......*sigh*...bad Hollywood *reaches for the rolled up newspaper*.

I'll take your word for it on that one. I'm glad we agree about the sequels, though.

 

[Korten12]

Erm... what? Sam Worthington didn't play Spartacus, and he isn't dead. You're thinking of Andy Whitfield, a completely different actor who, unfortunately, did die recently.

Wait he did!? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I was looking forward to the second season. D: He was a good actor.

 

[RatRace123]

I didn't like the way the human's were the bad guys. I refuse to believe that someone would turn on their own species like that

I guess you must have missed the part where the humans started a ruthless campaign of genocide against the Navi so that they could dig out some natural resources to feed their ever expanding industrial economy.

I consider myself a nationalist, but it still baffles me how when people don't see the obvious problems in supporting their own faction in everything that it does regardless of what it is actually doing.

Patriotism is doing what you believe is best for your people, but its not blindly fallowing whoever is running the place at any given time.

What is it exactly that made you so baffled about the main character joining the Navi?

The Naavi were far from welcoming, if I remember correctly...

The Naavi were portrayed as the perfect species, physically and sociologically superior to humans, plus they could insert their USB hair thingies and basically control their environment. The humans were mostly portrayed as mustache twirling bad guys who only sought death and destruction.

I didn't hate the movie, but I thought it was kinda meh. It was pretty, but meh. The portrayal of the humans as one dimensional bad guys VS the perfect blue space elves kinda grated on me.

But, there's room for improvement, maybe if we think of the first Avatar as an origin story, we can get the deeper, better balanced, more morally challenging dilemmas in future stories.

 

[Papadam]

Its funny that people hate Avatar because its unoriginal when its probably more original than 99% of the movies coming from Hollywood.

I guess its just cool to hate something that becomes really big and popular.

I enjoy watching a traditional story old in an untraditional way. Dont know if it need a sequel though. The first film was something really special, the second wont.

 

[Hatchet90]

Are we still having Avatar discussions two years after the movie came out? The only reason people hate the movie is because it made so much damn money. The people who mock it for having an unoriginal story now, are the same monkeys who flung shit at the production costs before the movie even came out. People who said that Avatar was going to "flop" at the box office. Sure, it had a similar story to Dances With Wolves, who gives a shit? The plot was not the primary focus of the movie. Cameron used a familiar story so that you could lose yourself in the world that he meticulously created.

I thought it was a fun movie that was more deserving at the Oscars than the Hurt Locker. But then again, so was every other nominee. I welcome a sequel. I loved Avatar then, and I still love it now. James Cameron's track record with sequels include Aliens and Terminator 2, both really good movies in their own right.

 

[Apollo45]

Um... I liked the first one?

Pocahontas-imitation jokes aside, they did the plot well (and besides, name a single plot from any genre in the last 10 years that isn't an imitation on some level), the characters weren't bad, and the visuals were spectacular. I didn't notice the 3D, but that's because you're not supposed to notice the 3D, it's supposed to be seamlessly integrated with the film, and they certainly did that. Watching it in 2D makes me feel like something's not quite right.

I'm not sure how you can be mad when the humans were the bad guys either... I mean, not all of them were, and they were kinda being dicks about the whole unobtainium thing.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Yay, a chance for James Cameron to rip off Roger Dean even more. I go on about this sometimes, but I do feel it's a point that needs to be made. People praise Avatar not for the story or acting (both of which are mediocre at best), but for the art direction. Unfortunately, James Cameron nicked nearly everything in Avatar from the work of Roger Dean, the artist who designed all the Yes album sleeves. Don't believe me?

This is why the visuals never really impressed me.

It looked like random fantasy art, the kind that you find being sold in giftshops or market stalls.

Not that I hate the movie, I just found it remarkably unremarkable.