James Cameron Commits to Avatar 2 & 3

[ShadowsofHope]

..Since when was Avatar an "epic masterpiece"? I'll give it the visuals, but the story was just plain fucking boring and contrived.

Evidently enough, I will not be seeing the second and the third.

Edit: As some Avatar fans cannot fathom that *GASP* some people did not like Avatar and think James Cameron is a crock for this film, I shall say this: It is my opinion.

Deal with it.

 

[cobrausn]

Also, I feel obliged to post this (long and silly) review.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJarz7BYnHA

Wow. That was a great review, but there is a difference between a bad story and bad characterization.

Perhaps you are correct, but the characters are the ones delivering the story and allowing us to relate to it. The characters in Avatar were so one-dimensional that the story came off that way. There was potential there for them to make it a really good story. All they would have had to do was make the the Na'vi less 'perfect' and the humans less 'evil'. Instead, everyone could have been acting in what they thought was for the best and we would have been left trying to decide which of the flawed characters and groups actually was right. You know, like the real world.

Instead, we got 'Big Corporate Evil White Guy out to Rape, Pillage, and Murder' and 'Lovable Blue Space Tree-Kittens fighting for Peace'.

Gag me. It was as though Ferngully and Pocahontas had a baby.

Lol...it's true, and after watching both parts of that video you linked, I find myself disliking the movie much more than I did previously. It does a very good job of reverse engineering the film and examining every decision that was made in it's design and the purpose those decisions were made to serve- most of which are very shallow and manipulative.

I actually thought the entire concept behind the avatar system was the most creative and unique thing the movie did. I think something about it appealed to the gamer in me.

Yeah, that review was pretty spot on, even if the narration got silly at times. I was very intrigued by the concept of the movie at first and thought it might be the next really good sci-fi. Now everything about the movie just angers me in some irrational way I can't quite pin down.

Perhaps the part that bothered me the most in the movie was when the vtol pilot fired on her own troops, and the movie tries to get us to feel like she's some kind of hero who didn't just do the worst thing any soldier could ever do. I think that's where the movie officially went over the deep end.

 

[Frejon]

That's not entirely true.

While Dune is somewhat similar, it's far more awesome, and the humans the main character arrives with actually intends to do something good on the planet etc etc.

It's the same story, in desert climate and much more awesome involved.

 

[Caligulove]

Hopefully they can focus on story more this time, and more characters that we can care about.

Though I do imagine there will be a scene like this
Neytiri: "YOURE NOT THE HYBRID ABOMINATION THAT I FELL IN LOVE WITH!"
Jake: "I CONVERTED FOR YOU!!!!!"

 

[quantumsoul]

Avatar had flaws, but the story itself wasn't one of them ("Unobtanium" was, though). I enjoyed the movie, just not enough for it to be nominated for Best Picture. Maybe the sequels will be good, but that really doesn't happen often. I'm not going to hold my breath.

Also, for a site full of nerds, I'm always surprised people don't say the plot is just Dune in the jungle.

Unobtanium is an actual engineering and scientific term for any extremely rare or physically impossible material. Though I agree it sounds stupid at first, it really isn't.

 

[RooftopAssassin]

Awesome. I can't wait for some pretty pictures and more Dances With Wolves... in space!

I thought everyone knew by now that pointing out that Avatar has a similar plot to Dances With Wolves doesn't make you funny or clever, it just makes you look like a giant bandwagoner douche.

OT: I personally liked Avatar, but are squeals necessary?

Then I must be the funniest, cleverest, giantest, bandwagonerest, douchiest, douche who uses the most horribleist grammar!

High five!

Fixed it! And yes, high five!

 

[TheTejs]

for fucks sake
These movies arent going to be good, it's just either gonna be some crazy make no sence plot twist out of the first
or something set long time after the other movie, having nothing to do with the first...

sequals are NEVER as good as the first, and it ruins the whole experience of the first...

(Except LOTR... As they were books to begin with)

 

[RJFTW]

Awesome. I can't wait for some pretty pictures and more Dances With Wolves... in space!

I thought everyone knew by now that pointing out that Avatar has a similar plot to Dances With Wolves doesn't make you funny or clever, it just makes you look like a giant bandwagoner douche.

OT: I personally liked Avatar, but are squeals necessary?

Then I must be the funniest, cleverest, giantest, bandwagonerest, douchiest, douche who uses the most horribleist grammar!

High five!

Fixed it! And yes, high five!

I'm on that bandwagon too! Let me guess, you were one of those idiots who cried during the movie, and when you were pried away from your little fake 3D world? Did you need help coping when they told you it wasn't real?

 

[SmokingMirrors]

No, just no.

But wait- hold on.. as I recall the humans are out of the picture at the end of the first, so who's going to be the embodiment of corporate villainy in these supposed sequels?

 

[FlameUnquenchable]

Also, for a site full of nerds, I'm always surprised people don't say the plot is just Dune in the jungle.

To chime in here, Avatar has so little complexity that I completely forgot that it has one or two plot points that echo minor plot devices in Dune.

Unobantium = Spice
Guy going native

Common themes from multiple books/movies and genres. But Dune is ultimately more complex in every aspect than Avatar, so it doesn't really compare that well.

 

[zfactor]

Avatar had flaws, but the story itself wasn't one of them ("Unobtanium" was, though). I enjoyed the movie, just not enough for it to be nominated for Best Picture. Maybe the sequels will be good, but that really doesn't happen often. I'm not going to hold my breath.

Also, for a site full of nerds, I'm always surprised people don't say the plot is just Dune in the jungle.

Well, now that you mention it...

EDIT:
Dune has an entire backstory that was never directly explained in the movie. It just sort of dropped you in and expected you to make sense of everything. Avatar explained everything (either in the opening or as the movie progressed).

 

[FlameUnquenchable]

Why all the hate for the original? Yes, you could predict several plot developments, but the same could be said of the vast majority of films in existence. Just seems to me that its now 'cool' to hate Avatar.

Despite what other people think, i'm still going to see Avatar 2 and 3, and like most people enjoy them.

Mainly because Cameron overhyped his own movie, it isn't the Epic he thinks it is, it was just a big fancy piece of eye candy with an overdone storyline. If he can do something different with the next two, doubtful, I would like them, if not I'll say the same about them that I did about the first.

 

[Danpascooch]

Yay... There will apparently be two more movies I can hate with a fiery passion.

Plus, I hope we get to see Giovanni Rabisi reprise his role as the squirmy businessman Parker Selfridge. I love that guy.

It's Ribisi, Greg.

Also, "emotional horsepower"? Seriously, James?!

Lol, I laughed my ass off at "emotional horsepower"

 

[Nouw]

Giovanni from Saving Private Ryan! Hell yeah.

Well this is news we never saw coming! I'd rather have him make Aliens:Colonial Marines!

 

[RooftopAssassin]

Awesome. I can't wait for some pretty pictures and more Dances With Wolves... in space!

I thought everyone knew by now that pointing out that Avatar has a similar plot to Dances With Wolves doesn't make you funny or clever, it just makes you look like a giant bandwagoner douche.

OT: I personally liked Avatar, but are squeals necessary?

Then I must be the funniest, cleverest, giantest, bandwagonerest, douchiest, douche who uses the most horribleist grammar!

High five!

Fixed it! And yes, high five!

I'm on that bandwagon too! Let me guess, you were one of those idiots who cried during the movie, and when you were pried away from your little fake 3D world? Did you need help coping when they told you it wasn't real?

Yeah, I'll stand by my statement and say that ignorant people shouldn't go around making assumptions.

And really? Insults? I wasn't trying to insult anyone more than I was trying to bring the fact that the movies been out for quite awhile, but people are still trying to use that old line. It's like making a Portal reference.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Eh. My favorite thing about the films were the environments, and a few choice lines, neither of which really seemed to matter. Impossibly floating mountains were neat, and epic forest worlds with hyper-deadly creatures are fair, as are giant trees used as an free-to-dwell apartment complex. The description of their bodies was pretty cool (though, as a materials engineer, I want to put one through all kinds of mechanical testing, and make a nice chart of how Na'vi bones and human bones both react under a tensile test...).

But the hair sex thing I could care less about. Sure, it's a nice way to commune with mother nature, but there's really only so many times you can talk to her before she tells you to stop calling for a bit.

 

[edthehyena]

Also, for a site full of nerds, I'm always surprised people don't say the plot is just Dune in the jungle.

Warning to those who do not know Dune's plot, there may be very minor spoilers bellow

Well they're really not that similar. Avatar is more of a Pocahontas in space then anything. Admittedly the basic premise of the two are little similar, ie Paul joining the Fremen and going on to fight the Harkonnen and Jake Sully defecting to the Navi to fight the RDA, and Paul being the Mahdi overlaps with Jake being the chose one thing that he is, but even those similarities are loose, and go no further. For example, Paul was never an enemy of the Fremen, while Jake started out as an enemy of the Navi. This is actually a fairly major point as it changes the story from one based around the lead character's morality (Avatar) to one that is based around multiple issues, revenge and politics being the first that spring to mind (Dune). There is much more to this subject then that, but I honestly don't feel like doing a whole write on the differences between the plots of the two stories, and anyway, I'm sure you get the idea.

That was kinda my point. It really has as much in common with Dune as all the other things people say it's ripping off (which isn't really all that much). Also, Dune is older than everything else people point at.

Believe it or not, Unobtanium is an actual thing. It's a word created to describe building material needed to construct objects that go against the laws of physics. For example, one might need Unobtanium to build a frictionless pulley. It doesn't really exist, but Cameron used the term, probably because he felt like it. It does sort of imply why the material is worth so much in the movie.

Actually, it's an imaginary thing. A placeholder for a thing that hasn't been discovered. Once a material were found that could make a frictionless pulley or something else, it would be named. The mineral they were going after was already discovered, and should have more than a dumb-sounding placeholder name.

 

[Axzarious]

Im keeping my fingers crossed for "The Imperium stumbles across the homeworld of the Navi" plot.

I do remember hearing that since the 'planet' the movie took place on was a moon, and the planet has 3 moons, that they would have a story focusing on each moon or something like that.

 

[cobrausn]

Im keeping my fingers crossed for "The Imperium stumbles across the homeworld of the Navi" plot.

I do remember hearing that since the 'planet' the movie took place on was a moon, and the planet has 3 moons, that they would have a story focusing on each moon or something like that.

After the Imperium got there, provided you're talking about the Imperium I think you are, there would probably be a few less moons.

Suffer not the alien to live...