Page 1 of 2 [ 24 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next

Enigmatic_Oddity
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 Nov 2005
Age: 38
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,555

16 Dec 2009, 6:26 pm

Anyone seen this yet? I took my family to see it last night after hearing all the relentless hype about it and then seeing that early reviews were positive. But I found myself utterly bored for the first two acts of the film, and found it difficult to suspend my disbelief at all the fantasy/magical elements in what was set up to be a science fiction story.

The story and setting was incredibly cliche, the characters one dimensional, the romance between the two leads just came out of nowhere with no lead up. I was the only person in my family who thought the CGI looked terrible. It would have looked good had the film been purely animated, but having human actors on what looked like a backdrop made by Pixar looked terrible. The message of the story was heavy handed and about as subtle as a sledgehammer, with characters saying things like 'Let's fight terror with terror!' and talking about engaging in a 'shock and awe' military campaign.

The whole premise of the story is ridiculous. There was no explanation of many elements to ground it in reality, with many things being seemingly attributed to magic and miracles.

[SPOILER] The final hour, which is the most interesting part of the film solely for its action and spectacle, is also let down by a turn around in the plot by a deus ex machina of the worst kind: divine intervention. Suddenly the planet decides to help out the protaganists by sending in wild animals to help their cause.

The simplicity of the story I found stupefying. The film followed roughly the same storyline as Dances With Wolves, except for its ending, which I found utterly ridiculous by having the audience cheer for an American soldier commiting treason without hesitation against his own country and people to save a bunch of natives. [END SPOILER]

I'd recommend anyone wanting to see Avatar to instead see Dances With Wolves, which is a much better film and though based on a lot of historical rewriting, is the far more subtle and satisfying film.



Lene
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 27 Nov 2007
Age: 38
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,452
Location: East China Sea

16 Dec 2009, 10:25 pm

I really liked it!

True, the storyline was unoriginal; sort of 'Fern Gulley-meets-Pocahontas', but it was very beautiful to look at and the CGI was pretty awesome.

I'd definitely recommend seeing it in the cinema!



Oregon
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 29 Aug 2009
Age: 63
Gender: Male
Posts: 361
Location: Salem, OR

16 Dec 2009, 10:58 pm

I didn't see it yet, will do on x-mas day.

If you felt it was unoriginal. There are ONLY 7 PLOTS.. that are retold over and over again with different twists. I am not looking for anything original, just to be entertained.

Also James Cameron usually makes chick flicks cross dressed to look like movies for guys.


_________________
The bigotry of the nonbeliever is for me nearly as funny as the bigotry of the believer.
~Albert Einstein


zer0netgain
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 2 Mar 2009
Age: 56
Gender: Male
Posts: 6,613

17 Dec 2009, 7:53 am

My rule with movies.

The more hype, the less it's worth seeing.

If it was really that good, they'd hardly need to advertise it.



ouinon
Supporting Member
Supporting Member

User avatar

Joined: 10 Jul 2007
Age: 60
Gender: Female
Posts: 5,939
Location: Europe

17 Dec 2009, 11:26 am

I haven't seen it yet, and I don't think I want to after seeing two trailers and reading a couple of reviews. I liked the look of the non-CGI stuff; the episodes before he goes to the planet. That looked good, but as soon as it went CGI it went phut!

.



Enigmatic_Oddity
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 Nov 2005
Age: 38
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,555

18 Dec 2009, 9:39 pm

Oregon wrote:
Also James Cameron usually makes chick flicks cross dressed to look like movies for guys.


Terminator and Alien are chick flicks now?



DNForrest
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 18 Jan 2008
Age: 39
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,198
Location: Oregon

18 Dec 2009, 10:06 pm

I think he means that strong female characters in the lead role means "chick flick". Odd. Anyway, I liked Avatar, but I feel no need to demand you concur.



lithium73
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 24 Dec 2008
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Posts: 226

19 Dec 2009, 3:43 am

Well i loved it and i loved the escape into fantasy, will be seeing it again multiple times on the big screen. I am a big fan now and i loved the movies message.



AnotherOne
Velociraptor
Velociraptor

User avatar

Joined: 1 Jul 2009
Age: 52
Gender: Female
Posts: 454

21 Dec 2009, 3:01 pm

i agree, the movie is at best C+. i simply do not understand all those great reviews, like E_O I didn't find 3D effects special (I was sitting at the end seat so maybe that explains it). pandora is ok but floating rocks were seen before, 6 legged animals (cliche). i liked the tree network idea and the way trees were done though.

disappointed. i expected more with all the fuss and good reviews.



lithium73
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 24 Dec 2008
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Posts: 226

22 Dec 2009, 1:28 am

last time i checked movies were about fantasy and entertainment, both of which it did very well. I think some people are way to critical. Imagine if the people who made these movies actually listened to the opinions of others. Nothing would ever be made again.



Bradleigh
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 May 2008
Age: 33
Gender: Non-binary
Posts: 6,669
Location: Brisbane, Australia

22 Dec 2009, 7:37 am

I thought it was awesome, I liked the CGI which was really nice. Their was an explanation given, Sigourny said that the forest is like a brain and the trees send electrical signals between each other, and the idiginous species all could conect their own brain signals with each other and the trees colective brain (Eywa).

I don't belive it was much of a deus ex machina, I actually saw it from a mile away, and was surprised when it didn't hapen at first. [Spoiler] They mentioned earlier on that everything was conected and that the forest was basicly one big living organism, and as seen earlier many of the animals had a way of fusing, so it would only make sense that it would use the animals to defend itself.[End Spoiler

Hmm cliche charecters, I wonder what you expected, people need heros and villains. The villain was about as tough as a sane Gauron(a character from FMP who could survive a heashot), two of the natives were like from Pocahontas.

I think the movie is also a good trend lately of humans causing damage to the alien species. The other movie I am thinking of is the movie "District 9", which also a great movie where humans mistreat the aliens, just like we have to each other in the past, I want ti root for the misunderstood aliens.


_________________
Through dream I travel, at lantern's call
To consume the flames of a kingdom's fall


AnotherOne
Velociraptor
Velociraptor

User avatar

Joined: 1 Jul 2009
Age: 52
Gender: Female
Posts: 454

22 Dec 2009, 10:25 am

i don't mind you people like it but i really don't like when i know the ending (and the middle) after first 15 min. district 9 for example i couldn't figure out that fast.
also the idea of the whole planet as an organism is known from solaris (and executed way better there). i agree the neural fusing between animals and trees is a good idea but like i said movie looks unconvincing if you make the black-white story of characters.
the only character in the movie that has some balance and change is the main one.
for example in bladerunner, the replicants are not all bad, they want only to survive and the best moment "time to die" when he spares ford just out of respect/love of life. or in godfather when you see complete transformation of mike corlleone from a innocent one into a ruthless boss just by circumstances.
dune on the other hand is made like a space opera thus black-white thing. book has more layers when muad dib becomes a worm (now that is a change).

i like when movies are layered, for example a serious "avatar" would examine what happens to avatar brain (can't imagine they would grow just body withut the brain right?). they took his body, since its made from human dna too, it is part human does it have human rights of some sort?

it is clear that i don't watch movies just for fun right? i think just that i have a different definition of fun and like when surprised.



RockDrummer616
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 3 Dec 2008
Age: 31
Gender: Male
Posts: 910
Location: Steel City (Golden State no more)

22 Dec 2009, 12:09 pm

Avatar would have to be my third favorite movie this year, behind District 9 and Inglourious Basterds. The CGI effects were the best I've ever seen. I thought parts of the story were predictable, but not all of it. I understand why you were disappointed by the "divine intervention," but for me it seemed the logical thing to happen. Their deity exists and has the power to defend the planet, why wouldn't it? Overall I think it was a very good movie, but still my number 3 this year.



techstepgenr8tion
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Feb 2005
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 24,150
Location: 28th Path of Tzaddi

23 Dec 2009, 5:09 pm

I agree on the plot - it gimped along, one dimensional characters, though I get what happenened with that romance; her making what she saw as an undeveloped macho idiot into a real warrior and that being her sunk efforts, she fell for him as if she'd made her own link with him via the neural chords. The deus ex machina at the end also, yes, terrible, not in that it was a surprise that the planet would fight back knowing that the 'balance of life' was in fact at stake but that the whole battle was sealed by that coming out late. The one thing I will give the plot - not nearly as Hollywood political as I thought, I did read some reviews and thought I'd leave wanting to whip myself for being anglo saxon - they did make a clean break in that the culture dealt with in this film was of a paradigm that doesn't fit any we've had on earth at all, also (*spoiler alert*) its highly unlikely that we'll destroy our planet (unless our current culture and dialogs just evaporate in some magic poof), marines being hired by companies as mercenaries would also have Earth's government concerned with the ethics, lastly - what's past is past, nothing can be done about it, but going forward its a bit far fetched that we'd be playing conquistador or colonialist with future cultures; our progency 400 or 500, maybe a few thousand years from now, would need to forget every lesson they've ever learned.

That said, getting the technicals the CGI without the 3D looked fairly standard issue, with the 3D - you could see better definition, though the 3D still looked better on the humans and the non-CGI I think. The atmospherics and phosphorescent plants were an interesting idea, though still even at that - separating this one out too much from Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within or Wolf Princess Moninoke, etc. is a rather thin veil of association.

Interesting conversation piece though, I'll think a lot more of immersion in this sort of technology when they come up with movies that cut more adroitly against the whole fantasy element; something with a plot or general idea that feels more like... say Training Day, Midnight Express, maybe going in a completely different direction with romantic comedy or something like that - I think that would grab people a lot more. I still think Hollywood needs to get around their functional fixedness with that one though and see what kinds of ideas are being thrown about.



Bataar
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 18 Sep 2008
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,846
Location: Post Falls, ID

23 Dec 2009, 9:16 pm

I want to see it from for its technical merits, but I'm not a fan of movies that tries to make a point that humans/Americans are the bad guys.



coded
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

User avatar

Joined: 30 Mar 2005
Age: 51
Gender: Male
Posts: 156

27 Dec 2009, 9:55 pm

Months ago when I saw all the previews of this I thought it looked stupid and over-hyped. However, I watched it with an open mind and ended up really liking it. The CGI is way better than the previews made it look. They used a ton of motion capture, especially with the actors faces which really helped with the Uncanny Valley effect that plagues just about every CGI-heavy movie that attempts to look realistic. The CGI is not perfect but it's quite good; the character's faces being my favorite. This is one movie that makes me want to get a high resolution projection system so I can watch it when it comes out on video.

I thought the realism is way better in this than many films that try to depict a future/fantasy world... or at least it was relatively consistent. It seems like a lot of planning went into this. Almost all the technical aspects are spot-on or at least believable. Low gravity making larger creatures/plants, the resulting cat-like design of the humanoids, large moon that creates a twilight effect for long periods which in turn makes for an abundance of bioluminescence, heavy magnetic field and metals causing the floating mountains, etc. The world has a neat look and feel to it. Everything seems purposefully designed and I thought almost everything was very plausible and realistic. I'm interested in learning more about the universe it's set in. Also sort of makes me want to learn Na'vi and I have never wanted to learn a fantasy language before (eg. Klingon, Arda, etc). Kind of appeals to the small bit of Native American in me.

Sure, the story has been done a thousand times but almost every single film has a story that has been done a thousand times. The value is in each specific adaptation/incarnation and I happen to like movies like this. The Last Samurai is another similar movie that I liked. I think people that pick on this point are just looking for any reason to hate the movie.

Yeah, it's sort of got that hippie vibe to it which I'm not 100% into, but I'm sympathetic to the bullied, poor and oppressed. I don't like the power-hungry idiots of the world that go around lying and stomping on everything and everyone.

* Spoiler Warning *

One part that wasn't realistic is that they could have just flown that shuttle/bomber so high up in the atmosphere that nothing the natives/planet have could have touched it. Bombs away, boom! Of course, just about every single movie I can think of has similar problems so I try to ignore it and just be entertained. Like the Snowspeeders in The Empire Strikes Back; just fly above the Walkers you morons! :lol:

Unless the Na'vi get some serious technology then the humans would totally come back and kick everyone's ass. Seriously, the humans only lost because they had very little equipment and poor planning against a larger number of enemies. Avatar 2? Maybe the planet could see an influx of human sympathizers or something.