Avatar - The Movie

[soltakss]

WATCH IT!

WATCH IT IN 3D!!

[soltakss]

I've just been to see Avatar and I would recommend it to anyone interested in Fantasy/Sci Fi films.

The effects are spectacular and don't look CGI-ish at all, in fact there wasn't one point in the film where I thought "that's a good effect" as it all looked very natural.

Watching the film made me realise how powered body armour/walkers really work.

The battle scenes are as exciting as anything from Starship Troopers, not as bloody but just as exciting.

The world of Pandora would suit a BRP writeup and most thijngs would fit quite easily. There's even a magical substrata that fits in with SciFantasy.

All in all, quite superb.

I watched St Trinians straight afterwards - what a contrast. I wouldn't recommend that one, despite it having 24 year olds dressed as schoolgirls.

[Guest Vile Traveller]

For those of you who haven't seen it, Avatar was better than I expected but not as good as it could have been. Elements of Aliens, Nausicaa, Return of the Jedi. The story is pretty weak, and characters are fairly forgettable except for Sigourney Weaver who was okay and the mercenary commander who was pretty good. The 3D effects were definitely a lot better than the 2D previews - other than the humanoids, the other CGI elements allowed full suspension of disbelief.

The most important thing to get your head around is that this is a fantasy, not science fiction. The "science" is not even vaguely convincing and no attempts are made to make it so - which is actually a good thing because it would just be silly to try. Think Lord of the Rings with VTOL gunships and combat walkers, and you'll be ok.

:thumb:

[TrippyHippy]

Think Lord of the Rings with VTOL gunships and combat walkers, and you'll be ok.

Think Star Wars in other words. And I'd say it was on a par in most instances (with the original trilogy; better than the prequels), with the exception that it doesn't have the chemistry and witty interchange between Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher to carry the romance/comedy aspects convincingly.

In all, I thought it was good entertainment although there is this abiding irony (common to most US sci-fi movies really) that, even when preaching leftist 'tree-hugging, hippie crap', the only solution given to any problem is still just to kick some more ass! Really deep. :ohwell:

I'd give it 4/5 - but not a classic in my book. I found District 9 more interesting.

EDIT: I would also not the thematic, possible influence of the Blue Planet rpg background on this movie - except they used a different type of habitat.

Edited December 21, 2009 by TrippyHippy

[Guest Vile Traveller]

Further to the "kicking some more ass", I know the plot was full of holes and all, but at the end we were all left with one big question - (SPOILER ALERT)

What's to stop Earth from coming back and just firebombing the whole planet from orbit next time?

True, D9 was more interesting, but who'd want to have pornographic relations with one of those prawns? :eek:

Edited December 21, 2009 by Vile

[GianniVacca]

I haven't seen the film yet, but from what I've seen it looks like a rip-off of this old French graphic novel: Aquablue - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Merak Gren]

I haven't seen the film and probably not likely for another year. However, from the trailer, I got a sense thatbthere were some similarities with Skyrealms of Jorune.

There's the crystals, flying islands and Talmaron like flying creatures. Was there anything else? Or is it just me?

I'm happy to hear spoilers.

Cheers

Damon

[Rob Thomas]

Go for the eye candy and leave your brain at home. Otherwise, you will be faced with a lackluster story that has not an original idea, plot holes of gargantuan proportion, forgettable characters and inane "high-tech" weapons. I did not pay for the ticket so I cannot demand a refund, but James Cameron should send me a Blu-Ray of Terminator as compensation for wasted time.

[badcat]

I must be one of the six people who are not going to go see this...

[rust]

I must be one of the six people who are not going to go see this...

Seven - you can count me in.

The story is a remake of Ursula LeGuin's The Word for World is Forest, and I

am not interested in yet another version of this same story, no matter how

good the technology used.

[soltakss]

Well, I enjoyed it ...

[Pete Nash]

Well, I enjoyed it ...

So did I Simon. I thought it was awesome. The acting was solid, I didn't care the storyline wasn't deep or original (heck 95% of all movies aren't), and it was visually beautiful.

Well worth seeing in my opinion.

[threedeesix]

So did I Simon. I thought it was awesome. The acting was solid, I didn't care the storyline wasn't deep or original (heck 95% of all movies aren't), and it was visually beautiful.

Well worth seeing in my opinion.

Financially I cant really afford to go see it until after the holidays. But I cant wait. Luckily, it should be in theaters for some time.

[Nightshade]

I kind of disagree with some people. While the ecological message was done with the subtly of a hammer (and ignores the fact the natives of Pandora have an overwhelming couple of benefits compared with Terrans in "acting right" in this context), and the plot wasn't original, I thought the story pacing and most of the acting was excellent; in particular I liked the male lead in Terminator 4 and liked him here too.

Oh, and Vile? There's two issues in answer to your question:

1. Earth doesn't have FTL travel, so its probably going to be a good dozen years or more before they could find out what's happened, make up their minds what to do, and then turn around and get back here. This gives Sully and the others time to figure out the next thing;

2. While Earth is apparently middlin' screwed up, what the out-of-sight, out-of-mind corporation could do without direct supervision, and what they could get authorized to do on a bigger scale are--somewhat different. Note they had exceeded what they were authorized on as it was (without blowing the plot, note the somewhat improvised nature of the last part of this).

This doesn't mean there couldn't be further problems, but they aren't likely to be on that scale, and it requires a lot of resource investment that Earth probably just doesn't want to spare, the value of unobtanium notwithstanding.

[soltakss]

I haven't seen the film yet, but from what I've seen it looks like a rip-off of this old French graphic novel: Aquablue - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The story is a remake of Ursula LeGuin's The Word for World is Forest, and I am not interested in yet another version of this same story, no matter how good the technology used.

I haven't read either of these, but the Wikipedia articles show that all three worlds are forest based, all have some kind of human exploitation and mining but that's about it.

In the same way, Discworld is a rip-off of LOTR and all vampire novels are rip-offs of Dracula.

[soltakss]

Further to the "kicking some more ass", I know the plot was full of holes and all, but at the end we were all left with one big question - (SPOILER ALERT)

That would be answered in Avatar 2.

[sdavies2720]

That would be answered in Avatar 2.

And, you can play it out in Avatar, the RPG

[USAFguy]

8. Sorry, the US (or 'earth') military doesn't suck and does not seek violence...but we are incredibly competent at delivering violence.

Nothing against James Cameron, CGI or the navi. Just don't want to waste my money on this prap.

However, if someone comes up with a great system of magic for BRP (NOT sorcery), I'll buy the books...

Mark

[Guest Vile Traveller]

Sorry, the US (or 'earth') military doesn't suck and does not seek violence...but we are incredibly competent at delivering violence.

Don't see what that has to do with the thread - the US military is not the 'Earth' military, and the mercenaries in Avatar are neither of the former. Let's leave politics outside the door where they belong.

Besides, I just went to see the Nutcracker. Crap story, but great visuals. C'mon, guys, stop being so brain-centric - your eyes deserve a treat, too.

:party:

[badcat]

That's part of my objection to the movie...you can't leave politics outside the door. It's what the movie is. Pretty visuals and all, I can't help but feel that the portrayal of the military is meant to be 'realistic' somehow, and white western civilization, well, that's what we DO, and the noble savages with their um, ally, are giving the evil imperialist humans (who are apparently stand-ins for evil American imperialists) the boot. No thanks. I was a Navy man and I know how evil the American military isn't. Nor is capitalism evil. It's just the economic system that happens to have produced the most affluent civilization in history with the fewest evils. Current forces seem intent on killing the goose that laid the golden egg... Anyway, with that level of spacefaring technology (in the movie) we would have all the access to natural resources we would need, multiple solar systems in all liklihood...killing natives for their stuff would be sort of obsolete. It's not a good story, it's insulting as hell, and normally I could shelve all that and go for the eye candy. But not this time, not in the current very dangerous political climate. It's McCarthyism in reverse. After Aliens I cannot believe Cameron did this.

Besides, they could nuke em from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

[dragonewt]

One of the works of Robert A. Heinlein comes to mind. But enough said for this thread.

[rust]

I would not attempt to read real world politics into the movie, and none of

the reviews I did read over here tried to do it.

It is just a "resistance fighter" plot with the same basic idea as, for exam-

ple, the legends about Robin Hood, and someone has to play the evil guys,

and from the logic of the plot and the technology available this can only

be humans - otherwise Cameron would have had to find aliens as actors

for the enemies of his computer generated race.

[RosenMcStern]

I was a Navy man and I know how evil the American military isn't.

You have to come to terms with the fact that the majority of Earth's population has a very different opinion.

...killing natives for their stuff would be sort of obsolete.

Erm, calling genocide "obsolete for lack of necessity" hints at the fact that you would find it morally acceptable if the resources were scarce. I hope I misunderstood your statement.

[rust]

Besides, even if the movie were to be understood as depicting the US military

in the role of the evil guys with the black hats, I would not see this as any

kind of serious problem.

We Germans had the questionable pleasure to supply an entire generation of

movie makers from all over the world with the "evil ones" for their movies, and

the Chinese and Russians did likewise for the movie makers of the western na-

tions, including the German ones.

If our friends from the USA now share that "burden", too, and also are occa-

sionally depicted as the "bad ones" instead of "squeaking clean", I really see

no reason to get upset about it.

[soltakss]

Hmmm, having actually seen the film I might comment on what it contains.

If you look at in terms of "good" and "bad", the mining company, or rather its representative, is a corporate bad-guy as is the commander of the mercenaries. They have a clear objective in the film and want to achieve this, on the whole, without violence. However, things are taken to the extreme and get out of control, but in a realistic and believable way.

The film isn't about the evil military killing defenceles aliens, far from it. Man for man, the aliens far outclass the humans and are not afraid of showing it, which is why the military reponse needs to be heavy or extreme. There is a tactical response that itself causes a counter-response and subsequent escalation.

In many respects, it is like Dancing With Wolves, in that a military man finds peace in another environment.

But enough of defending the film. Anyone who is anti-Avatar won't want to see it and fans of Sci-Fi and fantasy will go to see it anyway. Anyone else should watch it because it is really good. If you have the choice, watch it in 3D as it is the best 3D film I have seen.