I wanted to love it, I really did. And whilst I have a reputation for being cynical about movies, I want to like them all. If I didn’t, why would I spend so much of my time writing about them? It’s important to point out that when the film ended, 90% of the audience around me applauded. So i’m well aware, it’s my problem and not theirs.
This meant that though i’d decided to post my thoughts on the movie before i’d seen it, once I had, I felt that I should probably keep my opinion quiet, in order to avoid the vitriol that would inevitably be pointed in my direction. I thought again, however, and decided it might be cathartic to explore why a movie that had united the industry in praise had left me so very cold.
The first issue, which I was already expecting, was the storyline. What I wasn’t expecting, though, was just how simplistic and predictable it would turn out to be. I had only watched the first proper trailer, and had in my mind the general direction the story would take. The direction, it turned out, was exactly as expected, with no deviation whatsoever. The story of the human race trying to move on an indigenous population in order to make use of localised natural resources is nothing new, and has been explored more fully in an episode of Stargate SG1, amongst numerous other places. Along with that, it takes a particular talent to turn the serious issue of mass genocide into a poorly executed love story.
Which brings me to my next issue with Avatar. Give or take a couple of plot devices, it feels very much like a ‘greatest hits of Star Wars’ homage, glued together with Starship Troopers. Much of the environment of Pandora brings to mind the locale of Naboo, replete with the ‘there’s always a bigger fish’ philosophy. The robots shooting aliens theme echoes the finale of Phantom Menace, with a bit of the moon of Endor also fit in. The mostly CGI environment, along with the PG13 family friendly action throughout most of the film firmly gave it that undeniable Lucas feel. The fish out of water story of Sully learning the ways of the natives also had a very Disney-esque feel.
And maybe for me that’s a large part of the problem. I can no longer stomach family-friendly movies. The attempt to appeal to such a diverse demographic tends to give family movies an ‘everybody gets what no-one wants’ atmosphere. Whilst as a kid I lapped that up, nowadays, with much less time available to watch a two and a half hour movie, i just crave something more. Adult issues explored in a thorough and thought provoking way. In a climate of adults paying to see Harry Potter and The Twilight Saga, i find myself in the minority.
It’s not necessarily that the story of an intergalactic war fought on alien turf can’t address real issues. If instead Cameron had chosen to adapt Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War, for example, we could have had a classic on our hands. Instead the filmmaker opts for black and white. The evil human race attempts to wipe out the unknown enemy it doesn’t understand. With right on their side, the beleaguered, peaceful beings must triumph in the end.
With a great cast committed to bringing the script to life, there could have been a saving grace. Unfortunately, this is Avatar’s lowest point. There honestly isn’t a good performance on display. Weaver, et al are all terribly wooden, not at all helped by poor dialogue and contrived exposition devices. Also not helped by a chronic lack of depth to the characters. Neytiri never says one word that speaks to her personality, and all we ever find out about Sully is that his twin brother died, and he used to be a marine. Tell me something, anything else we know about him? What’s the point of creating a fully 3D environment and then filling it with woefully two dimensional characters?
The gruff Colonel Quaritch (HeyUGuys interview with Stephen Lang here), obsessed with the annihilation of a species, would have been the most shallow character in any other movie, but here at least he has the courage of his convictions. What about the abrupt mid-mission turn by Michelle Rodriguez’ Trudy? Where did that come from? Even Sully himself turns on a dime. We all knew it was coming except him. In his Avatar he was having the time of his life, yet in the lab showed no conflict over the mission he was carrying out, the double life he was leading, until he made the sudden u-turn in just one short scene.
This flaw may not have been purely a fault of the script. After praise for his turn in Terminator: Salvation Worthington has been hailed as the latest in a long line of ‘next big things’. On this evidence, that’s an extremely premature assertion. He managed to display no on-screen presence whatsoever. Until, in fact, being transplanted into his Avatar. When a computer generated version of you shows more charisma and likeability than the real deal, you have a bit of a problem.
Which nicely leads me onto the positive, the reason we are all here. Avatar is visually stunning. There can be no argument. The vista of Pandora is a sight to behold, the aliens beautifully realised. And yes, much of the 3D is awe-inspiring, particularly in the beginning. It’s not the stuff that pops out of the screen that’s the most impressive, but the more subtle yet astonishing sense of depth that is created. This is displayed at it’s best in the opening scenes of stasis pods being opened, and their inhabitants floating not just across the screen, but towards and away from it. The water and fire effects are also phenomenal. And i’ll also concede that the finale is action packed and surprisingly brutal at times.
For me, though, however great the visuals were, it didn’t stop me becoming bored throughout the overlong middle part of the movie. Avatar is being nominated for awards, and is a likely contender for the expanded best picture category at the Oscars. It clearly deserves it, as the myriad of great review scores attests. But it baffles me. If great CGI and a weak and plodding storyline is enough for an academy award, presumably we can also expect Transformers 2 and GI-JOE to appear on the list of ten?
The test for Avatar comes when it finds release on DVD and Blu-Ray, when the limits of those technologies hamper the 3D experience. Will Avatar then be shown to be the emperors new clothes? I don’t believe so. I believe i’ll be shown to be the one that’s wrong. And I believe James Cameron’s opus will be the movie that makes Blu-Ray in the home no longer the exception, but the rule. A fitting legacy for the product of over a decade of commitment, and the hundreds of millions of dollars spent bringing it to fruition.
Bazmann – Check out the HeyUGuys IMDb250 Project here (Avatar is number 26). You can follow our progress at www.twitter.com/baz_mann and http://twitter.com/gary_phillips_
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Have to agree about the thin plot, although I actually enjoyed the movie, and believe me, I too am very cynical about movies. But I do hear what you're saying about the PG13 action in movies in general. I mean, look at movies that were released in the eighties that were firmly for adults, and their sequels are PG13. Terminator Salvation comes firmly to mind. And I do hear what you're saying that if Cameron had done the Forever War you know it would've been a classic. But for all that, I personally loved Avatar.
Dear Barry, I haven't even read any other comments so forgive if I'm being redundant. I know your right about the simplistic storyline but I work trying to find work for poor people (like myself) and I love a fairy tale. The beauty made my heart stop. I just want to live there. I could have lived without ANY plot. I wanted the asshole, with the courage of his convictions, to get a testosteronectomy. It would have been fun if the humans could have cooled there jets and find out if the gaia or whatever (I can't remember the name of the Planet/Tree being) could have helped the humans without having Mr Marine/like to kill so much get the action in. But I was already so happy for being in this fabulously beautiful world. I live in Vermont because of the beauty but I want to live there. And you are COMPLETELY CORRECT!! I am an older person – almost 56 years old – how bizarre. And I have a 19 year old son who has been talking up high definition for some time but, as I mentioned, I am poor. It just seemed like an extra bauble. I have to keep my life fairly simple to get by in a fashion that finds the balance. And after seeing this movie – which I just saw a couple of hours ago – alone with my 3D glasses – I finally saw a reason to own a great big high definition TV. Who knows? Maybe I'll be able to save up for one!! I respect your opinions – I'm not mad at all. But I'm old enough, with enough exposure to serious and complex critiques of our culture, to be grateful for a gorgeous fairy tale. I plan to go to see it as many times as I can. But even on my ancient TV it will still be worth some pleasure to me. I think of it as another version of the Pursuit of Happy-ness!!
you were very tactful in your review. Although I think we both know that the plot was worse than anyone could get away with expressing right now. It's shameful that critics weren't more critical. They, more than the rest of us, people need to be above the visual spectacle. And this movie had the depth of a Kaleidoscope. Anyone who says otherwise is young or not smart.
fuck you, harry potter kicks ass.
I have to applaud your honesty and respectful review. I've always felt it was the job of a reviewer to give as candid an assessment as possible of a films merits or shortcomings.
Unfortunately it has become the rule rather than the exception to be as witty and clever and mean when writing a negative review as you can. While that can often be entertaining it is usually not very informative.
I largely agree with your observations and conclusions. I think the criticism of the acting and overall plot is a little overblown though. My feeling is that it was standard fare – not bad, not exceptional – just adequate.
The conclusion I came to was that when you introduce such a revolutionary new way to tell a story it often be best to keep everything else familiar.
The other observation is that Cameron clearly wants us to go back to Pandora. I'm remembering the first Terminator and the first Alien as being average introductions to exceptional sequels. I don't think anyone can argue that Aliens and T2 were superior to the first installments.
Thanks for your honesty. I hope other reviewers will take your example to heart.
I also feel the same way about Avatar. I didn't hate it, but I found the character motivation/background to be lacking and the plot to be more than a little dull at times (and ruined by the tell all second trailer). Thing is, because the visuals are so grand, people have ignored these issues. At times the film felt to me like a massive tech demo of sorts, being less about how I felt about the characters or story but more about how life-like these alien beings can be.
I also felt the story was a massive rip on The Last Samurai 😉
Excellent review!
I heartily concurr. Overall, I thought Avatar was okay – neither brilliant nor dire simply okay. The story and script were both weak. Why was there a need for Sully to have a dead twin brother at all? Or indeed, be paralysed. If he'd simply been a marine who they'd forced in with the scientists to do the same duplicitous job the already simple plot would have had a less complicated set-up and as his character didn't seem to have much problem with the mission in the first place wouldn't have changed his motivations either (alright he may have wanted the use of his legs back but this was downplayed so much it might as well have not been the case). If he had been sent on this mission willingly, no bribery etc. and no inexcplicably irrelevant dead twin brother, the change in his views and ultimate decision to switch sides could have been far more interesting and had a lot more impact.
And whilst the effects are fine and I wouldn't fault them, I struggle to see how they're garnering as much praise as they are. I've seen all of those effects (albeit not all in one film perhaps) used before and often used to better effect. Pandora looks to me very Earth like – an oversized rainforest with a few twists and glowing bits. With the blank canvas the effects allowed, this 'amazing' world strikes me as very familiar. Again I must stress I'm not slighting the effects I just fail to see them as gob smacking or anything. As I felt with the Star Wars prequels – when you can create an environment outside of computer effects as in the original trilogy it is so much more impressive visually than a digital representation of something that could be rendered practically.
But, to summarise, I agree with you (though I didn't 'hate' Avatar). For all the work, effort and expense it's a very pedestrian film we're presented with.
barry, shut the fuck up. everyone knew the movie was lacking in story and acting.
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Bravo! On top of everything, I think the 3D work was terrible too. I didn't think it was “visually stunning”, it's just very much video game like. Bad art direction, including Papyrus font use. The stupification of the masses continues…
Yours was the only bad review of Avatar I could find. Now, that is really worrisome.
I've read both yours and Baz-mans reviews and i have to say your both right! I had friends who completely loved the film and thought it was stunning. And i had friends who hated Avatar but they went in to the film already hating it (like Bazman who wrote a few articles that knocked the film before its release) and so were never going to enjoy the film no mater what.
It's incredible the reactions this film is getting and i think people are missing the real point of it. Its not trying to be Great story, It's trying to show something new in cinema in its incredible technology and CGI that was matched perfectly with its story and for that it succeeded in it 100% and has to be commended and whether we like it or not CGI is playing a huge part in almost every film released and this is definitely a step in the right direction.
Those of you who are knocking the 3D are utterly clueless, that opening scene in the Stasis room on the ship flying to Pandora was the most incredible form of Depth ever shown on the big screen and that can't be knocked as nothing like that has ever been seen before in film. It wasn't gimmicky it was revolutionary and the first attempt is never going to be perfect, i can't wait for the next big film using this technology.
As for the negative side, Avatar is never going to be a success on the Home cinema world in standard 2D which is a shame and the acting was ropey and flat but altogether it did work and i think it's sad people are going to the film rating it on it's quality of story, acting etc when you should just relax, switch off for 2.5 hours and just lose yourself in a wonderfully entertaining movie instead of thinking it's the new coming so we better knock it for the sake of knocking it!
Absolutely agree. Working in post myself I have nothing but kudos for the FX. But the storyline was utterly disappointing. I like to think of this film as 'Shaka Zulu' set in outerspace. Dull dull dull plots and storyline. Scriptwriters need a shakeup!
Very well said. Thank God that brains have not completely vanished from the civilized world.
3d flicks winning best picture? Is this really going to be the future of film making? I hope not.
Cartoon films are for children and teenagers, even they have been made for 200 million.
What drives me nuts about this whole avatar things is that the story of the movie is basically just a combining of Alan Dean Foster's Midworld and Poul Anderson's Call Me Joe. I have no idea why no one is mentioning this. I should be thrilled because they are both great stories but the fact that not one critic or reviewer notes this obvious combination drives me insane.
I could not agree more. I watched Avatar, while never even heeding any of trailers or promotional material (It's easy to do so in South Africa), and I was absolutely unimpressed, as was most of my family and friends. The characters are to unbelievable and made it impossible for me to connect in anyway. The story was boring and flawed on way to many levels, and the villains were poorly portrayed ( by wich I mean the “ARRRRGH URGHHHLARGGHHHHH! I WILL EAT YOUR BABIES WHILE DRINKING COFFEE” type of personality that is completely unrealistic).
What suprizes me most is the reviews I read about it , going on as writing it great etc etc. Visually it is nice to look at, but so unsatisfactory.I hated it .I can tell many things that was flawed and tell you that the plot felt as though someone had written a bunch of bullcrap and smashed it together.
It's funny. I'm a super hard critic when it comes to movies, very rarely being able to applaud performances due to the commercial nature of Hollywood movies, like good looking actors being chosen over talented ones. But your line of reasoning for “Avatar” is strange. I watched the movie, and I enjoyed it a lot. The characters were very compelling and there was a lot of touching moments, not to mention how much i related to them with their concern for their environment, being one with their land. It was motivational. You have to realize that just because a movie has common aspects seen in many movies, it's not necessarily a bad movie. Give me break, do you always expect things to be new and exciting. This movie has both, some familiar plot elements and some completely new ones. This movie was enjoyable, the love affair between the two felt real and heart-warming; and this comes from someone who hates almost all love stories and dramas. Avatar is easily the Best Movie I've seen this year, and that's why it has the highest reviews and ratings.
Totally agree with your review, cgi magic alone does not make a film, quality acting, scripting and a good storyline does!
To sum it up, this film is an immature family-filled-cream-cake of stupifying ingredients. Made primarily for children, teenagers and adults who share the same level of intelligence as a common garden variety vegetable.
I think these fuckin' director guys haven't figured out yet that this CGI overload completely fucks up every goddamn movies. I can't stand this cartoon shit anymore.
Completely agree. I HATED that movie. No depth to characters. Predictable naive plot of an over glorified Pocahontas. It's a shame that so many people loved it. Unfortunately it's expected though. If this is the new film movement then any indpendent film maker who wants to say a personal story, has no chance.
Completely agree. I HATED that movie. No depth to characters. Predictable naive plot of an over glorified Pocahontas. It's a shame that so many people loved it. Unfortunately it's expected though. If this is the new film movement then any indpendent film maker who wants to say a personal story, has no chance.
Completely agree. Terrible script, terrible acting, predictable naive story. Bad guys acting bad, good guys being heros. Terrible! over glorified pocahontas.
the movie is nothing more then a bunch of keys hanged in front of a baby.
Avatar's plot is shallow and poorly executed. The visual effects are stunning—no doubt. My stomach turned though while watching some of the 3-D effects. Small 7- and 8-year olds might find this movie great. I am an adult and I find it to be one of those movies you tell everyone NOT to go see! What a waste of money and time!
This movie is a mix between the power of army against innocent people, a shallow love story, and the ignorance of the “bad” guy.
What do I go home with after watching? A headache!
This movie has nothing to do with our senses. It is completely a fictional story. James cameron said it is his dream project. I guess he wrote the script in his dream. That's why it's very poor. I saw this movie 2 times. First time dubbed in my local language and the second time in english 3D. I actually didn't like it because of the plot. My friends compelled me to come again in 3D. That's why i went. It is visually pleasing but very very very boring story that i slept few minutes in the theater when i went to watch 2nd time. I am really surprised by the reception of this movie. In the whole I am disappointed watching this film.
AVATAR is one among the worst film i've ever seen in my life….
YUP
I think James Cameron sings “Everynight in my dreams, i see you, i feel you” (Titanic Theme Song) Before starting this project. Err…. I hate this stupid idiotic movie. Waste of time and waste of money
We Indians have heard lots of fictional stories like this from our grandma in our childhood. This is not new to us. The story, theme and most of the scenes resembling indian culture. Even the aliens singing a song is just like a sanskrit song. May be James Cameron inspired from indian culture. But what i wanna say is it is been badly executed. No matter what i hate this whole flick.
I saw Avatar with my wife in reald 3d, which may be better than IMAX in some respects. It was awesome, brilliant, we really enjoyed and appreciated it.
If you don't like child-friendly fantasy, or don't like movies with CGI/FX, or don't like 3D, or don't like animation/cartoony-style, why go and see such a movie? (I'm not talking so much to the OP, but some others who posted.) Your criticism is irrelevant to people who do like these styles, and it only shows that you aren't smart with choosing what movies to see. If I went to see “barbie the movie”, I wouldn't enjoy it; but I'm not going to see a movie that I know I will hate, just so I can complain about it.
Many people are saying Avatar reminds them of other movies, or is derivative, and it seems that everyone mentions different movies! Avatar reminds me of the excellent Studio Ghibli anime movies “Nausicaa of the valley of the wind” and “Laputa: Castle in the Sky”; also Pocahontas of course. I can't object to people finding inspiration in other brilliant movies such as these!
As for the plot, it was predictable but such things in life often are predictable; and it is essentially very realistic. People could see that the USA military would invade Afghanistan and Iraq before these invasions took place, and the motive of course is the same; Avatar's unobtainium versus oil in those real-life coups. I imagine few real-life military directors and majors are racked with remorse, although many ordinary soldiers must be. I was glad to see a beautiful, popular movie which very openly does criticize the “oil and money over life” approach of the military industrial complex, even with the “shock and awe” reference. Some USA people would dislike Avatar because it does condemn the evil warmongering of their country in the recent past. This evil is of course not specific to the USA.
Regarding remorse I think the “Parker Selfridge” character showed some silent doubts or guilty feelings toward the end, or perhaps this was just a fear of defeat.
I would also like to say that, with all respect to the man himself, I believe Barak Obama was allowed to become president of the USA only to calm down the global hatred for the USA after the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. They (the real directors) needed to find someone more peaceful, being black and vaguely Muslim-related is a good contrast too. Anyone who thinks the President has significant control over affairs is I think foolish. George Bush certainly was no mastermind. Go and watch “yes minister” if you doubt me; those with the real power are behind the scenes; and the war-mongering continues after a brief pause. Hell is too mild for them.
What faults did I find in Avatar? Just a few. 1. Pandora is a real moon, it orbits Saturn, and photographs from the Cassini spacecraft show that it is small, cratered, utterly barren and lifeless, like our own moon. I can easily forgive this, Avatar is a fantasy, and the movie's conception predates the Cassini photograph. 2. I would prefer that the hero did not become like a leader of the Pandoran tribes' resistance. It's good that he should help them, but to become suddenly their greatest warrior taming the giant dragon seems too much. I guess this is unavoidable for a “one hero does everything” Hollywood movie. 3. In real life, I think the Earthlings would nuke the Pandorans and their spirit-tree, I don't see why they would use conventional explosives, except that the director wanted the Pandorans to win, and no one can win with arrows and dragons against nukes. 4. I did not like that Jake advised the natives to fight back, it's not good to fight back like that, it is much better to do non-violent passive-resistance like the (non-American) Indians did against the British; but it's a realistic emotion and reaction.
Anyway, no big problems for me, I found Avatar very enjoyable and satisfying. To all people who love to criticize films or books or art, I wish you may instead find your hidden talents and help to make some good art (or something) yourselves!
Thank god someone with brains on the Internet!
I've got a slightly different approach on this film. I've been so spellbound by the audiovisual (mainly visual) side of the picture, that I – to my surprise – easily and willingly accepted the poor storyline and disneyish moments. I don't know what has happened to me. I felt like a 6 years old girl must feel while watching Lion King. I literally felt like I WAS on Pandora. Avatar is a great, great film to be seen in Digital 3D cinema. Will I buy it on DVD/Blu-ray then? NO!
I don't think the blood,sex, death,war and cussing was family-friendly…umm
The MPAA clearly thought the blood, sex, death, war and cussing was relatively tame by today's standards, hence the PG-13 rating. The sex is hardly graphic, more implied. If there hadn't been smoking in the movie it probably would have made PG…
I am now dumber after reading this review and most of its comments. To say that this film is not visually stunning is a crime in itself. All of you go into this film not wanting it to be good. You get so much pleasure from being part of a select group of people that love to critcize other peoples works of art. For expample Bazmann was clearly wrong about Jake Sully's supposed 180 degree turn to support the natives. His video logs served as a voice over that was integrated into the movie and at one point he says, “I don't even know who I am anymore.” His transition over his three month period with the Na'vi has been slow, not abrupt. I just feel sorry for people that always see the bad in everything and think that you are unique because of it.
Just saw the movie (in 3D) on the recommendation of a friend. I hated this movie on so many levels I haven't even been able to process it yet. Were it not for the $50 in tickets, $80 on dinner & $30 on parking, I would have walked out, leaving my family by the way.
Dear Mr. Barry,
By all means I respect your opinion, even if it's turd one. It's fantastically easy to criticise another person's work, even more so, to publish it on line. I dare you to come up with a better movie, given James Sameron's funds and equipment. And u know deep down; ur movie will be such a force of turd, I won't even bother to hate it and express it.
Avatar features revolutionary lens flare technology and a storyline that took over 4 years to develop because everyone was so sidetracked by the amazing new tech.
btw I'm an artist so…
1. The film was set in the Alpha Centuri system which is 4.5 light-years away….and their gas giant that Pandora orbited resembled Jupiter, not Saturn. I didnt really understand your point here….
2. He was the only one within the tribe that truly understood the enemy, their tatics, military logistics, etc… because he was one of them at one time. Ex-marine.
3. Why would a “mining company” have a nuclear warhead? Or, why would they need one when the creatures that inhabit the planet are primitive?
4. From your conclusions here I laughed. Not fight back? So if i come over to your house and completely destroy it along with your family and most of everyone you have ever known burn in the flames, your saying that you would take a “diplomatic” approach with me?
Holy fucking shit dont ever become a screenplay writer.
1. fair enough, I found that out later. a bit bogus to name a fictional moon with the same name as a real moon of Saturn though.
2. yeah good point!
3. another good point! although, I suppose that any company who takes their own army and invades another planet might bring the strongest weapons they can. It is actually not very difficult at all to make a fission warhead, it is certainly not beyond the capabilities of any major manufacturer of simple machines in the world today. It is much, much simpler than building a car, for example, more on a par with building a bicycle I'd say.
4. As for not fight back, I think it's generally a bad idea to fight back, perhaps especially if you are overwhelmingly outmatched. If I receive forewarning that someone powerful is coming to destroy my house (or village), I will definitely take my family and leave that place until they have done their thing. That the Pandorans could win such an impromptu battle is really not plausible to me, even with extreme help from mother nature; and even if they could win one war, they could expect the aliens (humans) would come back with more firepower. I know it's the American way to fight back, but it's not always a good idea. We'll see how many Pandorans get slaughtered in a possible sequel.
As for “holy fucking shit”, writing like this just makes you look like an idiot, it doesn't really help your argument. I agree with most of what you said anyway. Can you keep it civil?
Have you ever heard of any native peoples with low-tech (bows and arrows) who have successfully fought off outsiders with even basic hand guns, or who have won any battle? I'm no historian, but I think it has never happened. So I find this part of the movie unrealistic, and the intention to fight back was bad strategy. It's not a surprising strategy for an ex-marine / warrior though! so I guess the movie might still be realistic even if I don't approve of its hero's decision.
I don't really want to criticize the movie, I loved it; I just found the victory unrealistic.
Speaking of “Pandora”, there seem to be many things called “Pandora” of late… I'm getting myself one of these awesome little Pandora handheld-computers, and you should too! http://openpandora.org/ (development is *almost* finished!) and no, I don't work for the company, it's just an awesome little thing so I want to tell people about it.
Thank you, everyone of my friends loved it. I thought it was piss poor. I know its meant to be just a visual feast, blockbuster, but jesus christ there is a limit. Fail
1) Betting that as we discover more planets outside the solar system, repeating a name here and there won't seem like such a big deal. The more well-known mythologies will only give you so many usable names.
3) Just a thought…if the company was unaware of the natives, they had no reason to go to the expense of transporting a nuclear weapon 4.5 light years. Once they are there, well, nuclear weapons mean nuclear fallout, and the Na'vi are scattered about as at least 15 tribes that are mentioned in the film. By the time you're done hitting all of them, you've also made the planet's environment even more unfriendly than it already is. Care to mine that huge mineral deposit when it's sitting under a radioactive crater? Why needlessly complicate matters? Not to mention the kind of PR that would get them back on Earth…
4) Off the top of my head, I can name several severely outclassed groups that defeated invaders/occupiers of superior technology through sheer numbers and guts. The situation actually reminds me of that of Cortez vs. the Aztecs; small group a long way from resupply, gets in on sheer luck and by dazzling the natives, then gets hammered and driven off when they push things too far. Cortez had the advantage of a close base of resupply and several large groups of natives willing to join his side when he went back – the humans on Pandora had no such luck and at least 11 years' turn-around on a supply request, on top of that. Heck, the wildlife even came up on the side of the Na'vi, and that wildlife was armored (in some cases) and FAR outnumbered the humans. I can't say I found it unbelievable that they won.
I can absolutely respect your opinion, so long as you remember two things: it IS an opinion, and it's YOUR opinion. The problem I have with your review and some of the comments that follow is that they are stated as ABSOLUTES.
You run down the plot as if every film that comes out MUST have the depth and range of the most gritty art piece. Maybe that monotone world would suit you, but some people (the vast majority, judging by the box office) occasionally just want enough story to make them forget about the grit and grind of daily life, to entertain and immerse rather than forcing deep thought. Watching the whole piece, I must admit that a complex and deep story would have overwhelmed the setting, taking too much attention away from what really was an extra character – Pandora itself. Likewise, the setting and CGI had to be realistic and feel that way or else it would have overwhelmed the story as it did in Transformers 2 and so many others. All in all, I'd say they balanced out well, so long as you didn't spend all your time (*ahem*) trying to over-analyze one or the other. Cameron seems to have hit a pretty happy median…or else the many millions that are voting with their ticket purchases are wrong to feel satisfied and you are right.
I personally was quite happy with most of the characters, as well. Jake Sully, the guy who wouldn't be told he couldn't do something despite an obvious limitation, showed such a child-like wonder at first having his legs back and then the places those legs took him that it was easy to like him. Later when his eyes were opened to where the actions of his own people were leading him, the sense of “right” that he developed as a marine (on obvious display in some of his reactions right from the beginning) took over and he stepped up to fight. Maybe the film didn't focus as much on that process as you or I might have liked, but it was there. It didn't drag the film to a halt and didn't drag my attention completely away from the larger experience, so maybe it was a good choice after all. The same can be said of the other characters as well.
I think the problem many here had was one of expectations, not actual content. You went in wanting some deep, thought-provoking novel and now are acting badly when you got the action/romance short story instead. You are still trying to critique it as the former, and are just coming off as a bloviating critic.
That's my opinion, anyway.
“Just One of the Masses”
I Agree with the author. Evevryone I know loves this movie…. I left halfway through the movie. What a big disappointment.
I don't know when it became acceptable for a film to ride solely on it's special effects. Transformer's had some pretty great effects, but the plot, script, and characters were laughable (as they are in Avatar), but it didn't get a free ride.
Why didn't Cameron do a short film or a demo reel showing his new technology's capabilities instead of making us sit through 2.5 hours of inane dialogue, trite character development, and a cliched plot.
Are you going to the theater to watch a “movie” (literally, shit moves around on the screen), or a film, in which a story is depicted through visuals, sound, and dialogue?
Barry, you really need to quit your job as a critic, stop seeing ANY movie for about 5 years to heal from the flash burns that the critic job has done to your ability to enjoy a movie.
I believe everyone has a valid opinion regarding movies, even when I disagree with a persons opinion I will try and hear their point of view in regards to a movie. However, in your post above, it is obvious that NO movie would get through your gauntlet of evaluation and emerge as a viewable entity.
Your evaluation is a perfect example of why I have foregone reading any review of any movie until after I have seen it, because jaded burned out husks called critics have almost ruined too many movies for me to count until I realized that the critic is the bane of movie enjoyment.
The numbers don't lie on this one. Print as many diatribes as you like, you are vastly outnumbered by those who enjoyed the movie… Some of us have seen it multiple times already and were able to discover new facets of the movie that have enhanced our enjoyment even more. If you didn't like it, no sweat, more room for me to choose a seat from as I see it for a 5th, 10th or 50th time in the theater.
I didn't hate the movie, but I agree with your criticisms. After such a long absence, I was expecting something extraodinary from Cameron, and in a visual way this is extroadinary, but that doesn't make a good film. There are so many ways this movie could have been better if more care was taken in the writing and character development. The storyline and characters were woefully superficial.
I disagree with your assessment of Sam Worthington though. This wasn't his best performance, but he did what he could with the material at hand. He is an exceptional actor – if you check out some of his Australian work, you'll see what I mean – and I'm expecting a lot of good things from him now that he has a presence in Hollywood.
He's a movie critic? and who is James Sameron? Oh and coming up with a better movie that Avatar was done with less than a 10th of its budget. Its called District 9.
The way Worthington underplays his character is perfect. At first he just accepts his 'mission' like any innocent kid, and he never really overcomes that sense of innocence and dumbfoundedness which makes his character that much more appealing, so different from the know-it-all jerk-off characters that young American males are portrayed as. This young actor has great sensibility I hope the parts he is given in the future can show off these skills.
I completely agree with this review. I almost walked out of the movie twice, during that boring middle section. Yes, there were amazing special effects and a beautiful rendering of Pandora, but those strengths did not make up for the mediocre dialogue, plotting and boring characters. Trite and predictable!
You are absolutely right about the overall product of this film. It is very poor overall, even with the impressive CGI. What amazes me is just how many critics across the country who detested movies like G.I. Joe and Transformers are giving this movie such incredible praise. I think much of it has to do with the liberal preaching points of the movie, since most critics are in fact liberal. I myself am a liberal, but I can't stand it when Hollywood preaches liberal/progressive stances to me in such a stupid and childish way. At least in Michael Moore's documentaries he shows depth and intellectual thought, even if you disagree with his opinions. I know that Ebert loved this movie, and he also gave a big thumbs up to The Day After Tomorrow, even though that was also a terrible CGI-action movie. He is a big time liberal, so I'm sure he gave it a thumbs up simply for the global warming issue and the mockery of Dick Cheney. I just think we should critique movies based on their merits, not on their political viewpoints.
A fanciful junk of a movie with a plot line from a eighth grade novel.
I agree that most of Avatar is tedious and borderline ridiculous. The effects are neat but Lucas and Peter Jackson have already proven that seamless CGI is merely a matter of money and CPU cycles. Doesn't make up for bad storytelling, certainly doesn't make it the best movie ever made. This one is 10% technology breakthrough, 90% hype.
I don't want to know teh best movie u have seen in your life.. Let me guess, perhaps a crappy, campy Bollywood film?
HATERS! Jeep on Hating! If u can't enjoy what I can enjoy, then please, by all means, continue to HATE 😛
Check this out!
Alright, ohh Avatar, Avatar, Avatar. How can I describe how much i fuckin hate you without burning down the movie theater and running head first into a brick wall, only praying i die or go into a coma and never wake up again only to have to deal with this shitstorm, again.
Really, where do I fucking start. First of all, and i quote from critics, “Visually Stunning”, BULLSHIT. It looked like a fucking modern day cartoon, which all suck just as well. I saw this in 2D ( Thank The Flying Spaghetti Monster) because it was (only) $8.00, while 3D was $10.50. So i dont know if it is better in 3D, I cant imagine how in the Hell it would be, it would be like, Ohhh how do i say it, a sugar coated peice of SHIT. Honestly, I would rather go see Paranormal Activity again than this.
Whats next, hmmmmm, Ohhhh the fucking story line, well it has been many a moon since i watched Pochahantas, but that does not mean that i cant see the similarity in the story line, i dont want to discuss it but watch Pochahantas and you will see the similarity. Dont worry, it is not a 3 hour Shitfest, (unlike some other movies i could think of) its an hour and a half of better than avatar. ARRRGGGGHHHH, this movie does not deserve to be CAPITALIZED, it just deserves death.
What else, Ohhhh the acting was not terrible, I mean sam worthington isnt to bad, Sigourney Weaver is a sci fi GODDESS, Michelle Rodrigues is getting better at acting and i applaud her for that. And yet James cameron is getting worse at directing. As for making a family freindly movie i give you a C- at best.
Im done bitching about this movei and the fact that it sucked harder than a whore in a houston bar with a quarter shoved up his ass while Bill Clinton comments on her kankles.
Ohhh wait some D bag fuckstick was all like cursing is uncalled for and makes you an idiot and uncivilised. Well dickbeak, I am uncivilized, and if you have a problem with that then as Tom Cruise would say, in Tropic Thunder which was 73,567,983,174 times more epic than this FUCKING REATARDED PEICE OF SHIT DICKLICKING CAMELFUCKING SCRATCHBACK HUNK OF A SHITSTORM OUT OF THE MIDDLE OF BUMFUCKED GOD ONLY FUCKING KNOWS OR CARES WHERE MOVIE, go fuck ya self.
I thought we were in the minority. I could write a book (and someone will) about the awfulness of this mess. I feel sorry for people that thought this was worth hothe amt of $ they spent on it. Still, its just a movie! All in fun.
Haven't seen those films, but I will. Hope they are on Netflix.
Thanx.
I liked District 9 very much. Much smarter.
Thanx
I've been combing the net in search of someone, anyone, with a dissenting opinion of this unfortunate mega hit.
I saw Avatar last night and was bored beyond hope. From what I heard of the story prior to viewing it was that it was a boring, cliche narrative with dull flat characters. Still, I had hopes that the visuals would be groundbreaking. Not so. While the effects were okay, they were less than amazing, and the fact there was no relateable character anywhere in its shopworn plot made it that much harder to get into Cameron's overblown, self-fellating vision of Pandora. Also, big deal the Na'vi can jack into trees and animals. Fans of the movie go on like this is the most amazing, most innovative cinema trope since bullet time. Meanwhile, its lame characters, thin plot, and retina destroying ultraviolet lighting make a mess out of the rest of the movie.
The most annoying the about this movie is its fans, hypersensitive manchildren who cannot abide a disparaging word against this indulgent exercise of escapist trash, whose love for Cameron's opus at times borders religiosity.
Nobody hates it because it's popular you fucking numskull. If you read the article, you would see that. If you watched the youtube video “The Origin of Avatar”, you would see that.
It used to be cool to hate the popular. Now it's cool to find better reasons to hate the popular. Writing an article restating what the rest of the moronic minority has said about it, isn't creative, or original. Time for this site to shut the fuck down. No OC to see here.
I agree that there is no denying that the movie is visually stunning, especially in 3d, but to say that we went into the film not wanting it to be good is retarded. One of the authors first lines is “I wanted to love it, I really did.” I was also really excited to see it and I thought that I was going to really like it, but I was completely let down by the story. Besides being completely predictable and filled with mediocre acting, the story is completely ripped off of Dances with Wolves
Did you watch that video he posted? The Origin of Avatar!
Avatar's black and white characterization and New Age environmentalism is subtle and pernicious. The tremendous irony is that American Indians believed cameras would steal your soul. In my opinion, this is precisely what James Cameron intended with Avatar, which is squarely aimed at children and teenagers. Through dislocation of the mind (and “soul”) via the CGI, Cameron is pushing his naive belief system on an emotional level. Cameron wants people to leave reality – with its shades of gray and complex moral choices – behind. He would no doubt like to see screaming mobs of lunatics promoting his environmental message and ushering in a new dark age. He does not want you to think. He is not interested in promoting empiricism and scientific knowledge. He is not interested in real relationships or the actual human condition. He is not interested in the human body, he wants to leave that behind for an intangible and false fantasy life.
Cameron is a criminal in that Avatar and films of its ilk will certainly be extremely damaging to children's psyches, dislocating them their own flesh and blood lives, responsibilities and judgements. John Carpenter's In The Mouth Of Madness is a great analogy if you swap Sutter Cane's book for James Cameron's Avatar. I fear for humanity's future
retard
My 11 year old daughter could could make a movie 10 times better than James Cameron with a fraction of his funds and equipment. He is the Greatest Hack that ever hit the big screen.
BAH HAha ha!!!! Indeed you are. Is that your definition of a great art piece? “gritty”? Just watch Some Like it Hot, The Truman Show, The Fall, The Hudsucker Proxy, The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and almost any Wes Anderson movie (I'm there are a thousand more examples) all provide plenty of escape from humdrum daily lives, all great stories, all have great scripts, and none of these I would classify as “gritty”.
It's people like you who are degrading the film industry. Throwing your money into the hands of those who produce pieces of shit like this. You and the flockers are settling for subpar, when more than anything, we should want better! Are you going to tell me that the CG makes up for the simplistic plot, bad acting, boring characters, ghastly dialogue? Or, maybe you enjoy all the YEEHAWS, YEAHS and WOOS of the characters facing or escaping death. It was probably the one liners that sold the movie for you? “Come to daddy!” “Yeah bitch, go to mamma!”. Give me a fucking break…
I Really DISLIKED this movie Avatar! I went somewhat resistantly to this movie as I am not a sci-fi person & despise violence, but alas everyone said it so cool. Well, I for one do NOT agree at all. As a Psychologist –I was disgusted with the language in this movie and the violence and acceptance that it just okay for humans to go and wipe out another 'species'??? I just don't get why it is so okay to care about one character but snuff out others with guns blazing.
There were so many things & messages that kids could think about that will very unlikely never be discussed as “it was just so cool”. Another dislike is, why do people think it so cool to see all these things on the screen when most are from nature & are much more amazing in and of themselves. One easy example is the little special seeds were essentially like seeing a bloom of jellyfish, possible in Sechelt British Columbia or viewable on the Blue Planet series and far more amazing. Do we really need to spend this much money to have kids/adults experience things that are not really, what the heck is wrong with nature in itself??
Then there is the moral component of this story? Wow did I miss this? “We'll just kill the bad guys & all will be well, after we determine that the bad guys can actually just blend in and be trusted in this new world”? Gosh I hope kids don't think we should just explore the universe and then do whatever we want after we kill off the earth that is! I, as noted, by a few others actually fell asleep at least 2 times. I think it is so sad that so much money is spent making crap like this and on seeing it when it is “simply a movie”. Come on people go out and enjoy the planet & nature while we still have it and teach your children this as this is a valuable way to spend 3 hours, not at the movies. BTW, thank goodness there are a few sane humans out there that did not think this was the best thing ever!
You took the words out of my mouth. I don't know if Cameron thought everyone was stupid and that a bunch of pretty colors and cool CGI would steer us away from a frightfully awful storyline…but seeing all the awards and praise from critics and fans alike, I guess he was successful.
I have to ask; given that the number of people who out-and-out HATE this film is obviously a small minority, did any of you ever consider the fact that your reaction is just that – YOUR reaction?? I can't begin to describe the level of arrogance on display when I read comments that boil down to the following: “The movie was horrible; yeah it was successful, but that just means that everyone else is stupid, and have been hoodwinked by that awful James Cameron.”
Was the plot a bit thin? Yes, but too much complexity would have landed the plot in a war with the effects and the set-up exposition. Star Wars had a terrifically weak plot, the old “hero's journey” without so much as a new twist in sight. It worked, though, and so did Avatar.
I don't agree at all on the acting and characterization; that's one we'll have to agree to disagree on. I don't think the acting was Oscar-worthy, but it was solid, especially considering the circumstances. Try going back to the first “talkies” and tell me the quality of acting didn't seem to take a slight dip as people got used to the new format. Same goes for this one – facial expression and acting were likely not easy when you have all that gear on and a small camera hanging off your head the whole time. Let the new CGI find it's stride, and the Oscars will begin taking notice.
All of that, and you chose to pick the word “gritty” out of my post and attack THAT? Seriously? Not to mention you managed not to name a single movie that even deals with any CGI, let alone the breakthroughs in motion capture that went into Avatar. I'm not saying it was the strongest plot in the world, but a complex plot tossed into that complex background might have been a very bad choice for overall presentation. Ever see someone wearing a plaid shirt with pants of a different plaid?
I also disliked Avatar. Seemed like an expensive version of Disney's Pocahontas, Disney's Atlantis and Dances with Wolves. Incredibly predictable to the point of boredom with unwitty quips and puns. Most of the acting was over the top. The only good thing was that it was pretty. I guess that was the allure. Without it, the movie would have failed.
Thanks for your perceptive review. I'm not surprised that most people are more interested in special effects than an original story, just disappointed. And I want my $13 back.
P.S. Am I the only person in the world who is tired of CGI instead of real photography? Everyone keeps saying that the transition between the live acting and the CGI is seamless. In all honesty, I didn't find it anywhere near seamless. I could tell when a scene was CGI, and I found it distracting. Did anyone else feel this way?
what does budget have to do with anything?and D9?…..not better.
really?……how was D9 “smarter”? you mean like when the piece of ship falls off and nobody can find it….huh?…..but the only smart alien out of thousands buries it underneath his hut and nobody notices….yep sure …that's smarter…..whatever. Humans have discovered ancient artifacts buried underneath hidden temples and pyramids but we can't find that piece of ship that fell off……and it was even on video…..yep, D9 is smarter.
sorry matt, you are wrong. There are hundreds of really bad movies released each year but the haters are going out of their way to hate on the biggest blockbuster ever. They are non-conformist types who like to go against the grain. Why don't they devote as much hate towards Alvin the Sqeukwuel?..because it's not a curtural phenomenon. The haters want to try and establish they are smarter than the billions who love Avatar.
I bet your 11 year old daughter could make a better argument for her opinion also.
Avatar pissed me off enough that I almost walked out of the movie. To be fair, I have to admit that perhaps I wouldn't have been so annoyed if people has not been previously touting this film as having such an “anti-war” message. If I had just gone into the movie with no preconcieved thoughts, PERHAPS I would have enjoyed it. But probably not. Because in the end, it was just another war movie, good guys kill the bad guys and everything is grand. There is nothing ANTI war about that. If it was meant to be a lecture, then guess what? Everyone should have ended up dead and noone should have “won.” Am I being idealistic as hell? Yes. So what? In the end, this movie taught us nothing. Which is a totally fine way for a movie to be. Not every movie has to TEACH us something. I am totally in favor of really dumb movies like Grandma's Boy or totally escapist movies like Princess Bride. They don't lecture or teach or moralize. They ENTERTAIN. But this movie tries to play to all sides of an audience and suceeds in none. Is it an adult movie or a kid's movie? If it's a kid's movie, it was FAR too violent and the only “lesson” kids are going to come away with is that it was “cool.” And if an adult learned a lesson from the trite storyline and resung songs of technology bad, nature good, then they stopped reading in 5th grade. Instead of making a solid movie that made a point or a kid's movie that was just fun, James Cameron decided to play to the box office and waste millions of dollars on special effects that tried to appeal to all sides of the fence. Like I said, if people hadn't already discussed this point, I may not have come out feeling this way. Although, honestly, I really couldn't stomach that much violence even in an animated movie. If you're going to lecture, TEACH. And if you're going to entertain, don't lecture. Hollywood needs to start making ADULT movies that actually make you think again instead of across the board “family entertainment” that is going to make them the most money. And that's pretty much all I got to say on that matter
Actually, I would argue against the technology. That's actually one of the things I take biggest issue with. Cameron shot this schlockfest with hacked Sony F-950's, those are 2/3″ sensor cameras….that means he shot the live action stuff with cameras with 1/60th the imaging area of IMAX. Then if you go to one of the fake digital IMAX theaters where they're giving you 2K instead of the 70mm film, that's 1/30th IMAX. There is nothing IMAX about this noninteractive video game. If Cameron had actually used the 3D IMAX camera to shoot it with, and then had CGI to match with that? Then it at least would have lived up to its hype for technology. All they really did was spend a lot of money on new toys so they could put their names on them and make more money when other people use them. It's just another Michael Bay kind of movie, all flash in the pants, which if people saw it that way it'd be fine with me, but it's this massive blockbuster that's a “gamechanger” and people are now listening to what Cameron says as gospel, and it's gonna hurt us all.
I totally agree with you
Try telling that to people and friends who watched it, you're instantly stereotyped into a planet hater and/or a wanna be attention craver, not gonna use the real word here.
quote “big deal the Na'vi can jack into trees and animals.” and that's a PG 13…
Na'vi ? My word corrector isn't red underlining that… The “Dranei” from world of Warcraft or “Smurfs” are underlined as wrong words… and the Na'vi are cheap copies of them….
Overall, it's a Panurge's sheep effect, worse, i think half the people didn't find the movie great but they decided to go with the flow.
Gimme back my 9$
lemme give a much more colorful insight to the story, more personal, not so subjective and maybe gives a few laughs, i wrote about the movie on a small blog i'm operating on, check it out tell me what you think
http://foulforthought.blogspot.com
I am just surprised how much people would go into the details to show how much they under appreciate someone's opinion in pointing out unrelated details that one got wrong. I agree with you and I am one of those that did not like AVATAR. In fact, I don't even think it deserves an Oscar. Maybe visual effects, which were more or less high-quality giving the the fact that the present time the computer animation evolves at a light speed (the Oscar in this case should be given to the crew who worked on the actual affects along with those who created the necessary programs to do so). But I think this is all that people saw was the special effects. They did not care much for the story line, they did not care for the fact how much plagiarized the plot was. In fact, many of those who watched it where hardworking regular people who did not give a damn about picking up an adventure/sci-fi book and read it for fun. They simply preferred to have it all summarized by an 5 star director, who mixed up all of the great plots along with present day politics. That is what they saw. Many just don't give a damn about looking deeply into the movie plot, preferring to skip a good drama for overstuffed visual effects flick… at least Titanic took more human toil to make rather than blue screen rooms.
I love sc/fi films but this film Avitar i hated good effects but thats all strange I hated
titanic as well
I totally agree with this post. This movie is all CGI and absolutely no heart. When compared to District 9 and 2012, it comes up VERY VERY short in terms of characterization, plot and dialogue. And Sam Worthington really has zero screen presence. When I think of the great actors that could have pulled this off, and the crap performances we got, I want to puke. I want my money back
I hated this movie. That it was nominated as best picture says that this is all aboabout hype & $. I hope the best film wins.
I must agree. The entire plot is exactly the same as Dances with Wolves, but in 3D. Above all else however, Sam Worthington stuck out as the most dreadful part in the movie. Male version of Paris Hilton . And even thats a compliment.
I it saw today after my Mom convinced me to go. Umm, Fern Gully anyone?
You hit the nail on the head. The thing I found most anoying about this “phenomenon” is the fans who are not willing to see lthe lack of film quality behind all the “eye candy”. Furthermore they argue (illogically) against anyone who says otherwise.
Everyone is entitled to their opinions be they positive or negative. Since when are we not allowed to criticise something?
Why should Avatar be touted as amazing but not another film heavily reliant on CG such as Transformers? A lot of effort was put into the CGI for that too but you’ll be hard pressed to find a person who regards that film as a “masterpiece”.
There is nothing wrong with liking simplistic flashy movies if that’s your thing. Just try to show a little consistency in your (subjective) opinions. If not, then you will appear to others as just another delusional fanboy/fangirl.
One of my main issues with this movie is the tide of propaganda trying to convince me how good of a movie it is. While the movie did not flat out suck it is certainly no more than dollar day movie material. You hear about how much the movie has grossed but you subtract the cost and the profit while huge is not that outstanding.
Avatar
Cost 500m Gross 600m Profit 100m
Passion of the Christ
Cost 30m Gross 370m Profit 330m
The movie is just hype from the capitalism is bad, even though it makes me rich, crowd. Mediocre at best.
My reaction was being both bored and cheated. A big, dumb action movie can satisfy. A deep, meaningful movie about loss and hope can satisfy. But this movie tried to be both, so I ended up being bored with the hopeless dialogue and lack of interesting plot. If Cameron and co had stuck to an action movie he would have had an awesome flick.
Cameron never did understand future studies.
140 years in the future and they still use camcorders and shotguns?
The movie was so bad. The worst are the 12 year olds that cry that they want to be on the avatar home world because they've probably never seen a tree in real life being behind their ps3's all day…..
Troll, if you love your stupid movie so much, why do you browse the internet for people who hate this movie, just to talk off to them? Reply, or be known as a fool and a moron.
No dude, it's a fact that in 2002 Cameron began a campaign via investments from RealD, and got the ball rolling through IMAX, ESPN, and Discovery to push 3D upon the public. You're gonna tell me Sony, Samsung, and others unveil 3D TV's at CES 3 weeks after Avatar's release, along with the channel announcements, were just coincidence? That these huge companies on a whim decided this was the year for 3D? Right….It all been done for the turn of a profit, he took a very unoriginal idea and polished it with so much eye candy that most people won't notice everything that's wrong. It's much like a Michael Bay movie, except instead of heavy handed cliché, it's more subtley crafted sp you won't notice. New Format? What new format? 3D? That's 70 years old, green screen or motion/performance capture, yea, not new either. Look at Andy Serkis in LOTR, Brad Pitt in Benjamin Button, Pitt didn't even have other actors there. The only thing new to Avatar was the expensive toys they developed, which are now being rented…for profit. I'm also curious what's new about this CGI aside from standard progression in processing power etc? It's an engineered movie to make money and legitimize and mainstream 3D in a way that has Cameron and Co make a lot of money, and stroke his ego a little more….it does not deserve praise as an artistic endevour. If you want your movies to be more like amusement park rides, go to the amusement park, let me have my movies, and leave old movies alone, another thing he's trying to get his hands into to make more money.
This comment makes no sense.
Wow…way to excuse a bad movie with your political issues with America. Politics totally aside, this isn't the same as Iraq or Afghanistan. If this was, only a privately contracted entity, say Blackwater, not the US military, would be the ones invading. Next, if this was the same, this military entity would have gone in killing EVERYTHING in their path, and then taking the oil directly. Even if you were to think that the gov'ts there are puppet regimes of the US, that's still more care than what happens in Avatar, in the movie they go, kill, attempt take resource, End story.
I also don't have an issue with big CGI fantasy epicy whatevers. I really enjoyed all of the LOTR's movies, I'm actually quite open to ANY kind of movie. I only take issues with BAD movies or ones that are manufactured for the purpose of purely trying to change movie making as we know it in attempts to make people rich. In fact, if you look at everything that's happening in the background of this movie, Avatar is more like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's a campaign that has persons and entities with huge financial stakes in the outcome of this campaign, and they are doing everything thing they can to keep it going, even if that means forcing it down a public's throat who didn't ask for it. The difference is, you're welcoming them as liberators.
Rhetoric aside, I'm not against 3D. If Cameron was like, I'm gonna make some 3D because I think it's cool, then great. Like how Nolan and Pfister used IMAX(real IMAX btw) to shoot Dark Knight. They weren't in every media outlet proclaiming this was game changing or the newest and best, or that they think everything should be shot this way in the future because we've been doing it wrong for the past 100 years, or that past films should somehow be retro-IMAXed and we should have IMAX quality TVs in our homes etc etc. This is exactly what Cameron has been doing. Just listen to anything he says about how everything should start to be shot on 3D, 3D TV's, cameras, taking old movies and making faux 3D from them. All with technologies he's got his hands in financially. I've lost all respect for him as a filmmaker and a person.
Maybe had he shot this on real IMAX 3D and not crappy little cameras, and maybe he had put in a more original story/plotline, and maybe he hadn't gone around telling everyone how amazing it is and how amazing he is for doing it….then I could have liked it. And yes, other films have similar plotlines etc, you could tear others apart based on plot points etc, the key is to not smack the audience in the face with it. Go see Dances With Wolves or Pocahontas, and then this, and tell me it didn't immediately make you think of not just the movies in general, but specific scenes.
Of course, that's just the gross. Don't forget the theatres and distributors get over 50% of that 500m, so Avatar is running at a loss so far.
About the acting, I think Zoe Saldana (Neytiri) did an amazing job acting. I was blown away from the emotion she brought to the film. I am not one of those guys who only like blockbusters, I loved Gone Baby Gone, Belle, Snatch, Deliverance, School of life etc. I have a wide variety of likes so I am not biased. Also, I find it hard to believe that people say things about the story, seriously almost any story anyone comes with has already been done. I love 24 and those stories are not at ALL original.
TOTALLY AGREE. I Scoured the net too in search of some folks who'd at least felt cheated by this movie. I've also tried to give a candid description of what I witnessed: but I'm surruonded by no one that seems to share my opinion!
Barry,
I completely agree with everything you said. I walked into the movie hoping to leave with a good feeling. But all I felt at the end was … HUH?!! I don't get it. What's with all the hype? Beyond the 3D special effects and brilliant colors, the movie was downright awful. I'm so glad I found someone who shares the same feelings about the movie. It was a relief to know I wasn't the only one not thrilled with this movie. I'm just grateful I had free movie passes. I would've been ticked had I paid. Lastly, I WANT THOSE 3 HOURS OF MY LIFE BACK!!
Carrie 🙂
I can not tell you how happy I am to find others that hated Avatar. I don't get it. THE MOVIE SUCKED!!! I was bored out of my mind almost instantly, then had to sit there dying for 3 hours. Horrible acting, horrible plot, horrible 3D, HORRIBLE EVERYTHING. I am so sick of people saying that the visuals and the 3D are so great, because they aren't. The 3D in Journey to the Center of the Earth with Brendan Fraser was a million times better, not to mention the story line was better too, and that's saying a lot, since that movie wasn't that great either. I knew Avatar was going to suck from the moment that I first saw the trailer, but I went anyways so see what all the fuss was about, and now I am just disgusted with the world's infatuation with this crap. I think people just say that they like it because they think that's that right thing to say, like cattle following the herd. Hopefully in the long run it's true colors will be shown as the awful movie that it is. I want my $13 and 3 hours back.
Thank you very much!! My thoughts exactly. What a big part of the human race wants to see in a movie is how evil the human race is and how they destroy nature. Add excellent CGI, some romance and a human hero in the equation and you have a blockbuster. How predictable and boring. I am not against predictable movies, as long as there is a lot of blood, violence and nudity 😛
Spot on. Especially about the fans. I just had the experience of watching this movie very late in the game. It's been months since this came out. I have been living in Japan and even so, I am still incessantly asked by everyone “Have you seen Avatar?” Hell, even my doctor randomly asked me. But this just goes to show the far reaching influence of this film. Yes the plot was as flat as a pancake, but it was drenched in a gallon of syrup. But everyone ate it up, and admittedly so did I. But throughout it one cant help but to feel the constant keen itch of a horribly predictable mediocre story. Honestly, I'm not too sure where I stand on it. I hated watching myself like it and I liked watching myself hate it. It's a horrible film, but probably the best “movie” I have ever seen.
I like watching any movie by its content. All the superfluous CGI and histrionics do not make it any good. And Avatar is amongst one of those movies. Watch out, all movie buffs, if Avatar gets the Oscars, then mediocrity( in a cinematic sense) will rule in the future..
I did not like avatar! I know, hate on me. I understand the comments out there that are saying that the people who did not like it, didn’t get it. I think the it, that many think we didn’t get, is the message the movie is sending. If that is in fact the it, then I whole heartedly disagree. I got the message! I just don’t agree with the message entirely. In giving commentary on what is happening in our world, avatar is relevant. From, the war in Iraq destroying sacred places and taking oil, to destroying the earth and its ozone by not going green, or even the message of evil big corporate powers, the message is clear in avatar. Many may say, what is there to disagree with? I agree that humans (American’s especially) have not taken care of the earth wisely . We have not treated creation lovingly or with wisdom. We have used people and harmed the earth. I furthermore agree that we need to be confronted on these issues. But my problem is, when an entertaining movie becomes propaganda. But even worse than that is when a movie tries to give a message by giving an equally harmful message, one that treats human life cheaply. I’m sorry but I had parents who taught me at a young age, that if a house was on fire and the fire man had to choose between my sister or the dog, my sister would be more important then the life of our dog. No disrespect for dog lovers out there! I had a hard time with this when I was young. I hated when dogs died in movies but was o.k. when people died. That’s messed up. The reason I say this, is because Avatar seems to communicate the message that we are all the same and on the same playing level. Humans should be killed if they threaten to destroy a sacred tree. Because killing trees is bad, and human life is less important. Sure I understand. Check out this example. If I was an exterminator of roaches, and I got the opportunity to be a roach for a while and had to live with roaches for a year, to better know how to exterminate them, my opinion might change. I may now fight to save my new roach friends; in fact I may begin to attack humans, because I now love the roaches. This type of story puts the sympathy on those poor roaches, that are misunderstood! Those roaches that infest your home and make it unlivable and gross. In fact it gets the audience cheering when the humans get killed by these roaches. Great message. Save the roaches kill the humans. I can handle the message that says, save the trees, but a message that saves the trees and treats human life cheaply is not o.k. in my mind. Sure its just a movie, but the message is clear.
I too disliked this movie so much that I want James Cameron to give me a $24 refund for the 2 tickets that I bought. It's was predictable, boring and too long. The same plot could have been done in 1 hour and 1/2. The 3D stuff was ok, no big whoop.
I agree, I watched avatar 2D last night, and left half way through the film as it was boring me to death!
On the good side the graphics are great but the story just lets it down!
I loved titanc so i don't know where the director went wrong.
1 1/2 stars > 2 out of 10.
My advice, is to spend your money on another film.
If you didn't like Avatar, you might like this…
i just don't like kids movies.
Avatar was really the best movie ever for me but i went on this website to see if anybody hated avatar
Indeed, it truly sucked. What made even worse was all the annoying clapping at the end. I kept thinking, “what the hell is wrong with me”? The only character I ended up liking at the end was the evil military guy…at least he was still batting for the human race. Lame black and white script, too much CGI, I really didn't care about the 3-D because I just couldn't get into the movie. Go see District 9 instead.
I realize this is an old discussion about a movie that I was prepared to love, but hated. I just saw 2012, which I was prepared to hate but really liked. Avatar was a bloated piece of computer generated garbage w/rotten actors, dreadful, cliched storylines & a whole lot of Cameron hype. 2012 was plausible in the world of disaster movies, smart actors & just better!
Worst movie, if you can fairly refer to hours of CGI with no script as a movie, that I've seen in years. I HATED IT. Dear Cameron: next time get a screenwriter. And you may want to hire an editor as well.
No no no. You're missing the point. I think everyone understands the message Avatar conveys. It's blatant to the point of comedy. They may as well have had Morgan Freeman do a PSA about global warming and saving the environment in the middle of the film (preferably whenever Sigourney Weaver or Michelle Rodriquez had lines). It's a tired, boring story. Obviously the Na'vi were the Native Americans of the future. James Cameron did not try to come up with an interesting way to convey his story. He wanted it to be pretty. Na'vi were called savages for Christ sake. They had Indian head dress and war cries. It was pompous. I can't say enough bad things about the story.
I think the Academy Awards were testament to the fact that Avatar was NOT a great film. It only won awards in the categories of it's visual appeal and I think that speaks volumes. James Cameron won the same Oscar in 1986, 1989, 1991, and 1997. It's fitting – he makes pretty films. Not great films.
It's more interesting to be in the midst of people who disagree with you. Afterall, who wants to fire a flaming arrow into their own camp?
So, to build up the ire, Avatar opened the day after I completed my intro-to-anthropology class. So I think I'm as entitled to speak on the social message and parallels to modern society as any scholar (yeah, I am just trying to piss you off)
OK, so I'm taking this class and we talk about British post-colonial rule, especially as it applies to Congo and the mining of coltan (which is used to make the tantalum capacitors in your cellphones) and I think that's what's going on. The Na'vi are an indigeonous people sitting on a resource that a merchant corporation for a colonial government wants.
One of the best ways to justify taking a people's property or exploiting them for labor is to convince yourself that it is your divine right to rule according to the natural order of things. When the availability of indentured servant labor dried up in 17th century North and South Carolina, land owners invented racial superiority to justify retaining black people as slave labor. The upshot is that in order to morally justify stripmining pandora, displacing the natives, RDA and their mercanary garrison had to establish in their own minds that the Na'vi were a different and inferior species incapable of abstract or moral reasoning.
So peel the onion and the middle part of the movie that most of you slept through showed that like us the Na'vi had politics, agency, technology and social order. Were any of you awake for the funeral scene?
So, sumarizing that Avatar says tree's and monkey's before people misses a point that most of you have said is obtuse. Consider these arguments for the films messages: the unbridled quest for wealth causes the decimation of languages cultures and loss of knowledge reflecting centuries of wisdom. 'for what, a light beer, blue jeans?' You put yourself at a terrible disadvantage to demean your adv ersary in any conflict because in so doing, you underestimate his ability to see things as you do. Finaly, Arguments resolved by armed revolt instead of negotiation have a way of reviving themselves. (That's one reason I think there will be an Avatar 2)
And for those who didn't think the visual effects were noteworthy well, everyone has their own tastes. For example, I have never understood how anyone could eat Fuagrais, but some people prefer it to steak.
I will say this – in the show I was sitting in (very early in the release, but after alot of hype had gone out) nobody clapped. Titanic had a bad storyline, but appealing actors, and a great sinking of the ship. I think what most offended me about Avatar was that the story and the characters were just so bad and offensive, the CGI was so good and it didn't have to be that way. How much more $ and time could it have taken to write a good story?! I guess it had to be nominated for an Oscar because it made so much $, but it shouldn't have.
Just keep in mind that this absurd movie was made to entertain the Average American Millennial Moron, who wouldn't know quality if he was hit over the head with it. They can't grasp depth in plot or character, so everything has to be dumbed down for them. But throw in some tiresome CGI and the next thing you know, you'll have fart, cretins painting themselves blue and acting out their favorite scenes in the park and collecting the memorabilia french friw boxes at whichever fast food chain gets the merchandizing rights.
Please forgive me for replying to the old discussion. I think it's great to see other people wanting more out of a movie other than pretty pictures. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed some of this directors movies in the past like Aliens and terminator. Which were new to me at the time and I loved them.
However it really annoys me when this director and avatar fans think that fantasy and sci-fi lovers should give this movie a free pass because of the director and eye candy. To me it takes more than that to movie a good movie let alone a great one. Plus I'm really tired of the avatar treating people who aren't madly in love with this movie as if we have the plague.
Avatar did have deeper story it just wasn't handed out on a silver platter like some people want. As many have said, yes avatar has the most stunning visuals to date, but I do not agree with what many say of acting or plot. The plot was a real classic plot yes, but that doesn't make it bad and as for acting I thought it would have been better than it was, it just got really overshadowed by the special effects. Some people get the idea that really big influential things HAVE to go along with other really big influential things. I don't see a whole lot of haters for Dances with Wolves or Pocahontas but that's because plot, acting and visuals were all balanced with each other.
Avatar lovers, such as me don't treat all dislikers of the film like the plague, only the ones that go all raging “This movies sux ass!!” and “JC should get his head out of his ass!!!”. People that are calm, rational and have GENUINE reasons for not liking to movie I treat with respect.
@ everyone that thought it was a cartoon, you sure weren't watching the same movie I was, it was really easy to forget that it was cgi and sometimes it really did seem more like make up than effects.
I'll have to disagree with you niwotxkrr the plot was a bit to simple to the point. I felt it was being spoon fed to me. Plus people don't hate Pocahontas or dances with wolves ( I'm throwing in the last samurai as well) Because well they are old classics. However I don't think I paid to see these same movies done in 3d.
The plot was a bit simple and cheesy. The characters were flat and well boring.Plus like I said before it takes more than eye candy to make a story. Well at least to me it does but people are different.
Seems to be at of pretension in the comments saying the story lacked “originality” with characters that are “two dimensional” hmmm….the movie (hmmhmp excuse me “film”) nazi in me says yea their right. I've come to the conclusion that word's like originality could mean anything but originality, for example: James Cameran created something that I never seen in a movie before other than “dances with wolves” I mean pandora the planet in my opinion is pready damn original. The science fiction technology pready damn original. Now the story I happen to think lack of originality mean “NOT DEPRESSING ENOUGH” if everybody died I bet you would change your tunes but “Audiences love happy endings” only some dont. Now characters that are two dimensional hmm well I would say if your a Movie (sorry again “FILM”) critic you would watch waaayyy more movies than the “average” movie goer I would say Two independants a day to which yes you've seen these characters hundreds to thousands of times done better mind you but the “Average movie goer” hasnt therfore loves the love story. Average movie going females love it because it's romantic. Average movie going males love it because of the mix between love and action and can be put in the shoes of “sully” so what you people see as two dimensional the average movie going audience sees as incredible. Plus name me ten mainstream films that this movie lacked orginality or stole from as it were KEY WORD “Mainstream”
You know I'd rather be a nazi than a simple minded fool gram where all it takes to make a great movie in your mind. Are eye candy and special effects. Sorry those don't cut it for me I'm a bit greedy. I want good acting and characters that I can actually care about and OH a storyline.
The most annoying part of the movie was how blatantly anti- white America it was. Let's review the 'good guys' in this movie: A crippled ex-marine, an extremely nerdy white guy, a femanazi scientist that always wears a berkeley or harvard shirt (it's been a few months since i saw this trash), a female latina chopper pilot. Oh, and the indians.
The bad guys? White, male, corporation or ex-military. All with American accents. All portrayed as bloodthirsty and unreasoning.
It appalls me how a white american man can make a movie that is so obviously full of hatred towards white american men. If Cameron really feels the way he does about white america he should just slash wrists already.
I'm with you. I think the spoof on the internet are much more entertaining.
Classic, I can watch it over and over again.
Thank you so much for your opinion! As of now, I haven't an ounce of regret for my decision to abstain from seeing or discussing Avatar. I was first annoyed that it held the same name as my favorite series Avatar: Last Airbender. Then, my annoyance turned to derision and as one of the other readers pointed out, I became a 'hater' in the eyes of anyone I showed my contempt to. I feel the same with Twilight. I do actually enjoy Harry Potter but I feel the characters can be a bit stagnant (especially Harry) and I really dislike all the giddy discussions that surround these so-called classic works. I'm glad I can be a part of the world again. I'm glad I found this article so I'm not so along in my intelligence. It can be a very lonely world being a skeptical and deep thinker.
Avatar was horrible.
Avatar was horrible.
I must say, 9 out of 10 comments posted here are just totally retarded comments coming out of perfectionists-minded people. No offense through, what i want to say is, you're dealing with art here, and with art there's no 'official'/'generalized'/'better' way to do something. Movies are there for entertainment. People like daydreaming, fantasizing about other worlds, how things could exist. And thats the kind of film this is, fantasy, science fiction (especially read the word fiction). If you're not that kind of person and rather like to criticize all sorts of things and think (often thats a misplaced thought of illusion) YOU would have done it 200% better, then go watching documentaries or go about making your own films, i'm sure you would also be 200% richer then James Cameron because your mind is 200% more creative and you could make 200% better special effects and especially the storyline would make the difference you came up with!
Oh, by the way, i liked the film very much.
Cheers.
You are correct Randy, this is not the film for us. If you think about it this way mover goers can be broken into three 'basic' groups.
1. The average film viewer. Usually doesn't expect too much out of a film story wise. Just wants entertainment and a good time. Is sometimes irritated if a film is more complex than he/she expected.
2. The discerning film viewer. Has no problems engaging with films on a higher intellectual/emotional level. Appreciates original, well thought out, and well executed film. Optionally may appreciate the finer points of cinematography.
3. The Technical/Videophile group. People in this group go out of their way to lavish their homes with the best audiovisual equipment they can. They buy a lot of DVDs/Blurays and compare the visual/audio/special features of those discs. Story, narration etc is of secondary importance to visual things like special effects, image clarity..
The film is okay for audiences 1 and 3 but not 2. The average person won't be expecting much out of it and the videophile will be excited to see how the film translates to the home cinema environment.
If you fit into group 2 then this isn't the film for you. You're better off forgetting it and finding something else to watch.
You are correct Randy, this is not the film for us. If you think about it this way movie goers can be broken down into three 'basic' groups.
1. The average film viewer. Usually doesn't expect too much out of a film story wise. Just wants entertainment and a good time. Is sometimes irritated if a film is more complex than he/she expected.
2. The discerning film viewer. Has no problems engaging with films on a higher intellectual/emotional level. Appreciates original, well thought out, and well executed film. Optionally may appreciate the finer points of cinematography.
3. The Technical/Videophile group. People in this group go out of their way to lavish their homes with the best audiovisual equipment they can. They buy a lot of DVDs/Blurays and compare the visual/audio/special features of those discs. Story, narration etc is of secondary importance to visual things like special effects, image clarity..
The film is okay for audiences 1 and 3 but not 2. The average person won't be expecting much out of it and the videophile will be excited to see how the film translates to the home cinema environment.
If you fit into group 2 then this isn't the film for you. You're better off forgetting it and finding something else to watch.
Care to revisit your numbers?
fine, and I collect north of 13,000 dollars for the endless flow of spew coming
out of hollywood
Care to revisit your numbers?
fine, and I collect north of 13,000 dollars for the endless flow of spew coming
out of hollywood
COE, i totally agree with u. These ppl should ask themselves which film they DO like.
COE, i totally agree with u. These ppl should ask themselves which film they DO like.
I'm not going to pour any vitriol over you. You're quite reasonable about why you dislike the movie and I respect that, I reserve my vitriol for those on the 'net who pursue their hatred with a venom and vehemence that borders on the crazed. Many of those freely admit they've never even seen the movie, which is even more strange. I suspect a lot of it is politically motivated. They use the same cliche'd arguments too, about lack of originality, well so what? The Hurt Locker is just another war flick but I don't hear anyone complaining about that. Very strange.
To be fair, you do raise some points that I was uneasy with, the turnaround of Trudy Chacon was ubrupt and unexpected, in the original script she was to have a relationship with Norm the avatar driver and that would have softened the blow, seeing as she would have been getting into bed literally and metaphorically with the scientists, Jake I disagree with, we can see him gradually losing his heart to the Na'vi and Neytiri – again in the original script there was a scene where Grace explains what happened to the school – the soldiers shot dead some children including Neytiri's sister – in the script it's quite shocking and would help explain better Jake's eventual disolutionment with the RDA and Quarritch and his turnaround – I've heard it's in the deleted scenes.
Oh so you're a “discerning” viewer then? So the rest of us proles only enjoy this movie because we're too stupid to know any better then?
You sir, are a snob.
Utter twaddle…
Oh, and I thought that the story, though simple, was beautifully told, and that was all that mattered to me. The plot, to be sure, is weak, but as the positive critical review on this very site says, is more than enough to do the job.
They were intended as basic generalisations, there can be some “overlap” of course, and no two people will think exactly alike.
My main point was that this film was not intended for those types of viewers. Therefore instead of wasting their time criticising a film that clearly wasn't intended for them they should give up and move on to something better suited to their sensibilities. Those who found Avatar a positive and enjoyable experience are absolutely free to do so.
They were intended as basic generalisations, there can be some “overlap” of course, and no two people will think exactly alike.
My main point was that this film was not intended for those types of viewers. Therefore instead of wasting their time criticising a film that clearly wasn't intended for them they should give up and move on to something more enjoyable for them. Those who found Avatar a positive and enjoyable experience are absolutely free to do so.
Dude, there's no ire here. I was ready to go halfway through the movie; I got so tired of looking at those damned animal-faced blue people it didn't make any sense. My god it was like 3 hours long!!
I really hate the movie because it's over-hyped. Cameron should be ashamed of himself. The media tells people what to like and some consume it blindly I'm afraid. This movie doesn't hold a candle to Titanic, (well that's my opinion). Does anybody else see the lunacy???
Dude, there's no ire here. I was ready to go halfway through the movie; I got so tired of looking at those damned animal-faced blue people it didn't make any sense. My god it was like 3 hours long!!
I really hate the movie because it's over-hyped. Cameron should be ashamed of himself. The media tells people what to like and some consume it blindly I'm afraid. This movie doesn't hold a candle to Titanic, (well that's my opinion). Does anybody else see the lunacy???
dude i 100% agree with anyone who hates or dis-likes this film,this movie was entirely predictable and completly fucking sucked.
My girlfriend forced me to watch it with her…….i told her my dis-like for it right after and even when we were watching it……she called me a racist asshole yet i'm a white-green eyed-blonde haired guy dating her,a brown girl(she's native american and black,she's from ghetto piece of shit bermuda).
also my two of my best buddies are not white,my friend corey is black and my other buddie james is a huge jewish guy,how am i a fucking racist????,my girlfirned also got mad at me and her and her bitch mom called me an ignorant closet racist when the whole Haiti thing happened….i simply stated my oppinion….i joined a group on facebook called “Fuck haiti,we have our own problems here in america”.
I joined the group because a bunch of rich fucks are adopting little haitian kids when yet their are thousands of american kids who remain orphans and often die on the streets and everyone keeps feeling sorry for haiti cause 100,00 people died,so fucking what??? 6 million jews were killed in the holocaust,in fact just 2 weeks after the haiti incident a 10.0 earthquake hit chile and noone gave a shit about chile yet they suffered more oh and also here in america we are in like 800 billion dollar debt,and yet we spent over 100,0000 dollars then like a million in text donations now isin't that just fucking stupid,no other country's donated that much i mean doesn't that tell you a little about the country of haiti??,no-one else spent shit on haiti relief because we all know that in jusy 5 or 6 years haiti will waist the money on drugs and weapons and they'll continue to have cival wars and spread aids,just like africa,fuck haiti!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahah hey i have a joke- one day a kid was playing pokemon leaf green on his ds and he was using his favorite pokemon-Diglet,oh shit! a wild Haiti appeared! now diglet! quikly! use earthquake!……..wild haiti fainted…….hahahahahaha fuck you haiti and haiti sympozizers!!!!!
UH WOW. can you try better then get back to this? and who wrote this…..GIVE ME BETTER REASONS….THESE R THE SAME REASONS FROM EVERYONE.
As a list of rip offs…. if you want the love plot, watch Pocahontus (sorry for misspelling) the human walkers? Watch Matrix Revolutions, the human airships? Most of them can be found by either playing table top and PC warhammer 40k or by reading it, the humans forcing people off their land for valuable ore/energy? Play FF7, the rest of it has been listed above and I am glad more people see this movie for what it is.
Another negative Avatar review:
http://www.colesmithey.com/reviews/2009/12/avat…
How is the rape of another civilization a classic movie event?. Avatar shows the global domination of the US and its so-called search for knowledge. The people lived peacefully away from the white humanoids, so let them be instead of fighting for resources that thry didn't have. No question nor answer is worth the destruction of another civilization.
[…] yet. And AVATAR definitely set a record for best 3-D opening. Oh sure, there are haters, even if they wanted to like it—but thousands of tweets sound pretty pumped and 92 percent of viewers are recommending it to […]
I disagree, after the movie ended my father said, “What did you think?” I replied, “Aye, quite an oppo of thaht barf windwud.” I`m quite a sailor, so I wish there was more water and sea life. `Course, it was a good one, but…That`s only opinions. Seems quite simple to you, but I don`t think so.
Opinions don`t involve smarts, y`know. It could`ve been better, but I liked it because of it`s showing wildlife is important. Lots of people ignore that in the movie.
Very much “Video Game Like” as Ivana said…Well, yes, I suppose that`s true. But it was the proving the wild innocent I like.
However, I am much offended by what you said. I think you shouldn`t insult people for what they think. It`s very rude. Please do not.
Lots of people use that as an excuse, especially in that type of manner. Then it turns out they think the military should`ve won.
At least the movie proves that the wild deserves better. And I want to give it that!
You are not alone in your disdain of CGI. I much prefer practical special effects to something done on a computer. Give me puppets and miniatures over CGI any day.
Great article, loved everything you said. Do know that you are not alone in your views. We are the minority, here us squeak!
Thank you for showing me that there is still some hope for human beings yet. I am glad to see that not everyone has been blinded by the special effects and stolen concepts for Pandora.
Roger Dean anyone?
Thank you for showing me that there is still some hope for human beings yet. I am glad to see that not everyone has been blinded by the special effects and stolen concepts for Pandora.
Roger Dean anyone?
Thank you for showing me that there is still some hope for human beings yet. I am glad to see that not everyone has been blinded by the special effects and stolen concepts for Pandora.
Roger Dean anyone?
Thank you for showing me that there is still some hope for human beings yet. I am glad to see that not everyone has been blinded by the special effects and stolen concepts for Pandora.
Roger Dean anyone?
Yeah, that was a bad movie and you hit many of the nails right on the proverbial head. I personally was most annoyed by the blatantly flawed science in “Avatar.” Wrong some blog posts about it. Like to read it, here it goes:
http://geektwins.blogspot.com/search/label/flawed-science
ah yes, finally!
finally somebody who thinks like me and agrees that technology is more than what it takes to make a good movie
thank you mate
Because the reasons why people like it vary so drastically.
Pfft, gimme a break.
I’m….I’m so happy to hear a reviewer hated it. People go crazy on me when people say I do. My whole family hated it. My grandma actually fell asleep during it, then yelled at my sister for waking her up later in it.
I’m….I’m so happy to hear a reviewer hated it. People go crazy on me when people say I do. My whole family hated it. My grandma actually fell asleep during it, then yelled at my sister for waking her up later in it.
I also hate this film.. Plot Device upon plot device. I’m not going to watch a film simply for its pretty colours.
Wow, this is too cool. I am very like it, Thank you for sharing, let me so happy! At the same time ,I also love ralph lauren big pony very much !
This is one of the best reviews of avatar I’ve read, these are all my exact thoughts. I get the feeling that Cameron walked into a creative meeting at the beginning of this project with copies of Dances With Wolves, FernGully, Pocahontas and a couple of episodes of the smurfs and said “I want to remake this” and when he was asked which one he said “all of them, at the same time, but get this, Its gonna be in space” and all the people in the room were like “yes, this is awesome, sure to win some awards!!” That film could have had about half an hour cut from it if they hadn’t repeatedly cut to random shots of flowers opening, it was as if I was watching a movie on TV and every so often it cut to an advert for a David Attenborugh documentary, visually stunning, yes, but not really relevant to the story.
Ask yourself: when is the last time Western civilization has stumbled across a pool of massively valuable resources, and just walked away because we met resistance?
After losing billions of dollars and being humiliated by a bunch of giant blue Ewoks, is it more likely that the head of the corporation will see the error of his ways, or will he invest the rest of his assets into burning the surface of Pandora with orbital missiles before sending in an assault fleet the size of Colorado? Did the Europeans give up on the New World’s gold the first time one of their settlers took a tomahawk to the head?
Remember, the humans only lost to the Na’vi because they were poorly equipped, fighting with machine guns and fragile aircraft that couldn’t even stand up to the local wildlife. They were lacking the future-generation cruise missiles, stealth bombers and who knows what other kind of weapons of mass destruction they’ve invented in the intervening 150 years. But they’ll have them when they come back.
Actors need other actors and real things to play off of, this is why the first Star Wars trilogy is beloved: the interaction between the characters and reacting to something real (even if it is just a set) instead of a greenscreen…and why the new trilogy is reviled. One of the reasons the characters in avatar seem like they can’t act their way out of a paper bag (and there are some really good actors on this cast list) is because they are having to imagine EVERYTHING about an alien landscape and even if they have seen artists renderings it just isn’t the same as looking at a green wall and pretending therer is a beastie about to attack you.
shopped
What I didn’t like about it was that the story seemed to be a hybrid of Dances with Wolves, and Pocahontas(the Disney movie)…and I wasn’t really blown away by the CGI
Hi! Just wanted to say I completely agree, though perhaps for less technical reasons and more psychological. Perhaps it was negligent of me to expect a movie like this to actually feature believable human beings. Like you mentioned, the ‘black-white’ nature of this story made it rather tiresome to watch. None of the character had depth or a realistic nature. The predictability of it was incredible; I mean, I’m a fairly average person when it comes to reading movies, but this one proved me wrong. Understandably, this is just my opinion and each to his own, right? It’s merely that I nitpick at minor details like how believable and how interesting the movie in question is.
Anyway. Thank you for this review.
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