Who's going to see Avatar?

~~someonecompletelyrandom~~ · 01-23-2010, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VEGANGELICA

ABOUT THE COSTUMES:

While watching the movie, I snorted with derision at the prudishness of our civilization because, if you notice, all female blue creatures are given a tiny costume (beads, feathers, *something*) to strategically cover up their tiny bosoms.

What's next: films of cows with black rectangles over their udders?!

"Avatar" stands as a testament to humanity's discomfort with basic human physiology and development, which rely on breastfeeding and (gasp) breasts. Discomfort with something so basic to our biology is a disappointing part of our culture.

Watchmen had a big blue penis and people were peeved at that.

jackhammer · 01-23-2010, 12:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kayleigh.

Well if you're never going to the pics again, I'm going to ask you to go, then you can't say no. Cos then that means we're not friends.

So pessimistic Rikki, so pessimistic.

Not that I want to speak for Urbs but the sheer amount of posts and the media surrounding the film makes you think that it's the only film ever made. If a film costs this much then just saying it looks brilliant but the story isn't all that is an insult to the hundreds of indie films that pack more story into their films on a fraction of the budget but rarely get a mention.

People mention the smaller albums all the time on here compared to the hyped mainstream releases so why doesn't it happen with films?

This is not a diss on Avatar. I haven't seen it and I am going on peoples comments on here regarding it's slightly underwhelming storyline but to be honest if it's a choice between watching one film with a 250 mill budget and and 20 films with a 12.5 mill budget then I know what I will plump for everytime. Cameron has only made 4 decent films and one of those was patchy and no doubt he may have pushed the film industry to new heights and techniques but maybe some of us just think that these techniques are destroying the value of film and not enhancing it.

Guybrush · 01-25-2010, 07:39 AM

Avatar is like really good junk food. Somewhere someone's using their amazing skills to make truly marvellous and original food, but a lot of people will be more than happy if they get a very good yet totally unoriginal burger whose main flavours come from such clichès as fat, ketchup, sugary loaf and and some salt. It's familiar, uncomplicated, quick and it tastes good.

Sometimes, people want olds rather than news. Sometimes you want to watch movies like Die Hard or True Lies where the bad guys are one dimensional, the plot is not too hard to follow and the action is rather spectacular. That doesn't mean you'll be permanently turned off the more intelligent stuff and I don't think it'll harm the industry in any way.

Clichès are not going to go away. They'll be recycled over and over again .. If you think Avatar's plot today is "old", think about how old those clichès will be when they're used in movies 40 years from now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VEGANGELICA

I had wondered how well the anti-military element of the movie, in which humans are the bad guys, would go over with the U.S. public. Apparently quite well. Since I usually think people are pro-human above all else, this was a nice surprise.

It wasn't the military in the movie though. It was a mercenary army hired by the corporation whose number 1 priority on Pandora of course was to make money .. even if that means killing the indigenous people there. The way I saw it, in general terms - it was more a criticism of capitalism.

(and of course how people have treated indigenous peoples and so on, yadda yadda)

FETCHER. · 01-25-2010, 09:58 AM

That junk food theory was great. So true, yet so easy to get what you're talking about.

boo boo · 01-27-2010, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tore

Some of my student friends rip a bit on the biology in the film. I don't because it's a fantasy film. They may strive for realism, but it's not going to be priority number 1. Still, it puzzled me a bit when they'd made this gorgeous jungle, where were the herbivores and smaller prey species? Where were the smaller bird like creatures? I felt like all I saw was medium to large carnivores except for those rhino-like monsters. They should hire me as a consultant for their next film, I think.

The mass and gravity of a planet has a big influence on the size of all living things on it right? I don't know how big Pandora is supposed to be but if it's bigger than earth it would sport larger life forms right? The na'vi themselves are supposed to be pretty huge, like 10 feet tall.

Then again it's gravitational pull can't be that strong if it can support flying mountains, which oddly enough can support running water and where that comes from is a mystery, a sh*tload of humidity maybe?

noise · 01-27-2010, 12:04 PM

i'm so scared of this movie.

maybe i'll just go ahead and never see it. then i'll be ok.

boo boo · 01-27-2010, 12:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tore

Avatar is like really good junk food. Somewhere someone's using their amazing skills to make truly marvellous and original food, but a lot of people will be more than happy if they get a very good yet totally unoriginal burger whose main flavours come from such clichès as fat, ketchup, sugary loaf and and some salt. It's familiar, uncomplicated, quick and it tastes good.

Sometimes, people want olds rather than news. Sometimes you want to watch movies like Die Hard or True Lies where the bad guys are one dimensional, the plot is not too hard to follow and the action is rather spectacular. That doesn't mean you'll be permanently turned off the more intelligent stuff and I don't think it'll harm the industry in any way.

Clichès are not going to go away. They'll be recycled over and over again .. If you think Avatar's plot today is "old", think about how old those clichès will be when they're used in movies 40 years from now.

But to be fair, Avatar had a LOT more effort put into it than the usual McDonalds cheeseburger.

Escapism definietely has it's place in movies especially the american film industry because unlike other countries our first films wasn't arty stuff, we treasure a lot values and things that are familiar to us and so our movies reflect the world as we wanted to see it, that was the idea.

Then Cassavetes came along and decided that movies could only be taken seriously as art if it consists of nothing but mostly boring stuff happening for no reason and without a narrative. Yes Cassavetes' anti Hollywood attitude influenced greats like Scorsese and Altman, there's no denying, but they did it right, even the filmmakers Cassavetes has influenced understand the value of subjectivity and symbolism, and that reality often needs to be exagerated a bit to get an entertaining film. I don't really dig films that try to present an "objective" view of reality so much as films that take a personal account of reality, a subjective and hyper-realistic point of view or just straight up fantasy.

In short, realism is great, but it takes more than that to make something worth watching, it needs to be expanded on in an interesting way, you can't just film a lot of boring stuff, show it to me and say "ta-da i just f*cking made art" because I will knee knick you in the face for being a pretentious dope.

Scissorman · 01-27-2010, 01:06 PM

I was told that Avatar is like Pocahontas in space. Leona Lewis on the soundtrack just makes me not want to see it.

FETCHER. · 01-27-2010, 01:14 PM

I hate Leona Lewis very very much. It didn't discourage me from seeing the film though, I thought the film was well worth it, especially in 3D.

Scissorman · 01-27-2010, 01:16 PM

I have actually never seen a movie in 3D. I'm saving myself for Tim Burton's Alice

01-27-2010, 12:04 PM	#246 (permalink)
noise thirsty ears Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Boulder Posts: 742	i'm so scared of this movie. maybe i'll just go ahead and never see it. then i'll be ok. __________________ my flac collection

01-27-2010, 01:06 PM	#248 (permalink)
Scissorman art is sold for money Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Belgrade, Serbia Posts: 730	I was told that Avatar is like Pocahontas in space. Leona Lewis on the soundtrack just makes me not want to see it. __________________ facebook Last.fm The Music I make http://www.indabamusic.com/opportuni...missions/52856

01-27-2010, 01:16 PM	#250 (permalink)
Scissorman art is sold for money Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Belgrade, Serbia Posts: 730	I have actually never seen a movie in 3D. I'm saving myself for Tim Burton's Alice __________________ facebook Last.fm The Music I make http://www.indabamusic.com/opportuni...missions/52856