We can all agree that District 9 was not only a much much better story but also better graphics-wise considering they had a $30 million budget, only about 1/16th of Avatar’s budget if I remember correctly.
[quote]Geddan wrote:
We can all agree that District 9 was not only a much much better story but also better graphics-wise considering they had a $30 million budget, only about 1/16th of Avatar’s budget if I remember correctly.[/quote]
Maybe, but I grew up in the 80s and so spending a ridiculous amount of money to get the best special effects EVER totally makes sense to me.
[quote]Geddan wrote:
We can all agree that District 9 was not only a much much better story but also better graphics-wise considering they had a $30 million budget, only about 1/16th of Avatar’s budget if I remember correctly.[/quote]
I agree it was a better movie, but the graphics were not better. The District 9 folks used a color pallete that made blending in the composite shots easier. The software and tools used couldn’t provide the detail that is seen in Avatar.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
I am personally not that damned critical of movies. I hype the ones that are really good, but I don’t expect every single movie out to be some super blockbuster that everyone likes because most of the people watching movies today have the attention span of a drunk gnat on PCP and shrooms.
I wear, some people hate damn near every movie that ever comes out…so why do they even go to the theater?[/quote]
I myself am critical of all ‘art’ in a sense, but I try to focus on what I like, and I even ‘make’ myself read/watch/listen to shit just to really seek something I do like, no matter how small that something is.
I don’t think everyone needs to be Mozart or they suck, Mozart is my hero, so is fucking Johnny Thunders…
After all if anyone saw it, look at what I posted as my favourite movie ever, in the ‘Favorite Movie Ever’ thread, a celluloid-shit-epic staring Chuck Norris…
I don’t take movies that seriously…
Any ways, I have managed to ‘avoid’ Avatardation, because of other interests. Period.
I might catch up with this film, in the year or maybe the the decade, or hell I may never see it.
I might largely dislike Avatar, but I’ll TRY to see SOME ‘good’ in it…
[quote]Antares wrote:
[quote]Professor X wrote:
I am personally not that damned critical of movies. I hype the ones that are really good, but I don’t expect every single movie out to be some super blockbuster that everyone likes because most of the people watching movies today have the attention span of a drunk gnat on PCP and shrooms.
I wear, some people hate damn near every movie that ever comes out…so why do they even go to the theater?[/quote]
I myself am critical of all ‘art’ in a sense, but I try to focus on what I like, and I even ‘make’ myself read/watch/listen to shit just to really seek something I do like, no matter how small that something is.
I don’t think everyone needs to be Mozart or they suck, Mozart is my hero, so is fucking Johnny Thunders…
After all if anyone saw it, look at what I posted as my favourite movie ever, in the ‘Favorite Movie Ever’ thread, a celluloid-shit-epic staring Chuck Norris…
I don’t take movies that seriously…
Any ways, I have managed to ‘avoid’ Avatardation, because of other interests. Period.
I might catch up with this film, in the year or maybe the the decade, or hell I may never see it.
I might largely dislike Avatar, but I’ll TRY to see SOME ‘good’ in it…
[/quote]
I think that sets you apart from most.
Most of the people I seem to hear even speak of movies lately just sound jaded as all hell…as if no movie is ever good enough.
I have tons of favorite movies. Hell, I may take off work to go see Iron Man. I’ve watched that popcorn film TORQUE too many times to count all because of the motorcycles in it. Movies like dawn of The Dead may start skipping on me they have been watched so many times.
I simply like good movies…and don’t expect them all to be GREAT.
[quote]Grneyes wrote:
I have no desire to see this movie ever. I have a feeling I will see it b/c I’ll be living with the tiger and he’ll tie me up and force me to watch it as punishment or something.[/quote]
I, too, have a feeling this will happen.
Just remember, it was YOUR idea…
[quote]Professor X wrote:
I simply like good movies…and don’t expect them all to be GREAT.[/quote]
x2 and QFT
I found plenty of originality in it, even though I didn’t expect to: you don’t see many alien invasion movies where the ‘aliens’ are humans…
It must be insanely difficult to provoke empathy in an audience when the protagonists are a different species, but Cameron did it without reducing the humans to mustache-twirling villains (so much for the argument that the script had no depth).
Let’s face it: if Cameron attempted to present an alien culture without referring in some way to our own, then we wouldn’t have identified with the movie and it wouldn’t have worked as well (all wars are started for the same reasons, anyway: one form of society expands and seeks to dominate another, so it should come as no suprise that the movie seems to cover ‘old ground’… so to say that Avatar draws its inspiration from one specific event in history is missing the point…and I can’t help but raise a chuckle when people say they are offended by it).
I really enjoyed Avatar at the cinema. Saw it three times, in fact. The thing I enjoyed most was the beauty and creativity of the environments; I actually ended up caring about the destruction of Pandora and the Na’vi. The story wasn’t original, as somebody said in this thread, but it is a classic story that was well told. Sam Worthington played the lead with real presence (much better in this than in Clash of the Titans). Hell, the movie wasn’t perfect, but it was a testament to an incredible imagination, and was a great cinematic experience.
I think people who didn’t like this movie need to be less cynical and a bit more open-minded. Movies aren’t meant to be perfect, just enjoyable.
[quote]imhungry wrote:
[quote]tw0scoops2 wrote:
[quote]jtrinsey wrote:
[quote]AddictedtoIron wrote:
Just your typical predicatble movie, good guys win over “bad guys”. [/quote]
I’m not trying to call you out specifically, but I never really got this criticism. “Good guys beat bad guys” has essentially been the plot of most stories dating all the way back to the Bible. There’s just not that many different ways to tell a story.
People have been telling this sort of story for a long time and for good reason: because it’s a good story. This was simply a modern update and one done with some truly new and innovative ways to present it visually. It also present some topics: religion vs paganism, manifest destiny, following orders vs following what you believe, etc., that have been relevant to the American experience since we landed on Plymouth Rock. I think it also presents some new issues such as the whole “might an alien species have souls” deal along with the “what’s really real” factor of somebody spending a lot of time in virtual reality settings- which will become a big deal at some point in the next 50 years.
Are the “characters not developed” (always a fun vague phrase for people to drop when the want to feel superior to “the masses”) as they are in other movies? I suppose so, but at times they need to not be, in order to address all of the other issues and keep the movie under 5 hours long. Jake and the alien chick are the only ones who are really developed, but they are the only ones who really need to be.
Personally, I put this right up there with Terminator, it presents some classic story themes with topics that are relevant to modern times and it does so in a way that, visually, has never been done before.
Definitely should be seen in 3-d, but it’s not too shabby on your home TV either.[/quote]
I also saw some elements of the whole US/Iraq war for oil in conjunction with you topics.[/quote]
Hmmmmmmm… I saw elements of the Spanish conquest of the Mayan civilization.[/quote]
Ohhh god jizz in my pants my favorite episode in history. If you want a good story read a good history of the contact era (NOT the ones written by the Spaniards if you care at all for accuracy)
If Earth was truly in peril, why did they send one corporation that had to hire ex-military to do its protection? Does that mean once it fails that Earth will send in the military?
What was the purpose of that mineral they were trying to dig up?
[quote]spyoptic wrote:
If Earth was truly in peril, why did they send one corporation that had to hire ex-military to do its protection? Does that mean once it fails that Earth will send in the military?
What was the purpose of that mineral they were trying to dig up?[/quote]
POSSIBLE SPOILERS…
I remember something was said about everything on Earth being massively expensive: only a select few had access to state-of-the-art medical procedures, which was why Sully (Sam Worthington’s character) was still in a wheelchair even though it was possible to repair his spinal cord (the Colonel promised to get him fixed if he reported back to him on what the scientists were doing).
The avatars were also so costly that Sully only became part of the mission after his twin brother’s death (they had the same genome so he was the only person able to use the avatar created for his identical twin).
The corporation could’ve created a new avatar for another trained soldier, but that would’ve been prohibitively expensive. It was far more cost-effective to persuade the untrained Sully to take his brother’s place, rather than scrap a perfectly good avatar.
The corporation was after the unobtanium because it was an incredibly rare and valuable resource. If Earth was genuinely in that much trouble, they wouldn’t have sent in a bunch of mercs…
It was basically about the Corporation getting their hands on something that would make them very rich and powerful. They already were spending way beyond their means, so the obtanium would keep them in the manner they were accustomed to…
That’s how I saw it, anyway.
[quote]spyoptic wrote:
If Earth was truly in peril, why did they send one corporation that had to hire ex-military to do its protection? Does that mean once it fails that Earth will send in the military?
What was the purpose of that mineral they were trying to dig up?[/quote]
The future in Avatar is very similiar to Aliens, in which Weyland-Yutani did whatever they wanted with government approval. This corporation is the only entity with the scientific and excavation resources needed to get the unobtanium from Pandora and ship it back to Earth. I guess it’s supposed to draw comparisons to a present day company like Haliburton. And I believe in the sequel the Earth’s military will be sent in. I really don’t see any other possible storyline.
The unobtanium is some type of semiconductive material which is critical to sustaining Earth through some future energy crisis. It would’ve been nice to be more filled with the happenings on Earth, but it would’ve blurred the good guy/bad guy lines I mentioned earlier in the thread.
Unobtanium… Bwahahaha… What the hell was J.C. thinking…
[quote]Professor X wrote:
Most of the people I seem to hear even speak of movies lately just sound jaded as all hell…as if no movie is ever good enough.
I have tons of favorite movies. Hell, I may take off work to go see Iron Man. I’ve watched that popcorn film TORQUE too many times to count all because of the motorcycles in it. Movies like dawn of The Dead may start skipping on me they have been watched so many times.
I simply like good movies…and don’t expect them all to be GREAT.[/quote]
I have a ton of fave movies as well. I picked ‘Lone Wolf McQuade’ out of the horde of awesomeness out there, partly as a joke about the over-seriousness of the ‘Favourite Movie Ever’ thread…
Lone Wolf McQuade IS and all-timer for me though…
Torque is the shit, just for bikes. Bikes are the shit. I miss mine.
I have watched this movie shit tons:
Pulp Fiction: 1
Dolemite : God only knows…
I don’t have a Blu-Ray. I don’t have an HD anything. I STILL bought Avatar because I am that much of a movie junkie. I don’t need to see it in 3D. That crap gives me a headache. Yes, it wasn’t as original as most people would like, but it was one helluva movie to watch. Any movie that I can escape into is a good movie. And to Grneyes and Imhungry, I actually enjoy it when you two reference each other. Pretty cool in my book.
I was at costco the other day and they had this on there HD TV’s HOLY FUCK it look FUCKEN AMAZING like signoey Weaver was right in front of my face was Sick
[quote]spyoptic wrote:
If Earth was truly in peril, why did they send one corporation that had to hire ex-military to do its protection? Does that mean once it fails that Earth will send in the military?
What was the purpose of that mineral they were trying to dig up?[/quote]
I thought that in the movie… that was the military. And the idea was that the corporate/government distinction was disintegrating, and that the military was there to protect the private interests…
…much in the same way the European military powers of the 19th century were present in Africa and Asia protecting European private interests in the regions. The gold, ivory, rubber, exe, extraction operations were not state-run, but the protection was.
I thought it was a visually impressive movie. However, as I walked out of the theater I turned to my wife and said, “I think I’ve seen that movie before…except it was called Dances With Wolves.”
[quote]tylerlehmann wrote:
In four days Avatar sold 6.7 million copies. That is redonkulous. I for one think that this movie is FernGully The Last Rainforest with better graphics. I would have to recommended seeing it in the theater but to own this movie seems a bit much. I could never justify spending three hours of my time watching this movie for a second time, but I guess I’m the odd one out with numbers like that.[/quote]
There is going to be a big sales push on 3D TVs. I’m pretty sure this DVD is encoded to work with those TVs. That’s probably one reason some people are buying it, though not 6.7 million, lol.
Yeah. I saw it in the theater and it was an experience… Not because of the story, but because they made bugs fly around my face. I’m not interested in the DVD either.