i still have not seen Avatar

People say it a game changer. I must admit I struggle to understand this phrase You mean it changes the face of cinema...cinema will never be the same again that sort of thing?

We have the likes of Peter Jackson scouting beautiful natural locations on earth, in particular like what New Zealand has to offer, the creation of aq workshop to construct armour, masks, hobbit feet, orc costumes, sworRAB and other weapons and giving them a true substance, a real physical presence. We then have some director who cant write dialogue to save his life transplanting a been there done it plotline from other films and then telling a bunch of geeks to programme a super computer and that is somehow game changing? Amn I wrong? Is eye candy a game changer a far as cinema is concerned?
 
After all the hype and your own built-up expectation of it, almost certainly it won't live up to what you're anticipating. If you really wanted to see it, you would have by now (on your own if necessary). The fact that you've waited this long suggests you're not exactly bowled over by it to begin with.

FTR - saw it, didn't think it that impressive, couldn't watch it again.
 
Avatar is well made, it's fun, I would recommend it and think you should see it since it's a cultural phenomenon, but it's not a truly great movie. The story and situation are just not original enough and there's absolutely no intellectual depth in it anywhere, which there is in all truly great popular works from Grimm's Fairytales to Harry Potter. The reason the original King Kong is still a classic movie is not because it has great special effects but because its Beauty and the Beast storyline is so perfectly told. Avatar's isn't. It's just effects that are wonderful now but in 25 years time our kiRAB will yawn through them.

It's a typical piece of Cameron-writing - far too bogged down in cardboard cutout characters with over-obvious predictable events and poor plot exposition - every time a new character appears or scenario starts one of the other characters tells someone else exactly what we're supposed to learn about them so we don't have to bother observing them. If you have Sigourney Weaver playing an environmentalist called Grace, there are 3 big clues there already plus she's a consummate actress, you don't need 3 people to discuss her character dropping clanging big clues about her. I do like the idea of their being a disabled leading character but it's not incidental to the story and there's something slightly icky about the message that to truly be happy the guy has to be an Avatar and able to run around. Also, with all that incredible technology, why is he stuck in a hand-operated wheelchair designed in the 1990s? Doh!

The goodies are all too good, the baddies laughably bad. There's no shades of subtlety. Oh, did someone say 'shock and awe'? That couldn't be a reference to Iraq, American imperialism and the exploitation of the mineral and oil wealth of a nation and rape of its culture, could it? I don't know why the Blue Aborigines/Native Americans/Jumblies just didn't hold up Vote Obama placarRAB and wave about their heaRAB bottles of organic lotus blossom shampoo from the Body Shop, no animals harmed in its production. Not all of the humans were fat and sweaty and pumped with steroiRAB; that's because they were thin, vegetarian, flower power greeny environmentalists on the side of the Blue Jumblies.

A much better film in this genre is District 9. It's a sort of Avatar for more cynical grown-ups. The aliens start out all ugly and unsympathetic and not perfect and beautiful, yet you grow to love them. The humans also want to move them in this storyline as in Avatar and their way of doing it under direct UN supervision is all the more evil because they come with pictures of a tempting new refugee city of tents, clipboarRAB and rules and regulations. The humans are more roundedly drawn, complex and where the story is going you have no idea. It's genuinely inventive. Of course, it won't win the awarRAB because Avatar has an award marketing budget bigger than the production budget of most non-US movies.
 
My best mate adores it and has watched more than 5 times.

I found only the collective tribalism interesting and the symbiotic relationships.

The beginning and the end limped by.
 
I haven't seen the film either.
It looks to be really good and its been nominated for 8 BAFTAs so it should be a "must-see"

But again I don't really have the time and I'm not entirely sure if I want to go see it.

Any views?
 
It is stunning in 2D. 3D is always a bit "meh" as I can't see much without my glasses and wearing two pairs of glasses is just daft!
 
I finally caved and saw it. I loved it. Yes, the plot is paper thin and the characters are ridiculously black and white, but it was still one of the most entertaining movies I've seen in ages and it's undeniably a very impressive piece of filmmaking.

The hype is still annoying, though. I would have gone to see it much earlier if not for that.
 
If I were you, I wouldn't not see it just because my only option was 2D. The 2D version on a big screen will still be 100 times better than 3D on a small screen. That's not to say I recommend the film, simply that you shouldn't avoid it just because you don't have it in 3D. IMHO, the 3D isn't that impressive anyway; at no point did I feel 'in' the movie, as I did with, say, Up. Some people will say that's what's so great about it; that Cameron doesn't use gimmicks, it's just 'there'. My view is that if you're going to use 3d, then use it, so there may not even be that much difference between the versions.
 
I plan not to see it for a long time, possibly forever. I hated the overblown cheesyness (sp) that was Titanic, and by all accounts this film is seriously lacking in content too. So it has blue people, so what???????? I'm angry that $300 mill will buy you any amount of oscar noms in spite of the many brilliant films made this past year.
 
Actually I think his earlier films are better written than this - Terminator 2, Aliens 2, True Lies etc. Avatar isn't typical; it's below par for Cameron.
 
I agree....Avatar and Titanic are nowhere near as good as Aliens and Terminators 1 and 2.

Saw it tonight....I'm baffled by the hype, its pretty and thats fine but my did I find it dull!
 
You do realise all you Avatar "haters" it's because you are all Right Wing Neocons. And that the reason you don't like the film is because you are rejecting the message.

(I read that the other day in a blog, sorry but there's no way I could find a link)

I haven't seen Avartar, but it strikes me that when people start talking as if you're not allowed to dislike a film, that's the time to go see a different film. :D
 
It's a very good film, if a tad patronising.

TBH, it probably doesn't match the hype, but if you like actions films with good special effects, you will not be disappointed.
 
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