Avatar

[Joey D]

Who in this day and age honestly gives a toss about originality? I hate movie critics who whine on about "oo the screenplay is AWful", or "we've seen this type of thing beFORE a dozen times", blah blah blah. Get a life.

Originality goes a lot further then the same crap we've already seen. Keeps it interesting. I mean ya people want to see similar things they are used too but at the same time a lot of people don't want to see the same thing over and over again. That's why sequels are typically not as successful as the original.

And really there was nothing original about Avatar's story. It was the illegitimate child of Fern Gully and Dances with Wolves.

And you really should stop double posting.

 

[TB]

Yeah well, people like yourself and others in this thread have obviously forgotten what the whole point of going to the cinema is. As i said, i leave my brain at the box office and pay to be entertained, not educated.

You're exactly right about part of that - a movie is there to entertain. The problem that arises is when people are alright with T&A and explosions in place of a good, solid story line.

Who in this day and age honestly gives a toss about originality? I hate movie critics who whine on about "oo the screenplay is AWful", or "we've seen this type of thing beFORE a dozen times", blah blah blah. Get a life.

Regarding both of your posts, just because someone doesn't agree with your opinion on a movie doesn't mean you have to start a war. Facts can be debated, not opinions.

One last thing - the multi-quote button is there for a reason.

 

[Danoff]

Yeah well, people like yourself and others in this thread have obviously forgotten what the whole point of going to the cinema is. As i said, i leave my brain at the box office and pay to be entertained, not educated. Avatar is the best cinema experience iv ever had(LOTR comes in a close second), and iv been going to the cinema for over 25 years. Iv seen hundreds of movies. Guys like Cameron and Spielberg know how to give you value for money. Bet your one of these people who likes crap like Dr Zhivago, Gosford Park.....etc. Is your world grey and lifeless?

Who in this day and age honestly gives a toss about originality? I hate movie critics who whine on about "oo the screenplay is AWful", or "we've seen this type of thing beFORE a dozen times", blah blah blah. Get a life.

Nope, I'm not a Gosford Park type. I very much disliked that movie. I'm actually much like you. Movies like Iron Man, Matrix, LOTR all make my top 10 list. Where I am NOT like you is that I want the movie to actually make sense.

I like fantastic storylines that are creative but cohesive. I'll take a movie like pitch black over avatar any day. The plot made sense, the characters made sense, they responded in a realistic (but courageous) way to fantastic circumstances.

Fundamentally that's what we want when we go to the movies. We want to see a story about amazing people in amazing circumstances. But the amazing people and the amazing circumstances need to make sense or the story becomes an epileptic light show like Episodes I-III instead of an immersive universe with lifelike characters like Episodes IV-VI.

I don't need the movie to be boring to enjoy it. But I'm incapable of reducing myself to the comatose brain state required to overlook the failings of the storyline in a movie like avatar.

 

[Duke]

Having just seen Avatar for the first time, I have to say I'm glad I bought it on Blu-ray rather than going to the theatre, because it cost me roughly half as much as 4 tickets would have, even though I am just as unlikely to ever watch it again.

Avatar is just Dances With Wolves played in leftover costumes from the Cats musical and set on the cover of an old Yes album.

I didn't like Dances With Wolves all that much, but at least it had some decent, 3-dimensional human characters. Everything about Avatar was shallow, shallow, shallow, and for anybody that uses decent grammar, "shallow" just ain't all that entertaining. Absolutely every point was either driven home with a BFH or telegraphed so far in advance that you could hardly have managed to avoid seeing it coming by the time it got there. And despite the gajillions of dollars spent on the CGI it just didn't match well with the film's live action bits. It never seemed like the two halves of the film were actually occupying the same reality, and that really showed towards the end when the furry hottie came and rescued her human boyfriend's body from the trailer. It felt like the end of Blazing Saddles where the cast of the Western spills out into the production number at the adjacent soundstage, except not on purpose and utterly without humour.

 

[cpp214]

Saw Avatar for the first time tonight on Blu-Ray. Never went to see it in the theater, as I'm not much of a James Cameron fan, and I wasn't buying the hype that this was a great, "groundbreaking" film. Well, I was wrong. This movie is God-Tier and gets a solid 10/10 👍 from me. Yes, the story is not very original. But somehow, Cameron and the film's characters make the story compelling. And that is one of the hallmarks of great film-making: taking a storyline that has been beaten to death and re-packaging it in a compelling way. Really impressive.