Have You Watched "Avatar" Yet? It's AMAZING!

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The discussion centers around the film "Avatar," highlighting its impressive 3D effects and visual storytelling, which many found to enhance the immersive experience without overshadowing the narrative. While some participants praised the film as a top contender for best movie of the decade, others criticized its plot as unoriginal and predictable, drawing parallels to earlier films like "Dances with Wolves." The balance between story and special effects was a key point, with some arguing that the visuals alone do not compensate for a lack of depth in the script. There were also discussions about the scientific plausibility of elements within the film, such as the floating mountains and the concept of "unobtainium," with varying opinions on how much explanation is necessary for a science fiction narrative. The film's themes and character development were debated, with some viewers expressing disappointment in the stereotypical portrayals and overt moral messages. Overall, while "Avatar" was recognized for its groundbreaking visual achievements, opinions diverged on its storytelling and originality.
  • #181
A lot can be said about this movie and judgine by this being the 12th page it already has. I personally saw this movie twice so far and it is brilliant. Some people can say that they saw where it was going and that it was predicatable. But sometimes its a good feeling to see the good guys prosper condisering the evil evil humans thought in the movie. Don't judge me too fast as some transformers or 2012 cgi lover as I dispise those movies. But the plot was great, the ideas and alien culture was thought out well.

An most of all, it was very immersive partly by the 3d and the story.

Hopefully the people who are depressed about our Earth will realize that if you grew up in a world of avatar than Earth would be just as amazing looking with its variety of different plant and animal life.

By the way, did anyone draw parallels between Avatar and Dances with Wolves?

Edit:
Without going into religion, why does the vatican feel they should comment on a Sci fi movie? Don't they have better things to do?
 
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  • #182
bassplayer142 said:
But the plot was great, the ideas and alien culture was thought out well.
Strange. I said the exact opposite.

I can't recall a single idea in the film that was not directly taken from some other story. Cameron didn't even bother to put a fresh coat of paint on them.

The alien biology was poorly-thought out too. How much brain-power does it require to take an Earth horse and add a pair of legs and the head of an anteater?

http://christybharath.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/pleased_to_meet_you_im_an_anteater.jpg


And why is all of Pandoran fauna hexapedal but the humanoids are bi(quadro)pedal?

bassplayer142 said:
By the way, did anyone draw parallels between Avatar and Dances with Wolves?
Indeed, it is mockingly being called Fern Gully with Wolves.


Not to say I didn't enjoy the film, it's just that, the more I think about it, the more I realize I've paid good money for old ideas.
 
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  • #183
DaveC426913 said:
Strange. I said the exact opposite.

I can't recall a single idea in the film that was not directly taken from some other story. Cameron didn't even bother to put a fresh coat of paint on them.

The alien biology was poorly-thought out too. How much brain-power does it require to take an Earth horse and add a pair of legs and the head of an anteater?

http://christybharath.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/pleased_to_meet_you_im_an_anteater.jpg


And why is all of Pandoran fauna hexapedal but the humanoids are bi(quadro)pedal?


Indeed, it is mockingly being called Fern Gully with Wolves.


Not to say I didn't enjoy the film, it's just that, the more I think about it, the more I realize I've paid good money for old ideas.


I wonder how many ideas are truly original today anyway. Most anyone can draw parallels from every movie with only the memories of a miniscule percentage of movies, songs, literature combined.

I guess in the end its all a matter of opinion though.
 
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  • #184
mgb_phys said:
Look whose talking!

Yes.. they should have thrown in a little boy and a priest in the background for some realism, doing the .. oh I'm getting another warning aren't I.. :frown:
 
  • #185
bassplayer142 said:
Edit:
Without going into religion, why does the vatican feel they should comment on a Sci fi movie? Don't they have better things to do?

When their entire purpose for existence is to offer comment on a fantasy book, it's not a big stretch to offer commentary on a sci-fi movie.
 
  • #186
NeoDevin said:
When their entire purpose for existence is to offer comment on a fantasy book, it's not a big stretch to offer commentary on a sci-fi movie.

ba-ZING!:smile:
 
  • #187
bassplayer142 said:
I wonder how many ideas are truly original today anyway. Most anyone can draw parallels from every movie with only the memories of a miniscule percentage of movies, songs, literature combined.

I guess in the end its all a matter of opinion though.

Yes, but there's a difference between being inspired by an original and simply copying it.

When you accumulate these copies, you start to realize that, rather than an original piece of art with its own message, the creation is more like a collage of pictures torn form magazines.
 
  • #188
DaveC426913 said:
Yes, but there's a difference between being inspired by an original and simply copying it.

When you accumulate these copies, you start to realize that, rather than an original piece of art with its own message, the creation is more like a collage of pictures torn form magazines.

I agree with this statement, but I also think that Avatar is the best "collage" I've ever seen.

Sort of like an artist who does a portrait, or a still life of a bowl of fruit, or a landscape. Those have all been done before, but still there are the "good" and "great" paintings of fruit, or a face, or a lake. It's a similar thing. This is a visually stunning film, and I like visuals. I think I would have liked it better if I couldn't understand the language at all (English OR whatever the blue people spoke).
 
  • #189
Chi Meson said:
I agree with this statement, but I also think that Avatar is the best "collage" I've ever seen.

Sort of like an artist who does a portrait, or a still life of a bowl of fruit, or a landscape. Those have all been done before, but still there are the "good" and "great" paintings of fruit, or a face, or a lake.
IMO, Cameron is not making painting of a bowl of fruit, he's torn a picture of a bowl of fruit out of a magazine.

I've got to be careful not to mix up the metaphors. I'm not suggesting the whole film is the bowl of fruit, I'm suggesting that certain parts of the film, for example, the plot, are pictures torn out of ... well ... out of the poster for Fern Gully. It's the same plot. He's added nothing new to the plot.
 
  • #190
DaveC426913 said:
IMO, Cameron is not making painting of a bowl of fruit, he's torn a picture of a bowl of fruit out of a magazine.

I've got to be careful not to mix up the metaphors. I'm not suggesting the whole film is the bowl of fruit, I'm suggesting that certain parts of the film, for example, the plot, are pictures torn out of ... well ... out of the poster for Fern Gully. It's the same plot. He's added nothing new to the plot.

I get your point, and I think I agree with your assessment. Perhaps I am not so irritated by the "plot" due to the fact that I never saw Fern Gully, Dances with Wolves, or Pocahontas. Still I am well aware of that general theme and I was quite prepared to find nothing new re "plot." So I went to see it with my expectations tempered.

I was far more irritated by the lack of character development, generally poor dialog, and very lame attempts at one-liners. If Cameron had a 1/2-decent writer spice up the script, I think the movie could have ratcheted up a notch.
 
  • #191
I get your point, and I think I agree with your assessment. Perhaps I am not so irritated by the "plot" due to the fact that I never saw Fern Gully, Dances with Wolves, or Pocahontas. Still I am well aware of that general theme and I was quite prepared to find nothing new re "plot." So I went to see it with my expectations tempered.
The plot was new to you. Why does just the knowledge of the fact the plot had been done before detract from the movie?

What was the first movie to use the Avatar premise? Were all subsequent movies after that one criticized? Or is it the popularity of Avatar that is evoking the criticism?
 
  • #192
leroyjenkens said:
The plot was new to you. Why does just the knowledge of the fact the plot had been done before detract from the movie?

What was the first movie to use the Avatar premise? Were all subsequent movies after that one criticized? Or is it the popularity of Avatar that is evoking the criticism?
Hang on, I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy this movie. You missed my point there, read it again. The plot is NOT what bothered me. I wasn't expecting clever twists and new messages, so I wasn't "disappointed" there. I'm admitting to some irritations and distractions due to the script, but overall I enjoyed both times I saw it.

And I know that there is a collection of people who do heavily criticize anything that is popular because I am among them. I used to be a lot worse (Did you know that I once heavily criticized the Beatles?). Anything that is that huge will have its flaws magnified. But these days I am just as adamant at acknowledging greatness along with flaws. I must be getting old.
 
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  • #193
I watched it the other night.

What a shyte movie. If I wanted to see Cats the musical and halo 3 I would have gone to broadway and brought a portable 360 with me.

The graphics were good, but the movie sucked hard overall.
 
  • #194
One physics blunder: when cracked, the mask of the marine sergeant showed gas entering, even though the atmospheric pressure was lower outside than pressure inside the mask.
 
  • #195
Avatar is about to become the top grossing film of all time:

No. 1 for the sixth-straight weekend with $36 million, the 20th Century Fox sci-fi spectacle lifted its domestic total to $552.8 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. "Avatar" raised its worldwide total to $1.841 billion. That's $2 million shy of first place behind Cameron's last movie, the 1997 shipwreck epic "Titanic," at $1.843 billion.

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.ap.org/avatar-tops-box-office-sixthstraight-week-ap
 
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  • #196
Some people rate the film as being in their top five films of all time, others say it is a lousy movie with great graphics. I still need to see it.
 
  • #197
MotoH said:
I watched it the other night.

What a shyte movie. If I wanted to see Cats the musical and halo 3 I would have gone to broadway and brought a portable 360 with me.

The graphics were good, but the movie sucked hard overall.

In the other Avatar thread, you mentioned that you missed the first hour of the movie. How can you so confindently say how bad a movie is if you missed the first hour of it?
 
  • #198
leroyjenkens said:
In the other Avatar thread, you mentioned that you missed the first hour of the movie. How can you so confindently say how bad a movie is if you missed the first hour of it?

Was there something spectacular that I missed in the first hour that made up for the asshatery that went on during the last 3/4th's of the movie? If so please let me know.

Since when would we destroy such a large target with an out of date bomb? If we wanted to blow the blue kitties back to the stone age we would have nuked that goofy rib cage lookin' thing from orbit and called her a day. I hate movies that make the humans (esp. the military) look like a bunch of idiots.
 
  • #199
Welcome back MotoH. :wink:
MotoH said:
Was there something spectacular that I missed in the first hour that made up for the asshatery that went on during the last 3/4th's of the movie? If so please let me know.
Nope. The plot was pretty weak throughout.
MotoH said:
Since when would we destroy such a large target with an out of date bomb? If we wanted to blow the blue kitties back to the stone age we would have nuked that goofy rib cage lookin' thing from orbit and called her a day. I hate movies that make the humans (esp. the military) look like a bunch of idiots.
This is a weak argument though. Picking at the plausibility of a military action? We can't know what led them to that strategy; all we can do is accept that they have good reason.

At the every least, they're not trying to wipe them out; it is rationalized more as a "relocation" than a rout. They don't want to kill everyone.
 
  • #200
DaveC426913 said:
Welcome back MotoH. :wink:

Nope. The plot was pretty weak throughout.

This is a weak argument though. Picking at the plausibility of a military action? We can't know what led them to that strategy; all we can do is accept that they have good reason.

At the every least, they're not trying to wipe them out; it is rationalized more as a "relocation" than a rout. They don't want to kill everyone.

There have been much better ways at relocation than how they went about it than. The only plausible way I see of removing such a species from an area is by direct military action. The main reason in my mind that the military was defeated by these giant felines is they did not have enough troops. In an ordinary battle on earth, the kill ratio is around 3:1, or 3 attackers for every one defender. That is human v. human. Now facing these giant felines, you could expect it to be around 7:1 or so, just considering the felines knowledge of the battlefield.
Finding the true strength of their army is the first action that would need to be taken, which entails recon of the whole planet for possible allies, I would also look for potential enemies to cut deals with (more land for them if they help).
Next is to find out their main reason for defending an area, which in this case is the "Mother Nature" tree. The attacking force would not really know what it did, but they knew it holds significant religious value. Destroying this target will either make the forces crumble because there is no reason to defend the land anymore, or make them even more ferocious. Dropping something on this tree that will exhibit shock and awe with minimal amount of civilian casualties is the best course of action, because I guarantee you most of them will not want to fight after their religious tree goes up in a fireball that reaches to the upper atmosphere.

Of course peaceful negotiations would have started the whole thing off, which for the most part is to gain intel on the felines and not so much in the hopes of reaching a peaceful agreement.

I think I have gone way to far into this.
 
  • #201
MotoH said:
I think I have gone way to far into this.

Yes. None of this makes Avatar a bad film.
 
  • #202
Was there something spectacular that I missed in the first hour that made up for the asshatery that went on during the last 3/4th's of the movie? If so please let me know.
If you could qualify "asshatery", I'd tell you, so I know what I'm trying to counter.
Since when would we destroy such a large target with an out of date bomb? If we wanted to blow the blue kitties back to the stone age we would have nuked that goofy rib cage lookin' thing from orbit and called her a day. I hate movies that make the humans (esp. the military) look like a bunch of idiots.
How do you know the explanation for that wasn't in the first hour of the film?
 
  • #203
MotoH said:
Was there something spectacular that I missed in the first hour that made up for the asshatery that went on during the last 3/4th's of the movie? If so please let me know.

I liked the first part of the movie more than the war part, mostly for its special effects.

Since when would we destroy such a large target with an out of date bomb?


You call that an out of date bomb? That's the understatement of the year! WWI airplane/zeppelin bombs were better than that by a wide margin: at the very least, they were released at the push of a button, not pushed out the door by humans.

If we wanted to blow the blue kitties back to the stone age we would have nuked that goofy rib cage lookin' thing from orbit and called her a day.

I'm not sure it would be easy for a private corporation to obtain nukes.
 
  • #204
Lots of movies have glaring flaws in their logic. But, they probably wouldn't last long if they didn't. :-p

more_accurate.png
 
  • #205
ideasrule said:
I'm not sure it would be easy for a private corporation to obtain nukes.

Their starships are powered by antimatter, so they could crack Pandora like a walnut if they wanted to, but since the whole reason they are there is to mine the unobtainium, blowing it up would be counterproductive. Remember, they only want to get the Navi out of the way so they can run their mine, not to destroy what they came to mine in the first place.

Also a lot of tech they use is pretty primitive, since they are limited to what their stereolighography (sp?) machines can make for them. Here is a website that explains a lot of it.

http://www.pandorapedia.com/doku.php/isv_venture_star"
 
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  • #206
Oh my god there is a wiki for Avatar? First people become seriously depressed because they want to "live" on pandora, and now there is a wiki. Oh wow.
 
  • #207
This was a goof that really made my toes curl:
imdb.com said:
Errors made by characters: In one scene where Jake was taping his video log, with Grace doing experiment in the background, she drew some liquid from the sample, then turned the pipette upside down before she dispense the liquid. Everybody who had done chemistry experiment should know that if you turn your pipette or dropper upside down, you will contaminate the sample and void your test results.
 
  • #208
Monique said:
This was a goof that really made my toes curl:

If you use the same pipette for same sample, how is that contaminating it? Perhaps its a solvent, or since this is a microbiology experiment, one of them Gram stain reactants. Either way, in low gravity who knows if the liquid even reached the pipette bulb, perhaps she was eliminating the bubbles in the pipette. For what its worth, I use single use pipette for same chemical, and if I have to add new chemical I grab a new pipette

This is Sigourney Weaver you talking about. She killed aliens before most of you were born :biggrin:
 
  • #209
You never hold a pipette upside down.
 
  • #210
Monique said:
You never hold a pipette upside down.

Come on spruce that statement up with that PhDtalk :biggrin:

This is a plastic pipette. Its a single use item. You can not 'contaminate' your sample by letting the sample into the bulb.

Second pipette should never be used in any chemistry/biology lab.
 
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