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Yeah, it made a crapton of money.

Yeah we all saw it and said wow.

But does anyone love it? Does anyone want to see more of Pandora or learn more about the characters? Any interest in comics, novels, video games, tabletop games?

Or will Avatar be forgotten in a year?

I want to learn more about Colonel Quadritch. What was his time as a Marine like before joining the mercenary concern? Why did he join the Mercs? Did he leave the Marines in disgrace?

But I think the story of Pandora is done. It didn't feel liek it needed a sequel or any organic way to develop one involving Pandora. I know Cameron said the reason for the other moons was for sequels, so I wonder where else Unobtainium might be hiding.

for like 2 to 3 days maybe. i was looking up chracters on the wiki. but know its just kinda meh. I was hoping it wouldnt be that big so we sci-fi lovers would have a movie we remember only and not the entire population

I doubt it will be forgotten. I mean, from what I can tell, people are still talking about some of his older films, like Aliens and Titanic. Plus, we're now talking about a movie that has broken film records (And is now the highest-grossing movie of all time).

Honestly? I doubt this one's going away anytime soon, especially since Cameron has announced he's going to have a sequel for it.

Ppl are just embarrassed to admit they love it.

So yes im sure people loved it!

I didn't see it but I heard that people committed suicide over it.

really carmine? i heard of people who thought they were really navi and were depressed that they cant really visit pandora. but i havent heard of suicide. Imagine explaining that to god when he asks you why you did it.

God would probably send you to live with the Scientologists after that one.

Or just you know send you to a cloud with padded walls.

chaplaingrabthar wrote:
But I think the story of Pandora is done. It didn't feel liek it needed a sequel or any organic way to develop one involving Pandora. I know Cameron said the reason for the other moons was for sequels, so I wonder where else Unobtainium might be hiding.

Probably some place that's really hard to get to.

Let's not forget, it broke records because 3D tickets are around $15 - $20 bucks a pop. Highest grossing, sure but highest ticket sales, not quite.

love? nope. i will buy it for DVD, and id like to find out more about the place. the ecology is amazing, alot of thought went into each and every creature. (my favorite being the horses. ) there are a huge ammount of ideas that could be fallowed up concerning avatar.
However. will it have a sequeul even half as good? i dout it. the story Cameron told pretty much exhaused the posibilites of a great big, cool, awesome second or 3rd part. still we will see more on avatar. i just hope it isnt to horible.

I was tired of it after having watched the trailer.

There's no interest to lose. The plotline actually sucks the interest out of what seemed like a semi-interesting setting, because every time you want to take a closer look at something blue catgirls come running across the screen.

Unless they come up with Avatar 2: This Movie Doesn't Have A Plotline Or Smurfs And Instead I Just Tell You About All Of These Aliens I Made Up In My Spare Time And Show Them Doing Cool Stuff Like In A Nature Documentary there's not much of a chance I'll be seeing any sequel.

It was a WOW movie. I can understand enjoying once, heck maybe even going back and seeing it again, but beyond that there's nothing. There's no depth or anything. It don't got no soul.

If there is a sequel I hope it lasts five minutes and ends like this.

I thought it was an incredibly well-made movie as far as the graphics and stuff goes (duh lol). It was beautiful to look at and see and experience. As far as the storyline goes... I have heard from a million people its like Dances with Wolves and Pocahontas and Braveheart... but honestly I never connected it with any of that until people brought it to my attention. But I think the "redeeming quality", if you will, is that it took all of the "soldier meets native, falls in love, blah" to a whole new, more modern level.

I can say that yes I love Avatar (heh!) and I think that it will be a big hit for a while to come. I'm not sure if it will be a new "classic" but I think for computer animation to come this far and for something so colorful and beautiful to come to the screen is something to be praised and celebrated for now.

That's all from me.

There will be newer and shinier movies for the masses to drool over. Just you wait and see.

Emperors Faithful wrote:There will be newer and shinier movies for the masses to drool over. Just you wait and see.

Yeah I know that they're not going to give up on Twilight any time soon, it's obviously going to be milked like Harry Potter was/is.

Avatar was alright, but I don't think it was really worth all the hype it's getting, now if it made up it's own story and didn't just copy and paste another movie's plot and write over some names with their own it might be worth it.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Yeah, it made a crapton of money.

Yeah we all saw it and said wow.

But does anyone love it? Does anyone want to see more of Pandora or learn more about the characters? Any interest in comics, novels, video games, tabletop games?

Or will Avatar be forgotten in a year?

There are countless internet fan groups already, and plenty are freakishly obsessed with the movie. Look up navi-kin* for an idea of how keen some people are. I also know a bunch of people who've seen the film two, three and four times.

I think the disconnect comes because the film isn't as popular among geeks as it is among other audience groups, and well, geeks tend to assume they're the world.



*Don't actually do this unless you want to ruin your faith in humanity entirely.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

n0t_u wrote:Avatar was alright, but I don't think it was really worth all the hype it's getting, now if it made up it's own story and didn't just copy and paste another movie's plot and write over some names with their own it might be worth it.

I just don't understand this idea that a film's story has to be original. Most films, especially blockbusters, have nothing new in their stories. They tell classic stories, and the fun is in how the story is told. If you've read 50 fantasy books you've read Campbell's hero of a thousand faces at least 40 times, but we accept that.

The point to Star Wars wasn't the original story (it was highly derivative), the point was the story was the excellent pacing, mood, and characters.

I enjoyed watching it, it earned 4 stars on Flashman's 7 point review system.

However, I most certainly did not love it. As other's have pointed out, there are no memorable characters, no memorable lines and aside from the obligatory big battle at the end (if you're going to drop a big bomb on something, try putting it on something that goes faster than walking speed... or nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure), no memorable scenes.

The vehicles looked rubbish (10+ years in development and that was the best they could come up with - GW's stuff is better) and as pretty as Pandora was, it wasn't enough for a second viewing.

The success of Avatar is a triumph of hype over quality and the only reason it's "the most successful movie of all time" is the increased cost of the tickets for the 3D specs.

sebster wrote:

n0t_u wrote:Avatar was alright, but I don't think it was really worth all the hype it's getting, now if it made up it's own story and didn't just copy and paste another movie's plot and write over some names with their own it might be worth it.

I just don't understand this idea that a film's story has to be original. Most films, especially blockbusters, have nothing new in their stories. They tell classic stories, and the fun is in how the story is told. If you've read 50 fantasy books you've read Campbell's hero of a thousand faces at least 40 times, but we accept that.

The point to Star Wars wasn't the original story (it was highly derivative), the point was the story was the excellent pacing, mood, and characters.

I didn't say it was horible, and I know new stories are kind of rare now. But, this one was the most noticible out of every movie I have seen that wasn't a remake or reboot. I don't mind if it did copy something, but it just didn't seem to put as much effort into masking it and it could have been much better if it did.

Avatar is just Princess Mononoke, Pocahontas, and FernGully mashed into one long (too long) and visually stunning movie. I would have liked it more if I wasn't thinking to myself "Wait... I've seen this before." the entire time. The whole movie was very predictable and it didn't even bother with a respectable plot twist. A creative writer would have done something like making the blue people seem all nice and Utopian on the outside but then at the last minute show the dark loathsome aspects of their society. And then make the main character regret being a traitor to his bad, but not so bad, people.

That... and the mechs were slowed. They use 2 hands to hold their guns. that. Any mech designer would have just made the weapon lighter or the arm holding it stronger. That way you can have two guns or something else in the other hand (big knife?).

That said, I still give the movie a 7.5/10. It entertained me but I wasn't impressed by anything but the amazing CGI. Watching that movie made me think "I can't wait to see what we can do next year or 2 years from now." rather than "I want to watch it again."

Flashman wrote:The success of Avatar is a triumph of hype over quality and the only reason it's "the most successful movie of all time" is the increased cost of the tickets for the 3D specs.

Grossing more than billion, whether someone is paying an extra couple of dollars for a ticket or not, is a hell of a thing. There's an argument to be made about Avatar having lower viewer numbers than other films, but if you start focussing on viewing numbers then nothing from Hollywood makes the list - suddenly it's dominated by Jackie Chan films in China and Bollywood stuff. Instead, you just look at the top echelon of films as being in a different league - lots of films make solid bank each year, a hundred or two hundred million, but films that double that are very rare. It takes more than a surcharge to move a film up to the top tier.

Avatar did well because it has appeal across all demographics - when my geek friends and my mum are both keen to see a movie its onto a good thing. Add in the fact that it brought a wow factor with its visuals and 3D, and the films success makes sense. Also, there's a recession on and a movie night is cheaper than most things.

double post

I enjoyed it, I would be happy to try out the computer game, might take a passing interest in a miniatures game but will give and RPG a miss.

Sequels, yes I am interested, but the continuency plot needs to be cast iron. There are plenty of ways without relying on the earth mother to avoid being nuked by the RDA, most plausible of which is another corporation.

My reasoning is that RDA has an exclusive franchise, obviously purchased and negotiated on Earth. However if the indiginous 'government' gives strictly limited mining rights to rival corporations they in turn will defend their interests from the RDA who want an exclusive.

Navi might not want anything from the sky people, but the new navi-human leadership might be clever enough to see the need to play off various human factions against each other.

This is how some countries, notably Ethiopia, Siam and Japan successfully fended off colonialism. If you take an interest in foreign ways its relatively easy to play off the powers against each other by floating several trade agreements at once.

sebster wrote:I just don't understand this idea that a film's story has to be original.

As we have talked about before, it doesn't have to be original, but it does need to feel fresh or interesting; this was neither. It felt like a copy.

Orlanth wrote:Navi might not want anything from the sky people, but the new navi-human leadership might be clever enough to see the need to play off various human factions against each other.

This is a great idea but I just don't see Cameron having the capacity for it. His writing hasn't ever really been his high point and going by his track record he only has one beat for corporations/companies: corrupt and evil.

sebster wrote:Also, there's a recession on and a movie night is cheaper than most things.

You're kidding right? I don't know about you but I can't afford movie theater prices (let alone that 3D crap). I wait for DVD so I can rent it cheaply or see it for free if someone else pays.

It is cheaper than a concert and still allows for social/communal gatherings. Historically during economic down times movie ticket sales go.

Ahtman wrote:

sebster wrote:I just don't understand this idea that a film's story has to be original.

As we have talked about before, it doesn't have to be original, but it does need to feel fresh or interesting; this was neither. It felt like a copy.

Orlanth wrote:Navi might not want anything from the sky people, but the new navi-human leadership might be clever enough to see the need to play off various human factions against each other.

This is a great idea but I just don't see Cameron having the capacity for it. His writing hasn't ever really been his high point and going by his track record he only has one beat for corporations/companies: corrupt and evil.

I agree entirely.

Ahtman wrote:It is cheaper than a concert and still allows for social/communal gatherings. Historically during economic down times movie ticket sales go.

Meh, whatever happened to movie rental night with the family/friends? Order a pizza, have some beer and snacks, watch 2 or 3 movies without really caring what's on. When I was a child our families would usually have a game night (Poker, Euchre, Pictionary, etc) and rent movies for the kids. For 8+ people that's a hell of a lot cheaper than going out.

Preachy racist bull-gak.

They might as well have spray painted "Whites are bad! Non-whites are perfect!" over all the trees and vehicles.

It was a two and a half hour white-guilt trip, mixed in with eco-nonsense and Dances with Smur... uhh... Wolves.


It deserves the best special effects Oscar - because they were, in a word, mindblowing - but that's it. Best film? feth the feth off! Best director? fething feth the feth off right fething now.

H.B.M.C. wrote:Preachy racist bull-gak.

They might as well have spray painted "Whites are bad! Non-whites are perfect!" over all the trees and vehicles.

It was a two and a half hour white-guilt trip, mixed in with eco-nonsense and Dances with Smur... uhh... Wolves.


It deserves the best special effects Oscar - because they were, in a word, mindblowing - but that's it. Best film? feth the feth off! Best director? fething feth the feth off right fething now.

Heh. "White's" are imperialistic out of survival instinct. Look at where they came from. Cold and inhospitable landscape. Let's make war to take someone else's resources! They have much and we have little. It's merely evolution of the mind which caused the balance of power to tip. Oh, the glory days of imperialism how our economy misses you.

dreadlord wrote:

sebster wrote:Also, there's a recession on and a movie night is cheaper than most things.

You're kidding right? I don't know about you but I can't afford movie theater prices (let alone that 3D crap). I wait for DVD so I can rent it cheaply or see it for free if someone else pays.

His flag says he's from Australia. We're not really hit that badly by the recession, in fact with China's recent growth we'll probably be out of it soon. That's probably the reason why he said that.

IIRC it cost me about $16-20 to see Avatar, where as a normal movie would be $13.
It's true it is pretty much cheaper than anything else.
But for the extra it cost to see it in 3D (they were only showing it in 3D there), I kind of expected the story to be more fresh. As it is I enjoyed Monsters vs Aliens in 3D more
Although I'll agree the 3D effect was good and didn't seem gimicky like it did in the other 3D movies I've seen, like Monsters vs Aliens.

dreadlord wrote:

Ahtman wrote:It is cheaper than a concert and still allows for social/communal gatherings. Historically during economic down times movie ticket sales go.

Meh, whatever happened to movie rental night with the family/friends? Order a pizza, have some beer and snacks, watch 2 or 3 movies without really caring what's on. When I was a child our families would usually have a game night (Poker, Euchre, Pictionary, etc) and rent movies for the kids. For 8+ people that's a hell of a lot cheaper than going out.

People do still do that, but it isn't the same as getting out of the house to do something. Sometimes leaving the house for something besides work is a nice thing. A picnic is just lunch, but it wouldn't be the same if you sat on your kitchen floor to do it.