Avatar

[Ryan]

We've all heard about it, but let me give my 2 cents. If you're going to see it, see it in 3D. With this movie, you have a choice, RealD and IMAX 3D. IMAX 3D seems to have things right in front of you, but is not recommended for this movie because it is 2:40 long. The amount of brain power required to process that much movie will likely give you a headache. Also, if you aren't looking at the perfect angle, IMAX 3D can be not so 3D. So definitley see this in RealD 3D. It really gives you the sense that you are in the room with the characters.

Ok, onto the movie. I gotta say the visuals are incredible. The creativity of creatures and objects is amazing and worth seeing just for the visuals. The story is extremely predictable. And the political message is disgusting. But what do you expect from Hollywood?

With that, I'd recommend seeing it for the visuals, but you may want to bring your barf bag for the political message.

[ladyduomaxwell]

I might see this movie later on...if I have the money.

[minimo]

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – The Golden Globes gave top honors to James Cameron's "Avatar" and took its cue from the film's celebration of humanity, with winners ranging from the gritty child-abuse drama "Precious" to freewheeling comedy "The Hangover."

Sunday's awards ceremony also opened wide to embrace the long-admired Jeff Bridges, who took best dramatic-acting honors for the country-music film "Crazy Heart," and a sitcom actress, Mo'Nique, who emerged as a fierce screen presence in "Precious."

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100118/ap_on_en_mo/us_golden_globes

[cc]

I saw this movie on a New Year's Eve matinee.

Coming at it determined to enjoy it, I was revolted to discover that it was FAR worse, as a piece of eco-politically correct propaganda than even I expected it to be.

Like the standard Tim Burton film, the special effects simply wowed me for the first 45 minutes of the movie. They were truly awe-inspiring and deserve an Oscar. But after the novelty of this wore off, what was left was a sorry grab-bag of every tired, hackle-on-the-back-of-the-neck-raising leftist cliche since the mid-sixties. Both story, dialogue and characterization were TRULY embarrassing at times, and my girlfriend shot me dirty looks in the latter parts of the movie for fidgeting, rolling my eyes impatiently and making wry sotto voce comments on each silly, hackneyed scene.

I've seen this movie more than once before: 'A Man Called Horse', 'Dances With Wolves', but above all, 'Little Big Man'.

This was, in fact, a humourless, ponderous and unconvincing sci-fi homage to 'Little Big Man'. As in that earlier movie we had a General Custer, the obligatory massacre of innocent aboriginals scene, and the satisfactory Little Big Horn finale.

But the latter, older, movie, for all its all-informing liberalism and lyrical, Rousseauian paeans to 'the noble savage' was, despite that, a GREAT movie--a masterpiece, really--because it was cynical, funny and realistic enough to present a portrait of Plains Indian life that was to some degree grounded in reality.

In 'Avatar', all that made 'Little Big man' a great movie is missing, making for an over-long, tiresome, ponderous leftist/liberal morality play.

[cc]

By the way, was I the only one complaining that the 3-D glasses darkened and muted the light and colour of the film unacceptably and very annoyingly in many scenes? This is not a technology that has it quite RIGHT yet.....

And a few other complaints:

Also, the technical presuppositions of the film were unconvincing and spoiled the overall effect.

It's impossible to believe that an advanced automatic rifle of, say, a century or more hence would be unable to penetrate the hide of a large alien beast, however well-armoured.

Also, the outcome of the final 'battle' was too outlandish to match what would actually be the reality of the situation.

I know this is fantasy, but it is SCI-FI fantasy, and as such, to really work it must keep within its self-imposed reasonable scientific limits, which defines the convincingness of the world it creates.

In reality, the unconvincing defeat at the end for the 'evil capitalist earth forces' would have been followed by a savage reprisal that would doubtless have extirpated the blue folk.

At least 'Little Big Man' ended in such a sombre future, when the Chief Dan George character tells the Dustin Hoffman character that his people are on a road that leads nowhere.

Pushing the 'Little Big Man' parallel even further, there's even a 'Younger bear' character in Avatar, appropriately played by Wes Studi .


I was half expecting a blue Chief Dan George Character to show up in Avatar:

'My son! My heart soars like a Toruk!

Ya wanna eat?'

[wolfknight]

I have to ask... I read a spoiler-leaden review of the film that included something about the Na'vi dancing around the tree they worshiped in concentric circles while chanting. The review made comparisons to the Whos in Whoville. Please tell me that this did not actually happen in the movie.

I will have lost whatever respect I ever had for James Cameron as a filmmaker if something that asinine actually showed up in what has now become the biggest grossing movie ever.

[ladyduomaxwell]

I thought it was a alright film, but the plot reminds me of "Pocahontas". Kind of been overdone if you ask me.

[Ryan]

Jan 21, 2010 1:50:51 GMT -5 ladyduomaxwell said:

I thought it was a alright film, but the plot reminds me of "Pocahontas". Kind of been overdone if you ask me.

I wonder why it reminds you of Pocahantas

[arlinda]

I hated that movie with its creepie native/black/latino/asian oppressed tribes and the filthy land grabbing genocidal rotten whites.

I loved "Last of the Mohicans" and liked very much "Dances with Wolves." The visuals of "...Mohicans" the actors like West Studi, Russell Means I (know these guys) Daniel Day Lewis and Eric Sweig and Madeline Stowe and the music and cinematography were devine and gorgeous and breath taking. Fortunately, there are lots of Mohicans and Means and Studi and Sweig aren't Mohican but they were realllllllllly good. Wes Studi stole that picture. His portrayal of Magua was evil, chilling, savage and unrelenting. Best killer ever and that accent from Seneca to Huron to English to French. Brilliant stuff and Michael Mann divided the savagery equally among the settlers, the colonials, the empires and the native nations of the Huron, Mohawk, Seneca, Iroquois ... people were good and bad, gorgeous and ugly, greedy and generous , cruel and kind ... and the East coast scenery with its granite moutains and raging rivers ... We live it here ... upstate New York and the Canadian border ... the Six Nation Reservation. It was epic and about as close to the truth as I've ever witnessed on screen.

I dispised that rotten racist gratuitous Avatar. I'm sure its a winner among the Islamics and the Jihadists and South American Marxists who couldn't give a crap about the Indians in their nations. But it's so anti-American ... right out of good ole hate mongering politically correct Hollywood.

If you want to see a good schmalzy tear jerker, see Dear John. The actors are adorable and talented and wonderful to watch. But, it's a tear jerker. A kind of Earl and Janet story. Soldier falls in love with a beautiful conservative girl ... no drugs, no anti American killer soldier crap and unlike our Janet and Earl, the ending is .... I can't say because I'll ruin it for whoever wants to see it.

""...Wolves" had too much Costner and not enough Rodney Grant, Graham Greene, Tantoo Cardinal and Floyd Westerman. Each of these actors are better than Costner who's not such a great actor. They are also sexier and better actors than Costner but he made the movie possible and so he had most of the scenes. He should have known better but he didn't. And I love the Lakota they spoke. The film actually had a tribal elder on the set always who was an authority on the the Lakota language and she made sure that the actors spoke Lakota not Navaho or Apache or Cherokee. Plains peoples were no fools and they wasted no time ridding themselves of unwanted white settlers. They went after whoever came into their territory and killed them ... men, women and children. Crazy Horse made it a point to kill as many rail road workers at night as was humanly possible. He alone may have been responsible for over a hundred deaths of Asian rail road workers.

As for battles ... in the battled of the Greasy Grass, the Lakota had better new long range rifles (referred to as shoot today bullet get there tomorrow) and more ammunition than did the cavalry. It isn't fair to portray Native peoples as poor hapless untrained ill equipped happy go lucky peaceful souls. They weren't ... they were tough and mean and successful. And they were not fooled or outwitted by our military. They regularly fought among themselves for land and power. They were highly skilled and well armed warriors. Red Cloud closed the Bozeman trail because he was the only man ever to our manuever the American military. He lured them time and time again out of the protection of the forts and into his territory and defeated them. In an effort to cut their losses, the government closed the trail leaving Red Cloud with t he distinction of being the only leader in American history to have defeated the American military.

In the end Red Cloud was invited by Peter Cooper to New York and to Washington by Grant. Although he did so reluctantly, Red Cloud let his Lakota band to the reservation because it was fruitless to fight our over wehelmingly larger army. Red Cloud, by example saved the Lakota.

The Arapahos were so fierce that the army alloted three soldiers for every one Arapaho ... considered the finest warriors that ever have graced the West. In their intermittent battles for land, The Cheyenne and Lakota hired the Arapahos as mercenaries to fight for them.

Our native peoples were a force to be reckoned with. They kept their numbers small ... only replacing themselves. Promiscuity and unregulated sex were taboo amoung North American Indians. Wives determined when husbands were allowed in their beds and sex outside of marriage and/or among unmarrieds was considered bad form. Such behavior was considered a violation of their highly structured social norms.

Love not sex was promoted. Their small but steady population growth allowed the tribes a continuous food supply. They sustained themselves for over 25,000 years and were the only tribal peoples on the planet to live in complete harmony with their environment. No other tribal peoples did that. And according to the genome project, Europeans are related to Native Americans through our Asian ancestors.

Europeans may have been here before the first migration and certainly before the second and third migrations from Asia over the Bering Straits because of the Clovis finds in the South West. The story is still unfolding.