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Rottenwatch: AVATAR (82%)

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To be fair to Alvin and the Chipmunks, I kinda doubt that anyone with small children is going to be spending their Christmas Eve at a movie theatre.
 
border said:
To be fair to Alvin and the Chipmunks, I kinda doubt that anyone with small children is going to be spending their Christmas Eve at a movie theatre.

huh? seems to me during the holidays is the perfect time to take kids to the movies...?
 
Karma Kramer said:
huh? seems to me during the holidays is the perfect time to take kids to the movies...?
All films have a big drop on Christmas Eve, especially kids movies. It's the period just after Christmas when Alvin could rake in the dough.
 
Karma Kramer said:
Weird...

Why release a kids movie on Christmas Eve then?
It came out on Wednesday. Fox originally had it scheduled for a Christmas day release, but moved it up a few days to give it and Sherlock breathing room. It's made $27m in two days, so it probably wasn't a bad idea.
 
just saw it a second time. Even more awesome this timw around, especially since I saw it on a bigger screen.
 
When I went to see Avatar 3D on Christmas Eve, there were people in line to see Alvin. It has kind of surprised me how Christmas Eve is basically a holiday in US. In New Zealand, Boxing day is more of a holiday. What's it like in Canada?
 
I saw it yesterday. It was entertaining and the 3D was impressive, but this has to be one of the most cliched, predictable, made for mass appeal movie I've seen. Let's run through a list of SOME of the cliches in the movie:

Generic, cookie cutter warrior lead
War-mongering villain
Villain has scary scar
Nature good, technology bad
Noble savages
Lead falls in love with native girl
Native girl is actually the daughter of the leader of the natives
Native girl is to marry another guy due to tradition
Native guy is asshole
Lead does something that only a few people in history have done and is mentioned earlier in the film
Lead learns the ways of the natives
Small, weasley corporate guy
Lead turns his back on his own people to help natives
War is only fought for money/power/greed
Lead is shunned by natives, then accepted, then shunned again, and then finally accepted
Being "one" with nature

And
banging under a magical tree was totally in FFX.

I wasn't really blown away by Pandora (GET IT LIKE PANDORA'S BOX IF YOU OPEN IT BAD THINGS GONNA HAPPEN). Bright, glowing things can only captivate me for so long. The creature designs weren't that original either. I'm pretty sure I killed most of the creatures on Pandora in Phantasy Star Online. Cameron basically just took existing animals, made them reptiles, and put some extra legs/wings/eyes on them.

Plus the dialogue, dear God. Who didn't roll their eyes at "you have a strong heart." It's like Cameron wrote this when he was 14 and didn't go back and proofread it. Also, the object the company was trying to get was called "Unobtainium." Honest to god, that is what James Cameron called it. Is this supposed to be some meta joke, or does he just not take his screenplay seriously and instead would rather perfect how the texture on Neytiri's boobs looks like? Once again, here is a short list of awful, awful pieces of dialogue.

"Everything out there wants to eat your eyes for jujubes"

Actually, I'm just going to stop there. Will there even be jujubes in the future? Hell, they aren't popular NOW. Who eats jujubes?

I'm being pretty harsh on the film, and that's because a lot of people simply can't look past glowing 3d plants to find out that the story and dialogue is something that Cameron probably came up with in a weekend. It's a film that is only impressive on a technical aspect and will become less admired as the years go on, kind of like Titanic.
 
Just got back from seeing it in IMAX 3D. I've definitely been skeptical for a few months now, I thought it looked dumb ass hell but it was AWESOME. Story was pretty medium, but I felt like it really picked up in the last third.

I don't know about the 3D though, I don't think it works for me. I mean it looked great but like, this is hard to describe, it really messed with my brain. Like it makes me feel disconnected from reality but not in a good way. Like I felt spaced out a lot and it didn't seem like things were actually happening and I always felt like I was only getting information from a few seconds ago while new things were happening. It was weird.
 
Forkball said:
Plus the dialogue, dear God. Who didn't roll their eyes at "you have a strong heart." It's like Cameron wrote this when he was 14 and didn't go back and proofread it. Also, the object the company was trying to get was called "Unobtainium." Honest to god, that is what James Cameron called it. Is this supposed to be some meta joke, or does he just not take his screenplay seriously and instead would rather perfect how the texture on Neytiri's boobs looks like? Once again, here is a short list of awful, awful pieces of dialogue.

You are going to get jumped for bringing up unobtanium. It's a catch-all phrase for rare, unusual materials and I think Cameron used it to draw attention away from why it was being mined. It was a poor decision to not name it something different and it just adds to the mediocrity of the rest of the dialogue.
 
Just got back from seeing the movie again(I dont want to say how many times that is now for me cause its getting embarssing) and I must say nothing is more satisying than convincing someone to see it that has:
a. expresed no interest in it
b. hasn't seen any trailers
c. despite your assuring them its good still don't want to see it.

But then they go see it anyway and you get to watch their mind grapes get crushed and turned into a wine of pure awe.
 
BruceLeeRoy said:
Just got back from seeing the movie again(I dont want to say how many times that is now for me cause its getting embarssing) and I must say nothing is more satisying than convincing someone to see it that has:
a. expresed no interest in it
b. hasn't seen any trailers
c. despite your assuring them its good still don't want to see it.

But then they go see it anyway and you get to watch their mind grapes get crushed and turned into a wine of pure awe.
TELL ME
 
Dax01 said:
:lol
4
Oh damn I am going to have to start attending group therapy.

Scullibundo said:
Yeah come on Bruce, how many times?

I've seen it four times and will probably see it another two times before it finishes it run.

Sweet me and you can start the group Sculli.
 
BruceLeeRoy said:
:lol
4
Oh damn I am going to have to start attending group therapy.
That's no big deal, I'm on three, have two more lined up. If I can drag people there, I'll go a few more I suspect.
 
stuburns said:
That's no big deal, I'm on three, have two more lined up. If I can drag people there, I'll go a few more I suspect.

Yeah but I saw it the second and third time on the same day and within only a hour and a half of eachother.

You can join our therapy sessions too stuburns. I think for the time being we should meet at the closest imax theater and just to keep it organized, time our meetings around the showings of the movie.
 
pfft 4 is decent...

I have seen it 4 times and seeing it tomorrow with my mom/family... then still need to see it on IMAX 3D, which I have been saving :D
 
Generic, cookie cutter warrior lead
War-mongering villain
Villain has scary scar
to be fair he was a more badass version of the usual stereotype, along with actualy being competent when it came to military tactics

he is preaty much my favorite character, althrough I know I am not suposed to like him
 
Forkball said:
I saw it yesterday. It was entertaining and the 3D was impressive, but this has to be one of the most cliched, predictable, made for mass appeal movie I've seen. Let's run through a list of SOME of the cliches in the movie:

Generic, cookie cutter warrior lead
War-mongering villain
Villain has scary scar
Nature good, technology bad
Noble savages
Lead falls in love with native girl
Native girl is actually the daughter of the leader of the natives
Native girl is to marry another guy due to tradition
Native guy is asshole
Lead does something that only a few people in history have done and is mentioned earlier in the film
Lead learns the ways of the natives
Small, weasley corporate guy
Lead turns his back on his own people to help natives
War is only fought for money/power/greed
Lead is shunned by natives, then accepted, then shunned again, and then finally accepted
Being "one" with nature

And
banging under a magical tree was totally in FFX.

I wasn't really blown away by Pandora (GET IT LIKE PANDORA'S BOX IF YOU OPEN IT BAD THINGS GONNA HAPPEN). Bright, glowing things can only captivate me for so long. The creature designs weren't that original either. I'm pretty sure I killed most of the creatures on Pandora in Phantasy Star Online. Cameron basically just took existing animals, made them reptiles, and put some extra legs/wings/eyes on them.

Plus the dialogue, dear God. Who didn't roll their eyes at "you have a strong heart." It's like Cameron wrote this when he was 14 and didn't go back and proofread it. Also, the object the company was trying to get was called "Unobtainium." Honest to god, that is what James Cameron called it. Is this supposed to be some meta joke, or does he just not take his screenplay seriously and instead would rather perfect how the texture on Neytiri's boobs looks like? Once again, here is a short list of awful, awful pieces of dialogue.

"Everything out there wants to eat your eyes for jujubes"

Actually, I'm just going to stop there. Will there even be jujubes in the future? Hell, they aren't popular NOW. Who eats jujubes?

I'm being pretty harsh on the film, and that's because a lot of people simply can't look past glowing 3d plants to find out that the story and dialogue is something that Cameron probably came up with in a weekend. It's a film that is only impressive on a technical aspect and will become less admired as the years go on, kind of like Titanic.

QFT.

First movie I've ever seen in 3D and it was pretty cool at first but started to become uncomfortable during the duration. Still positive experience overall.

The movie felt like Cameron took plot/story/creatures/environments/scenes from various movies and video games and put it all together in one movie.
 
Forkball said:
I'm being pretty harsh on the film, and that's because a lot of people simply can't look past glowing 3d plants to find out that the story and dialogue is something that Cameron probably came up with in a weekend.

:lol

Thanks for this revelation. Nobody has ever brought up the story and dialogue in Avatar.
 
And the movie is all the more impressive even when bogged down with cliches and predictability.

I think the sequel(s) is where Cameron can really stretch his legs.
 
So ive been perusing the scriptment (will read the whole thing eventually)

Was sad to see that
Grace actually survives the soul transfer originally
I understand why it didn't happen in the film, but still, :(
 
Forkball said:
I saw it yesterday. It was entertaining and the 3D was impressive, but this has to be one of the most cliched, predictable, made for mass appeal movie I've seen. Let's run through a list of SOME of the cliches in the movie:

Generic, cookie cutter warrior lead
War-mongering villain
Villain has scary scar
Nature good, technology bad
Noble savages
Lead falls in love with native girl
Native girl is actually the daughter of the leader of the natives
Native girl is to marry another guy due to tradition
Native guy is asshole
Lead does something that only a few people in history have done and is mentioned earlier in the film
Lead learns the ways of the natives
Small, weasley corporate guy
Lead turns his back on his own people to help natives
War is only fought for money/power/greed
Lead is shunned by natives, then accepted, then shunned again, and then finally accepted
Being "one" with nature

And
banging under a magical tree was totally in FFX.

I wasn't really blown away by Pandora (GET IT LIKE PANDORA'S BOX IF YOU OPEN IT BAD THINGS GONNA HAPPEN). Bright, glowing things can only captivate me for so long. The creature designs weren't that original either. I'm pretty sure I killed most of the creatures on Pandora in Phantasy Star Online. Cameron basically just took existing animals, made them reptiles, and put some extra legs/wings/eyes on them.

Plus the dialogue, dear God. Who didn't roll their eyes at "you have a strong heart." It's like Cameron wrote this when he was 14 and didn't go back and proofread it. Also, the object the company was trying to get was called "Unobtainium." Honest to god, that is what James Cameron called it. Is this supposed to be some meta joke, or does he just not take his screenplay seriously and instead would rather perfect how the texture on Neytiri's boobs looks like? Once again, here is a short list of awful, awful pieces of dialogue.

"Everything out there wants to eat your eyes for jujubes"

Actually, I'm just going to stop there. Will there even be jujubes in the future? Hell, they aren't popular NOW. Who eats jujubes?

I'm being pretty harsh on the film, and that's because a lot of people simply can't look past glowing 3d plants to find out that the story and dialogue is something that Cameron probably came up with in a weekend. It's a film that is only impressive on a technical aspect and will become less admired as the years go on, kind of like Titanic.
While I enjoy the film a lot, I agree with all of your points.
 
Grimm Fandango said:
I think the sequel(s) is where Cameron can really stretch his legs.

I truly hope he does, and I believe he will. :)

I went to see it for the second time today, in a RealD theatre instead of XpanD like the first time. I can safely say it was a better experience. The image was at proper brightness levels (it was a bit dark in the XpanD theatre but I must say it may have been the fault of the theatre operators), the glasses were the usual RealD ones which aren't nowhere near as uncomfortable as the XpanD ones (in fact, they're comfortable to me), and the 3D was at the same level at least. I was sitting pretty much perfectly positioned, centered both in width and screen height and the 3D was pristine especially in the CG sections.

I also feel the movie gets better the more you see it. :D
 
Forkball said:
I saw it yesterday. It was entertaining and the 3D was impressive, but this has to be one of the most cliched, predictable, made for mass appeal movie I've seen. Let's run through a list of SOME of the cliches in the movie:

Generic, cookie cutter warrior lead
War-mongering villain
Villain has scary scar
Nature good, technology bad
Noble savages
Lead falls in love with native girl
Native girl is actually the daughter of the leader of the natives
Native girl is to marry another guy due to tradition
Native guy is asshole
Lead does something that only a few people in history have done and is mentioned earlier in the film
Lead learns the ways of the natives
Small, weasley corporate guy
Lead turns his back on his own people to help natives
War is only fought for money/power/greed
Lead is shunned by natives, then accepted, then shunned again, and then finally accepted
Being "one" with nature

And
banging under a magical tree was totally in FFX.

I wasn't really blown away by Pandora (GET IT LIKE PANDORA'S BOX IF YOU OPEN IT BAD THINGS GONNA HAPPEN). Bright, glowing things can only captivate me for so long. The creature designs weren't that original either. I'm pretty sure I killed most of the creatures on Pandora in Phantasy Star Online. Cameron basically just took existing animals, made them reptiles, and put some extra legs/wings/eyes on them.

Plus the dialogue, dear God. Who didn't roll their eyes at "you have a strong heart." It's like Cameron wrote this when he was 14 and didn't go back and proofread it. Also, the object the company was trying to get was called "Unobtainium." Honest to god, that is what James Cameron called it. Is this supposed to be some meta joke, or does he just not take his screenplay seriously and instead would rather perfect how the texture on Neytiri's boobs looks like? Once again, here is a short list of awful, awful pieces of dialogue.

"Everything out there wants to eat your eyes for jujubes"

Actually, I'm just going to stop there. Will there even be jujubes in the future? Hell, they aren't popular NOW. Who eats jujubes?

I'm being pretty harsh on the film, and that's because a lot of people simply can't look past glowing 3d plants to find out that the story and dialogue is something that Cameron probably came up with in a weekend. It's a film that is only impressive on a technical aspect and will become less admired as the years go on, kind of like Titanic.

First of all: yes, unobtainium is a meta-joke. Unfortunately, the movie does not explain that fact, so it does come off as totally stupid if you're not privy to it.

Anyway, the thing is that your comments are true, but the movie is still damn good. It may be cliche, but it handles its cliches well and manages to hit resonant emotional beats. Its dialogue also is not that bad; there are a couple of cheesy lines, but the vast majority of the script falls well within normal scriptwriting tropes. If you didn't like the designs, there's nothing that I can say to change your mind on that. For my money, this movie had some of the best, most fantastically realized art design that I've ever seen.

To your last point: visual deftness is an achievement unto itself. One definition of the art of cinema is 'telling a story with pictures'. Telling a fairly average story with absolutely insane visuals can be an effective moviegoing experience for a lot of people, as proven by the fact that it's a huge hit with audiences and critics alike. Plus, there are some good performances in this movie (specifically, I liked Worthington, Weaver, and Saldana, who gave one of the best female performances this year). There are different definitions of what makes a film good; some people focus specifically on plot and dialogue, but many look at film as more of an overall package; for many of those people, Avatar made up for its deficiencies in story and dialogue with the many, many things that it does exceptionally.

Also, Titanic is still loved by many, many people; it's not at all a fact that Titanic is not looked upon very well today.
 
Forkball said:
I saw it yesterday. It was entertaining and the 3D was impressive, but this has to be one of the most cliched, predictable, made for mass appeal movie I've seen. Let's run through a list of SOME of the cliches in the movie:

Generic, cookie cutter warrior lead
War-mongering villain
Villain has scary scar
Nature good, technology bad
Noble savages
Lead falls in love with native girl
Native girl is actually the daughter of the leader of the natives
Native girl is to marry another guy due to tradition
Native guy is asshole
Lead does something that only a few people in history have done and is mentioned earlier in the film
Lead learns the ways of the natives
Small, weasley corporate guy
Lead turns his back on his own people to help natives
War is only fought for money/power/greed
Lead is shunned by natives, then accepted, then shunned again, and then finally accepted
Being "one" with nature

And
banging under a magical tree was totally in FFX.

I wasn't really blown away by Pandora (GET IT LIKE PANDORA'S BOX IF YOU OPEN IT BAD THINGS GONNA HAPPEN). Bright, glowing things can only captivate me for so long. The creature designs weren't that original either. I'm pretty sure I killed most of the creatures on Pandora in Phantasy Star Online. Cameron basically just took existing animals, made them reptiles, and put some extra legs/wings/eyes on them.

Plus the dialogue, dear God. Who didn't roll their eyes at "you have a strong heart." It's like Cameron wrote this when he was 14 and didn't go back and proofread it. Also, the object the company was trying to get was called "Unobtainium." Honest to god, that is what James Cameron called it. Is this supposed to be some meta joke, or does he just not take his screenplay seriously and instead would rather perfect how the texture on Neytiri's boobs looks like? Once again, here is a short list of awful, awful pieces of dialogue.

"Everything out there wants to eat your eyes for jujubes"

Actually, I'm just going to stop there. Will there even be jujubes in the future? Hell, they aren't popular NOW. Who eats jujubes?

I'm being pretty harsh on the film, and that's because a lot of people simply can't look past glowing 3d plants to find out that the story and dialogue is something that Cameron probably came up with in a weekend. It's a film that is only impressive on a technical aspect and will become less admired as the years go on, kind of like Titanic.

I agree 100% pretty much, and its because of those points its going to make so much money.
 
FirewalkR said:
I truly hope he does, and I believe he will. :)

I went to see it for the second time today, in a RealD theatre instead of XpanD like the first time. I can safely say it was a better experience. The image was at proper brightness levels (it was a bit dark in the XpanD theatre but I must say it may have been the fault of the theatre operators), the glasses were the usual RealD ones which aren't nowhere near as uncomfortable as the XpanD ones (in fact, they're comfortable to me), and the 3D was at the same level at least. I was sitting pretty much perfectly positioned, centered both in width and screen height and the 3D was pristine especially in the CG sections.

I also feel the movie gets better the more you see it. :D
It does, really.
 
Snowman Prophet of Doom said:
Also, Titanic is still loved by many, many people; it's not at all a fact that Titanic is not looked upon very well today.

If anything, general opinion on it seems to have increased since Titanic came out. A lot of people that were younger back then and turned off by the romance or the Leomania or whatnot are now older and more mature, and can look back on it with a greater degree of objectivity.
 
I was dozing in and out during the action scenes at the end. I was hungover as heck though.

I'd like to see it again and not fall asleep.
 
Just got back from my second viewing (in 3D again) and CHRIST I enjoyed it even more than the first time!

This time, I was acclimated to 3D from the start, no blurriness, no eye pain, nothing. Just glorious, glorious 3D.

My favorite scene is still the first Banshee flight. Pure, unbelievable joy. The end of the scene where Jake and Neytiri are reminiscing about the flight was the perfect cap off.

I also had no problem with the long intro this time. It was just fine.

And the climax, whew! Some of the best action in years. And no blurry, unfocused, unintelligible, clashing action sequences.

Seriously, I might have to move it up a spot to take my number 1. I've never had such a rewarding second-viewing. Movies hold up, they don't usually get better.

Edit: And it got a THUNDEROUS applause at the end. Literally deafening.
 
Forkball said:
I saw it yesterday. It was entertaining and the 3D was impressive, but this has to be one of the most cliched, predictable, made for mass appeal movie I've seen. Let's run through a list of SOME of the cliches in the movie:

Generic, cookie cutter warrior lead
War-mongering villain
Villain has scary scar
Nature good, technology bad
Noble savages
Lead falls in love with native girl
Native girl is actually the daughter of the leader of the natives
Native girl is to marry another guy due to tradition
Native guy is asshole
Lead does something that only a few people in history have done and is mentioned earlier in the film
Lead learns the ways of the natives
Small, weasley corporate guy
Lead turns his back on his own people to help natives
War is only fought for money/power/greed
Lead is shunned by natives, then accepted, then shunned again, and then finally accepted
Being "one" with nature

And
banging under a magical tree was totally in FFX.

I wasn't really blown away by Pandora (GET IT LIKE PANDORA'S BOX IF YOU OPEN IT BAD THINGS GONNA HAPPEN). Bright, glowing things can only captivate me for so long. The creature designs weren't that original either. I'm pretty sure I killed most of the creatures on Pandora in Phantasy Star Online. Cameron basically just took existing animals, made them reptiles, and put some extra legs/wings/eyes on them.

Plus the dialogue, dear God. Who didn't roll their eyes at "you have a strong heart." It's like Cameron wrote this when he was 14 and didn't go back and proofread it. Also, the object the company was trying to get was called "Unobtainium." Honest to god, that is what James Cameron called it. Is this supposed to be some meta joke, or does he just not take his screenplay seriously and instead would rather perfect how the texture on Neytiri's boobs looks like? Once again, here is a short list of awful, awful pieces of dialogue.

"Everything out there wants to eat your eyes for jujubes"

Actually, I'm just going to stop there. Will there even be jujubes in the future? Hell, they aren't popular NOW. Who eats jujubes?

I'm being pretty harsh on the film, and that's because a lot of people simply can't look past glowing 3d plants to find out that the story and dialogue is something that Cameron probably came up with in a weekend. It's a film that is only impressive on a technical aspect and will become less admired as the years go on, kind of like Titanic.

Are you saying that Avatar would have been a better movie if those complains of yours where polished and worked out?
 
I almost want to see Avatar again in an attempt to see why it didn't click with me the first time. Does IMax make it really good?
 
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