Just saw AVATAR, first time, what the?

[cayman shen]

I did enjoy the concept of the avatar, placing yourself in a false body...unfortunately, it was one nifty concept wrapped up in a dull as dirt nine hour crapfest with glittery She-ra Princess of Power art design. Honest to god, I wouldn't be surprised if Lookee was hiding in there.

 

[Mola Rob]

Another bloated and overrated piece of Cameron nonsense. He knows how to get people into the theater but that doesn't mean he makes good movies.

 

[Montagar]

I said it before and I'll say it again... I am amazed at the massive amount of processing power they must have used to turn such ridiculously one dimensional characters into three dimensional ones.

 

[jlee562]

it's only good if your high....

....did i just say that?

Nah, it wasn't even that good. Maybe you're getting better stuff? :lol

It was entertaining enough for a summer blockbuster, but not much more than that. Extremely overrated.

 

[Stormy320]

It was just a way for James Cameron to get cudos from the green party and a shout out regarding how he hated President Bush.

Way overrated.

 

[Jedi2016]

I don't get the "overrated" comment. Despite the amount of money it made, I don't recall ever meeting anyone who thought it was "one of the greatest films ever made" or something like that.

The general consensus is the same that's in this very thread.. it's visually amazing, but severely lacking in story. I don't get where the word "overrated" comes from, since it was never that highly rated to begin with.

 

[dcarty]

But didn't the 3D change your life!!??? Everybody loves 3D right?? A movie isn't a real movie unless it's in 3D!! Now we have to turn all of the old movies into 3D so they'll be real movies now and then people will want to see them because they'll be in 3D and no one will go see a movie unless it's in 3D...

:sick

 

[Colin Droidmilk]

Avatar is a very competently made bad movie. I see it as a good example of a popcorn movie. Just watch the pretty pictures and don't bother about anything else.

Except even the pretty pictures are not so pretty to some of us. I've not seen the film but I've seen plenty of extended scenes, and honestly I find them cluttered with all the usual cgi phoniness that people lambaste the SW prequels for. Cartoony motion, inorganic, mathematical camera motion etc. etc. Objects flying from distance into camera, camera holds them too perfectly, pans with them, then watches as objects disappear into void at dead centre of screen. Fake, fake, fake....

The one thing that interests me about the film is the copters with the two flanking rotors. Some of that looks really good. Thing is, I already designed a similar copter with flanking rotors about 5 years back, so even that I've seen before... a friend saw Avatar and said,' hey it's got things like your helicopters in it!' Cameron annoyed my a$$ with that. I'd thought I'd come up with a unique vehicle...but I dunno, maybe Cam ripped 'em from some Syd Mead somewhere I'm not familiar with... anyone know anything about the design genesis of those things?

 

[jlee562]

I don't get the "overrated" comment. Despite the amount of money it made, I don't recall ever meeting anyone who thought it was "one of the greatest films ever made" or something like that.

The general consensus is the same that's in this very thread.. it's visually amazing, but severely lacking in story. I don't get where the word "overrated" comes from, since it was never that highly rated to begin with.

It was nominated for Best Picture for crying out loud! Ebert, whom normally I tend to agree with, gave it 4 stars (his highest rating). It had its fair share of critical acclaim.

 

[tgreco]

The one thing that interests me about the film is the copters with the two flanking rotors. Some of that looks really good. Thing is, I already designed a similar copter with flanking rotors about 5 years back, so even that I've seen before... a friend saw Avatar and said,' hey it's got things like your helicopters in it!' Cameron annoyed my a$$ with that. I'd thought I'd come up with a unique vehicle...but I dunno, maybe Cam ripped 'em from some Syd Mead somewhere I'm not familiar with... anyone know anything about the design genesis of those things?

Actually I think Jaun Giminez did the design that they flat ripped off, in a series from 1989 called The Fourth Quarter

 

[terryr]

.

The one thing that interests me about the film is the copters with the two flanking rotors. Some of that looks really good. Thing is, I already designed a similar copter with flanking rotors about 5 years back, ...

Just goggle 'tilt rotor' or 'osprey'. It's an old idea. I first saw it in the UFO tv show.

And it's kind of like the drop ship from Aliens, which Cameron kind of remade. Even has Ripley.

 

[Art Andrews]

Yeah, was going to say, I thought they were just an update on the Osprey.

 

[Simmon M]

I'm usually a sucker for anything sci-fi or horror related. This movie put me to sleep. I'm passing on the sequel ...

 

[joker-scar]

i thought i was the only that was bored by it.

 

[ChaseKiefer]

This is avatar summed up for everybody.

SCI-FI VERSION OF POCAHONTAS!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Noeland]

I rooted for the humans, which I know I wasn't supposed to do. When any race fires bows and arrows at giant gunships, they deserve to be set on fire and blown up.

 

[epilepticsquirl]

I always thought the heli's looked a lot like the Orca's from Command and Conquer.

and the Scorpion for reference

 

[JLeezy23]

Lots of folks said it was a dances with wolves ripoff. Pretty much was. I forgot why i liked it, but i watched it lots when it first released on dvd. Maybe cuz i never seen it in theaters. Now i'm like "nah i dont wanna watch it"

 

[robn1]

That had me grinning so hard my face hurts :lol

 

[Soundwave]

Unfortunately a lot of critisms presented can be applied to the majority of films that have been released within the last 20-30 years.

Star Wars is heavily influenced by The Hidden Fortress; but like Avatar, it's a similar story but again featured in space *yawn* (the sad thing is that most westerners won't have seen The Hidden Fortress, or worse even heard of it), so nothing original there. It has the same old tried and tested characters...the main villain all dressed in black, the wizard mentor etc etc...again something we've all seen before...and thats only the tip of the iceberg; and that was back in 1977.

Avatar cartoony? Stylised more like, surely it's better than muppets in space.

So most criticisms that you direct at Avatar are easily applicable to other films which aren't so cool to hate. I know everyone's entitled to their own opinions, thats fine. But I thought it was interesting to note that certain titles are looked at with rose tinted glasses, even though they are entirely flawed in the same way.

So yeah, the bottom line is...Star Wars is THE HIDDEN FORTRESS...in SPACE!