A Different Avatar Review

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Karjalan
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A Different Avatar Review

Post by Karjalan » 04 Feb 2010, 09:01

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJarz7BY ... re=related (part one) 9 mins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLzKwTcG ... re=related (part two) 8 mins

Pretty funny/interesting, explains some of the issues I had with the film that made me wonder why people thought it was the best thing ever.
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Cartollomew
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Re: A Different Avatar Review

Post by Cartollomew » 08 Feb 2010, 02:45

Yeh, can't really disagree with that.

I didn't think "Dances with Wolves" so much as "Fern Gully", but then I've never seen either of those the whole way through, so Avatar kinda wins on that count :-P

Several things that made me chuckle/sigh:

-Unobtainium.
Maybe it was a reference to all the hi-larious fake metals going around in the fantasy genre (this was a fantasy movie, not a sci-fi movie), ala mithril and thorium and awesomeite, but it wasn't really necessary.

-Rear view mirrors on the mech thing, along with the combat knife.

-"ZOOM IN! ENHANCE!" I thought we were clear on this one, Hollywood.

-Oh noes! Something bad is about to happen! DEUS EX MACHINA! Oh noes! Something bad is about to happen! DEUS EX MACHINA! OH NOES! DEUS EX AD NAUSEAM!

And so on and so forth with all the utterly unlikeable baddies vs the overly likable goodies.

I thought it was a fairly epic movie though - the visuals were incredible, amazing CG, the atmosphere, it didn't seem over long... but the parting feeling I had? The sheer waste - so many people died and there was nary a word said about them. I'm not talking about the war pig style Colonel, I mean the everyday grunts. The most they said about those guys was that they were basically no better than mercenaries and they had a few throwaway lines at the start where some of them made fun of the guy in a wheelchair.
Ultimately I didn't think the army dudes deserved to die - they were people, they were doing what they were trained and paid to do, and almost all of them died in horrible ways because of the actions of their superior.

Fuck that, that was a shitty thing to do to those people - and it would have made for a much deeper movie if we'd seen that inner conflict more obviously, perhaps present in the 2 most unlikeable characters, the Boss and the Colonel. But as the reviewer said, the primary concern here was making a movie that didn't particularly challenge people, but would be likely to make them come back and watch again. Making people uncomfortable isn't good business.

So I was kinda surprised that they showed all that gruesome killing - it was a very violent and grim movie - but I guess it's ignorable enough that other people want to see it again and again. I ain't one to judge.

Cheers for the review, Karj.
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Re: A Different Avatar Review

Post by Mitra » 08 Feb 2010, 03:41

Disney covered the themes of avatar in 3:24 also inclusively a movie
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Re: A Different Avatar Review

Post by Cartollomew » 08 Feb 2010, 03:47

Mitra wrote:Disney covered the themes of avatar in 3:24 also inclusively a movie

Oh yeh, that was the other thing - those aliens had abnormally large boobs.

Seriously. Big titties is almost an exclusively human thing - there's no real good reason for them, especially if you're a huge alien who jumps around in trees all day.
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Re: A Different Avatar Review

Post by Mitra » 08 Feb 2010, 03:51

Cartollomew wrote: there's no real good reason for them,
[facetious] motorboating? [/facetious]
"Life is no Nintendo game / But you lied again / Now you get to watch her leave / Out the window / Guess that's why they call it window pane" -Eminem 'Love the way you lie' - Award for Excellence in Puns in the medium of Rap 2010

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Cartollomew
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Re: A Different Avatar Review

Post by Cartollomew » 08 Feb 2010, 13:41

Mitra wrote:
Cartollomew wrote: there's no real good reason for them,
[facetious] motorboating? [/facetious]
Best. Evolutionary. Direction.
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Re: A Different Avatar Review

Post by Mews » 09 Feb 2010, 02:03

Mitra wrote:Disney covered the themes of avatar in 3:24 also inclusively a movie
Fuck that song is epic.

I admite it, I got a semi.
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Cartollomew
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Re: A Different Avatar Review

Post by Cartollomew » 09 Feb 2010, 03:20

Mitra wrote:Disney covered the themes of avatar in 3:24 also inclusively a movie
She did not just pick up a baby bear in front of its mother...

Sonofabitch, Disney, not cool.
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Re: A Different Avatar Review

Post by Johnnyrico » 09 Feb 2010, 08:05

Cartollomew wrote:
Mitra wrote:Disney covered the themes of avatar in 3:24 also inclusively a movie

Oh yeh, that was the other thing - those aliens had abnormally large boobs.

Seriously. Big titties is almost an exclusively human thing - there's no real good reason for them, .
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Re: A Different Avatar Review

Post by Lellybaby » 09 Feb 2010, 08:57

Haha i had the exact conversation with my brother-in-law yesterday.

He saw avatar recently and said it was great. I commented on that I needed the storyline to be decent for me to want to see it.

"Its practically Pocahontas, with crazy special effects"
Image

Juke a DK/Warrior, Die Anyway ._.

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Re: A Different Avatar Review

Post by Cartollomew » 09 Feb 2010, 13:43

Johnnyrico wrote:You sir, may die in a fire.
I didn't say I don't like them, just that there's no known reason for it.
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Re: A Different Avatar Review

Post by midi » 09 Feb 2010, 13:44

Cartollomew wrote:I didn't say I don't like them, just that there's no known reason for it.
The breat size is in proportion to the beer belly of the director...
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Re: A Different Avatar Review

Post by Karjalan » 10 Feb 2010, 15:08

midi wrote:
Cartollomew wrote:I didn't say I don't like them, just that there's no known reason for it.
The breat size is in proportion to the beer belly of the director...
Haha, I lolled pretty hard at that.

And np Cart. It did feel very uninspiring in the end, and I can see now how well it is designed to sell tickets and reach a wide range of people. But I suppose that is a pretty good way to advertise the new technology and the amazing graphics we saw. I loved the glowing, floating, buzzing, breathing, living forestry and wildlife, as well as the amazing facial expressions/impressions. I would love to see more, but in a different kind of movie (i'm thinking of something like Sin City), but I am pretty sure the technology will cost so much that only super big, cliche blockbusters that have to target a wide audience can easily afford, for the time being.
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Cartollomew
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Re: A Different Avatar Review

Post by Cartollomew » 10 Feb 2010, 15:32

Yeh. I imagine it's pretty similar to the effect StarWars would have had in the 70s - an epic feeling, amazing effects, uninspired storyline.

Tech (almost) always gets cheaper as time goes on, so it'll become a tool in the kit of a director to tell a story, rather than a drawcard in itself.
Who do you think you are? If you'd stopped winning, you could have been the Biggest Loser, if you gave up, you could have been a Survivor, if you'd stopped reading Orwell, you could have been on Big Brother!

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