James Cameron Sci-Fi film AVATAR

[jedijeff]

AVATAR is going to have a long lasting effect on the entire movie going experience. I hear some of the criticism lebied against the film and I can understand their validity, but it doesn't change the fact the the movie at it's core is a very basic, simple, film experience. I can't recall, with the exception of some of the PIXAR type of films, a movie which offers such a positive, enjoyable story set against such stunning visuals. Compare AVATAR to last years sci-fi/action films like "Dark Knight" or "District 9". Both of those were very original, complicated, gritty, but not something I would watch over and over again. AVATAR is much more accesible. I even watched STAR TREK the other night on Blue-Ray and found it's luster had dimmed a lot since seeing it in the theaters. It's still terrific, but I'm not sure how often I will be watching it. AVATAR I could watch all day.

To Pickup on what I said in the Podcast Thread, to me, I dont really see this movie having a really long Legacy to it. I enjoyed this movie a lot, but a lot of the buzz about this movie is the production values. In a few years time, a lot of movies are going to look just as good or better then this one. The Visuals were stunning with 3D, and I have not seen it in 2D to compare it against other movies of the ilk. Pandora looked great, but so did the worlds in many other Movies such as the Star Wars Prequels and Lord of the Rings.

The story is simple and straight forward, probably best fit this movie, but there was nothing really surprising to me in it. Everything played out as I would expect, and pretty much knew where it was going ten minutes into it. Not to say that is a bad thing, James Cameron might have had to take a bit of a safe approach, given the amount of money spent on it, and plus this was a followup to Titanic and he had taken a very extended break between the two, so the Critical spot light was going to be placed on it. I guess the risk would have been doing this in 3D in case it did not turn out, but I am guessing that they were probably very certain it would look good before undertaking.

My experience with the latest Star Trek movie was a bit different. I saw it the first time, and wasn't really sure what to make of it, but I have watched it a few more times on Blu-Ray since, and I enjoy it more and more each time. JJ Abrams took bigger risks with the movie, and did not really play it safe. Partly because he had to, in order to shake up Trek a bit, partly because that is his thing.

Again liked this movie, but past it possibly changing how other movies are made in the future, I am not sure if it will be one that I am wanting to see over an over again. From a story standpoint, nothing really jumped out at me. Heard that James Cameron might do another, and sounds like he would be exploring other worlds, which I think is good as I don't think there is anything else to be expanded on with the present storyline. Just my opinion :)

[ori-STUDFARM]

I agree with what you say about the faults of Avatar. The simple, unoriginal and predictable storyline. The fact that it's all about the visuals and production values.

However, when you say-

"In a few years time, a lot of movies are going to look just as good or better then this one. The Visuals were stunning with 3D, and I have not seen it in 2D to compare it against other movies of the ilk. Pandora looked great, but so did the worlds in many other Movies such as the Star Wars Prequels and Lord of the Rings"

I have to disagree. I think it far enough ahead of anything else that it stands out in the same way as Star Wars did in 1977. Lets not forget that Star Wars Ep IV also has a predictable, unoriginal storyline and became what it was because it re-did a classic tale so well with SFX so far advanced that permanantly left thier mark on peoples minds.

I think Avatar will be as fondly remembered.

My 10 year old daughter said in wonder to me as it finished  "That is the best film I've ever seen in my life" and then asked to go straight in to see it again. I've never heard her enthuse over a movie before as much as she did this. I think this movie is her generations Star Wars!

[X]

I agree with what you say about the faults of Avatar. The simple, unoriginal and predictable storyline. The fact that it's all about the visuals and production values.

However, when you say-

"In a few years time, a lot of movies are going to look just as good or better then this one. The Visuals were stunning with 3D, and I have not seen it in 2D to compare it against other movies of the ilk. Pandora looked great, but so did the worlds in many other Movies such as the Star Wars Prequels and Lord of the Rings"

I have to disagree. I think it far enough ahead of anything else that it stands out in the same way as Star Wars did in 1977. Lets not forget that Star Wars Ep IV also has a predictable, unoriginal storyline and became what it was because it re-did a classic tale so well with SFX so far advanced that permanantly left thier mark on peoples minds.

I think Avatar will be as fondly remembered.

My 10 year old daughter said in wonder to me as it finished  "That is the best film I've ever seen in my life" and then asked to go straight in to see it again. I've never heard her enthuse over a movie before as much as she did this. I think this movie is her generations Star Wars!

I truly think that sequels or not, this will be the Star Wars for a lot of children.

[Darkmolerman]

I agree with what you say about the faults of Avatar. The simple, unoriginal and predictable storyline. The fact that it's all about the visuals and production values.

However, when you say-

"In a few years time, a lot of movies are going to look just as good or better then this one. The Visuals were stunning with 3D, and I have not seen it in 2D to compare it against other movies of the ilk. Pandora looked great, but so did the worlds in many other Movies such as the Star Wars Prequels and Lord of the Rings"

I have to disagree. I think it far enough ahead of anything else that it stands out in the same way as Star Wars did in 1977. Lets not forget that Star Wars Ep IV also has a predictable, unoriginal storyline and became what it was because it re-did a classic tale so well with SFX so far advanced that permanantly left thier mark on peoples minds.

I think Avatar will be as fondly remembered.

My 10 year old daughter said in wonder to me as it finished  "That is the best film I've ever seen in my life" and then asked to go straight in to see it again. I've never heard her enthuse over a movie before as much as she did this. I think this movie is her generations Star Wars!

I truly think that sequels or not, this will be the Star Wars for a lot of children.

If they have a fast talking navi or some punk kid, I am calling jar jar...

[ori-STUDFARM]

I have heard on a podcast that 2 sequels are in the pipelines and that they may be set on neighbouring moons to Pandora.

This disappoints me, as I feel that it doesn't need any follow up. It is a nice self contained story that has a beginning, middle and a definate end. Now, if they were planning to do a sequel, I would have prefered it if they ended this movie

[spoiler]at the point where the tree was destroyed. I think this would have been a very brave thing to do, but would have benefitted any seqels in the long term[/spoiler]

That said though, I will be eagerly going to see any sequels if and when they come out!

[Bryancd]

I truly think that sequels or not, this will be the Star Wars for a lot of children.

That I don't know about. Maybe. Media tastes change so fast. STAR WARS had a lasting impact as nothing came close for so long.

To Jeff, I would say to criticize it's story as blah..ok, I get that, but this movie was more fun for me from a story AND visual standpoint than all three prequels. I thought the love story in AVATAR blew the Anakin/Padme love story away and yet that really gets a big pass by the geek community. Bit of a double standard, IMO.

[jedijeff]

I will back track a bit on the Legacy stuff, as I re read my blog after, and I basically said the opposite on that. I guess I should rephrase that to me Star Trek will have a bigger Legacy then Avatar. Maybe it is because Star Trek was a reboot of the original, and will always be a bit of a conversation point for years to come. I suspect that Star Trek 5 gets more discussion then some Oscar Winning movies to this day.

Star Wars ANH does has a basic story as well, and I considered that, but I think the Characters in Star Wars are part of the reason for its lasting impact. Jake Sully in Avatar will never come close to a Han Solo or a Luke Skywalker, even if they did just one Star Wars movie and not 3 with that cast. The Villain in Avatar did not have the presence that Darth Vader had.

I went to the Movie with my nephew, he came out really pumped. But like Bryan indicated, tastes change fast these days, and with the amount of big budget movies that come out, Kids likes change pretty quick. I don't think they will ever have an attachment to a set of movies like we did. My Nephews have gone from Star Wars prequels, to Spider Man/Iron Man/X-Men, to Transformers, to Avatar, so I don't think they are going to stop :).

I did like this movie, re reading my Blog, I liked it more then I recalled  a short period ago. But I just was not blown away as some. It was nice in 3D, but I guess from the visuals, I have come to expect that in movies, yes they were very done well,  but never left the movie feeling they exceeded my expectations, which is not a knock on the movie. I guess for a James Cameron movie, the original Terminator or T2 left more of an impression on me then Avatar. Granted that many effect driven movies have come out over my life, so getting the wow factor these days is going to be hard to get on my generation.

[X]

I will back track a bit on the Legacy stuff, as I re read my blog after, and I basically said the opposite on that. I guess I should rephrase that to me Star Trek will have a bigger Legacy then Avatar. Maybe it is because Star Trek was a reboot of the original, and will always be a bit of a conversation point for years to come. I suspect that Star Trek 5 gets more discussion then some Oscar Winning movies to this day.

Star Wars ANH does has a basic story as well, and I considered that, but I think the Characters in Star Wars are part of the reason for its lasting impact. Jake Sully in Avatar will never come close to a Han Solo or a Luke Skywalker, even if they did just one Star Wars movie and not 3 with that cast. The Villain in Avatar did not have the presence that Darth Vader had.

I went to the Movie with my nephew, he came out really pumped. But like Bryan indicated, tastes change fast these days, and with the amount of big budget movies that come out, Kids likes change pretty quick. I don't think they will ever have an attachment to a set of movies like we did. My Nephews have gone from Star Wars prequels, to Spider Man/Iron Man/X-Men, to Transformers, to Avatar, so I don't think they are going to stop :).

Wow. I pretty much disagree with everything you said about Avatar vs ANH.

Here's why. In A New Hope, Vader was nothing more than a super powered thug. He wasn't in charge of anything and reported to Tarkin of all people and got beat by a rookie farmboy with incomplete training. He was a scary guy in armor, but nothing much of a character. Granted that's only my opinion, but Vader didn't get legs until the next movie.

I had a emotional reaction to the bad guy in Avatar. I hated him and I wanted to see him die. I also thought that he was a serious badass.

I will agree that both movies had a simple base story and both movies had cutting edge special effects for their day, but Avatar has far less plot holes and far better dialog.

I can't speak for everyone, but for me, after the first few minutes enjoying the 3d, the story became real. I couldn't even begin to tell you what CGI, real, green screen, or physical effects. What I can tell you is that I enjoyed the story FAR better than the first time I saw ANH.

I think that, for me, ANH had a bunch of great scenes, but it also had a bunch of really boring transition pieces.

Avatar on the other hand ... we go to the show 45 minutes before it started. I needed to use the restroom starting at the seeing the body part of the film.

I didn't leave my seat and forgot how bad that I had to go until the credits were off.

There are few films out that that make you want to halt biology to not miss a beat. I've always thought that to be a damned fine benchmark in how much you enjoy a film. If I held it for almost 2 hours ...

Nuff said.

[Bryancd]

I agree Jeff, I don't feel AVATAR has or will have the same impact as STAR WARS and I would never compare it to the OT, but it's a pretty sharp film compared to say Ep. I or II, although I will always love them more just because. :). I can see where Chris is coming from, but I give the story and characterizations in ANH much higher marks. Where Chris and I are in 100% agreement is this:

"I can't speak for everyone, but for me, after the first few minutes enjoying the 3d, the story became real. I couldn't even begin to tell you what CGI, real, green screen, or physical effects."

Within 5min I was 100% IN with this movie from the visuals and then the story grabbed me and I was lost in the sauce, so to speak. I'm not a huge movie goer and I have never seen visuals like this before...ever.

[Rico]

I'm definitely more in line with Jeff's thoughts on this movie.  I enjoyed it a lot but found it pretty straight forward - plotwise.  The visuals were great and it's still one of my favorite films of 2009.  I'm not going to compare it to other movies or try and predict it's place or future in film history.  I'm still a bit surprised the general public is enjoying it as much as they seem to be.  But, it is a lot due to the timing of it's release I think.  In any case, I'm happy another 'geeky' movie is doing well.

[Bryancd]

I don't think it's amazing box office is all that suprising, it really has something for everybody all in a pretty wrapper. It's not all edgy or dark or brooding or esoteric, it's simple entertainment. Again, besides the offerings from PIXAR, I can't think of many films in recent memory which are just "nice".

[Bromptonboy]

I agree, Cameron follows the KISS principal in his big budget plots - {Keep It Simple Stupid} - and then gives us visually stunning cinematography to enjoy.  Characters are black and white, and the general non-geek public imagination is not overly taxed with shades of gray.  :)
I thoroughly enjoyed seeing this movie, even if it is Dances With Wolves re-hashed.

Anyone have some good ideas-thoughts for a sequel?

[X]

Rico, I see what you're saying about timing, but I think it's the same thing that could be said about star wars. It was a pretty basic story that was released with good timing. People outside of the uber fans really don't and have never seen what other people saw in it.

I think that when you have a simple story and great timing, you make a blockbuster. Star Wars and Home Alone both sort of prove that.

[Bryancd]

even if it is Dances With Wolves re-hashed.

Anyone have some good ideas-thoughts for a sequel?

I loved "Dances with Wolves" and this is great new version of that same old story. In fact, "Dancing with Wolves" is one of a very few movies I will always stop and start watching if I come across it on TV. As far as a sequel, I would love to return to Pandora. The whole planet eco-system was so interesting.

[X]

even if it is Dances With Wolves re-hashed.

Anyone have some good ideas-thoughts for a sequel?

I loved "Dances with Wolves" and this is great new version of that same old story. As far as a sequel, I would love to return to Pandora. The whole planet eco-system was so interesting.

I too loved dances with wolves. As did a lot of other people considering what it made. I think people like beating up on the movie for some reason that I still haven't figured out.