Avatar - Movie Review (Spoiler Free)
Dec. 30th, 2009 03:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aggienaut So I saw that movie Avatar yesterday with the fim fam.
Now my first impressions of this movie didn't particularly inspire me to want to see it overly much. First of all the name, "Avatar," smacks so strongly of wretched internet chatrooms that it immediately brings a great deal of negative connotation in my opinion. And then, I'd never seen any trailers on TV, being as I don't watch TV. I had seen clips somewhere or other (on the internet I suppose) and they gave me absolutely no sense of a plot, just fantastic creatures seeming to be doing constant battle, so in my opinion it just looked like World of Warcraft, the movie (and I'm not a WoW fan so..).
Father-unit however seemed convinced this movie was worth seeing and eventually sold the entire family on going to see it in the giant IMAX 3-D theatre. When we're all back for the holidays we all usually go see a movie together as a once a year kind of thing. Which accounts for half the movies I see in the theatre probably.
Now, having seen it I must say: whenever a particularly good movie comes out critics like to hail it as "the next generation's Star Wars" they said it about that movie Independance Day (hah!) and about the Matrix (too bad the sequels sucked so hard everyone forgot how good the original was). Well, I think this movie might be it, the sought after "Star Wars of the next generation"
It has the necessary engrossing new world, ultra-simplified dichotomy between good and evil, and, most importantly, characters and elements which lend themselves to fandom.
That is to say, it's a really good movie. Really beautiful anyway. I was pleasantly surprised to find it even had a plot! Not exactly full of great subtle allusions and symbolisms (hey they're mining for a rare mineral called Unobtainium) but definitely worth seeing, especially in 3-D.
My least favourite aspect, however, was how the alien natives (well, the humans are technically the aliens here) looked exactly like ... furries from the internet!!! Except that they weren't furry. But the cat ears, large eyes, general body shape, broad flat nose to give a more cat-like face, TAIL, telepathically communicating with horse-like creatures and dragon-like creatures. It was like someone took all the most base fantasies of the depths of the intertron and decided to splat them into an otherwise beautiful movie.
But the fans of such things are legion, which is sure to spur the movie's popularity and enduring cult status (and was probably intentionally targeted for this purpose).
Without any signs of industry how do they make all those beads and things?
But yeah definitely worth a see in 3-D.
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no subject
Date: 2009-12-30 11:49 pm (UTC)Finally, I resent when at the end of a movie, it's excruciatingly obvious they are setting us up for a sequel.
Would I recommend the movie to others? Sure. In 3-D if possible.
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Date: 2009-12-30 11:57 pm (UTC)I liked the beginning because, well, you know I think thought-out sci fi things are fun. And in contrast to some other elements of the movie, I felt it seemed kind of intelligently portrayed how they were floating in zero G like that. And it served well to introduce the planet as a far away and exotic place.
Yeah Sigourney Weaver's character was kind of odd, varying between painfully caustic and painfully enthusiastic. And why would a brilliant scientist be (a) smoking, (b) smoking in her lab, (c) smoking in her lab in a spaceship (or contained environment anyway)!!!
Yeah there'll definitely be sequels. I hope they're not dumb.
But really the only hard part for me was when the natives acted like cartoon characters. Like when he was flirting with her and chasing her around in the air JUST LIKE THE SCENE IN EVERY DISNEY MOVIE. I wanted to barf!
no subject
Date: 2009-12-31 12:02 am (UTC)The problem with most movies is they might start with a relatively good plot, but then because it did well they make a sequel, and the sequel has an absolutely deplorable excuse for a plot, which barely less than screams "we're just desperately trying to make a sequel here!" Like 28 Days Later. Excellent movie with a pretty complex theme for a zombie movie. The sequel 28 Weeks Later? Totally dumb zombie movie. They set it up for another sequel but I don't think it's going to come, they killed it.
So let's hope if they add a sequel to this franchise they make it interesting and complex and not just "oh look the humans are trying again! rinse and repeat!"
no subject
Date: 2009-12-31 12:28 am (UTC)Paleolithic Technology
Date: 2009-12-31 02:29 am (UTC)I'm a big fan of anthropology and stone age civilization has always fascinated me, and I know they can do a lot with a little, but surely you need SOME kind of rudimentary workshops/workspaces/tools for even paleolithic industry. The na'vi here seemed to have no tools or improvements upon their environment other than bows and remarkably large arrows and neorotoxin, and hammocks.
It's not a real criticism though so much as I felt like writing something saucy under the picture (:
no subject
Date: 2009-12-31 09:35 am (UTC)There are also groups that will set up making, say, obsidian knives - or beads - and trade them around and thus make an easier living. Why chase food when you can have it brought to your home?
Ancient technology is surprisingly sophisticated.
Now for extra points, how would one drill out the holes in the beads?
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Date: 2009-12-31 09:36 am (UTC).
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Date: 2009-12-31 09:41 am (UTC)Read a memoir by this old indian doctor, she knew one-third of the song for building the salmon trap on the river. She would get together with the people who knew the other 2/3 of the song and they would build the trap, which was *seriously* complicated.
They would do this every year, and pass the songs down to the members of their medicine societies.
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no subject
Date: 2009-12-31 09:37 am (UTC)Trivial.
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Date: 2009-12-31 03:02 am (UTC)My two sons (21 and 19) refer to this as "Dances with Smurfs" because the plot is the same as Dances with Wolves. If you don't get the smurfs reference - please see picture above.
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Date: 2009-12-31 09:32 am (UTC)On the other hand, "Rocket Singh, Salesman Of The Year" is a beautiful and poetic film.
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Date: 2009-12-31 12:18 pm (UTC)I totally agree about the Matrix films btw. The sequals were crap but the original is one of my all time favourites :)
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Date: 2009-12-31 07:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-31 05:46 pm (UTC)It was like someone took all the most base fantasies of the depths of the intertron and decided to splat them into an otherwise beautiful movie.
BUAHAHA! I have never seen or heard of furries before, so this made me giggle a whole lot. XD
I definitely enjoyed the movie a whole lot, even though the 3 hours of 3D was kinda much... *uncrosses eyes*
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Date: 2009-12-31 07:55 pm (UTC)Basically, a lot of strange people like to hang out on the internet and draw pictures of tall lanky people with cat ears and tails and cat like faces, and it's kind of ridiculous.
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Date: 2009-12-31 08:06 pm (UTC)OH WAIT NO I HAVE SEEN ONE! Awww, I think they're cute. XD
Internet Furries
Date: 2009-12-31 08:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-02 06:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-02 06:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-02 06:42 am (UTC)