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Cameron selects an Avatar


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Yeah, I'm sure they had a word they used to refer to the planet, probably something that just means "the land". Weather or not they had a formal name for it is what I was curious about.

well, the word "earth" started off as describing "land, dirt" and wasn't adopted as the name for our planet until quite some time later.

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From Joystiq.com:

We know you don't remember any of the parts in Avatar that weren't blue giants riding luckdragons, but take our word for it when we say that Sigourney Weaver's character Grace smoked in the movie. Director James Cameron told the New York Times that the character (who spends much of her day motionless and controlling her giant blue avatar) sports a disregard for her body as "a negative comment about people in our real world living too much in their avatars, meaning online and in video games."

Really, James? This is the kind of crap from Cameron I was complaining about earlier.

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I forget who said it first, but I'm partial to calling it "Spaaaace Goooold."

Why not just call it "Space Gold" or "Ultradiamondoniumanium Alloy"?

Each time they said "unobtainium" I whispered "Spaaaace Gooooold" to my wife while we were watching it. :)

I'm also fond of the term "Pooranium".

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I saw the movie last night for the first time. Saw it in 3D. The visuals were absolutely mind blowing. I suppose that I have nothing to say here in this tread that has not been said but I did like the movie a lot. Sure the story was not very original or perfect but it was thoroughly entertaining. There were a lot of "messages" in the film, some of which I agreed with, some of which I do not agree with, but overall I thought that it was a cinematagraphical (is that a word?) masterpiece at least visually. There was nothing in the story that made me hate the movie like it has for so many people for so many different reasons. And I do want to see it again in 3D before it leaves the theaters. The 3D seemed much better than the 3D I saw in Pixar's UP a while back and I am not sure if it is just the theater or the glasses or the technology but this was really impressive 3D.

Overall, Thumbs up from me.

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Saw the 3D version yesterday and enjoyed it much more than expected.

Yes, the story was extremely simple and predictable, but the CG combined with the 3D really did offer an immersive, believable experience. I'll probably see it once more.

Not sure if I'll buy the DVD though, as, I think a lot of what makes the movie special will be lost on a 2D small screen.

Graham

Graham, did you see it at the brand new UA iSquare IMAX or somewhere else? Just wondering if it's worthwhile to pay 170 bucks. Plus all the good seats are sold out until end of the month. Crazy.

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From Joystiq.com:

Really, James? This is the kind of crap from Cameron I was complaining about earlier.

I thought that statement was hilarious as well, considering the hero abandons his human body in favor of his Avatar...

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Thanks for ruining the movie for me! :angry:

you're welcome. Also, vader is Luke's father, Tyler Durden is the narrator, the dog dies at the end of Marley and Me, the unnamed father in part 3 of Les Miserables is actually Jean Valjean, Rosebud is a sled, Dalton is hiding inside the bank the whole time, Bruce Willis' character in 6th Sense is actually dead, the village is actually just in a park in modern times, Bruce Wayne is Batman, Peter Parker is Spider-man and wolverine's claws are actually made of bone and he's not really a mutant but part of some parallel evolution of humans.

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you're welcome. Also, vader is Luke's father, Tyler Durden is the narrator, the dog dies at the end of Marley and Me, the unnamed father in part 3 of Les Miserables is actually Jean Valjean, Rosebud is a sled, Dalton is hiding inside the bank the whole time, Bruce Willis' character in 6th Sense is actually dead, the village is actually just in a park in modern times, Bruce Wayne is Batman, Peter Parker is Spider-man and wolverine's claws are actually made of bone and he's not really a mutant but part of some parallel evolution of humans.

*Deletes Netflix queue*

ass!

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Haha, found some interesting notes on Wiki today:

"Before its release, various film critics and fan communities predicted the film would be a significant disappointment at the box office, much like had been thought of Cameron's previous film Titanic (though it later became the highest-grossing film of all time, unadjusted for inflation)."

"After only 18 days of being released, Avatar has come to gross $360,209,452 in the United States and Canada and $673,264,063 in other territories with a worldwide total of $1,033,473,515, making it the fastest film to hit the $1 billion mark.[3][4] This now makes the film the fourth highest grossing of all time.[17]"

I think a line from Tina Fey is probably what Cameron is now quietly thinking about his critics...

"You can suck it"

Edited by peter
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None of these numbers impress me. Adjusted for inflation, Gone With the Wind is still number 1 all time at the box office. 3D ticket prices inflate Avatar's take even more.

Hmmm...maybe it's my age, but Gone with the Wind doesn't really do it for me.......

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Saw AVATAR twice over the holidays, awesome movie, The effects are beyond impressive, the Na'Vi are very realistic looking. Story was good, (definitely a Dances with Wolfs vibe) but fun, exciting!!

I am hoping much like ALIENS that there is a Directors cut. I admit at almost 3 hrs Avatar is a long flick, but if theres more good stuff Cameron had to omit for time, I'd like to see it. Just my 2 cents! B))

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None of these numbers impress me. Adjusted for inflation, Gone With the Wind is still number 1 all time at the box office. 3D ticket prices inflate Avatar's take even more.

Regardless, it did and is doing quite well.

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Hmmm...maybe it's my age, but Gone with the Wind doesn't really do it for me.......

Bleh. Not even F. Scott Fitzgerald's hand in the screenplay was enough to make Gone With the Wind watchable for me. Halfway through watching it I realized I absolutely hated every single character and after that realization I had a hard time finishing it.

I had fun watching Avatar. I'm not having fun reading all of the sociopolitical criticisms of it though (not so much here, but on the net in general). Almost any film can be picked apart and criticized for one sociopolitical flaw or another, so why is Avatar suddenly making everyone an expert in that kind of analysis? I found the base message of Avatar to simply be, "This ours. No take." Which seems to be a universally logical truth to me. It seems silly to me that people are choosing to make it 'controversial'.

That said, one thing this movie made me realize was that I had forgotten just how awesome (and gorgeous) Michelle Rodriguez is. I think her Trudy was my favorite character in the film. Too bad she had to die. :(

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I found the base message of Avatar to simply be, "This ours. No take."

I found the base message to be "Humans are bad, you should feel bad about being one." It was so heavy handed, so beat you over the head with it... ugh.

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I was pretty impressed by the way Avatar manages to make EVERYONE look bad, not just humans... the Na'vi are impossibly stubborn and ignorant, to the point of being a stereotype themselves. Avatar was visually stunning, but the actual plot was a snoozer, and the condescending tone of the film makes it really hard to get behind.

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I was pretty impressed by the way Avatar manages to make EVERYONE look bad, not just humans... the Na'vi are impossibly stubborn and ignorant, to the point of being a stereotype themselves.

They were stubborn, but I think I would be incredibly stubborn if someone was trying to forcibly evict me from my home and kill me. As for ignorant, the Na'vi were portrayed as being open and accepting when the humans first arrived. They allowed the humans to set up a school and some of them even learned the language. They were resistant to human medicine because they didn't need it. I think it was when they wised up to what the corporate/military group really wanted that they became belligerent and hostile.

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From Joystiq.com:

We know you don't remember any of the parts in Avatar that weren't blue giants riding luckdragons, but take our word for it when we say that Sigourney Weaver's character Grace smoked in the movie. Director James Cameron told the New York Times that the character (who spends much of her day motionless and controlling her giant blue avatar) sports a disregard for her body as "a negative comment about people in our real world living too much in their avatars, meaning online and in video games."

Really, James? This is the kind of crap from Cameron I was complaining about earlier.

How highly he thinks of the people who spent every waking hour in front of a computer to perfect every last eyelash on the blue cat people so he can "make" "his" "masterpiece". Sigh... <_<

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you're welcome. Also, vader is Luke's father, Tyler Durden is the narrator, the dog dies at the end of Marley and Me, the unnamed father in part 3 of Les Miserables is actually Jean Valjean, Rosebud is a sled, Dalton is hiding inside the bank the whole time, Bruce Willis' character in 6th Sense is actually dead, the village is actually just in a park in modern times, Bruce Wayne is Batman, Peter Parker is Spider-man and wolverine's claws are actually made of bone and he's not really a mutant but part of some parallel evolution of humans.

The chick in the Crying Game is actually a dude, the Planet of the Apes is really Earth, you never find out whats in the case in both Pulp Fiction and Ronin, the dog also dies in Turner and Hooch, Soylent Green is people, Berg Katse is both male and female, its a cookbook and the Star Wars prequel trilogy *really* sucks.

Taksraven

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I was pretty impressed by the way Avatar manages to make EVERYONE look bad, not just humans... the Na'vi are impossibly stubborn and ignorant, to the point of being a stereotype themselves. Avatar was visually stunning, but the actual plot was a snoozer, and the condescending tone of the film makes it really hard to get behind.

Its all a matter of comparison and perspective, Avatar looks like frigging Shakespeare compared to "White Chicks", which was on here last night.

Taksraven

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Really, James? This is the kind of crap from Cameron I was complaining about earlier.

How highly he thinks of the people who spent every waking hour in front of a computer to perfect every last eyelash on the blue cat people so he can "make" "his" "masterpiece". Sigh... <_<

To be fair the people who were perfecting the digital effects were doing a job, to support themselves. Not sitting in their mother's basement living off of cheetos and mountain dew. And yes, not all mmo players are like that, I'm not like that, but I imagine the comment was directed at that subgroup.

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