Avatar (the movie)

[matt007]

THIS MOVING FUCKING ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Seriously it's super, like, good and stuff. Go see it in 3D.

 

http://www.avatarmovie.com/

[Gerard]

Loved it! Definitively a winner especially for us Samsaric wanderers

 

Pandora could be perfectly happening now somewhere in this Universe.

 

 

I need to see this movie again.

 

 

Btw, 3D is the way to go.

[~jK~]

Looked like recruitment war propaganda to me - not worth the bus fare to get there.

Mechanized Indistrial war complex and a nature based society.

The film UP had much better 3D http://adisney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/up/

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

I thought it was GREAT. I like the New-Agey Life Force theme a lot. Difficult to carry off, but U think they did it...Also had a couple of thoughts... you know that the final battle was not the end of the war, the humans will be back in greater force to destroy the planet and get their "Unobtanium"...I like how the Na'vi materialized their poisoned arrows whenever they needed one--no one ever carried a quiver...and those Na'vi had the smallest genitalia in the Universe--despite skimpy loose loincloths nothing ever flashed or flopped out.

 

Go see it, though in 3D or XD 3D or iMax 3D I imagine would be the best/awesomest.

[宁]

Looked like recruitment war propaganda to me - not worth the bus fare to get there.

Mechanized Indistrial war complex and a nature based society.

The film UP had much better 3D http://adisney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/up/

remember Pocahontas? the same theme...

[Vajrasattva]

Loved it. I cried I had Kriyas, I had my Kundalini move with it. VERY Good movie.

 

It had a moment or two of slowness but it makes up for it.

there is a lot of real "truths" in there.

 

Peace & Happy Holidays

 

Santiago

[Yoda]

Great reviews! So the 3D was successful then... good to know! I've heard that it leans left which will be an issue if I see it with my fasha in law.

[Aetherous]

It was totally amazing on IMAX 3D.

 

Loved the theme of the movie.

[Encephalon]

Looked like recruitment war propaganda to me.

 

Looks can be deceiving. Cameron's intented theme was entire the opposite.

 

 

By James Howard Kunstler

on December 21, 2009 7:05 AM

www.kunstler.com

 

As the end-credits rolled for James Cameron's new movie, Avatar, the audience burst into rowdy applause. It seemed to me that they were applauding the sheer computerized dazzlement of the show -- but in the story itself they had just watched the US suffer a humiliating defeat on a distant planet. In the final frames, American soldiers and the corporate executives they had failed to protect were shown lined up as prisoners-of-war about to embark on a death march.

More to the point, the depiction of our national character through the whole course of the film was of a thuggish, cruel, cynical, stupid, detestable, and totally corrupt people bent on the complete destruction of nature. Nice. And the final irony was that Cameron had used theatrical technology of the latest and greatest kind to depict America's broader techno-grandiosity -- as the army's brute robotic warriors fell to the spears and arrows of the simple blue space aliens. Altogether, it was a weird moment in entertainment history, and perhaps in the American experience per se. No doubt audiences overseas will go wild with delight, too, but perhaps with a clearer notion of what they are clapping for than the enthralled masses of zombie Americans.

The infatuation with technology, and the disgusting cockiness that goes with it (so well-captured in Avatar), is but one facet of the psychosis gripping the nation -- and by that I mean the profound detachment from reality. We have no idea what is happening to us and, naturally, no idea of what we are going to do. I sat in a bar Friday evening with a financial reporter from a national newspaper, trying to explain the peak oil situation and what it implied for our economy. He had never heard it before. The relationship between energy resources and massive debt was new to him. (It also came up in conversation that he could not tell me what the Monroe Doctrine was about, despite a history degree from Yale.) There you have a nice snapshot of the mainstream media in this land.

This year, America can look for a nice lump of coal in its Christmas stocking. That lump will be called "the recovery." This recovery consists of a massive self-deception, made up of accounting tricks and falsified statistics, with a sugar-coating on top of sheer disbelief that the outcome could be anything but a particular happy ending -- namely, the continued levitation of the unsustainable. What is most amazing about Mr. Cameron's holiday blockbuster is the explicit message that America is a society that deserves to be punished (and humiliated!) by others who manage their own relations with reality better than we do. I wonder how much that will secretly account for its popularity. I wonder what the leaders of China will make of it.

The other current embodiment of national character failure, Tiger Woods, golfer, has also dazzled the American public. Personally I find it much more interesting to learn that he was a really lousy tipper than that he got a lot of action on the side with opportunistic bar girls, porn stars, and other denizens of the sports-entertainment netherworld. Is it not also amusing that golf is even taken seriously as an athletic pursuit? I mean, why not pancake-flipping? Or dice? Or shooting rats at the landfill? This is the kind of knucklehead culture we have become after six decades of the softest life imaginable. Anyway, I'm not shedding any tears for Tiger. Even if all his endorsements dry up and his ex-wife takes him to the cleaners for a hundred million or so, he'll still be left with enough cash to pay for porn stars and lobster tails until the end of time, especially if he keeps his tipping policy at its current level.

[agentofchaos]

*Spoiler*

 

This movie was awesome. Those who haven't seen it and have already judged and dismissed it shouldn't bother seeing it anyway, cause they have an attitude problem. And there is no death march of US soldiers at the end like stated in that 'review' above, they are mercenaries and it's not a death march, they're just sent back to earth.

 

JK you haven't seen it, so how would you have the slightest clue? A preview? You've already said the 3d isn't as good as UP (and it is better than UP) yet you haven't even seen both. And it's an anti war movie,quite clearly actually. Is it just movies you prejudge or everything?

Edited December 21, 2009 by agentofchaos

[effilang]

I went to the cinema in Rotterdam and waited for 5 hours through 2 different tickets for Avatar IMAX 3D while they overcame some technical difficulty... but they never did.

 

Then i walked home in the freezing cold at night, cuz the buses rides stopped working due to the weather and watched a Telesync version on www.ninjavideo.net

 

Despite teh quality of the picture (the sound was alright) - It totally blew me away!

I can't wait to go see it in 3d now

 

What a ride!!! - I highly recommend : )

[Owledge]

A german TV host once said that TV makes dumb people dumber and smart people smarter. That's why people can only see in a movie what they want to see, and so while people might cheer Cameron's critique and anti-war attitude, this just means that those who don't have to be told were told. But those who didn't get the whole problem in the first place won't learn anything.

Remember Starship Troopers? Great sci-fi action flick for military enthusiasts, isn't it?

[agentofchaos]

I went to the cinema in Rotterdam and waited for 5 hours through 2 different tickets for Avatar IMAX 3D while they overcame some technical difficulty... but they never did.

 

Then i walked home in the freezing cold at night, cuz the buses rides stopped working due to the weather and watched a Telesync version on www.ninjavideo.net

 

Despite teh quality of the picture (the sound was alright) - It totally blew me away!

I can't wait to go see it in 3d now

 

What a ride!!! - I highly recommend : )

 

 

That's brutal, I'm glad the bad experience didn't turn you off of the movie though. I have to say though, the 3D aspect makes a huge difference, so you won't be disappointed if you liked it in 2D. The depth it gives really brings the world of pandora to life. It's as if you're looking through a window rather than at a flat screen. It's a movie that truly must be experienced in theaters in some form of 3D. I really liked the Qi-esque influences as well, a life energy that connects everything, the story has its issues but they're dwarfed by the positives.

[bindo]

*Spoiler*

 

This movie was awesome. Those who haven't seen it and have already judged and dismissed it shouldn't bother seeing it anyway, cause they have an attitude problem. Is it just movies you prejudge or everything?

oh, never mind

Edited December 21, 2009 by bindo

[Aetherous]

I really liked the Qi-esque influences as well, a life energy that connects everything,

 

Yeah, I wonder if they consulted some very knowledgeable people in shamanism/qigong. Or if some of the elements I'm thinking of were just intuitively added.

[matt007]

Dude, no. You need to see this movie. I was 7 when Star Wars came out and it impacted my psyche. This movie is like that. It's going to change the way movies are made. James Cameron invented a whole new CG technology during production after waiting ten years for the technology to be developed to even begin to make the film. This guy knows how to spend 300 million dollars. Just go see it, seriously. There just hasn't been anything like this. I'm going to see it again today.

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

Is it the technology or the story telling? Does the spectacular digital 3D effect dazzle us? The story should stand in 2D as well...but does it? Can future movies spend that much to create other worlds and effects if this is the future of moviemaking? Time will probably tell. Remember how Titanic really got to everyone and now most people are almost embarrassed to talk about it?

[agentofchaos]

Yeah, I wonder if they consulted some very knowledgeable people in shamanism/qigong. Or if some of the elements I'm thinking of were just intuitively added.

 

Yeah me too. Or maybe Cameron is personally interested in the subject, or practices some form of Qigon/Tai Chi ect. Cause it was a strong theme in the movie and the energy they spoke of seemed to have too many similarities to Qi in the real world to be a coincidence. Also it's been said that Cameron was meticulous in making sure that everything in the film had to be at least theoretically possible in the real world sometime in the not too distant future, so it would make sense that he would want this energy to be rooted in the real world somehow.

[Owledge]

Yeah, I wonder if they consulted some very knowledgeable people in shamanism/qigong. Or if some of the elements I'm thinking of were just intuitively added.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but from what you write, they probably consulted George Lucas.

 

James Cameron invented a whole new CG technology during production after waiting ten years for the technology to be developed to even begin to make the film. This guy knows how to spend 300 million dollars.

The opposite example would be J. J. Abrams. 9-digit-sum spent on pointing jittering flashlights at shaking cameras and using a brewery as Enterprise's engine room.

[agentofchaos]

Is it the technology or the story telling? Does the spectacular digital 3D effect dazzle us? The story should stand in 2D as well...but does it? Can future movies spend that much to create other worlds and effects if this is the future of moviemaking? Time will probably tell. Remember how Titanic really got to everyone and now most people are almost embarrassed to talk about it?

 

The tech will become less expensive as time goes on, as it always does... I mean many big budget movies now are shooting in 3D, and it's not just a gimmick, it actually adds to the movie in a way that you have to see to understand. As far as the story standing on its own, it most certainly does in my opinion. As I said before, the story and character development does have it's issues like any other movie, but the positives more than make up for any drawbacks. The 3D does dazzle, and even more so because the world created is so visually outstanding, that when you add such depth to it as the 3D does, it helps to immerse you in ways previously impossible. I was skeptical before I saw it, but I was blown away.

[Dreamingawake]

For those who haven't seen it yet, it's 'Dances with Wolves' meets 'Pocahontas' in a galaxy far, far away..

It is pulled off extremely well and yes it is beautiful to look at. 3D changes the game like color did back in the day. I'm probably gonna go see it again in a couple of days since my girl hasn't seen it yet.

[Owledge]

...

As I said before, the story and character development does have it's issues like any other movie,

...

that when you add such depth to it as the 3D does, it helps to immerse you in ways previously impossible.

Actually, really good movies don't have that kind of issues. Sadly they are rare. For me, when things happen in a believable, realistic, natural way, this creates immersion.

That means for example that when I see a movie, and at the very beginning some totally absurd thing happens or somebody acts incredibly stupid to make the whole rest of the storyline possible, this totally destroys immersion and will bug me for the rest of the movie, because everything that follows builds on this weak foundation and would not have happened if it hadn't been for that stupidity.

Don't misunderstand me: I can accept that a character acts stupid if that's just the way it's meant to be, but what annoys me is when I can sense that it is like: "Sorry, I had to do it, the script demanded it to fill the following two hours."

By the way... the in some regards overrated original Star Trek series does this often. I guess fans should be taught by this to not take Star Trek too serious. And after all, the essence of Star Trek is stuff like the dealing with moral conflicts and the upholding of ideals.

 

 

@Dreamingawake

Objectively the 3D technology is not as big a step as color is, because color gives you information that you could not derive from the material without it, while 3D just adds a perceptionally assisting effect. I would rather compare it to the technology of HD resolution. Actually HD might even be more significant, because it, too, delivers more information - more details. Although those details are of minor significance. Maybe a movie technology that is of somewhat similar significance like color is surround sound, because it adds missing position information. The only problem here is that most times it is quite artificial and not really needed to provide further information.

Edited December 21, 2009 by Hardyg

[Machin Shin]

When I left the theater I had the thought.

 

We watched but did we See?

 

The message of not destroying our environment was very loud. Loud because that's what the moral of the movie is and loud because they had the speakers turned up.

 

A couple of weeks ago I had an interesting night when a shaman from australia came dreamwalking through my mantra practice. He was all in black and had white dots and lines painted on him to go walking among the stars. The protection from those symbol looked much like the bioluminescent spots of the Na'vi. I'd been wondering about that experince then I saw the movie....so now I know.

 

For the past two years I've been part of a business that will be part of the spaceport industry in Southern New Mexico. The primary goal of this company is to improve the quality of life here on this world so we can make it to the moon by producing the right technologies for power collection and distribution. Energy technology and effecient system design that is harmonious with this environment and will provide an environment on the moon.

 

So to see this movie and be connected to an aboriginal shaman is very empowering.

 

We watched but did we See?

[Dreamingawake]

 

@Dreamingawake

Objectively the 3D technology is not as big a step as color is, because color gives you information that you could not derive from the material without it, while 3D just adds a perceptionally assisting effect. I would rather compare it to the technology of HD resolution. Actually HD might even be more significant, because it, too, delivers more information - more details. Although those details are of minor significance. Maybe a movie technology that is of somewhat similar significance like color is surround sound, because it adds missing position information. The only problem here is that most times it is quite artificial and not really needed to provide further information.

 

True but your thinking of color as it is now. When it first came out, they only had a few ridiculously bright colors. So you have black, white, gray(s), and a few colors so bright as to not even fit in or add anything useful to the show. This is where 3D is now; at that not-quite-useful stage. In a few more years it might be a very different story. In 10 years most homes will have 3DTVs.

[agentofchaos]

Actually, really good movies don't have that kind of issues. Sadly they are rare. For me, when things happen in a believable, realistic, natural way, this creates immersion.

 

I'm not saying every movie necessarily has these issues, but with any other movie there is always an opposing view, as it's always a matter of opinion. Meaning there's no way to say as a matter of fact which movies do or don't have any drawbacks of any kind. My point was, it's not a perfect movie, like most other movies you see, whether you like the movie or not.