Avatar (2009)

[Barbossa]

The trailers did exactly what Cameron intended, they teased you to wanting to see and know more about the inhabitants of Pandora.

Not really. I'm still more interested in seeing Dr. Parnassus than Avatar.

[blackcauldron85]

Cameron says Avatar sequel won't be a prequel
http://community.livejournal.com/ohnoth ... 02072.html

I didn't even know that they were planning on a sequel!


Avatar on DVD (and 3D DVD)
http://community.livejournal.com/ohnoth ... 05154.html

[Siren]

So glad they are doing a sequel! The Avatar story has been in Cameron's head since at least Titanic, so I always assumed, he had plenty of time to imagine far more than what we saw and the movie leaves so much more to be explored.

I would have liked a prequel only to see Grace's character more. She started off like such a b**** and then you find out, she is just a protective mother. The pictures of her with the Ne'vi children are so sweet. I would have loved to seen all of that. But understandably, this was always a story about Jake Sully.

[dvdjunkie]

Just got back from seeing Avatar for the third time. I have found that this movie has such a deeper story than any of you have talked about. Sure there are comparison's to other movies of the past, but I think that this film stands by itself as a brilliant masterpiece of conception.

James Cameron said in an interview on "The CBS Early Show" that he first thought about this film almost 20 years ago, and even wrote an outline of a script that he would like to pursue in the next few years. The next few years stretched to late 1995 when he dusted off the outline and then decided to pursue getting this film made. Another 10 years past before actual pre-production was started and then the actual movie was three years in the making. He also said that he has plans for a 'follow-up' movie to Avatar, whether that means a sequel, prequel, or something entirely different, who knows. But I truly believe that the bar has been raised on the quality of any CGI films that should follow this one.

[Siren]

I loved Avatar...but this is f'in hilarious...

[Mooky]

^^ I too really liked "Avatar", but that pretty much sums it up... It kind of reminds me of this:

<embed src="http://blip.tv/play/gsVcgbrtKgI" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="300" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed>

[Margos]

Those are great!

[Disney Duster]

I enjoyed those, those were funny, but must I remind everyone, James Cameron had this idea since he was a teenager? I believe that was before Pocahontas, Ferngully, Dances with Wolfs, or any of the the other films people say Avatar was like even existed.

Appreciate the originality...what there is of it!

Oh, and I saw Avatar in regular theaters in 3-D, and it was really cool and a really good experience. The Na'vi look like nothing anyone's seen before (Smurf comparisons are not accurate at all), and the same for the world created. And the avatar idea itself, going into their bodies, no one paid attention to that originality, that was pretty cool! I enjoyed the film. And the whole ending with the transfering of bodies, pretty great.

Oh, and the acting was so great, especially the lead girl! That the acting came so well through the CGI was really, really an achievement.

dvdjunkie, how could you have done with less love story and more action? Action out-weighed the love story or almost any other part of the film by so much! It was mostly action!

[pap64]

I like how everyone is harpooning Avatar for being a Pocahontas rip off when Pocahontas itself is a native american version of Romeo and Juliet... Which in itself dates back to Ancient Greek.

Nothing is truly original anymore. Every story borrows something from another, whether it be a character archetype or a whole story element. There were many "Modern man learns about the beauty of nature thanks to a kind savage" stories before Avatar was made. Hell, the idea of a character learning to appreciate life thanks to the people he/she meets in an adventure is as old as time.

Do we really need to see the copyright video again? It clearly says that you can't copyright idea, so even if James was inspired by Pocahontas when creating Avatar he isn't ripping anyone off because the ideas can never be copyrighted.

So there...

[Escapay]

I like how everyone is harpooning Avatar for being a Pocahontas rip off when Pocahontas itself is a native american version of Romeo and Juliet... Which in itself dates back to Ancient Greek.

Nothing is truly original anymore. Every story borrows something from another, whether it be a character archetype or a whole story element. There were many "Modern man learns about the beauty of nature thanks to a kind savage" stories before Avatar was made. Hell, the idea of a character learning to appreciate life thanks to the people he/she meets in an adventure is as old as time.

Agreed, pap. As I said in the other Avatar thread:

Storytelling has been around for thousands of years. If there ever will be any new or "original" ideas left, they're still based on something that came before, and there are always archetypes in stories that no one can ever escape. Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces covers it better than I ever could. And historically, all the movies mentioned and Avatar share issues and themes that already existed before they were ever shot to film. There's only so many stories in the world, and Avatar simply takes an existing concept (and an existing history) and gives it its own spin.

albert

[pap64]

I also like how some fans are making fan trailers to "prove" how much of a rip off Avatar is. The reality is that you can do that to ANY movie to prove its a rip off of another movie or story.

Want proof?

Pixar ripped off Gran Torino for the story of Up. Here's undeniable, un-refutable, concrete PROOF!

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5TuRbk-00Sw&hl ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5TuRbk-00Sw&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

THOSE JERKS AT PIXAR STOLE FROM CLINT EASTWOOD!!!!!!

...

[SpringHeelJack]

...you can still like something and rib it, for what it's worth. Just putting that out there.

Not me, though, I didn't care for "Avatar". What originality it had wasn't enough to distract me from the average story, lame dialogue, and a ham-handed message. And this is from someone who's all about saving the environment. It's just if "Avatar" weren't a mo-cap 3-D extravaganza, it would pretty much be absolutely nothing new or exciting. It's no different from "Transformers".

[pap64]

...you can still like something and rib it, for what it's worth. Just putting that out there.

Oh, I know. I do that all the time. What I am talking about is that some fans are dead serious about proving to the world how Avatar is a rip off it gets to the point where its sad.

*If you didn't like the movie, fine. No one is forcing you to like something you don't care for. It just annoys me how people take their hatred of a movie way too seriously, almost like it was some sort of evil.

*Not talking about anyone in particular.

[SpringHeelJack]

...you can still like something and rib it, for what it's worth. Just putting that out there.

Oh, I know. I do that all the time. What I am talking about is that some fans are dead serious about proving to the world how Avatar is a rip off it gets to the point where its sad.

*If you didn't like the movie, fine. No one is forcing you to like something you don't care for. It just annoys me how people take their hatred of a movie way too seriously, almost like it was some sort of evil.

*Not talking about anyone in particular.

Just for the record, that was mostly directed to Dusty. I'm just saying to him that just because Jimmy Cameron's had some vague idea in his head since he was a tot doesn't change that it has similarities to other things. Frankly, if I had this seed of a story in my head since then and saw "FernGully", "Pocahontas", and "Dances With Wolves" come to theaters several years before pre-production even officially began, I'd go out of my way to make sure that the similarities aren't something that detract from the finished product.

And yeah... there are some people who just point out that "Avatar" relies heavily on rehashed concepts, but they don't scare me nearly as much as the guy who dreams of killing himself so that he may be reborn in a world like Pandora. You want to talk sad...

[ajmrowland]

I think it's pretty much established that the originality of a story itself is no longer as important as how it is used to tell said story.

This was always going to be a Pocahontas/Romeo and Juliet/one-guy-goes- behind-enemy-lines-to-see-the-other-side story. What made it amazong for me was everything else(the contrasting elements, the cg, the characters, the other planet, Sigourney Weaver, etc.) It's a great movie.

[Siren]

As they say...nothing is original anymore. Its either based on the Bible, fairytales, Shakespeare or history itself.

So the whole, "its not an original story" is really old. Neither was Titanic and yet that won best picture. Romeo and Juliet on a sinking boat...gee I wonder what happens at the end. THAT was a movie I never understood why it was so popular. Okay, I did, a majority of box office was simply...teenage girls seeing it over and over and over again. I remember watching the news were girls were showing how they had handfuls of ticket stubs for each time they saw the movie again and again.

Avatar won't win awards for originality. But you know what...few things do these days. Harry Potter, one of the best selling books of all time...and yet you can compare it to every other story about an underprivileged misunderstood kid who gets caught up in a magical world where he/she is the ONLY one who can stop the villain.

Fact is, you can find any two movies, doesn't have to be the same genres and find key plot points that are similar and even exact.

What got Cameron so many brownie points was the style of the film itself. Not just the CGI itself mind you. But the whole world of Pandora. Its beautiful and rich. Frankly, the reactions now are the same as when Star Wars came out. Back then though, you didn't have mass media and the internet. But believe me, I have many friends who were there when Star Wars was released, they said the fans are acting the same way now as they were then. "OMG! I wish I could leave Earth and join the Rebels! I wanna fly those ships! OMG! I am gonna die without Star Wars!"

Its just history repeating itself...even history ain't all that original anymore

[disneyboy20022]

yeah when my dad and my mom and I saw Titanic in theaters.....I mainly went because I was a big history buff about the history of The Titanic and other ocean liners such as its sister Ships, The Olypmic and then the medical ship for WWI Brittanic.....and such as The Lusitania....

Although my dad said before the movie started and told everyone part of the ending...although most laughed because it was obvious...I remember him telling people....It still sinks....(of course he was being funny about that...when he told people It still sinks....they looked at him like very funny sarcasm joke....) Actually I think a few people he told didn' know that the boat sinks at the end......ironically it was a gaggle of teenage girls who over heard him say that and they said thanks for ruining it for them......

[SpringHeelJack]

But see, that was what did it for me. While "A New Hope" had a story that was old as Carol Channing, it told in a great new way. The book "Eragon" had a similar story. It told in a terrible way. That's what seeing "Avatar" was like to me. When I see "A New Hope", I can think "Yes, this story has been done, but check out this and this and this!" When I read "Eragon", all I would think was "This story has been done. And done better."

Did the CGI look realistic? Yes, incredibly. Was I floored by the beauty of Pandora? Well... sort of. It reminded me a lot of an early 90s Trapper Keeper cover, frankly. I guess I just expected better from James Cameron, really, after all the effort he clearly put into it. He made it visually cramazing, sure, but the story was lame. Like I said, it's the exact same thing with "Transformers".

And it's one thing to say "Wow, it would be so cool to be a rebel blowing up the Death Star!" and another to say "I want to kill myself because I hope I will be reborn into a world where I am a rebel blowing up the Death Star."

[disneyboy20022]

Avatar won Best picture for the Golden Globes

[Siren]

Avatar has knocked Star Wars off its box office throne.

I made a little tribute to that fact...I made it before someone else made it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9HGx7qTeKc