Avatar (movie)

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First off I have a question about the movie. Were those hammerhead animals meant to be Rhinos or Elephants my first thought was elephants since they charge aswell. I know there were Alien wild dogs,panthers,horses but wasn't sure about the other animal or did I get the animal comparison wrong? Also what's your take on all the controversy? From racist to copying its story etc. I'd like to hear your take on these issues. I love analyzing controversy and I love hype (that's why I saw Avatar it beat STAR WARS! OMG!! !! ! So I HAD TO SEE IT LOL!) ($501 million and counting for U.S. 1.60billion and counting globally IMO come on 2 BILLION!! !)

I'm going to see it next week with my Asperger's group.

There is no question that Avatar is visually stunning. It's use of technology to create fantastic (as in, "from fantasy") images and it's cutting edge 3-D have raised the bar for audience expectations from grand spectacles.

But like anything that rides the crest of the Zeitgeist detractors will be on hand, ready to demonstrate that they are idependent from the masses by cutting down that which is riding high in popular culture.

Is the screenplay particularly good? No, not really. It certainly has an innovative (and very attractive) conceit of being able to transfer ones consciousness to another form. But thematically, and narratively it is clearly (and perhaps entirely) derivative. The "outsider-goes-local" story has been around for centuries, figuring in almost any story that involves a clash of cultures (e.g. Lawrence of Arabia, Gunga Din, The Mission). The "saviour from another culture" story has been, too (e.g. Dune). But does that matter? Not really. I was delighted with the film, notwithstanding its weak screenplay.

Is it racist? I think that depends very much on your perspective. Was The Mission racist? Likely not, because it was a fiction that was grounded in the historical fact of Portugese and Spanish conduct in the colonization of South America. The message that less technologically advanced cultures require outside help to resist the onslaught of technologically advanced cultures is upsetting, but it is lamentably grounded in our history of colonialism.

I always found it very strange when people freak out if you tell them what's going to happen in a movie. I have to read the movie's plot on wikipedia or some other site to know extactaly what is going to happen back and forth. NOT a single site so far tells you every single teny tiny detail. It's impossible to "spoil" a movie for someone who's never seen it before.


I remember when I first saw Lion King I was depressed that I couldn't live in Lion King land. Now, it's a big thing to be upset when you can live in a movie?

I went in to see Avatar, expecting to hate it because if movies don't protain to my special intrests, I hate them. I ended up loving Avatar.

I have not seen it but I offer this take on the controversy... that it is akin to a car commercial saying, "Better gas mileage than the Honda Accord." You're saying that the Honda Accord has a sufficiently outstanding reputation for gas mileage that of all cars you chose to mention as the gold standard, you chose that one.

"Avatar is racist" "Avatar copped their story from so many others" Blah blah blah. It all boils down to this: Avatar is thoroughly impressive and when something stands out this much, people notice, try to knock it down, try to ride on its wave. Every U.S. President catches it hot from somebody, every movie star has a whole army of people trying to get the dirt and publish it.

It gets hard to even take notice of the specifics in these cases. You just recognize that people are noticing something and thus the usual is happening. And you decide if it's worth checking it out yourself.

Looks pretty good, though. But I enjoy watching slick animation. I'm an artist.

I will say this one last thing, about the story... there really are no new stories. Not truly, not new in every way, not new in many ways at all. I have a book on plot construction that actually lists all the basic plots and what it takes to correctly assemble one. This is your bare skeleton of the story, y'know, ordinary person or thing turns out to be extraordinary, Cinderella story. Person caught in their own narrow sphere of experience sees new things and has a complete change of heart. That's showbiz.

I agree about the storyline. It's pretty thin on the ground from what I have heard. The background, from what they developed and from what is in the guidebook, is pretty impressive, but the storyline itself? Basically a wholesale rip from Dances with Wolves or The Last Samurai. Hell, Dune did practically the same thing, and better, and James Cameron admitted that the story was based on the John Carter of Mars series.

To give you an idea, I have been writing and rewriting a particular novel over the past few years, and have gradually added more and more things. The trick is not to steal wholesale, but rather take a bit here, take a bit there. It has a bit of Dune, a bit of Blake's 7, a bit of The Legend of Zelda...the list would go on, I have hundreds of influences.

Whether it is racist or not is irrelevant. There are stereotypes, yes, but they are more story-based stereotypes.

The technical achievements must be applauded. That much must be said. In fact, I am buying the special edition DVD when it comes out to watch the special features, as I am interested in how they did it.

Ya I don't mind spoiling deaths in say videogames or books since IMO there's still the shock/awe emotion of seeing it/reading it in the book/game. I had a friend who HATED me spoiling games for him LOL!

there is no story, however abstract, that the ranks of the professionally offended won't find a club to beat someone over the head about, whether it's 'there' or not...

"Professionally offended"

Nice. There really are hosts of people working hard every day to get things wrong and pick a fight, aren't there? This is directly linked to the very common delusion best summarized thus: "I'm a nice person and I try to be nice to people but if they're going to act like that then I don't see why I should blah blah blah..." In other words, they give themselves permission.

Now, my husband loves a good debate I guess because he doesn't take things too seriously when he is debating. I usually prefer to form my own ideas after which debate is moot. "I believe what I believe," I want to say. "Quit trying to change my mind."

Not sure why I joined this thread, actually, except that there's not much risk discussing some guy's sci-fi film.

It's a shame if the story really isn't that good. Mind you, as long as it isn't so directly copied that all surprises are ruined, and as long as the story is told well, I can live with saying, for example, "Wait, this is Doc Hollywood!" Not every epic is epic but may still be well worth the cost of admission.

Again, I haven't seen it, but I chime in here because, as I think I illustrated above, this debate has been done and will be done again. There's always someone looking for a way to lift themselves by crushing others. "He's good, he's turning heads, he's breaking new ground. I take him down and I'm a GOD!"

And it does appear too abstract for specific racism. Honestly, if racism appears in the film, I would put the idea forward that the writer sought to bring that matter to the fore and explore it. Pointing something out isn't the same as agreeing with it. Now, for ugly, pointed racial references, just watch the Star Wars prequels and cringe with headache inducing frequency.

I posted a topic about how people liked it but have been reading around the internet the hate it's getting and story comparisons to everything from Delgo (some animated movie) to Pocahontas to Dancing with Wolves. Well I don't get the hate. I thought Pocahontas was boring as hell SHEESH! and have heard and yet NOT SEEN Dancing with Wolves and considered catching Delgo on Cartoon Network once but forgot to record it. Call me crazy but OMG I thought Avatar's story was very emotional and pulled me in and was unlike any movie I remember ever seeing before. The story grasped me and amazed me as a viewer and IMO who cares if it copies from these others I didn't see them and I saw Avatar first so it resonates with me more. Kind of like with videogames I played Spyro the Dragon before Super Mario 64 and while YES SM64 came FIRST I played Spyro first so I in turn like it more. It depends on what your interest are and what you are exposed too.

If the story appealed to you, then you are perfectly entitled to ignore the opinions of people who disagree with you. There are any number of people who will choose to denigrate whatever is atop the Zeitgeist in order to demonstrate their own feelings of superiority over the masses.

Now, not everyone who disliked the screenplay of Avatar did so for reasons of self-aggrandizement. I count myself among those who see the story as very one-dimensional, and flawed--but that in no way diminished my filmgoing experience. I went with the expectation of being visually overwhelmed, and I was not disappointed.

Just got home from the theater.

It was f'n mindblowing.

Fern Gully meets Starship Troopers.

Still a great movie though! Visually stunning.

It was probably one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. I saw it on Imax 3-D, which is an awesome way to see it. I got a headache from wearing those glasses for 3 hours, but it's worth it for me.

OMG, "Avatar" was SOOOOO great!! ! The special effects were so mind blowing!! ! "Ferngully", "Dances with Wolves", and "Pocahontas" ain't got nothing on this bad boy!

(Since no one cares about my movie obsession I'll post here on WP LOL!) It's at $552 MILLION (domestic in the U.S.) and is just under Titanic for Worldwide aswell! YA! (I was psyched over The Dark Knight's totals aswell) YA! I like seeing where my favorite movies lie on the Box office just for fun!!