OK, so I finally saw “Avatar” last night.
My feelings about it can be summed up thusly: Was really impressed by the whole 3D thing for the first half hour. After that, I can’t figure out what was worse: the nausea from the spacial disorientation or the boredom of having to listen to James Cameron tell us how much he loves trees and hates the Iraq War for two and a half hours.
{ 43 comments… read them below or add one }
Robert,
That’s unfortunate that you weren’t blown away by the visuals, but that message, if there is one, is true of all wars of economic exploitation, isn’t it? Iraq’s current, so I think your last statement is partially correct, but there seem to be lots more things worse than going to see a talented filmmaker tell a story with tree-hugging and all that entails as a theme.
http://failblog.org/2010/01/10/avatar-plot-fail/
Is there any way I can give Darth Babaganoosh five thumbs for that one?
dude wrote the story way before the iraq war methinks. i thought the flick was solid, but no terminator or aliens.
The story was a rework of Dances With Wolves. I enjoyed the special effects in the movie, but definitely got the “I saw this before” vibe throughout, which left me wondering why Cameron didn’t choose to use Native American actors to play the Avatars. I’m glad, though, that I saw the 2-D version of the movie rather than the stomache-rolling 3-D version.
Oh my God! Thank you! Avatar was a TERRIBLE movie. I wish I had more hands……so I could give it four thumbs down! Cameron has dumbed-down an already intellectually plummeting movie industry.
Ugh. Nauseatingly terrible.
Same old, same old, what Hollywood flick nowadays is not a liberal tirade and/or an unconditional bashing of Western/civilised/white people ?
They don’t need my time and my little money, they already have plenty
Some Chinese film makers see “Avatar” as a complete defeat for them:
http://www.zonaeuropa.com/201001a.brief.htm#015
I think people tend to forget that plot has never been James Cameron’s strong point. “Titanic” had a plot that was every bit as cliche and derivative, but most viewers were too distracted by the technical wonders of the movie’s final hour to notice (boobies didn’t hurt either). “Terminator” and “Aliens” have plot holes you could fly a spacecraft through. “True Lies” had no real plot, just a premise and some loosely connected events. As much as it pains me to say this, “Avatar” made me realize that Cameron is actually more Michael Bay than Steven Spielberg. He’s great at painting pictures, and is a genius with regards to making special effects enhance his work, but his stories are underdeveloped, and his dialogue has no snap.
you’re right GRanfalloon and i would add this is a common problem in Hollywood, a disturbing trend emerged in the last 20 years to sacrifice plot coherence and pump up the visuals
Great post, this is what I love about The Marmot’s Hole, you never know what kind of opinions are going to be expressed.
(and you’re missing an “n” right before the “?” in the title)
So, tell me… exactly what kind of contard film genius would be acceptable to the warwhore worshiping masses?
American Pie. All six of them. PURE GENIUS.
Bring It On. All four of them. PURE GENIUS.
Worst movie I’ve seen in a while. But there’s no accounting for taste. Basically a recycled Aliens (characters, machines, motifs are the same) with some Emerald Forest (remember that cheesy 80s flick?) mixed in. I expected a blue Al Gore to jump out of the sacred tree at any moment. Also, it looks like Michelle Rodriguez was disappointed when she opened the fridge and there was no booze. I guess the natives got it…now if Mr Cameron could give back my wasted nearly 3 hours please!
Pyotr (#8), interesting link . . . and if you scroll down to the Top Stories of 2009, you’ll find as number one:
“1. Barack Obama becomes first president elected in the history of the United States of America (70.8%)”
No wonder it was such a big deal! I guess that the other 29.2 percent didn’t realize that we’d finally elected a president (or perhaps considered that a big story for 2008).
Jeffery Hodges
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Aside from the use of the word “preemptive”, the connection between Iraq War, The (?) and Avatar is extremely flimsy.
I don’t know why (but then again, I’m a man of limited means) there’s such a visceral dislike for this movie – sure, there’s no Jim Jarmusch plot (I like his movies, but I don’t understand them) or writing reminiscent of The Godfather Part I or II….
but for visual entertainment, with best-ever 3d, it was the Fo’ Shizzle (my apologies to Brother NetKim, who’s almost sure to take umbrage with whitey me usin’ Comptonese) and immensely satisfying. The story’s been told many times, but it can still be quite entertaining.
With regards to Mr. Cameron’s thoughts on the Iraq War as expressed in “Avatar”:
Cameron’s dystopian future puts mega-corporations in the place of any political state. He did this in “Aliens” as well as “Avatar”. While it’s easy to see that Cameron is no fan of the Iraq war, his criticism seems more directed at the “corporatacracy” that Johns Perkins rails against rather than at the US government. In Cameron’s mind, it’s just a matter of time before Haliburton and Blackwater start operating hand-in-hand on a massive scale. Neal Stephenson saw this twenty years ago; those sci-fi guys occasionally hit the nail right on the head.
#19
Sci-fi? Dystopian future?
So what was the British East India Company?
Indeed, the idea is not without historical precedent. The British East India Company worked with the state (the monarchy of England) to pursue interests abroad. The key difference is that in Stephenson’s and Cameron’s sci-fi work, the company IS the state. And both Stephenson and Cameron see this as a more or less bad thing, hence “dystopian.”
Speaking of Stephenson have any of you read his Baroque Cycle? Fantastic fictionalized recounting of the time around the discovery of calculus.
The Baroque Cycle is the bomb. Took me a couple of hundred pages to get used to the mingling of real historical figures with fictional characters, but once I got used to it, it’s one hell of a ride.
I’m waiting a few more months for the paperback edition of “Anathem.” I like all of his work, even his earlier stuff that hardly anyone likes.
I’m sure some people genuinely just dislike it, but there’s also a conservative movement afoot to discredit the film. This actually explains it pretty well, and here’s the conclusion:
Professional outrage peddling is a pretty lucrative business, and manufacturing a fresh supply of perceived insults (real or imagined) to the conservative ideology (and thus to America) is necessary to keep the troops frothing at the mouth.
These are the same people who think George Clooney or some other liberal hollywood boogeymen are always lurking around the next corner, just waiting for their opportunity to not support the troops or turn your son gay.
I haven’t seen it yet so I won’t comment on the film itself, but I could see the conservative knee-jerk coming a mile away.
It’s a bad film if it doesn’t make you like it enough to overlook its obviously bad points.
Wow. Disappointed, Marmot. I thought you an intelligent man. To assume “Avatar” a direct analogy for Iraq… quite the stretch, which illuminates more about your own thoughts than it does the filmmakers’.
By the way, I hated the preachy, derivative movie too. But I hated it for its flaws, not my own monomaniacal reasons.
The best part of Avatar was my date. Nuff’ said.
Are the films usually better than your dates?
Does anyone really support the Iraq war? It was a ridiculous mistake, and it’s interesting how ‘conservative’ idiots are still trying to convince themselves it was a good idea. Heck some of them still believe the nonsense that Saddam had WMD! All the Iraq war has done is lead to the death of many Iraqis and coalition troops, nothing positive has come of it. Saddam was an arse, but Iraqis are worse off now than before Bushee started his mendacious meddling in the country’s affairs.
Saying that I have little interest in watching the film, I don’t like Hollywood hype, most films these days are crap. The best film of the last year was District 9 (which is OK, but not amazing). These days Hollywood seems to find itself pretty much incapable of producing original or quality product.
I too am disappointed in Marmot for this post. I mean, the Iraq war? Really? The story is basically Pocahontas, and Pocahontas is basically a kid-friendly retelling of some really fucked up moments in American brutality against the Native Americans.
I find it funny that in your rush to criticize Cameron you make his point perfectly. This has all happened so many times that you can throw a dart at every American war or military action and it’s all just the same story of “Underdeveloped country has X, We take X”.
jdog:
I think that’s going a bit too far. I think this movie is more a criticism of multi-national corporate greed than of the US government. But the Iraq War is a great negative example for either. My biggest gripe about the War is the extent it has served private, corporate interests. In that sense, the message of “Avatar” very much relates to the Iraq war. I sort of half-assingly agree with babotaengi in that seeing the film strictly as criticism of the Iraq War is perhaps showing a bit of tunnel vision, but let’s not pretend that the film has nothing to do with Iraq. They directly mention “shock and awe” for crissake.
As for the last sentence of your post, I can think of far too many examples where that simply isn’t true. Plenty where it is, of course, but not so many that “it’s all the same story.”
Cameron’s films are dystopian critiques of the military-industrial complex projected onto the future but laden with current references.
Everybody’s right. Do worry, be happy.
Jeffery Hodges
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Perhaps, though others tend to view them as critical dystopias projected onto some future military-industrial complex, laden with referent currencies.
http://socius.or.kr/2009/12/17/movie-review-avatar/
The film just left me flat.
A lot of fans of Avatar like to attribute people’s distaste for this movie to their conservative ideologies, their disapproval with its parallels to the Iraq War, or its eco-friendly and anti-capitalist message.
Irregardless of whatever political or ideological message James Cameron did or did not intend, the fact of the matter is is that this is not a good piece of storytelling. In fact, it is a terrible piece of storytelling. This is evident by the fact that James Cameron failed to spend a cent of his half of a billion dollar budget on hiring a screenwriter. The story is blatantly cliched and contrived. The story is not unique or engaging. The dialogue lacks any sense of intelligent insight. And there are people from both ends of the political spectrum that agree.
James Cameron successfully distracted moviegoers behind the guise of 3D glasses. While it was great, I was not blown away by the technical innovations Cameron employed because, honestly, I only expect film technology to get better with every passing year. Also, when you give a guy half a billion dollars to make a film, you better receive a great visual experience. It’s too bad he failed to tell a great story.
Mavsman (#34), next time, remember to put on the 3D glasses.
Jeffery Hodges
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Hummm…. I can see why Hollywood wanted Korea to end its screen quota. Avatar brings in $125M in overseas ticket sales and almost $70M (56%) is from Korea.
http://www.screendaily.com/news/distribution/avatar-adds-125m-overseas-and-sets-sail-for-history/5009717.article
Your didn’t read the article correctly WK.
$70M is the total cume from SK since release. $125M is the weekend take from intl markets. You’re dividing apples into oranges.
SK weekend take was $4.7M out of $125M, so SK share of intl wknd is 3.7%. SK share of total intl since release is $69.4M out of $1.24B, which is 5.67%.
The SK film market is significant given the population, but let’s keep it in perspective.
Avatar is mad successful here. The IMAX showings in both theatres in Seoul (and I’m assuming Ilsan too) are sold out for weeks into the future.
“Avatar” will most certainly be the most successful foreign film in South Korea, surpassing “Transformers” (if it hasn’t already done so). I never expected this, but does anyone predict it will crack the top five all-time most successful?
IHBB,
Yep you are right. I didn’t read the article carefully enough.
The Korean Friend #1: I saw Avatar in 3D, but I came to the theater late and I had to watch it from the second row of the IMAX.
The Korean Friend #2: Were the images behind you?
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/01/avatar-pulled-from-2d-screens-by-chinese-government.html
Partially banned in China.
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