James Cameron's AVATAR series - Page 59

On January 06 2010 08:30 Hot_Bid wrote:
Please don't threaten people with bans

On January 05 2010 01:47 StorkHwaiting wrote:

lol James Cameron very likely saw Princess Mononoke. It's been out in US theatres and had a lot of critical acclaim and it's the kind of foreign film that most film makers who work in CGI/animation (like Cameron does) tend to check out solely to keep up with what others in the industry are doing.

On January 05 2010 01:47 StorkHwaiting wrote:
And personally, it was more like Last Samurai than it was like Princess Mononke.

On January 05 2010 01:47 StorkHwaiting wrote:
Also, in both Mononoke and Last Samurai the end is bittersweet. In both, the animals/natives don't win. They lose but make a lasting impression on their conquerors. Only Avatar with its saccharine plot has the natives "win." Probably to set up a lame sequel.

Overall, it's just your archetypal "going native" story. A protagonist haunted by his life, seeking a change/cure, stumbles upon a native culture that is at first hostile, then over time opens up to him, as he persistently and somewhat clumsily tries to connect with them on a human/soulful level. Then his former life comes back to haunt him with gifts in hand, and he's forced to make the moral choice between siding with "his own kind" or forging a new loyalty with the natives who helped cure him. Inevitably, he chooses to side with the new friends because that's what any brave/unconventional protagonist does and it's enlightened because the natural reaction is to side with your own kind. Then they fight, blah blah, the protagonist knows the ins and outs of the other side because he used to be one of them, shows the natives what to do, and then they ride to victory or put up such a valiant struggle that everyone's touched by their bravery. The End. Bank $1 billion.

On January 07 2010 16:05 endy wrote:


I knew it was almost the same story as Pocahontas, i didnt expected to be THAT close rofl.

On January 07 2010 19:02 OhThatDang wrote:
U kknnooww thebig catch of avatar was to "change the way movies are made" a lot of you guys are still going over the story. Who cares, goood stories are retold often as long as it was executed brilliantly what's the fuss

On January 07 2010 21:12 GunSlinger wrote:
You guys should look up what a 'deus ex machina' is. All the posts I have read where you kids talk about how poorly the plot was constructed mention it, and yet obviously have no idea what it is or what it entails.

Sooo many people trying to sound smarter than they are. It's a movie, get over it. If Cameron's thinly veiled axe to grind makes you think about how we are raping our eco-systems, then good. If you liked the movie but thought the dialogue was weak, then good. If liked the movie but feel the need to complain and nit pick at every detail you have a gripe with then shut the fuck up because people are tired of hearing it.

On January 07 2010 21:33 GunSlinger wrote:
Don't go on forums if you are a condescending prick who likes to make sure that every person he is even remotely acquainted with absolutely knows his/her opinions even if they don't want to know his/her opinions. It makes you look like you have to much time on your hands and too few friends.

On January 07 2010 10:53 liosama wrote:

Correct


Wrong - It is rather an intricate mix of the two. Perhaps if you understood a little Japanese-American history then, more contextual light may be shed on The Last Samurai for you. America didn't just rock up to Japan to 'Westernize it then go away', Japan as a physical geographic location was perfect for the US as fueling station for their ever growing fleet. Woopah they still wanted to use the land for their own purposes.

The connection portrayed with the Na'Vi and their land is by far stronger and more real than anything I have witnessed -
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcpYuPxjJHw#t=0m23 for example of an Olive tree being cut down by a settler in Palestine with the owner going crazy. The scenes showing the Na'vi people mourning and lamenting at the loss and destruction of their forest gave a very palpable and sympathetic sense of the loss and desctruction- Well for me anyway.
No I'm not saying Cameron is a sympathizer of Palestinians nor any other indigenous/aboriginal population for that matter, but the portrayal of the reality of it all, that is, of how strong and true the connection a native people have with their land and its trees is there, and it certainly is no accident either.

So strong that the neuron-like connections with the land, although physically real and scientifically supposed true, I believe are to symbolise how true the connection is that a native peoples claim to have with their land and perhaps hint at it being so true, that there is almost a scientific-magical reality to it. The same goes for any single other group of indigenous people.

There are differences of course, that goes not without saying, Pandora had some special mineral, the land for people X was wanted as a fueling station and was geographically convenient, stolen and settled on by outsiders, but there are countries around the world by which their natural resources were exploited by a colonizing nation, you'd be blind to not see that.




This is where I agree with you more or less. However, I still think you are picking, choosing, and neglecting sections of this film with comparisons to other films to your own liking. As I have just (hopefully?) shown in this post here. Mononoke addressed slightly more complex questions, showing the dire situation that the main population were in and how the leader of that population was helping prostitutes and slaves from other towns which gave her a human appeal where-as Parker said something along the lines of "my stockholders care more about the quarterly review than a bunch of native people dying" here - attempting to show one aspect of the cruel reality of materialist capitalism - This isn't always the case, but very very real indeed. I personally would have loved the film 10 times more had there been no deus ex machina happy ending sorta crap but oh well.

Anyway in other news-
I am optimistic for more movies to come using 3D for actual emphatic techniques - as opposed to Avatar's 'showoffy' techniques which is fine since its perhaps one of the first films ever used to employ 3D? (Despite it having been invented about a century ago)

On January 07 2010 21:39 StorkHwaiting wrote:


You ever read the title of the thread? Or did you just skim through a few posts, get pissed off because you like the movie, and decide that cursing at people without providing a single new thing to the discussion was a good thing to do?

This is a thread called Avatar: Overhyped?? HMMMM. I wonder what people should be discussing there. Maybe if the thread was called Avatar: Positive Comments Only, I could understand where you're coming from, but right now, you just look angry for no good reason.

On January 07 2010 22:00 Rekrul wrote:
that was a goddamn good movie

and i didn't see it in 3d, i watched it on my laptop

eat it

On January 07 2010 21:59 GunSlinger wrote:


At least 75% of your posts in this thread have had nothing to do with the title. You are ridiculous. You just keep talking about how bad and original the plot and characters were. Seriously, stop posting on TL about Avatar. Nobody cares anymore. At first people tried to actually discuss some stuff, which I admire since it doesn't happen all that often here. But it just breaks down.Kids like you don't consider what people are actually saying, it's all just something that you have to think up a clever rebuttal to. It's annoying. YOU are annoying.