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Old 2009.12.25, 09:35 AM   #54
kuro_neko
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Originally Posted by s3r3nity View Post
BACK TO AVATAR
I went in to see it hoping to prove my boyfriend, who said it looked dumb, wrong. I wanted to love it. I knew very little about it, only about the concept of the avatar.
Within the first half hour, my boyfriend and I predicted nearly every major plot point, besides the information that you find out about the biology of the planet. By the time they revealed that, however, I was totally unattached. They could have told me that the Na'Vi were all Shiina Ringo clones in disguise, and I wouldn't have cared, because I knew how it was going to play out, regardless of how awesome the world was. In my totally inexperienced and uneducated opinion, the movie should've chosen a focus:
Either
1) Pandora
OR
2) Emotion/Character
I know you guys are all saying that people were crying in the theater and what not, and I accept that people interpret things differently, but for me it is so hard to get emotional over such a tried plot. I know that there probably was depth put into the movie, but the characters all seemed so flat (Haha, yes, I did see it in RealD) to me, as if they were just along for the same old ride. Not one character made me look forward to them being on screen. I felt as if I had met them all before.
Now, Pandora was certainly an interesting place, and if the movie had been instead focused just on avatars in Pandora, and made up some new conflict rather than "THEY'RE KILLING NATURE", then I probably wouldn't have been about to fall asleep in my seat.
I suppose it's all a matter of what you're looking for in a movie. I personally want to see real character interaction, and while the actors did wonderfully, the script did not lend itself well to natural character development.

Disclaimer:
These are my opinions written at 6AM. I'll probably want to put foot in mouth after letting this sit a few days, but I'd rather get it all out now while it's fresh.
cameron had to create an entire believable foreign ecosystem and alien universe and with a built-in viewer education system and believable/engaging plot within one movie he was taking a huge risk on, and in that regard he succeeded. Avatar does an amazing job of creating this realistic lush and believable world and ushering in the completely ignorant and unaware audience into said world. by the time the movie is over you feel like you really do have a sense of what pandora is like. the movie really sets up sequels. he sat on this for 14 years and the thoughts became so much he wrote an encyclopedia, called the Pandorapedia, which he plans on publishing. if the movie succeeds he wants to do more, telling other stories on nearby moons of the same planet and having spin-offs and sequels and novels. that being said, the fact that the plot is engaging enough for most people while accomplishing a feat that only movies like LOTR and Star Wars has accomplished (and LOTR had source material) is pretty amazing. Unfortunately that means he has to rely on certain established tropes or archetypes, but IMO that is the a proper price if it it ensures more innovative movies. I mean, watch The Abyss, that movie is, head to toe, completely original, and breathtaking considering when it was made. I have no worry that Cameron can't create an involving and unique story, but to do so he had to build the world and get the audience into the theatre and believing it before he can go real ape-shit.

also, what with the state of the world lately I think his film-making was definitely influenced. He himself has stated the parallels, obvious and not so obvious, the movie holds to real life. for some people that is a deal-breaker, but Avatar is meant to be seen and enjoyed, feel in the moment. If you sit there and try to outthink it, like your waiting for some huge plot twist, you will be disappointed. A whole slew of M Night Shamalan movies and "smart" thrillers has desensitized us to the style of gold old fashioned story telling. Whip out a childhood storybook or fairytale, read some Grimm, and tell me its not predictable. What Cameron has done is create a fairytale for Adults. So you gotta go, get a huge popcorn, get some soda, put on some 3D glasses, and sit back and just live in the moment. It sounds bad, but turn off your brain, the movie does the work for you. Some may criticize that, but it is a welcome escape in today's world.
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