Cameron made a hi-tech Western, in outer space, like Dances with Wolves. The hero 'goes native' like Costner, the natives have blue skin not red, are naked & noble savages that talk to 'mother earth' and have magic powers, they need his protection to continue living in their cartoonish Garden of Eden, etc.
And, like Dances, the roles are reversed. The US Cavalry is now the flying Blackwater mercenaries and they are antagonists, not protagonists. The victims are not white women and children in a wagon train, but the backwards & childlike Navi, with blue skin, in their magic forest.
Don't forget the PC casting. Overdone female empowerment efforts: like the chain smoking, pushy, scientist leader Sigorney Weaver, the tough-girl Hispanic helicopter pilot who breaks them out of prison and the Navi spiritual leader/queen. Not all white men are bad people (except for the hero), but all bad people are white men, usually pale, muscular & N Euro. All good people, except the hero, are non-white men, and he gets a body transplant!
The visual effects were great & the story was average. Maybe 3D will be better.
RUJoking?! (12/22/2009, 12:13 PM )
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Watched it for free on the internet. Been watching and reading SciFi for 50 years. Gland I did not pay to see it.
zaruma (12/22/2009, 9:46 AM )
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marjoies comment said it best,, no story line and seen a zillion times with the calvary taking over the indians land for gold,, etc...those who want to see special effects, spend your money on a face lift for this movie sags for close to three hours of total torture. The 3d effect has been around for centuries and never will carry a blah story line. This movie is as stale as the popcorn you buy in the show for five dollars and only ones who will like this will be the humpty dumptys of this world, which are the majority anyway. Movies such as the pianist, boy in striped pajamas, the nail;story of joey nardone and many many others are far better than this hokey story said so many times,, only difference is that avatar has the indians running around in blue suits with bows and arrows.Save your money and shop at wal mart for fresh popcorn.
wizofbeach (12/21/2009, 11:02 AM )
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I never quite understood the Avater trailer when I first saw it few months ago. Thus my interest in the movie was limited. I was actually forced by my husband to go and see it yesterday. What did I think at the end? I fell in love with the movie, it is one of the best I have seen this year- may be in the last few years. I was in tears at the end of the movie, and could not stop crying for the next ten minutes. As Mr Kenneth Turan writes in his critic, I realized afterwards that I was caring for an alien character. I can not wait to see Avatar again in 3D
jay_center (12/21/2009, 9:04 AM )
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It's worth the money to see it, even if the story line is so predictable. You know exactly what's going to happen to each character within the first 15 minutes of the film. Very disappointing. I think Cameron wants you to be immersed in this world, but with such a poor script/dialogue and tired, "done-a-million-times-over" storyline, you just can get there. The only thing meant to be remembered in this film are the special effects and not much else.
marjoriemoon (12/21/2009, 8:03 AM )
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Avatar was an amazing experience. James Cameron has clearly taken a lot of care to create something special that everyone can enjoy. In this economy, a night at the movies for a family is a luxury. I%u2019m very appreciative that Avatar delivered. We all loved it.
callie70 (12/20/2009, 6:16 PM )
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I saw "Avatar" yesterday and can't get the imagery out of my head. This film is setting a new standard for this genre of movie. It is so well done that you actually find yourself taking the reality created by filmmaker for granted as you watch it. The lighting, the skin textures, the dynamic body language of the characters and unusualness of the creatures are simply taken as they are, with no internalized reminders that you're watching special effects. This is a new kind of filmmaking that will change the way we react to movies. Despite the overwhelming imagery and action of this unbelievably colorful production, you stop looking at the aliens as being aliens. They are fully dimensionalized characters with all the subtle facial nuances of living beings. Not actors. Beings. "Avatar" will take your resistance to suspension of disbelief and drag it into the story. I've had a lot of different kinds of cinematic experiences over the last 50 years, but this one has been the most memorable. This is more than a story being told by the filmmaker. It is a total immersion of the audience into the world he has imagined to an extent that it has never been done before.
JohnRJ08 (12/20/2009, 4:25 PM )
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After seeing AVATAR 3D and enjoying it immensely with my wife, part of the story reminded me of what happened between Magellan and Lapu-Lapu in the Philippines.
sierra_vista (12/20/2009, 4:10 PM )
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those who state that content doesnt mean anything and only indulge in what they call aesthetics, clearly show what their mentality is,, they probably are same ones who sit in front of a video game all day and waste their lives away...clearly, the story line is a joke and again, same story line with the calvary taking over the indians land for gold,,, even in this mess, the aliens have bows and arrows fighting bombs...what a mess but frankly, the masses do like this and obviously thought star wars was amazing ... again, go see the boy in the striped pajamas and even the nail, story of joey nardone ... both movies for people with brains.
wizofbeach (12/20/2009, 11:17 AM )
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Most of the cynical high and mighty commenters here have almost certainly not even seen the movie. If you think you can do better after seeing it by all means step up to the plate and show us what you can do.
uh-huh1254 (12/20/2009, 9:49 AM )
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For those complaining about style over substance, walk around the national gallery of art - Rembrandt and most of the other famous painters painted people sitting in chairs or rather pedestrian scenes that you could see on any Sunday drive. There is definite value in artistry no matter how banal the subject. Regardless of storyline, acting, or script, a movie - just like a Rembrandt - can still be a monumental accomplishment based on asthetics alone.
For ridiculous posters like WIZOFBEACH who says "Again the public is sucked in to what I consider the biggest waste of my life." What can you say in response to such absurd hyperbole. Maybe he has mental problems. Better to take that kind of hysterical drivel to youtube or somewhere.
uh-huh1254 (12/20/2009, 9:45 AM )
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rdeshazo7 (12/19/2009, 2:55 PM )notice his comments about my style of writing when he cant even put a clear sentence together.Even this guy admits that he prefers special effects over a story line which tells me his level of education proboably was no more than eighth grade. Nobody has to spend 300 million to cover up for a horrible story line as this farce is. This movie has no redeeming value and is clearly aimed at kids for games, mcdonalds and you name it will jump on the band wagon to do what this movie was intended for in the first place..called making money and greed and nothing more. No more than the star wars of years past did and certainly, star wars was never a movie of any redeeming value but the same shoot em up with bad guy and good guy over used story line such as this mess.
wizofbeach (12/20/2009, 8:10 AM )
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AVATAR is an extraordinary film on so many levels. Clearly, technically, it is a watershed. But the eco-spirituality it explores in narrative and theme draws on many religious and cinematic mythologies. Critics have remarked on such antecedents as DANCES WITH WOLVES. Perhaps it is even more indebted to the nature religion, tone and landscapes explored in the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki, especially PRINCESS MONONOKE with its Forest Spirit and numinous flora; and the floating landscapes of LAPUTA: THE CASTLE IN THE SKY which are precursors of the "legendary floating mountains" in AVATAR. In terms of world cultural influences, the New Zealand Maori can be recognized. Weta Studios in Wellington, New Zealand is where much of AVATAR was created. At the height of the relationship between Jake Scully and Neytiri these two characters hongi, pressing their noses together and sharing each other's breath - a Maori greeting in which participants share in the breath of life, and the stranger becomes one of the people of the land.
StuartMcKenzie (12/19/2009, 8:54 PM )
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I guess my comments aren't allowed here, or something. They don't show. Or is there a delay?
matthewdickinson@fastmail.fm (12/19/2009, 6:11 PM )
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Good visuals are not "style over substance." You would NEVER say that at an art museum.
matthewdickinson@fastmail.fm (12/19/2009, 5:52 PM )
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Unlike one pretend-journalist commenting below, I think this film is well worth the money you might otherwise spend on spam. Visually stunning, inventive and clever, the storyline is more Dances with Wolves rather than Pocahontas. That's okay, Hollywood has been recycling the same 30 or so stories since the talkies began. Instead, this film leads where we would Cameron to lead--into a new world of spectacular effects that would have overshadowed any but a top-shelf storyline. This was my first outing to the movies in quite a while, thanks, James Cameron for making it worthwhile. "Wizofbeach," I am sure you can just go to a soupkitchen to make up for any lost meals. And maybe somebody can teach you how to write clearly too.
rdeshazo7 (12/19/2009, 2:55 PM )
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I saw the midnight screening of this flick on opening day and loved it. Screw the haters.
skalar (12/19/2009, 8:32 AM )
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Early in 1998, James Cameron shamelesly declared himself the king of the world to a global audience upon picking up one of the multitudes of Oscars for a little movie called "Titanic." Now he's back and has promoted himself to Emperor of the world--more specifically, that magical, wonderful world of movies as we know it. Only this time, he's armed and ready to kick the senses out of an already jaded moviegoing public tired and numbed by the lack of imagination from the recent crop of action/adventure films of late. And as far as one's concept of imagination goes, 'Avatar' delivers it in spades.
The one thing Mr. Cameron does so well both here and in his previous films is his innate sense and awesome ability to combine the past and future, fantasy and reality, action and drama into a seamless juxtaposition that makes it all seem so visually effortless. By default his films are highly technical in nature, but there is also a high degree of an organic feel about them in the way he conceptualizes hyper-reality and fantasy and how it relates to the present.
'Avatar' is that and more. Not only is it a technological achievement in a massive scale, its also purely fanstastical, completely enjoyable, and runs as such a breakneck pace that I easily lost track of time inspite of its nearly three-hour running time.
The magic of the movies is back!
MarkA. (12/19/2009, 12:43 AM )
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Again the public is sucked in to what I consider the biggest waste of my life.Beware, this is far from what this idiot on the times states is the remaking of movies. How dare him compare this to the jazz singer and what impact it had on movies.The story line is embarassing absurd and mabye five actors in the movie and the standard guy falls for girl line with the bad guy being a colonel doing this job. I almost walked out ten times and Ive seen better porn movies for twenty dollars. I walked out before the end (two hours and forty minutes) and am mad that once again, we are misled by some stupid journalist (I have a masters in journalism myself) and equally sad with the recession, people will be flooding the theaters to only be robbed of money they could have bought food with it.This is a complete sham and if you look at all the movies this cameron made, they all are remakes and horrible. God bless america but god will not bless the guy who gave this a great review for he simply must be related to cameron for again, watch the boy in the striped pajamas or the nail, story for joey nardone, both movies with character and you will leave the movie with your mind entertained with humanity and not walk out after seeing avatar like you have been raped.
wizofbeach (12/18/2009, 4:57 PM )
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I'm looking forward to seeing this re-telling of POCAHONTAS. There's enough room on my blu ray shelf for movies as different as the low-no-budget PARANORMAL ACTIVITY and this latest Cameron budget-busting flick.
ATXeye (12/17/2009, 10:29 AM )
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Avatar is an amazing piece of cinema. Yes, the dialogue is often flat (Cameron has never been a particularly good screenwriter) and part of the CGI and 3-D is simply there for the "look what we can do" effect, but sitting through it I did get a sense that the moviegoing experience as we know it, has changed forever. In the end, Cameron and his extensive crew developed and utilized the technology to create an entire living, breathing world that you feel you were a part of for 2 hours and 40 minutes. You truly believe the Na'vi and other creatures of Pandora are real and that allows you to care about them and root for them. Without the technology, that just wouldn't happen and the story would not be the great epic that it is.
Peter_Wynn (12/17/2009, 10:06 AM )
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Cameron spends $300 million on a glorified cartoon, and the critics salivate. If the story isn't strong, if the characters aren't well-drawn, if the tale isn't worth telling, then no amount of fancy CGI animation will save it. Obviously, *I* must be missing the point here.
LifeOfTheParty (12/17/2009, 9:43 AM )
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The CGI makes me want to vomit. How many hundreds of millions have been spent on the advertising, like the Titanic film, to get suckers to think this is great work? What ever happened to movie making?
bern21 (12/17/2009, 8:59 AM )
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Great visuals with an overdone and predictable story? That's what video games are for. Visuals should enchance your story, not be the foundation. Haven't they learned anything from Star Wars Episode I?
milwaukeemike83 (12/17/2009, 8:25 AM )
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Hmm. So the film "restores a sense of wonder to the moviegoing experience that has been missing for far too long." Missing??? I haven't been missing anything.
boris8 (12/17/2009, 8:05 AM )
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Cameron is simply reusing the same formula that made TITANIC so successful. Here is the quote taken from a three-part feature on the filmmaker posted on the UK film website Flickering Myth.
%u201CI think that it was definitely a goal of Titanic to integrate a very personal, very emotional, and very intimate filmmaking style with spectacle.%u201D
He went on to add.
%u201CI think the spectacle got people%u2019s attention, got them to the theatres, and then the emotional cathartic experience of watching the film is what made the film work.%u201D
Looks like Canadian director has done the same thing with Avatar. So far it appears to be working. If you would like to read more here are the links for the three parts.
http://flickeringmyth.blogspot.com/2009/11/resurfacing-james-cameron-profile-part.html
http://flickeringmyth.blogspot.com/2009/12/resurfacing-james-cameron-profile-part.html
http://flickeringmyth.blogspot.com/2009/12/resurfacing-james-cameron-profile-part_09.html
Enjoy.
iamawriter2 (12/17/2009, 7:01 AM )
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Hitchcock's "Dial M for Murder" is a much better use of 3D as a narrative enhancer. Too bad Cameron didn't spend 1/100th the amount of time on the script as he did on the effects.
scorseseisgod (12/16/2009, 11:43 PM )
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Thanks for the heads up Kevin.
"Avatar" is definitely not into breaking new narrative ground"
All we needed to know,
diemo (12/16/2009, 9:56 PM )
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In other words, it's all style and no substance. Where's the revolution in that?
Adimitri (12/16/2009, 7:07 PM )
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