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DarkDragoon said:tarheel91 said: Whole > Sum(Parts)
And that is one of the themes of biology :3 and music 😀
Well not themes but main pointsSynergy. A land slide and a hurricane will do far more damage than the damage of a hurricane added to the land of a land slide. You can lift more with 2 people than each person could lift individually combined.
I used to think it was all magic, then I discovered it’s just exploiting physics.
Vusys said: It was meh.The humans are almost all over the top comicbook evil. The silly parallels to the current wars and issues with the rainforests are obvious and boring. The story… well.. what story? It’s so predictable.
I found the Na’vi pretty unlikeable with their silly religion constantly getting in the way, with a few forced nods at the end hinting that there’s something to it. The doctor’s deathbed admittance to its reality was pretty lame. It was only when the humans went all super evil destroying their massive tree that they start to be tolerable, if only because the humans are shitheads.
The 3D-ness was nice, mostly. The floating seeds were always blurred and royally messed with my eyes, a few other things like hands waving in front of the screen, and people in the foreground also got blurred like this. It kind of worked once you got used to it, but I didn’t feel like it added anything special to the film.
It’s imperialism, not “humans being super evil.” As a member of what was the largest empire during the years of traditional imperialism, I’d expect you to know more about it. Imperialism was led by corporations like the one in the movie. They did what the corporation in the movie did to the Na’vi and Pandora to the native people of wherever and that land. See: Seminole Wars, West/East India Companies, Colonial Africa, etc. It’s something that still goes on in less direct ways (i.e. Iraq, Vietnam, etc.), and it’s something that most of us seem to accept pretty easily. What a lot of the stuff in this genre (Avatar included) tries to do is get people to see how wrong what’s happening is.
Now, onto that Na’vi’s “silly religion.” That’s the most unsuitable name I could think of. If you bothered to read my post, you’d see it’s one of the few belief systems that actually relate to reality and how it works. Their whole “circle of life” and “interconnectedness” system of ideas isn’t just a way to approach living one’s life, it’s the way the world actually works. I’d hardly call that a few “forced nods” at the end. It’s a major theme throughout. The concept of a link between creatures is always present, whether it’s with a horse, a banshee, or a tree. The concept of the forest making up a “brain” of sorts was introduced early on with the scientist dude hypothesizing that there some electrochemical reaction going on in the trees, and it was developed throughout the movie, both on the Na’vi and human side. It sounds like what the movie was saying didn’t quite line up with your personal beliefs, and while there’s nothing wrong with that, attempting to ignore parts of it to suit your argument doesn’t really accomplish anything.
Oh, I forgot about the “comic book evil” comment. If you look at a lot of the stuff involving the corporation, it’s incredibly general. The thing they want is “unobtanium.” Both the leader and the security dude are complete caricatures. Why? It allows this story to make it’s focus imperialism in general, and not one specific case of it. Because of how generic that portion of the setting is, it allows references to various points in history and justifications used for things that were occurring then as well as allusions to countless pieces of film and literature with similar themes. If you look at other works such as Dances with Wolves and Heart of Darkness, it’s very easy to associate each piece with a specific conflict (with those two being associated with Native Americans and the Congo, respectively). This can limit the scope of the reader/viewer’s thinking, and undeniably limits the message the piece is making.
He said he’d like to do a trilogy if this one made some money. It’s already over 620 million in two weeks, and it’s on pace to be the second highest grossing movie of all time, possibly even the first. So yeah, I’m pretty sure it’ll make them some money.
snowhamster said: I @#%)ing LOVED Avatar. The entire plot is rather simple really, OUTER SPACE ALIENS FIGHT FOR THEIR LAAAAND, but James Cameron took that simple idea and made it into this kick-ass movie that I cannot get out of my head.
I’m satisfied with the actors chosen, such as the person for Jake Sully. I read that the director was specifically looking for a fresh face that wasn’t all that well known…and I’m glad he did. Sam Worthington did a great job for someone who had never done any major movies. And the chick that played Trudy, Michelle Rodriguez? Completely fit the personality of the character.
My eyes were glistening for the entire last hour of the movie.@Lithy: Zomg. That part I had chills. I’m getting chills remember it too 😮 When Jake rides in on the Toruk, all the Na’vi are like “HOLY SHIT” and all the audience in the theater were like “HOLY SHIT”
And yuh. Avatar was supposed to have been released in 1999, but Cameron wanted technology to catch up. And when it did 10 years later..SHABLAMF KICK-ASS MOVIE!!!~
Good thing he waited too, because I’d have been 3 years old and the graphics would be little stick people colored blue.The subject matter of Imperialism is almost its own genre at this point. There’s been so much stuff about it (Things Fall Apart, Heart of Darkness, Pocahontas, Dances with Wolves, etc.). While the story is pretty predictable and the message simple, that’s not what it’s about. You guys have heard me say it before: every story has been done before. It’s not the story you tell; it’s how you tell it. I thought this one was told phenomenally well. Normally what happens with these movies/books is they’ll try to get you to understand the culture and use something else with it to make the point about Imperialism. With Heart of Darkness, it’s the incredible symbolism and parallels. With Speaker for the Dead (part of the Ender’s Game series), it’s a family’s trauma that’s connected with the fate of a world and its natives. However, Avatar focuses entirely on bringing the world and its people to life, and because of the combination of a well flushed-out world and the revolutionary new technology used (seriously, go watch some “Making Of” videos, it’s amazing) it works completely. Everyone who watches the movie feels like Pandora really exists and they were just there. The other stroke of genius for me was the whole network system. You see the idea of a circle of life and interconnectedness in a lot of native cultures (and books/movies within this genre as a result), but it’s always just a system of beliefs. It’s never any more than some religious outlook. However, with Avatar, that connection is real. I think it really helps the audience see the value of the world and its “circle of life.” I’m not sure if I’ve ever read or watched something that allowed the audience to understand this message quite as clearly as Avatar did.
@Dustin: What you’re referring to is an effect called “strobing.” While 24 frames per second is exactly what you want for most films (since that’s speed our eye views things at), it doesn’t work for 3D. When things move, particularly when they’re close to the lens, it looks jittery to our eyes because the depth can’t adjust quick enough at that speed. Unfortunately, the technology isn’t there yet for 60FPS 3D, but hopefully it will be by the time the next movie in the trilogy is created.
Dest1 said: Should I go see it in IMAX or 3D?IMAX is in 3D.
@Lithium: That scene is amazing. It was hilarious; the second time I watched it, I knew it was coming, and listened to people’s reactions. There was this one resounding “HOLY SHI-” throughout the theater.
@Arly: Plus, Avatar was created in 1994. Halo was a bit later.
David said: It was fairly good, but I mean, some scenes were weak. You couldn’t feel the emotion when whatever that female Navi said to er, was his name John? idk, to leave when he “betrayed” the village, blablabla.Also, watch it in IMAX, I watched it in Real 3D and it was good, but not as good supposedly as IMAX, but then again, IMAX is too loud for me. >.>;
I’ve watched it twice, and I’ll have to disagree with you on that scene in particular. I thought it was pretty well done. The frantic nature of the situation really came out in Neytiri’s voice. She’s pretty dumbfounded/shocked by all the things happening (won’t spoil it anymore).
Note: Please put spoilers around anything that could ruin parts of the story.
Nass said: It was too long.Too long for my attention.
For some reason I’m not surprised.
Also, how in the world can you grind in MS as much as you do if you can’t sit through a 2 hour and 40 minute movie?
As a second round beta tester, my first blog was in March. So we’re almost to a year, but not quite.
Nass said:tarheel91 said: 0/5 for posting a tilde on Cheeze’s wall.(I don’t think anyone will get my sig)
10/10 for outdoing Google.
It’s because the / isn’t registered by Google, even if you put it in quotes.
Hint: The answer is much closer than Google.
Actually, it’s the CIAA that’s watching me. It monitors college networks because they’re full of scallywags (pirates).
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