Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Movie, Book, and Music Review "Avatar" aka "Cliche!"

kinda what i think.....ive got to much chit going on in my life to get upset over a movie.....went to see it figuring its like most movies, there is gonna be an underdog.....the 3D and such makes it worth seeing as far as im concerned.....paid $10 to see it in 3D....wish there was a 3D theater closer cause i would like to pay to see it in 3D a couple more times....i hear they are going to release it in 3D on Blu-Ray but it wont be the same as the screen aint covering most your field of view.....

going to see it in 2D tomorrow for free so i guess ill just have to deal.....lifes to short to get wrapped up in the lil chit.....

I saw the movie today on IMAX in 3D. It was my first movie at IMAX and my first 3D movie. I don't know if other folks have IMAX cinemas but the screen is from the floor to the ceiling at least 50 yards wide. I was entirely impressed. Some of the 3D wasn't. Some of it looked like I was looking at a goldfish in a thick bowl, but some of it really impressed me. When they are showing real people, they are distorted, but there is depth perception which is cool. The animated characters look animated, and the 3D isn't as obvious, but when stuff is floating around: bugs, seeds, leaves... you honestly feel like you could reach out and touch them. I remember 3D Kung Fu theater when I was a kid. This is so much better.

As to the cliche part, they ripped off the Indians big time. They even had Wes Studi (Magua in Last of the Mohicans) doing a character's voice. Mohawks, bows, horses (kind of), all the nature stuff. I would have preferred something original. I liked it though. Even today's kids with all their technology will be impressed with what they have accomplished.

one of my buddys saw it this weekend, asked what he thought bout it given he is Assiniboine......he said "i was whooping and hollering with them, when i saw them putting on the war paint i figured they were Sioux.....my uncle said he thought they were Apache but i told him they couldnt be, the Apache werent that tall."

Not to beat this to death, but I'm guessing that on an IMAX screen that blue nipple was about as big as a coffee pot, right?

Our IMAX theater in Boise has been consistently sold out for since the movie opened. Some friends and I tried to go see it Christmas night and both shows were sold out. A friend took his son last Sunday and all shows were still sold out. You have to buy your tickets in advance on line.

James Cameron's directorial skills may not be impressive but I'd sure like to invest in whatever he's making next.

I saw Avatar regular at the late show and then took my wife to see it in 3D at the Imax. It is a technological tour de force but I sure hope all movies don't turn to 3D, wearing someone else's glasses was a bit of a hassle. The 3D incarnation without the glasses looks fuzzy and out of focus. OTOH the resolution of the regular version was outstanding, to the point that some 3D effect was apparent even without glasses.

The message that some cultures have different material values than the prevailing Western Capitalist one was well taken, even if the two viewpoints were ironically rather two dimensional as presented. If the humans were mostly callous capitalists, surely the Natives themselves were entirely noble savages (why exactly would they need "warriors" in that other-wordly utopia anyhow?).

Of note, Zoe Saldana of "Star Trek" and "Pirates of the Carribean" (the sea witch character) provided the voice for the alien love interest (my wife had thought it might be Penelope Cruz).

More remarkably, Steven Lang the same guy hiding behind Stonewall Jackson's fake beard in the abysmal "Gods and Generals", seen here as the buff and toned evil Colonel bad guy, was born in 1952!

Ergo the guy had to be at least fifty five years old during the shooting of the movie. Egad! An inspiration to us flabby ol' gaffers everywhere.


..and ya know, it is a testament to the power of "Saving Private Ryan" that I still feel a palpable sense of relief every time I see someone who died in that movie still alive in a different movie.

In this case Giovanni Ribisi, who died calling to his mother as the heroic medic in "Private Ryan", in Avatar seen as the on-site yuppie manager of the mining company.

Birdwatcher