Gimme a reason besides FX to see Avatar

[propita]

I've read/heard the special effects are fantastic but that the story (an old one, like all stories) is not really handled in any special way.

Frankly, my blood pressure can't take seeing a movie where the big bad multinational/multiplanetary takes on the weaker group, where good guys die only as emotional fodder, and the entire thing is an emotional manipulation. I just shouldn't get angry on behalf of fictional characters--I see the cardiologist on Monday.

So...is there a reason beyond the fx to see Avatar?

 

[Kegg]

The film doesn't have as much emotional manipulation as you may think (though admittedly it has a misfire of a setpiece in the middle which is exactly that), but the strength of the film, narratively, is that it moves quickly and progresses well; the principal leads are also well acted and easy to empathise with.

Avatar is more than a hollow yet spectacular evocation of SFX, like The Phantom Menace was - it's also fun. I think that last point is fairly key to its success.

But yes, it's also New Agey Save the Planet Corporations Are Bad Go Noble Savage, so swallow that with whatever pills are of your choice.

 

[Rii]

I wouldn't advise that you see Star Wars either. Blatant anti-government propaganda.

 

[Kelthaz]

How about Sigourney Weaver?

 

[Harvey]

It's comparable to the first Star Wars. Ground-breaking special effects and a sense of fun. But nothing very exceptional about the characters or the narrative.

 

[propita]

I wouldn't advise that you see Star Wars either. Blatant anti-government propaganda.

Ah, but SW handled the old story (young "knight" coming into his own; help of old wizard; journey; etc, etc) with some style--old story done up shiny. Lucas could still do dialogue back then, the acting was good to excellent, and there were little moments (usually Ben, Han, 3PO, or Chewie), character bits, and in-jokes that become "favorite scenes."

It's not that I doubt the acting on Avatar, it's that I haven't heard much beyond what I posted: fx and emotion. I haven't heard about characterization, acting, or little moments of "you gotta watch for this."

Nothing against Avatar--I haven't seen it so I can't judge. I'm just saying I haven't heard anything like that stuff. I like that stuff. It's what makes "a movie" into "one of my favorite movies."

 

[T'Baio]

Umm...because you want to? Or you don't. Whatever.

 

[Kegg]

Lucas could still do dialogue back then,

"George, you can write this shit you can't say it." was Harrison Ford's rather notorious comment about the first Star Wars film.

George was never a very good dialogue writer, really.

I haven't heard about characterization, acting, or little moments of "you gotta watch for this."

It's about as good as Star Wars. Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana have really good chemistry together, Stephen Lang and Giovanni Ribisi provide excellent cartoon villains, and Siogurney Weaver... is Sigourney Weaver. She is our Alec Guinness for today, as it were.

Are there little moments people will obsess over forever? I dunno. There may be a nascent Avatar fandom, but we'll go back and see if that's the case come Avatar II.

Either way, simply for its spectacle, it's a film that if seen at all is best seen in theatres.

 

[Rii]

I wouldn't advise that you see Star Wars either. Blatant anti-government propaganda.

Ah, but SW handled the old story (young "knight" coming into his own; help of old wizard; journey; etc, etc) with some style--old story done up shiny. Lucas could still do dialogue back then, the acting was good to excellent, and there were little moments (usually Ben, Han, 3PO, or Chewie), character bits, and in-jokes that become "favorite scenes."

It's not that I doubt the acting on Avatar, it's that I haven't heard much beyond what I posted: fx and emotion. I haven't heard about characterization, acting, or little moments of "you gotta watch for this."

Nothing against Avatar--I haven't seen it so I can't judge. I'm just saying I haven't heard anything like that stuff. I like that stuff. It's what makes "a movie" into "one of my favorite movies."

I'm not sure I'd reduce Avatar's visual prowesss to "fx", but once you strip all that away it's certainly true that there's not a lot there. I don't necessarily see that as a major flaw in the film, you just have to know what you're going in for: a cinematic experience. In many ways it reminded me of James Gurney's illustrated Dinotopia books.

 

[LitmusDragon]

The story isn't quite as bad as it's being made out to be. It is a bit cliche, but the whole "Stranger in a Strange Land" type of story is an archetype, dating all the way back to Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Not to say that this is the best version of this story ever told, or even a great one, but it is a competent one.

edit:
Oh, you covered this in your original post. The plot is basically exactly like what you said you don't want to see, so maybe you shouldn't go.

 

[Klaus]

Can't think of one...

 

[Hyperspace05]

I've read/heard the special effects are fantastic but that the story (an old one, like all stories) is not really handled in any special way.

Frankly, my blood pressure can't take seeing a movie where the big bad multinational/multiplanetary takes on the weaker group, where good guys die only as emotional fodder, and the entire thing is an emotional manipulation. I just shouldn't get angry on behalf of fictional characters--I see the cardiologist on Monday.

So...is there a reason beyond the fx to see Avatar?

Nah, don't bother. You seem predisposed to not have a good time anyway. Who'd want to see a film that might challenge your predispositions on topics anyway? That's for weenies.

 

[T'Baio]

I'll never understand wanting to go to the movies but not wanting to be emotionally manipulated. I mean, really, think about it.

 

[The Evil Dead]

Umm...because you want to? Or you don't. Whatever.

Haha pretty much.

 

[FordSVT]

I wouldn't advise that you see Star Wars either. Blatant anti-government propaganda.

Ah, but SW handled the old story (young "knight" coming into his own; help of old wizard; journey; etc, etc) with some style--old story done up shiny. Lucas could still do dialogue back then, the acting was good to excellent, and there were little moments (usually Ben, Han, 3PO, or Chewie), character bits, and in-jokes that become "favorite scenes."

It's not that I doubt the acting on Avatar, it's that I haven't heard much beyond what I posted: fx and emotion. I haven't heard about characterization, acting, or little moments of "you gotta watch for this."

Nothing against Avatar--I haven't seen it so I can't judge. I'm just saying I haven't heard anything like that stuff. I like that stuff. It's what makes "a movie" into "one of my favorite movies."

Most of the people I've talked to about the movie outside of this forum can barely remember anything specific about the movie at all except the "tail sex" and the fact that it "looks amazing".

I find it funny there is no Internet culture building up around what is supposed to be such a phenomenon. No memes or anything like that, no huge fan base as far as I can tell. It's definitely a cultural event, it's the dawn of "new 3D", it's the kind of movie (like SW, Jurassic Park, Titanic, LOTR) people go see because they are supposed to. It's got the credentials, I just don't feel like the narrative makes that much of an emotional connection with people. Even the people who liked it and have seen it multiple times in the review thread on this board really don't have that much to say about it, other than the fact it's a audiovisual feast.

This was a technology venture for Cameron. He didn't just wait until recently to make this movie because the technology didn't exist 5-10 years ago, he had to wait because the story itself isn't that compelling. If it looked like Final Fantasy: Spirits Within it would have bombed.

I'm not saying it's not a well made movie or that it's bad, heck I paid money to go see it and I enjoyed it, but I can't see myself buying it on DVD/BR or paying to watch it again in the theatre. There are a half dozen action and sci-fi movies I saw last year that are better.

I dunno... I wasn't there but I have the impression that Star Wars was just so different from everything else out there at the time, from everything that had come before it. Even with Avatar's 3D, I'm a bit jaded to what Hollywood is able to accomplish these days.

 

[Kegg]

I'll never understand wanting to go to the movies but not wanting to be emotionally manipulated. I mean, really, think about it.

There's nothing worse than a film overplaying a hand it doesn't have, though.

Case in point: King Kong. Great special effects, and completely bathetic.

People probably fear similar failed manipulation in Avatar, and while there is a little of that there, thankfully it's not very long.

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

It's similar to Transformers (1 not 2...that I think is worse than Avatar). It's groundbreaking in the special effects department but completely shallow in the other departments.

The audience is forced and shown these relations between the characters than led to through good acting and good dialogue.

There is no warmth, no depth to the characters. The drama and the conflict take a back seat to the special effects.

It's a good movie if you simply want to shut your brain off and not think. By the time you get maybe 30-45 minutes in to the movie, you pretty much know how it's going to end. There are no twists, no turns. It's all straight forward and direct if you like that type of movie.

At best, it's almost akin to Spider-Man, at worse it's almost akin to the original Transformers by Michael Bay. It's somewhere in between those two movies.

 

[FPAlpha]

I liked Avatar mainly because of its lush visuals.. the world they created is so amazing and beautiful that one simply has to see it on the big screen.

Another thing that really stands out are the virtual characters.. if you thought Gollum was the pinnacle of SFX you might want to see Avatar.. the closeups of the Na'vi are so well done that they seem lifelike (including natural looking skin which is notoriously difficult to pull off).

Now the movie starts slow as most movies do.. for the first hour or so the characters and the setting are introduced before the action ramps up.

Yes.. characters will die (some of them you may grow to like) and the final battle is non stop thrill so if you've really got a weak condition and this poses a problem you might want to skip Avatar for now and wait for the DVD.

 

[Caliburn24]

Go see the film for the James Horner score. Sure it is a composite of many of his earlier better scores. But within the movie it works quite well.

 

[coolghoul]

I just shouldn't get angry on behalf of fictional characters--I see the cardiologist on Monday.

Umm... See it Tuesday?

Do you really want to be the only person in the crowd who hasn't seen the top-most grossing movie (or second, if it doesn't overtake Titanic?). People are going to look at you strange. They're going to wonder about you... is he a geek? Or worse, a trekkie!!!?!

See it to avoid the peer pressure.