James Cameron's "Avatar" (grading and discussion)

[Admiral_Young]

I've been doing some searching on google and discovered a comment that James Cameron plans on doing an expanded universe for Avatar and he plans on writing the novelization. Early DVD release and content speculation also has it being released sometime in June and that we could get the Na'Vi Sex scene included on the extras as well as a bunch of other material not shown in the theatrical version.

Also discovered that Cameron has compiled a "Pandorapedia" that he's used for the back story and future story and a portion of this has been online for a while. I've checked out some of the entries and it's pretty cool. The entry on the ISV Venture Star is worth the trip...wondering if there are plans to eventually publish this as a book like the "Halo Encyclopedia" that came out last year. I love all of this extra stuff just adds to the movie IMO.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Is Avatar the first hit science fiction movie since 2001 featuring a spacecraft that looks like something we might actually build? Possibly.

 

[trevanian]

yeah, well, 2001 didn't break even till YEARS after its first release, so grouping it with AVATAR in any category like 'hit' would be redefining the word in a big way.

 

[ST-One]

I've been doing some searching on google and discovered a comment that James Cameron plans on doing an expanded universe for Avatar and he plans on writing the novelization. Early DVD release and content speculation also has it being released sometime in June and that we could get the Na'Vi Sex scene included on the extras as well as a bunch of other material not shown in the theatrical version.

Also discovered that Cameron has compiled a "Pandorapedia" that he's used for the back story and future story and a portion of this has been online for a while. I've checked out some of the entries and it's pretty cool. The entry on the ISV Venture Star is worth the trip...wondering if there are plans to eventually publish this as a book like the "Halo Encyclopedia" that came out last year. I love all of this extra stuff just adds to the movie IMO.

I'm hoping for a more complete release of Horner's score.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ That would be excellent as well...I really enjoyed it. I think I read that he did at least three hours of music for the movie so it's possible we could get a second volume at a later time.

 

[wamdue]

so should I go see this movie in 3D tomorrow?

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

so should I go see this movie in 3D tomorrow?

If you do see it, it's worth seeing in 3D.

 

[wamdue]

so should I go see this movie in 3D tomorrow?

If you do see it, it's worth seeing in 3D.

that is my thinking, I dont think my SD TV is going to do the movie justice.

 

[NIUPonyBoy]

yeah, well, 2001 didn't break even till YEARS after its first release, so grouping it with AVATAR in any category like 'hit' would be redefining the word in a big way.

I wouldn't call 2001 a hit in the box office, but that is a truly fine piece of sci-fi movie-making. It has stood the test of time and is a hellva movie and a 'classic.'

There is no way a movie about Dance's With Wolves rapping Ferngully and cast with Smurf's on steroids will be even close to that. It won't even been as popular as the Matrix flicks, which now looking back at... are stupid. Yet were popular at their time.

 

[Kegg]

The expanded material sounds interesting. It seems Cameron really has an eye for Avatar to be the next Star Wars in more ways than one, namely, in terms of a marketable sci-fi film franchise with an immersive world. As I rather liked the movie and, more to the point, really enjoyed getting lost in Pandora, this isn't that bad of an idea at all.

It won't even been as popular as the Matrix flicks,

I'd dispute that. The film may be already more popular than the Matrix films, and even if it isn't, (I don't claim to know these things) it's definitely arguably in the same ballpark of popularity.

Personally I liked it somewhat more than the Matrix; but then I was never a big fan of the Matrix. That's not to say it's a better film, though, the Matrix mixed its bundle of intellectual posturing and kung fu action rather well (though even as a twelve-year old I found the spoon bit annoying and the messianic twist obvious, but then, I was a precocious and very annoying twelve year old rather convinced that 2001 was a work of genius. In some ways I've never grown up.)

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

It won't even been as popular as the Matrix flicks...

It's already far more popular, and will remain so.

 

[Harvey]

The Matrix faded away rather quickly once the sequels hit. There's no doubt that Avatar is more popular than the Wachowski Brother's franchise right now. But that's to be expected, since Avatar was released ten weeks ago and The Matrix was released eleven years ago. It's be interesting to see where things stand in 2020, when the novelty of immersive 3D has worn off and at least one Avatar sequel (and perhaps two or three more) have hit.

 

[ST-One]

yeah, well, 2001 didn't break even till YEARS after its first release, so grouping it with AVATAR in any category like 'hit' would be redefining the word in a big way.

I wouldn't call 2001 a hit in the box office, but that is a truly fine piece of sci-fi movie-making. It has stood the test of time and is a hellva movie and a 'classic.'

It's a classic because of it's breathtaking effects.
Other than that it's a bore.

 

[NIUPonyBoy]

It has a decent plot, something Avatar sourly misses.

 

[T'Baio]

I didn't know Avatar, as an inanimate object or abstract concept, could have emotions.

 

[ST-One]

It has a decent plot, something Avatar sourly misses.

What's the plot?
Finding what the message was about?
Finding out what's wrong with Hal?
Discovering the origin of the monolith?

There are no explanations and there is no point to anything.
I think Kubrick was just fucking with the audience when he put that film together.

 

[Kegg]

There's no doubt that Avatar is more popular than the Wachowski Brother's franchise right now. But that's to be expected, since Avatar was released ten weeks ago and The Matrix was released eleven years ago. It's be interesting to see where things stand in 2020, when the novelty of immersive 3D has worn off and at least one Avatar sequel (and perhaps two or three more) have hit.

Very true. A franchise is only as good as its latest sequel. Just see the sparks that fly when George Lucas is mentioned. He's near universally reviled in some circles for the Star Wars prequels and the last Indiana Jones movie; his role in staring both franchises is less commented upon.

And then there's imitation. The Matrix had revolutionary special effects which were done to death, and then more death, and then appeared in the sequels and got done to death again. Avatar's visuals may feel similar after yet another decade or two of similar vistas and alien creatures.

But then, another decade or two of alien vistas is something I'd want.

 

[Brit]

It has a decent plot, something Avatar sourly misses.

You are talking about 2001? One of the reasons it didn't make money at first is because most people didn't understand the story at all. I saw it first run in a theater and I can tell you I figured it out simply because I had read a lot of Clark in the first place, especially "Childhood's End." People came out of that theater with the worse "HUH" looks on their faces that you have ever seen.

It was only after some started smoking maraijuana to the light show at the end that it made any kind of money.

I loved the space ship, but the story went right over most people's heads.

Brit

 

[ST-One]

It has a decent plot, something Avatar sourly misses.

You are talking about 2001? One of the reasons it didn't make money at first is because most people didn't understand the story at all. I saw it first run in a theater and I can tell you I figured it out simply because I had read a lot of Clark in the first place, especially "Childhood's End." People came out of that theater with the worse "HUH" looks on their faces that you have ever seen.

It was only after some started smoking maraijuana to the light show at the end that it made any kind of money.

I loved the space ship, but the story went right over most people's heads.

Brit

A movie has a problem (lots in fact) if it can't stand, and be understood on its own.

It's okay when a film is hard to understand and goes right over ones head after the first viewing so long as you can understand it more after seeing it a second or third time. 2001 never gives its audience that chance.

 

[Kegg]

A movie has a problem (lots in fact) if it can't stand, and be understood on its own.

Granted, but 2001 can.

No, really. There's an internal logic to the whole structure of the movie that's understandable solely by judging the film's own merits. Just for one thing, note the trajectory of the scenes: We move outward. From Earth, to Earth orbit, to the moon, to beyond the moon, to Jupiter, and then... beyond the infinite.