Movie Theater James Cameron's Avatar

[Just Me]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: markspring1978</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: kombayotch</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: markspring1978</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I'm surprised to read this thread. After watching the movie (which was visually amazing) I was thinking that people who have served in our armed forces, or who have loved ones who have, would be very upset by the fact that our troops are cast as the "bad guys". Since when is it cool to cheer against Marines or anyone for that matter who has served our country? Some may argue that the movie didn't explicitly state that the troops were United States Marines but that was the clear insinuation.

Furthermore, I guess Cameron really felt it was necessary to demonize the troops as mindless lemmings who love to kill just to get the viewer to feel better about cheering against them. All the other political correctness is disappointing but I can get past it, this issue however was very unsettling. </div></div>


It didn't explicitly state it because it wasn't the case. They weren't any nation's military, they were a private security force... basically, like Blackwater.

Most people were either too pre-occupied with the visuals or too busy thinking about banging the blue alien chick to pay any attention to the underlying messages anyway. Who cares, its just a movie... </div></div>

<span style="font-weight: bold">What led you to believe that it was a private security force?</span> They specifically referred to the military as "Marines". </div></div>

Well, They said so at the beginning of the movie.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

Saw it Saturday, IMax/3D. Solid. Wow. I paid dearly, for entertainment, and got my money's worth, to say the least.

It's a <span style="font-style: italic">movie; fiction, even.</span> Jeez guys, back it off a notch, willya?

I absolutely loved it, as did my Bride. Quibbles? Giovanni Ribisi's character was written far too shallow. Aside from that, I can live with it.

Also, just got back from seeing <span style="font-style: italic">Sherlock Holmes</span>, same complex. Also totally entertaining.

I went to the movies, paid for entertainment, got same. I guess I lack the necessary hangups...

Greg

 

[chrisboc]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

Great movie. 3D was great.

 

[Guest]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

 

[Lucks]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

Tucker,
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought this. I've got a 7 year old and 3 year old daughter, and it seems Pocahontas is in the DVD at least once a week at my house. The whole time I was watching Avatar I thought, "this is fucking Pocahontas.". Both movies even have the same Tree of knowledge BS in them.".

 

[chris223]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

saw it thought it was good plot great effects .

 

[SonicBoom]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

This movie and me are like peas and carrots

 

[adamedner]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

I went and saw this movie the last weekend. I saw it in 3D but just at a regular theater. I will get this out of the way first. I honestly thought that the 3D effect was rather poorly done. I thought I was looking at a popup book rather than a 3D movie.

Also something to get out of the way at the start is that I did like the movie. I thought it was fun to watch. Even though it was a well overused story, it was still enjoyable to hear again. The acting was good and the animation was outstanding. The settings were surreal and quite enjoyable to look at.

However…

There are some obvious problems with the story. Mostly dealing with underestimating Marines. To answer the question if they were Marines, the answer is yes. However according to notes by Cameron the military acts more as a group of mercenaries. I would think that they are all still trained like Marines.

Now some of you here might be or might have been Marines. Thoughts of loyalty and completion of the mission are embedded very deeply in the minds of Marines. I have seen this in my friends. They are very loyal, also very obedient. The government uses Marines when failure is not an option.

In this movie they are portrayed as idiots. When Jake was assigned to the science group as security, he walks away 2 minutes after they start pulling samples. There is a question for people who are in military and are familiar with the rules and regulations. What happens when you go AWOL in a time of “war”? If I remember correctly the trooper in question gets executed, right?

How about getting sent in with out proper armament? In the movie they have those rhino creatures that seem impervious to the weapons of the Marines. I have a hard time believing that the Marines would even bother with caring weapons that were ineffective. If they aren’t going to work then they aren’t worth the extra weight.

Another thing. What’s with this “fill the shuttle with explosives and then drop them on the Awha tree”? We have stuff that does that kind of thing now, minus the whole massive casualties thing. I am talking V2s and ICBMs. We can deliver more explosive payload with one ICBM than that shuttle could have ever carried. Maybe 6 or 7 V2s (depending on what they are loaded with) would do the job as well. I once heard that ICBMs travel MACH 11. Even though ICBMs are big, if they are traveling at MACH 11 it would be really hard to hit out of the air with bows and arrows.

Now there are about a hundred or so other examples that prove Cameron knows absolutely nothing about the Marines. Or it could prove that we would be well on our way to Mike Judd’s vision of the year 2525. “Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator. Its got Electrolytes.” - idiocracy

 

[tigerhawk]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

SoggyPowder, I agree with you completely. I was never in the Marines, but I have friends who were, and I know their skills and attitude well. I do not believe that Cameron does not know any. This movie portrayed Marines as incompetent, bumbling fools. I can only imagine what kind of country Cameron envisions, given that he made a movie like Avatar. I wonder if next, he may make a movie demonizing gun ownership.

 

[adamedner]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

Well just to play the devils advocate, there might be a reason that the Marines in this movie do not act like Marines. Again going back to Cameron’s notes about the movie he said that the military became mercenaries due to the fact that there were “no more wars to fight”. If that is the case the funding for training would come from negotiating contracts. Depending what the situation is like, that may just be very little money. Also in the beginning they stated that the economy was “bad”. So there may be very little money to go around for contracts. So I guess that you could say that the Marines of that time would be more comparable to modern day security forces (like Black Water).

I also thought that it should be known that Cameron did not mean to make the military look like the bad people. That doesn’t seem to hold up through the movie though with lines like “I only need one Idiot with a gun”. Also if you look at Aliens, Marines in that movie are all slaughtered and it is up to the scientist who has no training to save the day. He may not say that he hates the military directly but it sure comes through in his movies.

In the end it is just a movie. It is just entertainment. It is not there to make a statement (outside we are killing our planet, we started the war in Iraq to take the oil, and that the military is evil). If you sit back and just take the story for what it is the movie is a very good movie.

 

[tigerhawk]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

I do not mind you playing devil's advocate, and I respect your point of view. Mine, however, differs from yours somewhat. You referred to the movie Aliens, where, again, the Marines were all slaughtered, and yet you say that Cameron did not mean to make the Marines look like bad people. If you really wan to play devil's advocate, do you want to find me two movies of Cameron's that make the Marines look good? That would seem to be required to demonstrate that he did not mean to make them look bad. After all, repeated presentation of the same point of view tends to get it believed by many, even if it is false. So if a number of his movies make the Marines look bad (I will try to find more such movies), it might indeed demonstrate an intention on Cameron's part. You also said that "He may not say that he hates the military directly but it sure comes through in his movies." So it appears that you see this pattern, too.

 

[adamedner]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

LOL, it was a sarcastic comment. Yeah, Cameron hates the military.

In the Terminator movies (1 and 2 are a few of my favorite all time movies) who's fault is it for unleashing SKYNET? The military, the Air Force specifically.

Rambo: First blood Part 2. I can't honestly say i have seen this one but from what i can tell it is about Rambo trying to get away from a corrupt military general. Please correct me if that is wrong.

The Abyss. Who was sent down and goes crazy while trying to blow up the aliens at the bottom of the abyss? The only person who shouldn't have, the Military (Green Beret if i remember correctly).

True Lies and Titanic i am not too sure on. True Lies has Bill Paxton and Arnold Schwarzenegger in it and now you know all i know about that movie. The Titanic hit an ice berg (which i am sure the military placed there).

One thing that I kind of missed from the Avatar movie is that a majority of the Aliens that were used in Cameron films were thought up by a strange man named H. R. Giger. But in the end that might have been a good thing. If he did the Na'vi would have probably looked like this:

 

[tigerhawk]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

That's the problem with emails and posts; sometimes it is hard to determine tone...lol...

However, it has always annoyed me to see members of the media using their freedom of speech, which has been bought again and again with the lives of good men and women, to disparage the very people who have fought and are fighting for that freedom. It has also always annoyed me to see the media using the freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment, to bash the Second Amendment.

 

[adamedner]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

I think what it has to deal with is the fact that people think that if there was no military then there would be no war. Now we both know that is blatantly incorrect, however that is how people rationalize it. Kind of like – if there are no guns then there would be no crime.

Another thing hit about Avatar is that it looks like a lot of the aircrafts in it look like the Hornets in Halo the video game.

 

[tigerhawk]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

Those people should be educated to the fact that there was war before there were guns, or other weapons. In fact, weapons came into being because man felt the need to fight. And, again, the media should be more responsible about this, given that the 2nd Amendment safeguards all of the others.

 

[g5]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: tucker301</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

</div></div>

 

[396chevy]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

I saw it a while ago with my GF she liked it I didn't, I don't care much for the whole "were killing our planet" green liberal tree-hugging BS. {PS I dont know about you guys but I'm set to inherite about 1000 acers of land, that sould take care of any possible "carbon footprint" I could leave.} Anyway thats what I found the meaning of the movie to be. It did not live up to the hype, nor the cost. But the animation was dam good I'll give them that. Not bad just not something I will own.

 

[scottsnipe]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

I thought it was pretty good, didn't know the the movie was 3 hours long but still a very entertaining movie.

 

[adamedner]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PcL5Wghm7-s&feature=related"></param> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PcL5Wghm7-s&feature=related" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"> </embed></object>

Just when it couldn't be any better.

 

[tigerhawk]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

God, that's funny!

If people are going to be depressed because their lives are not like what amount to fairy tails, I guess they will just have to spend their lives being unhappy.

 

[30378]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

Another liberal political stab at the minds of our children.

 

[tigerhawk]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

Exactly!

 

[adamedner]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

A lot of people are saying that they would like to live like the Na’Vi and since we “killing our world” (sorry about that liberal backwash)they can't live like that. They say that they want to be more in touch with the earth. Kind of like the Native Americans were back when we first started settling here.

The thing that these people don’t get is that the Na’Vi were “under developed” people. Its not that they were more in tune with nature than the rest of us, but they had a lack if development. They tried though. They had cloths to cover them selves. They domesticated animals to help with travel and labor. They had saddles for those animals too. So you can see that they were trying to evolve. It is only a matter of time before they live in houses and drive cars.

Evolution could be simply described as “making life better”. For example: some Na’Vi person thought that traveling would be easier if they could fly above the trees. So he went and found the flying lizard things. He soon realizes that when he is flying fast that falling off becomes a problem. So he invents a saddle to sit on when he flies. Now that he can fly faster he finds that bugs smashing into his eyes sucks in a major way. So he invents the goggles. This is only the start of things. In 400 years they might have flight jackets to keep from getting cut up in the trees; or helmets to keep from cracking their heads open when they crash.

Their contacts with the humans probably super accelerated their development. Again going back to the Native Americans. When the settlers first showed up they were a lot like the Na’Vi in the movie. They had knowledge of the land, crude cloths, simple weapons and the belief that they could speak with nature. After a while the natives started adapting the technology of the settlers realizing that wheels worked better than dragging mats and guns were better than bows.

What those people who say that they want to live like the Na’Vi don’t realize is that in maybe 2000 years or so they will be in the same spot as they are now. The only difference is that they are 10 feet tall and blue. Also, if the movie were to extend to 13 years after the humans left, the Na’Vi would probably face extermination when the corporation came back for the ore. I highly doubt that they would pussy foot around the natives the next time they come.

 

[DustyJacket]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

I enjoyed it for what it was.

Yes, it had parts of:

--Dances with Wolves

--Pocahontas

--Call me Joe

At least it wasn't a remake of some tired TV show, or a comic book......

My wife gets motion sick so she watched the action shots without the 3-D glasses.

 

[DustyJacket]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: SoggyPowder</div><div class="ubbcode-body">A lot of people are saying that they would like to live like the Na’Vi ........ They say that they want to be more in touch with the earth. Kind of like the Native Americans were.......</div></div>

Until it snows, or you need toilet paper, or someone gets sick, or needs glasses, or is bored, or it rains, or some beast is trying to eat you, or a bigger guy wants to beat you up or kill you, or..........

They don't think things through. Kinda like the "let's have a revolution or anarchy in the USA" folks......

Pretty pathetic people out there I guess.

 

[adamedner]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

Calling them pathetic is not really a fair judgment. It would be better to say under privileged. I am sure that statements like that come from people who live in big cities who have little contact with nature. They are so locked up in that big city they don’t realize that there is stuff like that all around them.

I am sure I would kind of feel that way too if it weren’t for the fact that I do a lot of camping and hunting. I try once a year to just go out and live in the woods for a week with minimal supplies (and only 1 MRE). There are a lot of reasons why I do this but the biggest one is just to get away for a while. People in big cities most likely don’t get an opportunity to do something like that. If every one had that opportunity then I think that there would be a lot less people saying that they want to live like that.

Let me tell you right now, after that week in the woods nothing feels better than a nice cold beer and a shower.

 

[tigerhawk]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

Excellent posts, SoggyPowder. Very well said.

 

[tigerhawk]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

DustyJacket, you have hit the nail on the head. You have stated the truth that the treehuggers do not want to see; that they can only be treehuggers because civilization allows them to obtain the necessities of life through working at something they presumably (and hopefully) like to work at (and which probably damages at least some part of nature), while blathering on about how we do not need civilization.

 

[tigerhawk]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

30378, I like your sig.

 

[ssgp2]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

I`m re reading Rainbow Six.(Tom Clancey)

It`s a good read to put things back in perspective....

 

[the m700 project]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

Is anyone else in love with a 8 foot tall blue woman?

 

[Shady_Jay]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

reminded me more of Joe Versus the Volcano

 

[Lowlight]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

I saw it for the first time yesterday in 3D... pretty awesome effects, seamless... but the Pocahontas edit nailed it.

 

[captin_kirk]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

Definately watch it in 3D

 

[the m700 project]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

wait guys its possible we can all be Navi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zaJdq0VUtk&feature=rec-r2-2r-10

 

[ltpurcy]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: the m700 project</div><div class="ubbcode-body">wait guys its possible we can all be Navi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zaJdq0VUtk&feature=rec-r2-2r-10</div></div>

LOL!!!!!


anyway *cough*

The movie story wise isn't ground breaking and I don't think its meant to be anyway, Cameron wanted to smash the cinema experience not a story experience, and hes done that.

The whole experience watching it in 3d is mind blowing, it really drags you in and entangles the world of Pandora around you i looked up at one point when they were walking through the forest to stretch my neck and i saw leaves dropping on my head.

People dont realise the way the 3d is done its TRUE 3d its all around you, not like typical things popping out of the screen.

And people who torrent it or watch it in 2d is pointless.

 

[Dogtown]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

And just so you guys know, making a 3D film like that isn't twice as hard as a normal 2D film - it's actually about four times as difficult. You get nothing for free and you can't rely on tricks and hacks to make the imagery work. A paint fix here or there will look correct in one eye and wrong in the other which ruins the look and jumps out at you as "wrong." On top of that, we normally confine geometry to the camera frustum where possible, but when making a 3D film you can quickly find yourself in a situation where everything looks fine in 2D (we develop the imagery in 2D first - usually Left Eye - only when that's approved do we move to the stereo process) but as soon as you transition renders to 3D stereo you realize that some weird edge is showing up because you're now looking at the scene with binocular vision.

 

[Guest]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

I finally nabbed a good download in 720P/5.1, so we watched it last night.

Visually a stunning movie.
The storyline was predictable from the get go and never took any kind of a twist at all. 3rd grade level storybook stuff.

 

[lindahlish]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

Haha, totally in on the bangin the blue chick idea. I want a 9 foot tall, bow shooting, super skinny, athletic, blue, hot girlfriend now. The lead male actor didnt do half bad either.

 

[427Cobra]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

Evil Corporation V Tree Huggers, I still liked it.

 

[lostangel]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

The fairy people of FernGully have never seen humans before, but when Christa sees one, Zak, she accidentally shrinks him down to her size. But there is trouble in FernGully, for Zak is part of a logging team who is there to cut down the forest.

Ferngully is a rain-forest, it is home to a race of fairies who have never seen humans and believe Humans don't exist and only exists in stories. That is until the arrival of Batty, a wacky bat who tells the Fairies that he has seen the Humans. Curious, when she sees smoke from Mount Warning, a fairy named Crysta travels beyond Ferngully and discovers a group of humans is destroying the rain-forest. Crysta discovers a human named Zak who is helping destroy the rain-forest and accidentally shrinks him. Once discovering the beauty of Ferngully, Zak and Crysta learn the Fairies and Ferngully itself are in mortal danger, when the humans free Hexxus, a evil oil-like creature who along time ago was turned into a tree when he tried to unleash chaos in Ferngully and has taken over "The Leveler" a logging machine as he begins his evil scheme to destroy Ferngully and only Zak, Crysta, Batty, Pips and The Beetle Boys can defeat Hexxus and save Ferngully from destruction.


Ferngully, a spectacular rainforest where a bat named batty, whose radar has gone haywire, joins together with Crysta, Pips and the Beetle Boys to save their world from the evil Hexxus. Ignoring the warnings of her friends, Crysta, the curious tree fairy, explores the world beyond Ferngully. She discovers Zak, a human who is helping to demolish the rainforest. Once Zak sees the beauty and magic of Ferngully, he vows to save it. But it may be too late. The diabolical Hexxus is on the loose and is intent on destroying all of Ferngully.

 

[sobrbiker883]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: kombayotch</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
Most people were either too pre-occupied with the visuals or too busy thinking about banging the blue alien chick to pay any attention to the underlying messages anyway. </div></div>

Brainwashing 101.

Glad I saw it, good effects and all. I'm still tickled pink his ex bested him with The Hurt Locker.

 

[crazy bay]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

I laughed my balls off when the mech warrior dude pulled out his giant bayonet.

 

[samuraiwarrior23]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

Just watched this last night.I'd give it 2.5 stars

 

[kennicka]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

Saw it in 3-d. It was a great movie visually. Kids had to own it so we bought it. Watched it again. While it was still good, seeing it in 3-d was definitely the way to go. I agree with what everyone is saying about the storyline being old news but I find it easy to see past that for a visually stunning effect as was given.

 

[Walsh]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

I thought that the effects were great, I felt weird though for thinking about the blue chick.....

 

[Moonraker]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

I loved the movie personally, but this was funny shit.


<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: g5</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: tucker301</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

</div></div>

</div></div>

 

[RAF2]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

Thought the movie sucked. Did not see the 3d.

DAnces with Smurfs...

Though I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the blue chicks boobies...

 

[sandwarrior]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: captainbarred</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Land before time 3 :lol:


Thats fuckin funny!!!!

FWIW, I have both seasons of Dark Angel...

The show is nothing great, but Jessica Alba's hotter than hell!!!

</div></div>

Yeah...most of us would give up trees for maybe a whole month for one night with Jessica Alba....

 

[GRIM]

Re: James Cameron's Avatar

Great movie - but did you get the moral to the story ?

No matter how much you try - you can't herd cats.