Avatar: Now that you've actually seen it. No spoilers in OP

Smurfahontas. I love it.

How’s this for a fantasy movie: we can all eat ice-cream and cookies every day, and it’s GOOD for you.

But wait. And it’s in FOUR-D!!! And the fourth dimension is Spirituality. Beautiful, peaceful, harmonious Spirituality.

And the U.S.A. is evil. And the grown-ups all have pig-faces.

All evil executives practice putting in their office. (See Outland for another example) Tropes oughtta’ have a page on this.

Er, what? :confused:

Yeah! Death to Capitalist PigDogs!

He’s making fun of the movie’s ridiculously simplistic plot.

Those dog-like monsters that were going to kill Jake (until that sexy Na’vi chick saves him)-were they hunting companions of the Na’vi? The chick obviously felt bad about killing one “this did not have to happen”.
Second:those jellyfish like (or milkweed seed like) things that floated around-exactly what did they do?
In Jake’s video blogs, the date is always given as month 11 of earth year 2154-this stuff happened fast!
The planet Pandora orbits a Jupiter-like planet that fills the shy-wouldsuch a large moon wreak havok upon Pandora? (high tides, etc.)?

Thank you, Duality, for explaining to Illuminatiprimpus. (He’s only a bureaucrat, and an “education” one at that.)

They’re seeds of some sort (I think maybe Tree of Souls-seeds), and apparently more directly in tune with Eywa than most living things (hence why them clustering on Jake was a sign from Eywa).

And I didn’t notice dates on the video logs… Were they timestamped in the corner, or something?

Yes, the dates were in the lower lefthand corner, wih his name, class/rank, and security level.
I also wondered why when the Na’vi try to get Sigourney to transfer to her Na’vi body, here earth body had to be naked (as was Jakes)-and those mold-like RS232 bus connected things were growing into his (human) body.
The nights were neat on Pandora-with all those phosphorescent plants around!

I think you’re taking this movie a wee bit too seriously.

Yeah, we don’t know much. I only know how to make tea and sharpen pencils.

This seems to be a Rorschach blot of a film; I’ve heard it called an “obvious” copy of all sorts of films and books.

It was made for the film.

I’ve heard that before, and I really can’t take it seriously. I imagine a bunch of Na’vi roughing up Gargamel. “We hear you have a problem with blue people…”

Why Smurfs and not, say, Nac Mac Feegle instead? Smurfs are boring; Avatar recast with ten foot tall Nac Mac Feegle would be funny.

I saw it a second time and liked it even more. Once you know that it’s a simple plot you can just enjoy the power of the images all the more. And some of the scenes do pack in a lot of emotional punch: the blazing aftermath of the attack on the big tree for instance.

In many ways I think it’s best to think of the film as a piece of religious mythology from the Na’vi point of view. As in a lot of mythology, you don’t have nuanced characters or a complicated plot but an elemental battle between good and evil. The issue is whether the medium vividly dramatizes the battle between the two and the movie does a splendid job in that regard. The early scenes with the Na’vi do a magnificent job of portraying their world and ethos; I can’t think of another film where an entire ecosystem is created and explored in such loving detail. And like I said the post-apocalyptic scenes depicting the onslaught of evil are very powerful; I also agree with Mangetout Lang gave a hell of a performance, IMO the best in the film.

I also appreciate the screenplay more after a second viewing. There aren’t many standout lines but there is also very little fat in the script. Almost every scene and line serves a purpose and illuminates some later scene. One theme that struck me as more important on a second viewing was Sully’s alienation from other human beings because of his handicap contrasted with the way he is accepted as a full member of the Na’vi.

Saw it last night in 3D and liked it a lot. Amazing visuals, with a level of detail that was just amazing. Definitely the kind of movie you gotta see on the big screen. A predictable and unsubtle script, all in all, but I didn’t particularly mind.

I can think of two obvious reasons. First, it’s Sigourney friggin’ Weaver. Any excuse to get her naked is a good one. Second, from an in-story perspective, the tendrils probably had to connect to her in many places, and the shamans might not have even known precisely where they’d need to connect. Best to give it the benefit of the doubt, and not have clothes blocking the tendrils anywhere.

This is true; it was a very efficient script. It also did a good job of giving us a tremendous amount of information about this new world, without it ever feeling like an info-dump.

Anyone get a Nausicaa vibe from those scenes?

Apparently someone noticed that a movie decrying the forced relocation of indigenous peoples for the sake of industrial development doesn’t exactly mesh with government policy.

Does this have to be posted in every fscking Avatar thread? It’s got nothing to do with this thread’s discussion.

It is about Avatar after all. China’s only yanking the 2D version. The 3D/IMAX versions will continue to play for those who can afford to pay extra. It does cut down on the revenue though since there aren’t as many 3D/IMAX theaters in China. It’s funny, I found this article written way back in November about a month before it opened, about how well it would do in China. This article was dead on at how popular it would be, but of course they couldn’t possibly predict that China would yank the 2D versions.

I just read this from the New York Times:

Luminous 3-D Jungle Is a Biologist’s Dream

As a tropical biologist, the article really sums up for me why I liked the movie so much:

While there were a few things that were implausible (among them a sentient race that looked so much like humans) overall I was just blown away by the attention to detail in creating an entire alien ecology. I’ve never seen a movie that accomplished this anywhere near as well.