# Avatar was a bad movie. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 8, 2010, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-was-a-bad-movie/531738 "2010-03-08T16:46:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2010, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-was-a-bad-movie/531738/141 "2010-03-16T05:45:16Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Am I the only one who didn’t like the 3-D effects in _Avatar_? I found the movie to be pretty trivial in general, and the 3-D effects didn’t help. Why are we supposed to be impressed by a bunch of crap floating in front of our eyes? No you are not the only one. Putting aside the little known fact that unobtainium is a rare element that repels the gravitation force of movie plots I found the 3D effects poorly executed. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2010, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-was-a-bad-movie/531738/142 "2010-03-16T06:06:24Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Thanks, but I was under the impression that the the magnetic fields which created the flux vortex around the floating mountains were caused by some other phenomenon unique to that particular area I never correlated it with the unobtainium. Reading this sentence caused a Band-Aid® to form around the bridge of my eyeglasses. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2010, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-was-a-bad-movie/531738/143 "2010-03-16T06:35:58Z")
What a difference a missing period makes, huh? 😃 Ahem, everyone kindly insert a mental period at the end of the sentence before “I never correlated it…”. Thank you. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Duhkecco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8491ac/32.png) [@Duhkecco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duhkecco)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2010, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-was-a-bad-movie/531738/144 "2010-03-16T12:18:00Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > It was explained in the movie, so why did so many people miss it? The plot was pretty simple and unconvoluted; I could follow it even while staring at the pretty pictures. Having it explained in the movie doesn’t make it any less contrived and silly. > [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > If I had more time and the Oscars weren’t receding in people’s minds by now anyway, I might compose an OP going into it all. I don’t know how I could think more highly of [Cameron] as a film-maker. If I had more time, I might compose an OP going into all of the silliness in the movie. But, I realize that “silliness” is in the eye of the beholder, and in the degree of immersion in a movie. I enjoyed parts of the movie and I appreciate the creative energy that went into it. But, I was not swept away. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-was-a-bad-movie/531738/145 "2010-03-18T02:48:19Z")
Wait, was the material actually called “unobtainium” in the movie? I thought that was just how internet posters mocked the movie. You know, by drawing a parallel between Avatar and the execrable [The Core](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0298814/), which had a super material that was called unobtainium. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-was-a-bad-movie/531738/146 "2010-03-18T03:18:33Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Wait, was the material actually called “unobtainium” in the movie? I thought that was just how internet posters mocked the movie. You know, by drawing a parallel between Avatar and the execrable [The Core](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0298814/), which had a super material that was called unobtainium. Nope, that’s what it was called in _Avatar_. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-was-a-bad-movie/531738/147 "2010-03-18T09:09:17Z")
“Unobtainium” is a standard term among engineers for a material that would satisfy the requirements for some project if it only existed, so the term long predates _The Core_: > **[Unobtainium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtainium)** > > Unobtainium is a term used in fiction, engineering, and common situations for a material ideal for a particular application but impractically hard to get. Unobtainium originally referred to materials that do not exist at all, but can also be used to describe real materials that are unavailable due to extreme rarity or cost. Less commonly, it can mean a device with desirable engineering properties for an application that are exceedingly difficult or impossible to achieve. > The properties of any pa... ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-was-a-bad-movie/531738/148 "2010-03-18T09:12:22Z")
Cool, thanks for the link. Learned my something new for the day. Now I know what all those super-profitable widgets back in Accounting class were made of. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-was-a-bad-movie/531738.md?page=7)