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Reply With QuoteJeepers! It was GunNut I just challenged to a duel. Ah, weel. Guess I'm dead.
Prof
Well, I went to see the thing.
I never go to movies in the theatre (A chronic Mary grump) because a) I can't smoke or head for the head without missing something & b) A large, seat-overlapping heroically obese person always sits next to me. This time I figured that it might be worth it, & we went during the middle of a work day. Sparsely inhabited theater, so I was spared the globular lipid incursion.
It was OK. The special effects were nice; good eye-candy. I finally got to see what all the 3-D hooraw was about. It was OK, too, although the colors were far brighter when you removed the glasses, something I did from time to time. I actually involuntarily dodged a rock or something hurtling in my direction at one point, which was kinda nifty.
The politics? Yeah. Dances With Wolves goo. Ah, well. Don't forget that the Hero/Messiah was also a Marine. But against that, I like reasonably nekkid ladies, even when they're 9ft tall & blue. & I want a big animal to flap around on, zoomie-style.
Now, come, come. This hippy stuff. My wife considered herself a hippy. In the 60s, when that stuff was "real", not some goofy-ass retro shit incorporated into the Entitlement Movement. She's an IT exec at the Gas Company now. Like, & liked, her fine in either incarnation. Even before we got together, hippies marvelously improved my sex life. Sorta went with the territory. Sometimes conformity can be good. Even excellent. 'Course, they hadn't invented AIDS yet back then. Maybe you meant guy hippies, Mssr. L'Bartender? If not, meet me tomorrow on the sandbar with your second & a physician of your choice, sir.
I don't know if any of you folks ever watch the TV series Bones. I do. A subplot in one of the recent installments was an homage to the movie. A regular in the series, the guy who plays an Eeyoreish intern at "The Jeffersonian Institution" & who was also our turncoat's intended Mentor in the movie, was featured prominently. Very funny, especially now that I've seen the film.
My review: On balance, I expect that it'll be another couple of years before my lady gets me into one of those places again.
Cheers,
Prof
Jeepers! It was GunNut I just challenged to a duel. Ah, weel. Guess I'm dead.
Prof
Death by Webley. Could be worse. No! Wait! It's January 2! I get choice of weapons! I forgot about the new winter rules. Cheese slices @ 20 paces.
Prof
Loved the movie. I want my own avatar.
~String
Obamas take in 'Avatar' on New Year's Eve - MSN Movies NewsObamas take in 'Avatar' on New Year's Eve
Dec. 31, 2009, 2:47 PM EST
KANEOHE, Hawaii (AP) -- President Barack Obama's family have spent New Year's Eve with the Na'vi.
The Obamas visited a movie theater to see "Avatar" near their rented vacation home in Hawaii on Thursday morning. Officials say the first family had the theater to themselves to watch director James Cameron's tech-heavy film.
The Obamas, including first daughters Sasha and Malia, left their compound before noon on New Year's Eve. Before the screening, Obama, a self-described movie buff, worked out at the Marine Corps base nearby.
The Obamas are set to return to Washington in the new year.
"Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.
The unobtainium the company was after might be capable of creating a singularity if properly stimulated thus allowing worm holes and thus FTL travel. if stimulated in another way it may have a reverse effect and repel say ferros metals which the mountaisn could be loaded with. The mountaisn are in the flux after all.Originally Posted by Chogy
just my .02
i watched it twice. once 2d once 3d.
2d was far better.
i guess it is not a "3-d movie" but more likely a "movie that can be seen in 3-d"
Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none; be able for thine enemy rather in power than use; and keep thy friend under thine own life's key; be checked for silence, but never taxed for speech.
Dam, I thought I read Obama's take on Avatar. I was all ready to read a gushing review of the morals of the new classic.
400posts...
one of best i think
agreed.
Avatar describes&open in question the greedy human nature who can destroy many other valuable things when screamig "development".
the movie underlines that despite all that "civilised" & "developed" nature of humans they dont have any "world" left to live in.
their greedy nature destroyed their world & culture by destroying other cultures & mother nature
all that "advance" technological mambo jambos could not save their own planet.
nothing can prevent humans greedy nature, only the human it self can control it.
but for this one must be "awaken"
on the other hand despite all the magical & supernatural life that Na'Vi's live they could not defend theirselves.
so back to the Na'vi's philosphy.
balance once again balance must be kept by all and in all aspects...
i think the movie is all about this.
Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none; be able for thine enemy rather in power than use; and keep thy friend under thine own life's key; be checked for silence, but never taxed for speech.
Watched the movie.Can't say I was thrilled for a second.Characters are some of the most boring in years.The natives are dumb.I mean after they're supposed to be in contact with humans for years they still shoot arrows at those armed Osprey's.And those bad white colonialists...
I want a remake on Zulu.I want Mel Gibson leading bayonet charges.
Those who know don't speak
Audiences experience 'Avatar' blues - CNN.comAudiences experience 'Avatar' blues
By Jo Piazza, Special to CNN
January 11, 2010 8:06 a.m. EST
(CNN) -- James Cameron's completely immersive spectacle "Avatar" may have been a little too real for some fans who say they have experienced depression and suicidal thoughts after seeing the film because they long to enjoy the beauty of the alien world Pandora.
On the fan forum site "Avatar Forums," a topic thread entitled "Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible," has received more than 1,000 posts from people experiencing depression and fans trying to help them cope. The topic became so popular last month that forum administrator Philippe Baghdassarian had to create a second thread so people could continue to post their confused feelings about the movie.
"I wasn't depressed myself. In fact the movie made me happy ," Baghdassarian said. "But I can understand why it made people depressed. The movie was so beautiful and it showed something we don't have here on Earth. I think people saw we could be living in a completely different world and that caused them to be depressed."
A post by a user called Elequin expresses an almost obsessive relationship with the film.
"That's all I have been doing as of late, searching the Internet for more info about 'Avatar.' I guess that helps. It's so hard I can't force myself to think that it's just a movie, and to get over it, that living like the Na'vi will never happen. I think I need a rebound movie," Elequin posted.
A user named Mike wrote on the fan Web site "Naviblue" that he contemplated suicide after seeing the movie.
"Ever since I went to see 'Avatar' I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na'vi made me want to be one of them. I can't stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it," Mike posted. "I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora and the everything is the same as in 'Avatar.' "
Other fans have expressed feelings of disgust with the human race and disengagement with reality.
Cameron's movie, which has pulled in more than $1.4 billion in worldwide box office sales and could be on track to be the highest grossing film of all time, is set in the future when the Earth's resources have been pillaged by the human race. A greedy corporation is trying to mine the rare mineral unobtainium from the planet Pandora, which is inhabited by a peace-loving race of 7-foot tall, blue-skinned natives called the Na'vi.
In their race to mine for Pandora's resources, the humans clash with the Na'vi, leading to casualties on both sides. The world of Pandora is reminiscent of a prehistoric fantasyland, filled with dinosaur-like creatures mixed with the kinds of fauna you may find in the deep reaches of the ocean. Compared with life on Earth, Pandora is a beautiful, glowing utopia.
Ivar Hill posts to the "Avatar" forum page under the name Eltu. He wrote about his post-"Avatar" depression after he first saw the film earlier this month.
"When I woke up this morning after watching Avatar for the first time yesterday, the world seemed ... gray. It was like my whole life, everything I've done and worked for, lost its meaning," Hill wrote on the forum. "It just seems so ... meaningless. I still don't really see any reason to keep ... doing things at all. I live in a dying world."
Reached via e-mail in Sweden where he is studying game design, Hill, 17, explained that his feelings of despair made him desperately want to escape reality.
"One can say my depression was twofold: I was depressed because I really wanted to live in Pandora, which seemed like such a perfect place, but I was also depressed and disgusted with the sight of our world, what we have done to Earth. I so much wanted to escape reality," Hill said.
Cameron's special effects masterpiece is very lifelike, and the 3-D performance capture and CGI effects essentially allow the viewer to enter the alien world of Pandora for the movie's 2½-hour running time, which only lends to the separation anxiety some individuals experience when they depart the movie theater.
"Virtual life is not real life and it never will be, but this is the pinnacle of what we can build in a virtual presentation so far," said Dr. Stephan Quentzel, psychiatrist and Medical Director for the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. "It has taken the best of our technology to create this virtual world and real life will never be as utopian as it seems onscreen. It makes real life seem more imperfect."
Fans of the movie may find actor Stephen Lang, who plays the villainous Col. Miles Quaritch in the film, an enemy of the Na'vi people and their sacred ground, an unlikely sympathizer. But Lang says he can understand the connection people are feeling with the movie.
"Pandora is a pristine world and there is the synergy between all of the creatures of the planet and I think that strikes a deep chord within people that has a wishfulness and a wistfulness to it," Lang said. "James Cameron had the technical resources to go along with this incredibly fertile imagination of his and his dream is built out of the same things that other peoples' dreams are made of."
The bright side is that for Hill and others like him -- who became dissatisfied with their own lives and with our imperfect world after enjoying the fictional creation of James Cameron -- becoming a part of a community of like-minded people on an online forum has helped them emerge from the darkness.
"After discussing on the forums for a while now, my depression is beginning to fade away. Having taken a part in many discussions concerning all this has really, really helped me," Hill said. "Before, I had lost the reason to keep on living -- but now it feels like these feelings are gradually being replaced with others."
Quentzel said creating relationships with others is one of the keys to human happiness, and that even if those connections are occurring online they are better than nothing.
"Obviously there is community building in these forums," Quentzel said. "It may be technologically different from other community building, but it serves the same purpose."
Within the fan community, suggestions for battling feelings of depression after seeing the movie include things like playing "Avatar" video games or downloading the movie soundtrack, in addition to encouraging members to relate to other people outside the virtual realm and to seek out positive and constructive activities.
Wow, and I thought I needed psychological help...
Good to know there are people in this world way more F'ed up than me.
"Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.
"Things I learned while watching Avatar" @ AMERICAN DIGESTNeo has some of the smartest commenters in the zone. Case in point: commenter Jim Sullivan at neo-neocon's Avatar: the war against humans brings us the very best round-up of the educational aspects of Avatar. Heed him and LEARN heedless humans!
* It's OK to kill things as long as you use a bow and arrow and not a gun or missile.
* Teh Interwebz au Naturale of the Allmother (or whatever the f*** the Giganto-smurfs called her) beats the technology of a species that has harvested the power of the atom, is capable of celestial travel, and has armored the unholy f*** out of everything. Also:
* It's a much better way to call up your bizarro world rhino and pterodactyl allies (the ones that previously wanted to eat you) than a Tarzan call or a Conch shell. But, you still have to send the Dire-pony express to the Four Corners of the world to rally the tribes.
* Soldiers are bad unless they are A) not Caucasian or B) handi-capped. All other soldiers are A) psychopaths B) mindless myrmidons or C) nameless cannon fodder (or in this case arrow fodder)
* Even shallow, selfish, homicidal savages are good because they're savages and therefore inherently and unquestionably noble.
* The best way for primitive screw-heads to fight off a technologically superior, militarily sophisticated force is to fight the superior force on their terms. Asymmetric strategy, insurgent tactics and guerrilla warfare couldn't possibly even the odds. Not in a million years.
* All scientists are compassionate and resent the very soldiers prepared to die to protect them. This is completely reasonable and in no way intellectually dishonest. Hollywood decrees it!
* Subjugating other species is wrong -- unless you are able to have mind-blowing ponytail intercourse and biologically hack into their brain. Then it's OK.
* When you encounter a new mineral that floats and causes whole mountain ranges to float, the coolest, catchiest, most marketable name for it is Unobtainium. After you succeed in mining it, it semantically transforms,a la magma/lava, into HaHaHa!I'sAllMine-ite.
* When the nobly savage Giganto-smurfs, the Emo-scientists and their Land-networked planetary defense menagerie evict the eeevil military-capitalist Gestapo from their idyllic floating mountain paradise back to their ecologically dead world, the nature frolickers all live happily ever after. There's no chance in hell that those same military-capitalists will return with a full blown invasion fleet. Never happen. Hollywood decrees it!
Glad I'm not the only one.
"Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.
Keeping in mind that Avatar was just a movie, I would like to make a couple of observations.
There was no mention of a treaty or even permission for the humans to mine "unobtainian" on Pandora, being an alien world. So one must assume that the Humans have decided to plunder the wealth of another world for the betterment of Earth. Seems to have parallels to some cultures here on earth.
I don't think mention was made as to the need for Unobtanian, as in is it something the the Earth needed to keep life going as we/they knew it? Please correct me if I'm wrong
Why do the Humans believe they are the higher beings in this situation? While they have better technological equipment and kick arse hardware, the gentle people of Pandora lived a subsistence lifestyle where food and other necessities were managed. Not like here on Earth where man has raped the seas and the forests for money, leaving an ecological wasteland that threatens the whole human race. What gives Humans the right to decimate Pandora? How many Earthlings can plug into the brain of animals and be as one? Compare that to technologically advanced helicopters and walking machines controlled by a computer system, that I hope was not Windows based.
If the Earthlings were as advanced as they would have you believe, they would have worked out the floating mountains, and not just accept it as an anomaly that interrupted navigation systems.
The movie also focuses on the Americans version of peace, that being as long as everything goes the way of the American military, there will be peace, if not, they'll throw more hardware and man power at them until peace is sustained. The loss of life as now seems to be something that is to be expected, and get over it. The Marine Colonel was the wrong person to have as CO. He was more Gung Ho that the Co of the chopper regt in Apocalypse now. On a side point, can someone tell me why the Marines say WHEERRP and OOORAH a lot? I'm Australian and don't understand.
The movie was set 150 years in the future; one would like to think that in 150 years from now, we would have a few more clues as to global warming, sustainable farming and forestry and minerals, world peace (but then again, man has fought wars since recorded time), living with their fellow man.
Mention was made of a battle in Venezuela, this begs the question; why was the US fighting in Venezuela? Maybe that was the last known deposit of unodtanian, who knows?
Again, please keep in mind that this was just a movie, not foreign pollicy.
Freddie
Never hold your farts in, they run up your spine, and that's where shity ideas come from.
vēnī, vīdī, velcro - I came, I saw I stuck around.
Prof, Mihais
Avatar is a breakthrough in artistic technical point of view
It is also a breakthrough in 3D cinematic production which could and have started a new hype and interest in 3D movies (3D televisions, 3D porn, more 3D movies)
It set itself as a new benchmark for the next upcoming 3D movies,
previously 3D movies are seen as gimmicks to rob people a few more dollars than the movie's worth, throwing stuffs, speeding cars, buzzing planes
but Avatar shows of how 3D filming techniques can be brought to a new level, scene dramatization and focus in real life scenes, and heavy 3D contents through out the length movie
If someone tries to make a robot movie, he will find himself competing with the impressions of the Transformers movies
If someone tries to make a sci-fi action flick, they will find themselves versus the cheesiness but compelling actions from the Matrix series
If someone tries to make a space saga adventure movie, they will first duel with Luke Skywalker before attempting
If someone tries to make 3D sci-fi real life emulating flick, they will be compared with Avatar
a 3D trailer of Battle for Terra is shown before Avatar is played, and one can see it is pale in comparison with Avatar. Not good for an upcoming movie
Avatar has set a high new bar of how animated movies are made and produced in many aspect. 2 billion dollars in revenue of worldwide screening. hmm... I want to be James Cameron
Sir Freddie
James Cameron himself stated that Avatar is a pro-enviroment and anti-war movie, and everyone can see Avatar carries that heavy nuance in the movie
Replying to your post :
Unobtainium is a term usually used widely in storytelling and movies, referring to rare, expensive, highly desirable mineral/material which is very hard to extract. People usually invent names for the mineral/material but in Avatar they simply go for unobtainium
It is human nature to behave so when encountering less sophisticated civilizationWhy do the Humans believe they are the higher beings in this situation?
Human were once as nature-friendly creature as the depicted Nav'is in AvatarNot like here on Earth where man has raped the seas and the forests for money, leaving an ecological wasteland that threatens the whole human race.
As in real-life mining operations, people will only go for the most feasible and profitable locations.If the Earthlings were as advanced as they would have you believe, they would have worked out the floating mountains, and not just accept it as an anomaly that interrupted navigation systems.
The movie tries to be artistically accurate, and provokes interest with such accurate depiction, making relations with real life situations. It's one of some story telling technique to get the audience involved with the story, even after they leave the screening room.The movie also focuses on the Americans version of peace, that being as long as everything goes the way of the American military, there will be peace, if not, they'll throw more hardware and man power at them until peace is sustained. The loss of life as now seems to be something that is to be expected, and get over it. The Marine Colonel was the wrong person to have as CO. He was more Gung Ho that the Co of the chopper regt in Apocalypse now. On a side point, can someone tell me why the Marines say WHEERRP and OOORAH a lot? I'm Australian and don't understand.
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