what makes me hate the movie avatar (i guess its kinda a spoiler)

[better dylan]

Originally Posted by spooky

it wasn't the story of Unobtainium,

YES! YES IT WAS! IT WAS THE STORY OF THEM TRAVELING FUCKING LIGHT YEARS AND BEING READY TO KILL AN ENTIRE RACE FOR ONE SIMPLE PURPOSE!!! IF YOU TAKE THE UNOBTAINIUM OUT THEN THERE IS NO MOVIE!!!

[picard102]

Just came back from it and I don't see what the big deal is. It wasn't bad, but it's not something I'd bother with seeing again.

[Bucho]

Originally Posted by spooky

Let's all be honest, the story was good, really good. Finely crafted, honed, sharpened by the story having been told several times before with great success. We've all seen it before, at least if we are over our twenties.

There's nothing wrong with that.

That's exactly right, the story itself is fine. The archetypes are solid, the emotional beats are in place and the re-tooling of it into a futuristic setting is pretty well worked.

But after this story being told a few times before why is Avatar a worse telling of that story? Why did Cameron stand on the shoulders of those giants and yet the telling of that well-worn story fall below them? Why are the characters who fit into the tropes we saw in Dances With Wolves and The Last Samurai and Pocahontas less compelling than the characters in those previous films?

The choice of a predictable story was smart, for the obvious reason that it had to be a proven popular tale that would maximize appeal to the widest possible audience, to give it a shot at making its money back (which it has already doubled easily, going past the billion in only three weeks). What was disappointing was that 210% effort went into the look of the thing and only 21% effort went into making that story really sing. It's a fun ride, it's just not a great film.

[Zscout]

Avatar was the exact same movie as Pocohantas was.

[Malcolm Is Moore]

Originally Posted by Ansur

you know what's going to happen with him and the chick

I had to stop myself from bursting out laughing at the almost alien sex scene.

[jeffdrafttech]

I almost didn't go see it because of the techie hype and reviews about a boring story.

It's fucking space dances with wolves filmed using new technology. It was awesome. It wasn't as good as Dances, but it was pretty great and the story definitely didn't suck.

The only really lame thing about it was the marine leader character. Over acted, stupid dialouge, etc. He could have been rewritten a lot better. He should have had some conflict about doing what he did, rather than be a sure-of-himself redneck type. The one gung-ho gunner guy shouldn't have been in there either. The bad guys were just to black in general. Dark gray would have been better.

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The use for the mineral doesn't matter. It just represents the thing of value men are wiling to kill for, disregarding any and all ethics or morals. It's oil in Iraq or land in 1830s America.

[CuriousKlepto]

Originally Posted by Bucho

Why are the characters who fit into the tropes we saw in Dances With Wolves and The Last Samurai and Pocahontas less compelling than the characters in those previous films?

Bucho, I both love and hate you right now. While you have finally connected the dots as to why I had deja vu during Avatar, you also got Colors of the Wind stuck in my head.

[Junkenstein]

I'll just say that i'm more and more convinced NOT to see Avatar now. I would have done it for the funsies, but Dances with Wolves is one of the most painful and boring movie expoeriences i had in my life. No thanks.

PS: Klepto, of all the Chipmunks, why did you have to rape Theodore? He's the cute chubby one! Poor Theoodore!

[Station]

Im not going to go see it, especially because everyone says i absolutely have to, OMG, this is the greatest movie ever Sluuuurp. No thanks, I could probably guess what the plot is before i sit down to watch it, it's Fern Gully meets Pocahontas. The only thing left after that is the tech, and frankly, I don't see what the big deal is. Does it look good? Yes. Does it look any better than the cg in lord of the rings or the recent star wars movies? No. I've seen movies in 3-d, they're cool, but i'm not going to wast my money if all i'm getting is that. This movie was made so they can start selling you 3-d capable televisions and blu-ray players in the fall.

[Saint Marcos]

Originally Posted by better dylan

YES! YES IT WAS! IT WAS THE STORY OF THEM TRAVELING FUCKING LIGHT YEARS AND BEING READY TO KILL AN ENTIRE RACE FOR ONE SIMPLE PURPOSE!!! IF YOU TAKE THE UNOBTAINIUM OUT THEN THERE IS NO MOVIE!!!

I think you're missing the point. Unobtanium is in no way the purpose for the movie. In fact, the detail of it is so unimportant that they didn't bother to explain it. And, the presence of it is so unimportant that, if removed, it could have very easily been replaced by any other known or unknown desire. For example, remove unobtainium & just pretend that the King of the Human Universe wants to make his new castle where the Tree of Souls now stands. He doesn't have to explain himself, he's King of the Human Universe for crying out loud.
ROLL FILM!

It would make no difference & therefore is not purposeful to the film. I thought the name of it was stupid, but now it makes more sense reading some of these posts.

In the end, unobtainium was placed on the planet long ago by the Eywa, the mother Goddess, so that it could now be used as the catalyst for conflict. A conflict she needed to in order to unite the tribes & get some tribal cross-breeding going on (not to mention the bonus of the fresh introduction of human DNA). Do you know what happens when you isolate a small gene pool over along period of time? You get guys that look like this guy! :