I am planning to watch and from the trailer it seems this movie might be the eye candy of the year; the story has been done a million times 🤢

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smurfs!
with tails!

Quote from robbit

smurfs!
with tails!

🤣 🤣 🤣

Anyways, not planning to watch it.
I'm most likely gonna watch something else. Since the people I'm going with didn't even list Avatar as their potential-movie-to-watch.

The story and dialogue were full of cliche but didn't prevent the movie from being enjoyable. The visual was great, which is to be expected since it's the selling point of the movie. Watch it in 3D if you can otherwise it'll be just another CG movie.

Quote from tartufo

I'm also curious whether the movie critics are right when they say that this movie has a primarily male audience. Is that true? Any ladies watching this film? Please speak up! Lol, I'm a girl and I'm definitely interested in the movie; I thought it was weird that people were saying guys would like it more.

I don't know about this. I'm a girl and I quite enjoyed the movie and so did my sister. My brother however, didn't like Avatar. He said (being a hard core gamer that he is) he's played dozens of games with that story that he could practically tell right from the start what the ending would be. He said the visual was the only saving grace. But he didn't watch it in 3D so maybe he would've enjoyed it more if he had.

I'm seeing it tomorrow and this discussion actually gave me more hope. I thought that it looked like it would have a terrible story but really great effects and I was just going for the visual effects. Well, I'll see how I like it tomorrow.

I did see some parallels with District 9 and I found both movies very entertaining (however District 9 felt more original). Both movies have you sympathize with the aliens and make you enjoy the human slaughter the aliens do. And I am a girl as well and I found it still awesome. Also,

The romance was alright, even though a bit awkard. The movie seems to be catered those a general audience rather than just a male one

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Having a good time...

I really liked it..
I saw it in 3D... But they didn't make use of the 3D capabilities IMO... Alot of it I could have watched without the glasses on but that doesnt ruin its beauty.. It was beautifully made! I got completely engrossed into the world!

I found the correlation between the aliens and Pocahontas/Native Americans distracting.. I think it would have been more entertaining without all the in your face Pocahontas references..

I was surprised that it wasnt a 'kiddy' movie.. They curse and say 'fuck' several times during the movie.. It was more of an adult movie..

Would I watch it again? yes
would i reccomend it? defineately!

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I think the movie was amazing in more ways than one. I prefer it 100 times over to his blockbuster film (Titanic...to me that film has less plot than this one by far, but I can see many layers of other meanings and goings on in this film vs just the simple telling of the day the Titanic went down with a few characters).

I don’t think of it as simple as Pocahontas mixed with other films. Though he may not have meant for other facets to be taken from the movie, they are surely there. I see what is currently going on in our corporate America towards the citizens and smaller business of our country (and the rest of the world) being visually displayed within the plot. The people we’ve been buying grass fed beef from recently are now in a court battle because of these large corporations using rather unjust laws to put them out of business (this is just one example in MY life, there are thousands of instances of this across the country).
Anyway, you could think of these people as us, or you can take the que from our own history and decimated a whole civilization for our own greed and prosperity (which continues today…we still do not uphold any signed treaties that we feel are not in our best interest, it’s really the foundation of this country). This differs from history however in the fact that those who were the underdogs won. If the end would have followed history I would have detested the way the film went.
Another aspect is the Navi, the way the planet functions like a network, and even the name of the film Avatar. I think he also meshed in the current online gaming culture with these elements. You could really think of the whole movie as a representation of how we’ve become connected through the net, and how the virtual reality of the “Navi” seems to be more a reality these days. You can see the man character fighting between the dual realities that he plays, and what ends up more important to him in the long run.

I don’t think a movie has really touched on these subjects quite as well as this one, no matter if some of it is clichéd or not. To me, these points were not as in your face as movies like Wally (hated it to death, as it seemed to preach). And visually, it is the most amazing, stunning movie I have watched in all the years I’ve been alive.

I cannot wait to see movies in 10-20 years with the rate that technology in the film industry is going. The movie is at least truly breathtaking (I saw it in IMAX 3d, and it was worth every penny). No movie has been so visually captivating or beautiful. They could have spent the entire movie just exploring the planet and I would have felt my money was well spent.

I think there is a lot more to the movie than I wrote above, but my thoughts between yesterday (when I should have posted this) and today have muddied, and my well phrased argument is now lost (story of my life...procrastinator). Things I've taken up reading/watching however may have influenced my enjoyment. I've read/watched many things by Noam Chomsky, history of the US by Howard Zinn, and many documentaries (like Food Inc).

It's not a breakthrough, but I suppose it was entertaining in a conventional sort of way. There's a pretty strong argument that sci-fi hasn't really evolved, thematically speaking, since The Left Hand of Darkness in '69, and I think this movie can serve as a small portion of evidence to support it.

The visuals were interesting, but I had difficulty suspending disbelief with some of the color choices. At least they didn't give the pseudo-dragons arms. That said, the 3d didn't always help the flick. If I thought it would be worth the time, I might watch the 2D version and try to decide whether it was more visually appealing. Aside from one or two specific shots, it seemed to hinder more than help.

Also, Gaia hypothesis based conflicts are old hat. Just have to say it.

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NightSwan also said that she wanted to peg me, once, but I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or a threat...

I watched it in 3D and visually, I think it was the best movie I have ever seen so far. Plot-wise and dialogue-wise, it's not AS good imo. Was anyone else thinking POCAHONTAS as they were watching this? I just thought it was a sci-fi/technologically advanced version of the Pocahontas story (with the main male character as John Smith and the main female character as Pocahontas, disapproving father etc.). It's interesting that some of you are comparing this movie with District 9. I watched Avatar with my younger sister and she laughingly asked me if I didn't think Avatar was better than District 9. I replied that they can't really be compared since they seem to be of slightly different genres and formats.

Visuals and effects aside, I do believe that the idea behind the story of District 9 is way more original and the movie itself seems better developed. Avatar was neither better nor worse than I expected. I guess it's typical of your everyday blockbuster/action type movie. It was a wonderful, sensory viewing experience though. Much smarter and better than 2012... 🤣

Just came back from watching the movie.
All I can say is there is good content but it doesn't pack a punch. Frankly the Dialogues sounded better in the trailer.

Quote from Nirhtuc

Visuals and effects aside, I do believe that the idea behind the story of District 9 is way more original and the movie itself seems better developed.

TOTAL agreement with you there; District 9 was of a higher intellectual level, very cleverly done and the acting was ridiculously superb, as was the spectacular script. thumbs up There are thematic similarities between the two movies but District 9 made many of the same points more powerful by bringing them closer to home (on earth) and making the movie's viewpoint more cynical/dry about human nature. Avatar was much more emotional therefore couldn't offer the kind of scathing insight that District 9 did. BUT...

Avatar was neither better nor worse than I expected. I guess it's typical of your everyday blockbuster/action type movie.

Not in agreement with you here. 😉 My expectations weren't too high originally as I was expecting a simplistic storyline; it actually was more complex and MUCH more rewarding than I expected. Plus the trailers actually didn't live up to the sheer visual wonder of the film... Holy COW, this was the most stunning film I have ever ever seen in terms of the visuals alone! I was absolutely blown away. Definitely not a typical blockbuster in my view - a blockbuster but a well-deserved one. I couldn't say "visuals and effects aside" because they were so powerful I can't even think of the film without them. So amazing... I had difficulty returning to Planet Earth after watching the film, lol. 🤣 Part of me wanted to stay on Pandora; heck, if you'd given me a spaceship with warp capability and a spot on the galactic map to navigate to, I would've totally gone there the moment the movie ended. And I might never have come back. 😀

That said, the one weakness of the movie that really stood out for me were that some things were just too hammy/pat. Like when...

... the marine reveals to the Nav'i that he was spying on them (should've been pretty obvious from the start anyway) and then he's spurned, but accepted back so quickly! I mean. Yeah. What? Plus the whole conquering the giant bird-beast to make an impression... Didn't it happen too easily for something that had supposedly only been done 5 times in that species' history? And this young newbie human comes along and gets it to happen without any struggle. I mean he was "chosen" by the planet so that kind of makes sense in a destined-hero sort of way, but I would've appreciated just a few extra minutes of screen-time showing him wrestling with or trying to control the beast or having this Moment with it or something; it would've made the whole scenario so much more realistic.

But those were only brief moments of weakness; almost nothing could actually detract from the visual power and the spirit of the film, which was infectious and fresh and frankly very beautiful. I mean seriously... @_@ I was dizzy by the end of it...

Am I the only old-fashioned twerp who prefers the 2D to the 3D version? Maybe that's coz the theater I was at had lame-ass 3D glasses or something, because the fast action sequences appeared blurred and kind of ruined the action scenes for me (which were the most thrilling parts and therefore more important to get right). It was so much clearer in 2D. At least for me. Or maybe I have astigmatism or something. 😕

One way in which I think Avatar actually trumps District 9 is that I had a very strong emotional reaction to when...

... that Tree of Life thing came crashing down and the Nav'i people were so painfully distraught... It was like... I got that, I really felt that sense of devastation that a culture can feel when something so important to them is destroyed.

That kind of raw emotionality was lacking in District 9 even though it was intellectually the stronger, cleverer and better-written film. Avatar took the risk of making a very overtly emotional and spiritual movie about a similar situation (humans mistreating aliens), and therefore sometimes took it too far and became hammy in brief moments, but the risk and the cost of those moments was worth the payoff that I just talked about - that total empathic synchronicity which I had. Admittedly it could've been done better and didn't need the hammy moments, but they didn't happen so often that they ruined the movie for me, so... shrug

Plus Avatar makes the empathy easier because the alien culture is examined in greater detail; District 9 probably couldn't do that anyway because it was aliens on Earth, not on their own planet where their culture could be seen in its proper form. I mean that wasn't a fault of the film, just basic opportunity cost for basing the movie on Earth (which had other advantages like making us empathize with more local human refugee situations). I did relate emotionally to the aliens in District 9 too, but less immediately and powerfully because of that culture gap that was never truly explored (couldn't be).

Unexpected favorite line of the Avatar movie?

When the Evil Jarhead General guy says: "We fight terror with terror." Bush, anyone? :P Lol talk about a parallel condemnation of America's war in Iraq.

What were everyone else's favorite lines/moments?

So I just got back from seeing it and I really enjoyed it. It was very pretty and the effects were wonderful. The story was very reminiscent of pochahontas, and I did actually like the plot. Although it was not the most brilliant movie, it was very enjoyable. I didn't get to see it in 3D though. I really wish I did. 🙁

I thought it was a pretty good movie based on what other movies I have seen this year. The visual effects were nice ( the whole movie, in my opinion, was kind of a new start with all the movies orbiting around violence lately) but not overwhelming.
The one part I liked the best, although contradictory to what I said, is

When Colonel Whatshisname pulls out his tactital knife and fights the crazylandbeastthing at the end.

"Struggle is the father of all things. It is not by the principles of humanity that man lives or is able to preserve himself above the animal world, but solely by means of the most brutal struggle."
-Adolf Hitler

@Sefel, yeah that Colonel is one lean mean fighting machine. 😀

Does anyone think this movie will be nearly as good on DVD? I mean will you buy it? I think that since the visuals are so important in this movie that the DVD will get decent-to-bad reviews, 'cause this is basically a large-screen cinema hit and the story isn't that strong to still be amazing to watch on the TV screen. Without the big-screen special effects the movie might be kind of lackluster... I dunno, what d'you think?