Wednesday, 16 December 2009
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Is Avatar Going To Suck?
(Source)
Avatar is finally opening this week. After being worked on by James Cameron for 10 years, being anticipated by nerds and fanboys everywhere for two years, and months of hype, it is finally going to be here.
In fact, there is even a fake holiday name for it's opening. Avatar Day.
Let's take a little look at what got us here. James Cameron has been hyping this up for the past year, talking about how it is going to completely transform movies as we know them. Everything from making films to how we experience them would be completely rocked to its foundation by this movie.
Then the first footage came out. And ... well ... people were a little disappointed, to put it mildly. There was outrage at all corners of the interwebs. People felt betrayed. Widespread opinion was pretty well represented by South Park when they called it Dancing With Smurfs.
But perhaps, this backlash was just a reaction to Cameron setting the bar too high, a small rational voices called out.
That view was pretty much shouted down, but those saying that this was going to be as godawful as Titanic, but worse because it's Titanic + a race of blue Jar Jar Binkses.
But now that the reviews are coming out, critics everywhere seem to be saying that the movie is pretty damn spectacular. Flawed and heavy handed at times, of course, but still pretty spectacular. Even the hardest cynics and Cameron skeptics are backpedaling.
Is it really going to be that great? Or is it still going to suck?
Based on the promotional materials that were singled out by the studio as selling points for Avatar a few problems keep surfacing:
- While the cgi environment looks incredible, the creatures tend to look cheesy and fake
- Clumsy, heavy handed dialogue
- A culturally biased, hackneyed plot of white man saves the natives
I'm going to hold out until I actually see the film. But if the script and plot are as bad as they seem in the promotional material then there is just no way that this film can live up to what the critics are saying.
Is Avatar going to suck?
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Comments (39)
I've already seen it at a pre-screening and I will tell you that the story is classic boy-meets-alien girl, but they manage to pull it off. The effects are absolutely amazing though so I would definitely recommend it.
The characters are definitely not cheesy and while you're watching the movie, you feel as if Pandora and the Na'vi are actually real and you're watching a documentary rather than a work of fiction. I must say it was well made and worth every cent they spent on it.
for the last several years cgi's have been capable of near to perfect human reproduction..but the thing is studies show we are not comfortable with this..that we want and even need the flaws to be seen ..soo... he may have had to make this with those flaws for that purpose alone... in other words the flaws were created to meet our flawed needs..
I don't think it's going to suck, and the reviews so far (as much as you can rely on them) say it's not going to suck either. I'm going to go see it opening night with some friends for someones birthday.
It better not, I am so excited to see it. I think it looks absolutely amazing.
i honestly never heard of this movie until a couple weeks ago. i don't live under a rock, i'm not sure how this one slipped by me, if it is indeed so very hyped.
Why are you surprised? Almost anything coming out of Hollywood is shit these days.
- Kunoichi
I feel like I watched the movie just by viewing the preview, but hopefully it will prove me wrong as being not so predictable as I suspect it to be.
I really hope not.
i hope it suks cuz that wun dude hooz innit ya kno the aussie he iz TOTALLY hot ok! yikes
Hope not. I have plans to see it.
Part of that "Clumsy, heavy handed dialogue" as you put it, was created by linguist Paul Frommer. In his own words on NPR, he said what hard work it was:
"He [the director] wanted a complete language, with a totally consistent sound system, morphology, syntax...he wanted it to sound good — he wanted it to be pleasant, he wanted it to be appealing to the audience."
Sad how after so much work, it is not appreciated. People really suck sometimes, just saying. Then again, that's the double edged nature of opinion...not everyone is going to be a fan. Sigh...
No, the reviews are quite decent. The special effects look amazing. I can't wait.
Nothing by James Cameron sucks. Even Titanic had a cheesy love story on paper but the movie itself, while you're watching it, retains your interest. And then you have his sci-fi classics. True Lies was campy but that was just part of the movie's insane fun. No Cameron film is perfect but they've all had that essential quality to be good, even great films. He's a solid filmmaker, not just a technician. I have faith that I'll at least be entertained by Avatar while occasionally awed. I won't let the extra "hype" affect me. If it's good, it's good. If it isn't the greatest movie ever, who cares?
And I really have issue with people who complain about the "cliched" and "cheesy" plot. Is there any such thing as a truly original plot nowadays? I mean, what were we expecting, a story we've never seen before? I think any angle Cameron could have chosen would have been derided as "unoriginal." He's revolutionizing technology, but he knows he can't do the same for storytelling. So instead he decided to tell a solid love story. What's wrong with that? If not love, what else would anchor the film?
Most likely. It looks very predictable and crummy.
i hope it wouldn't. my friends who love the avatar cartoon are not watching it cos they say it's stupid and doesn't even look like the cartoon LOL.
@thedystopiandweller@xanga - agreed.
i'll be seeing this opening day!
woohooooo (yep i am a nerd) 
I think I missed the entire anticipation part of this movie. I didn't know about it until I saw the trailer in theatres..
And when I saw it, I totally thought it was supposed to be a movie version of the cartoon. I'm way off base with this movie.
I really want to see it... So I hope it doesn't suck!!!
I agree with this article. (minor spoilers)
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/blogs/the-vulture/dont-just-watch-avatar-see-it/20091216-kx47.html
Space = cool
Fighting aliens on a distant planet = cool.
Man remotely controlling another entity (the blue alien) = cool.
Man controlling alien turning alien village against humans = not cool.So, yeah... Its going to suck. But it will look gorgeous doing so.
looks like it's gonna suck.
Just watch the movie and shut up.
Obviously, there's gonna be plenty of people who will hate this movie no matter what, but seriously? people are way too quick to judge, especially with movies, and fail to appreciate how much work actually goes into these things. so if James Cameron wants to throw a multi-million dollar action film at us, i say quit complaining and just enjoy it for what it's worth.
@xueyo@xanga - haha they do know that this movie has nothing to do with the cartoon, right? that movie's not coming out until like, 2010. (and it's being directed by M. Night Shyamalan, for some reason...)
here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0938283/
Agreed, from the previews.
2) Clumsy, heavy handed dialogue
People, it doesn't matter who you are, the writing DOES matter.
3) A culturally biased, hackneyed plot of white man saves the natives
Rampant colonialism/genocide, anyone? Yuck.
You said it. For these reasons it will suck. And I hold a separate grudge against it because it stole the name "Avatar" from the movie that it actually belongs to: "Avatar: The Last Airbender" by Shyamalan.