Slashdot Mirror
Avatar, Has Sci-fi Found Its Heaven's Gate?
brumgrunt writes "Den Of Geek wonders if James Cameron's Avatar is heading for a fall, and if it will even be a science fiction film, off the back of the previews shown last week. It writes: 'It seems in Avatar that all this gee-whiz science is merely there to draw the "old crowd" in and provide some kind of rationale for a brightly-coloured fantasy-world which reflects the most emetic of the artwork plastered over teenage girls' MySpace pages.'"
Wait, what is this story? Looks like some editorial about how Avatar won't be good.
Uhhh...the movie is supposed to convince people to dress in identical black shirts and sweat pants, brand new black-and-white Nike Windrunner athletic shoes, and armband patches reading "Avatar Away Team" before committing suicide by mixing barbituates with vodka and plastic bags?
If Rocky Horror Picture Show didn't induce that type of cult-like following -- though it was damn close -- I have a hard time imagining Avatar will.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven's_Gate_(religious_group)
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Or, Avatar will completely whip ass and this and all other negative critiques will be laughed at and/or forgotten.
stuff |
Where District 9 is already as great as Star Wars and a movie that's not even out sucks.
"Most Snarky Use of the Word 'Emetic'"
And, may I add, perfectly appropriate and accurate, when used in reference to a huge proportion of the great wasteland that is MySpace.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
So are we now judging a book by its cover? Thanks but no thanks, I'll wait until I see all the reviews on rottentomatoes before making judgement. Something tells me critics who have actually seen the movie and know how to write and think about film might be a better barometer than random nerd on the internet.
Funny how the synopsis mocks teenage girls, but we dont mock teenage fanboys who loudly declare "FAIL" after just seeing a teaser trailer. Seems thats the more odious habit.
Ironically, the teaser trailer has done its job: its got everyone talking. So little an investment for so much publicity.
You're basing all of this on a *TEASER TRAILER*?
Who wants to go out and pay $10 to watch a Halo vs. World of Warcraft movie when you can play either in the comfort of your own home? They don't mix together. No one wants to see tall blue Elvish Ewoks. At least no one with a brain...
Raise your hand if the first thing you thought of was the suicide cult?
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
>third-rate fantasy masturbatory session for furries and other WoW-playing losers.
Err, you do know youre posting on slashdot, right?
In Avatar, mankind has the ability to cross the voids of space in an effort to mine a mineral rich alien world. Bring these minerals back for refinemant and use. We have the ability to implant a human mind into an alien avatar body that we have ourselves created and control that persons new avatar body. And yet we can't repair a paralyzed human body? Fail.
My humor is probably your flamebait
>third-rate fantasy masturbatory session for furries and other WoW-playing losers.
Err, you do know youre posting on slashdot, right?
That's why he posted AC.
I learnt about Avatar the other night, when I saw an ad for it. I looked it up on Wikipedia, read it over, and I thought, "This looks like Dances with Wolves in Space." I was curious whether anyone else made that analogy, so I googled "avatar film dances with wolves."
..."
The first hit I got was "James Cameron: Yes, 'Avatar' is 'Dances with Wolves' in space
At this point, it would have to be really damn good for me to see it. I don't need blue aliens telling me how bad White Manifest Destiney was in the United States. But I definitely don't need the overtones of insert-enlightened-human-here going in and saving the tribe^H^H^H^H^H by becoming it's leader, which is what the director was talking about.
Just say'n.
Avatar: FernGully with Mechs.
I'm more excited about the Last Airbender, to be perfectly honest, so "Avatar" in the thread title always gets me...
I think people should stop nit-picking about Avatar being science fiction... yes, it is science fiction.
Stupid, sexy Flanders.
""It seems in Avatar that all this gee-whiz science is merely there to draw the 'old crowd' in and provide some kind of rationale for a brightly-coloured fantasy-world which reflects the most emetic of the artwork plastered over teenage girls' MySpace pages"
That's stupid....everyone knows that teenage girls use facebook and twitter now..NOT myspace. Duh,
I mean, it's based on the fantasy TV show of the same name that's on Nick, right?
Only if "Air Bender" is a new ball shoe endorsed by a Futurama character.
Honestly, I doubt it. Their entire catalog is skewed towards a younger demographic, and their recent announcements have indicated a trend towards sequelitis.
I think the tougher question is why they've never taken it upon themselves to take a chance with a more mature (PG-13 to R rated) offering. Most of their profits are realized through merchandizing, so anything they can't stick on a lunchbox, backpack, bedspread, or turn into little plastic figurine is off the table. The most Avatar can hope for is some blacklight posters sold at Spencers.
furries are mainstream now? whats next, some kind anthropomorphic plant suit? plantees?
ummm perhaps I am missing the tongue in cheek snideness of these comment's but, this is a movie, which is made up and is not real.... :>)
but hey this is just me being a troll I suppose.
It looks all flashy and might indeed be very good..we'll soon know.
Personally, I'm more looking forward to the other 'Avatar'. The one they had to call simply "The Last Airbender" due to copyright, trade name collision, whatever. I know the story there is good and compelling. Hopefully Shamyalan does the live action version justice.
But not in avatar yet. Does anybody remember Battlefield Earth? Anybody? That was a bomb on a similar scale and it was in the sci-fi genre. Really, do we need to ask this question? Has Sci-Fi managed this long to go without a bomb? NO!!!! Dumb title/hook. Try again.
That was my first impression as well. It doesn't do much to convince me that the movie will be legitimate science-fiction, rather than fluffy science-fantasy, when the aliens are bright anime-blue with giant cartoon doe-eyes.
That said, it will probably sell like gangbusters for this very reason. However, it's absolutely not going to kill the science-fiction film genre. For proof, check District 9. One guy marketing something as sci-fi doesn't kill the legitimate movies for those who know what they're looking for. Even if that person is James Cameron.
Write your representatives! Repeal the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics!
That's actually what I thought when I heard the title too. Except that's "Avatar: The Last Air Bender." And there is a movie coming out called "The Last Air Bender" which is based on that anime. This "Avatar" is unrelated to that one. Needless to say, I was still rather confused.
Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
"Will 'Avatar' be the most amazing film ever and justify my spending the last year in nerd-lust over it? I don't actually know a thing about it other than what's in the trailer, but I presume that it won't."
"...which reflects the most emetic of the artwork plastered over teenage girls' MySpace pages"
Ever since Twilight came out and fangirling became mainstream, the response by so many boys has been dismissive and derisive. But in a room full of boys talking about World of Warcraft nobody flinches. It's a double standard.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Seems like it's begging for confusion with "Avatar: The Last Airbender"
Camping on quad since 1996.
Oddly similar to my first impressions. I was very excited by the first few moments then all of the sudden it devolved into something I'll probably not even see on video.
sure... while teenage boys' fantasies get exalted into "real sci-fi"? (like, say the recent star trek movie?) mayhap den of geek should adjust his testosterone obsession by reading ursula le guin, c. j. cherryh, octavia butler, dorris lessing, joanna rush, emma bull, oh and heck, anne mccaffrey. i can't help but imagine that it would nicely leaven the quality of questions about sci-fi he poses.
Normal people don't give a fuck about furries, or care that there's a group of deviants jerking off to cartoon animals. Only nerds do, who let their hatred of unimportant things dictate their taste in entertainment. To quote someone else, - "You can think of literally anything and there is someone jerking off to it right now. If you let that dictate your likes and dislikes you should retreat from the world entirely."
However, I will enjoy the film because as far as I can tell from watching the trailer and reading the very basic plot synopsis, this is my favorite kind of movie: one in which mankind is the bad guy. I've loved this type of movie ever since I saw Nightbreed.
These types of stories are never going to change us as a species, but I'm pleased that there are other creative minds out there who share my thoughts on the human race as a whole. On the other hand, this is likely why people are not going to enjoy the film. They will make up reasons such as bad story, incoherrent plot, annoying over-use of special effects, etc, but deep down they will know the real reason why. It makes most people uncomfortable to see their true selves. I saw this same effect at District 9 a week ago. People shambled aimlessly and quietly out of the theatre after it was over. To me, that's a signal that the movie got to them. Only once they were outside did I hear conversations emerge about how horrible they felt the film was.
Okay...and yes I admit the other reason why Avatar attracts me is because the aliens look like cat-people. I'm a furry (not the fursuiter sex-party type as that has always struck me as a bit extreme--more power to anyone who is into it, though, we all have our kinks) and I'm always happy to see mainstream cinema containing anything realitve to my interests. I'm not going to deny that was a selling-point for me.
Didn't ferngully have some sort of treecutting mech?
No, they're two different things.
There is an Avatar (the Last Airbender) movie coming out as well.
Or did it already come out? I don't fucking know.
But they are both shitty, so no worries about getting them confused.
And the studios will finally force James Cameron to make Titanic II.
It's supposed to be completely automatic, but actually you have to press this button.
James F*cking Cameron
Has he let us down up until now? Aliens, Terminator, T2, Abyss (not kick-ass amazing, but still a good flick), True Lies... you have to go back to Pirhana to get a stinker, and he was still cutting his chops, and he didn't write it.
And I don't know what trailer the critic watched, but I'm with Sam Worthington: "This is *GREAT*"
Design for Use, not Construction!
Yes. So really it should be Ferngully: Now With Big Blue Fairies! Now the fairy dancing music scene with the cassette player will be with an iPod-Touch playing Lady Gaga.
Whether or not there is some sort of god, I'm not supposed to say/god is a word and the argument ends there-Smog
So you're suggesting the major antagonist of Avatar will be some sort of mechcutting tree?
Demanding constant attention will only lead to attention.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
What kinda bites is that one of the plot gimmicks is the mind control of robot/avatar, which makes it similar to Surrogate (with Bruce Willis). I'm worried that this will make Surrogate seem kinda like a knock-off of Avatar, which is a shame because I think Surrogate is poised to be one of the best Sci-fi movies on 2009.
If you post as Anonymous Coward, don't expect a reply.
The Last Air Bender movie will come out in 2010, and is probably aimed more towards kids, as the animated series on Nick was. If I recall correctly, the Avatar team got into a legal scuffle with The Last Air Bender team who originally prefixed "Avatar:" to their movie's title.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I got the reference right off the bat, because A) Heaven's Gate is widely used as an example of "the movie that broke the studio", and B) Since the title refers to a movie (Avatar), I automatically knew it wasn't talking about a death cult. It's amazing how 2 seconds of deductive reasoning results in "I know what he's talking about" instead of "Why is he talking about a death cult in relation to Avatar?"
From TFA: Worst of all, I don't believe that it will be a 'science-fiction film' any more than Star Wars...
I'm sorry, I must be out of the loop? Since when is Star Wars not sci-fi? Is there a real empire? A real rebel alliance? A real death star, force, tie fighters, x-wing fighters, light saber, etc?
one thing that I get from the synopsis and trailer is that there's this main character that is paralyzed and is linked to a new hybrid alien life form through the mind (telepathy I guess).
If they have this type of technology - why not just cure the paralysis. So it smells like a plot hole that the director is ignoring in the pursuit of a cinematic vision.
I'll still watch it just out of curiosity.
I once knew an "airbender". We called him "The Last Windbreaker". He claimed it had something to do with enzymes, and digestion. The breakdown of vegetable material in the greater intestine was mentioned.
As far as first impressions? He didn't make a good one - let's leave it at that.
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
All I could think of watching this trailer was that it looked like a rip-off of Thundercats.
>That's why he posted AC.
Ahh...He's Role Playing!
Sig Follows: "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
http://www.avclub.com/articles/inventory-eight-surefire-fiascoes-that-unexpectedl,1532/
titanic was way over budget and plenty in hollywood were sharpening the knives and whispering about cameron's "heaven's gate"... in 1997
it didn't turn out that way. so many teenage girls around the world seeing that movie 10 times in a row. the guy hit one out of the ballpark
but there's another guy who took a dubious premise and knocked one out of the ballpark... and then went even more ambitious and wound up with a career killing flop
i am (ironically, since avatar is, as so many have noted, just dances with wolves in space) talking about kevin costner and his way over budget little personal project called dances with wolves that so many had rejected throughout the 1980s and he staked so much on career-wise
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dances_with_wolves#Production
then what happened after gaining so much legitimacy in the face of so much doubt? kevin costner followed up with waterworld
gulp
his career was never the same after that flop (even though, personally, i never thought it was a bad movie, it was enjoyable, just somewhat flawed, but not repulsively so)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterworld#Box_office_and_reception
so, to conclude
titanic : cameron = dances with wolves : costner
? avatar : cameron = waterworld : costner ?
no man is immune to hubris. avatar may very well be cameron's undoing. but then again, avoid the counsel of anyone who is certain avatar will kill cameron's career. no one knows yet, and anyone who "knows" certainly suffers from the same deadly hubris
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I was going to say this, but of course you beat me to it. District 9 is one of the most legitimate serious science fiction / extrapolative fiction movies I've seen in a long, long time - things you usually only get in books. A limited number of fantastical assumptions, and then the exploration of the very rational ramifications of those assumptions.
And it was made on a relative shoestring, and the effects are perfect -- and the acting is amazing. But if you're expecting a 100% crazy action/effects movie, District 9 isn't it. (Neither is Inglorious Bastards, which is also awesome)
Looking for freelance Actionscript (Flash/Flex) or ColdFusion work and/or freelance developers. Email me, put Slashdot
I just don't see any plot points that aren't just recycled crap. What is the main draw here? The fact that you can live a life that's not your own if your own life is so crappy?
I really don't see the draw here.
I only got as far in the article as:
Cameron delivers. And Hollywood needs him to now, most especially because if Avatar can repeat the success of Titanic, the movie execs win a huge battle in the fight against piracy, and in the struggle to re-sell their catalogues yet again on Blu-ray....
and realized from this content there was no need to read the rest of the article.
also you clearly missed the point i was making: just because den of geek finds the interests of teenage girls more objectionable than the interests of teenage boys doesn't sci-fi catering to the former any less sci-fi.
While I'm very interested in watching the movie, at this point Avatar looks like it's going to feature the same old contrived storyline featured in sci-fi over the last decade: humanity and industrialization are evil and nature and those connected to it are good. There's been this tendency to depict humans are awful, uncaring monsters.
It's reminiscent of District 9 where humans and the multinational corporation central to the story were so over-the-top evil it was almost comical. I will add that I did very much enjoy District 9 as far as favorite sci-fi movies go for me it's near the top of the list. I can appreciate the point of the message and liked the impact, but I would have preferred it to not be so simplistic in it's worldview. There are multiple sides to every story and I'm fairly certain that in this day and age there would be a lot of outrage to see extraterrestrials being treated this way.
Basically, my point is while I do think we need to be reminded of the problems of the world I would prefer movies sophisticated in it's presentation. Sometimes I feel like these people in Hollywood are conflicted about the lavish lifestyles they enjoy and are trying to foist their guilt trips on us.
i think you've overly invested in capital letters.
Actually I think its a strip mining mech so it's actually worse for the environment
"Just because it has a scifi orientated plot doesn't make it something to hold up and worship,"
generally no. here, yes
"there are plenty of decent scifi films out there."
are they directed by james fucking cameron? terminator? aliens?
i didn't really understand the whole slashdot hullabaloo over firefly, i thought firefly was just meh. but i'm not going to go and doubt the basis for the obsession with firefly here. i understand that fanboys will be fanboys, their passion is ignited by something, and so you run with it. there's no value for you or anyone else in doubting someone's passion. passion is irrational as it is, there's no valid avenue for rationally deconstructing it. if someone is passionate about something, your job is to simply accept that at face value
standing there and sourly doubting and poopooing their passion gets you nowhere except a big fat announcement of your own irrelevancy
currently, there is a lot of passion and excitement and anticipation over avatar. not least because its by james fucking cameron, and not least because the subject matter is such a scifi topical sweetspot given a lavish financial investment
is the passion over avatar valid? is it invalid? neither. the question is pointless. the passion is real, it just exists for whatever reason. accept it and go with the flow. questioning it gets you nowhere except self-declared irrelevancy
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
They don't make sci-fi like they used to any more. You remember carnage that was Terminator Salvation? The fact that they could release a movie that would diminish and undermine the entire Terminator franchise shows you where sci-fi is going.
They are trying to make sci-fi more accessible to the masses in order to make more money. They don't care a shit if you like it. I don't think they even bother to render realistic CGI/Graphics anymore- Certain graphics in Terminator Salvation are so appalling it's amazing those scenes got into the promos. It's like watching a slide show that was not rendered in the correct FPS. And if the only spoken words in the trailer are of the amazing intellectual that is the statement
"This is great." what the fuck are you expecting. I was watching Matrix Reloaded last night and I realized that they probably won't make movies like that again. In my opinion the last great sci-fi work of the current gen was TSCC, which they terminated..
That was my first impression as well. It doesn't do much to convince me that the movie will be legitimate science-fiction, rather than fluffy science-fantasy, when the aliens are bright anime-blue with giant cartoon doe-eyes.
And me thinking it was a furry kill fest. A chance to see those pests killed by the thousands by mechs and mowed down by machine guns while they moaned pitifully, waving their little bows and orangina bottles and fluttering those big eyelids before being crushed by gigantic robotic armored suits.
I too would have waited 10 or 15 years to get it just right. To get the fur to ripple just so as the metal squashes it into the mud.
And I was so eager to see it too... I'm so disappointed.
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
Actually the mech wasn't the badguy, the humans running it just accidentally let out the bad guy by cutting up the tree he was magically imprisoned in.
What, why are you all looking at me like that?
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
And what is wrong with hot blue chicks that are slightly feral? I know as I kid I lived the hot green chicks in the Original Star Trek.
I eat Karma for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That's why I don't have any.
I didn't see Dances with Wolves (DwW) and I probably won't see this. First (and only) member of the didn't see DwW society. (DSWwWS)
Geez. Sure, Thundercats was kinda gay, but in a beefy gymnast way. Avatar blows rights past gay and then past prancy and light-footed all the way until it arrives at teenage girl with serious learning disabilities.
I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
Strictly speaking Avatar is not a sci-fi - this is more of a "post-modern fantasy."
I'm not a purist, yet sometimes I'm annoyed when people confuse fantasy with science fiction.
Avatar is clearly a fantasy. It's not a science fiction per se. First paragraph of Wikipedia puts it well: "[...] imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature [...] Exploring the consequences of such differences is the traditional purpose of science fiction [...]".
Difference is important to me only because I want to be prepared before watching a movie: if it's a pure sci-fi then I probably want to be sober while for action packed post-modern fantasy I might want to grab a beer or two.
In the end, I find it ironic that e.g. Star Wars is less sci-fi than say Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
**POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING**
Unless he has deviated wildly from his scriptment from '94 or so what you have seen so far is just the setup. The overall story is more complex and vears into more hard sci-fi territory with a revelation along the lines of Solaris; or even more precisely, Robert Charles Wilson's Bios.
Once more unto the breach dear friends...
I was watching Matrix Reloaded last night and I realized that they probably won't make movies like that again.
And that's a bad thing because...?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Some double standards are, at heart, sexist (in both directions, actually). Many are not. There are a lot of "double standards" in this world. In fact, deconstruction makes it possible to uncover "double standards" in all sorts of interesting places.
Okay, so I'm probably overreacting. I'm very protective of my fangirls. ^^ And I'm not a huge twilight fan -- the characters don't evolve, the plot is predictable, and by page 50 of the first book I hated Bella. By the second book, I wanted to burn effigies of her and the author. It's just one cliche after another. I liked the Anita Blake novel series, which is in the same genre and I think it was done far better.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Maybe this Avatar the Last Airbender movie will do better?
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
I saw a trailer for Surrogates at District Nine. It appears to be about people in the real world whose bodies are used (rented) to virtual players. And soemthing goes wrong! Cameron's looks it will have better F/X.
You'll know the answer to that question when Avatar launches. Think before you type.
Because let's just be honest, we're plain out of decent ideas when $200m gets you a thoroughly rehashed plot and a movie with graphics only slightly better than running WoW on 5500FX.
I'm intrigued that no one has mentioned another possible parallel, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Seems like a much more apt comparison considering the game-changing goals are similar.
I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
I thought I read somewhere that the success of Avatar will determine if Cameron's version of Battle Angel Alita will get made... maybe I'm wrong.
So I don't know if I should root of Avatar's success or not. I would love to see Battle Angel get made into a live action move, but maybe not by Cameron?
Oh I'm so confused...
Avatar: FernGully with Mechs.
I thought it was the story of a man who uploaded an image to Photobucket, and inlined that image everywhere he went as a kind of personal mark? Then in act two his bandwidth allocation on Photobucket runs out, and so in act three he seeks out a better hosting option...
Bow-ties are cool.
Isn't this the same story as Dances With Wolves but with blue people instead of red people?
Cheers,
Ed L
Google gives you exactly that (Heaven's Gate (religious group)) as the first hit, and the first line describes it as a cult.
The SECOND hit being the movie that TFA is referring to.
Incidentally, I did first thought that he was talking about the cult, for 0.68 seconds.
Then I realized that something like that would not make much sense - yet.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
You'll know the answer to that question when Avatar launches. Think before you type.
Let's see. The Matrix sequels laid a bit of Dan Brown pseudo-philosophy on top of a series of disconnected scenes strung together to show off the special effects. Avatar promises to lay a bit of cyberpunk/videogame explanations on a simplistic story to show off the special effects and set design. What's your point?
I think the linked 'story' can be usefully be summarized thusly:
waaaaah James Cameron is making yet another SF movie! waaaaah And it's designed to be [shudder] enjoyed by normal people. waaaaah Normal people aren't geeks! Normal people don't deserve sci-fi. waaaaah James Cameron is a traitor to the geek world! waaaaah James Cameron isn't fulfilling the expectations I projected onto the film! waaaaah
according to you? ok, according to me, boys are not "femalized" enough. why should i take your word over my own?
Having seen Avatar in 3D I have no idea what Episode II has to do with it seeing as they have zero similarities in terms of story of art direction. Try harder next time.
It is actually an action-based SF 3D movie.
NOT a political/ecological diatribe about "how bad White Manifest Destiney was in the United States.".
Because you are such a fan of Google-based-deduction, try this search string: avatar after seeing IMAX preview.
You know... opinions of the people who actually saw the 3D footage in 3D - and a little more of it than a chopped up teaser trailer.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
The reason for your dislike of Twilight.
RAINBOWSPARKLE
Maybe we're all getting trailer fatigue. The trailer kind of reminded me of the Phantom Menace trailer, and we all know how that turned out. I blame the marketing people who put the trailer together. Cameron's supposed to be trying to make us see the CGI creations as real characters. His marketing team slapped together a fairly generic looking trailer that looks like everything else out there. Maybe if they gave us some idea what the movie was about and showed some actual acting from the characters we would have had a better idea what Cameron was shooting for. The 16 minute preview might have done that. I don't know: I haven't seen it.
I saw the trailer and the entire movie takes place in a candle lit room in a monastery somewhere, and there is this kid with a stick who puts out those candles while outside ships are slinging fireballs into the air.
OK... there is clearly some kind of symbolic shit going on there that I don't understand, but still I have a feeling that it is being made strictly for the Rabbits fans.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
You have never heard of "action figures".
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Here's hoping that's the case. I was concerned that District 9 was just going to be generic action movie set in an alien refuge camp, but reviews of the final product told me this wasn't the case. I'm still hoping for true sci-fi, but if that's what Cameron is going for, then he's advertising it the wrong way.
Write your representatives! Repeal the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics!
Yes you will. Two words: Alien. Blue. Tits.
I drank what? -- Socrates
It is a completely american production. It just uses common Asian elements in the story.
You know... Like Hong Kong Phooey.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Kind of reminds me of the 2007 Beowulf movie, the one that's all motion-captured animation but the characters look somewhat like the motion-capture actors. That's the one where Angelina Jolie is drawn as a golden avatar rising out of water. With a tail.
The first bits were.. "Oh, generic scifi CGI ship.". Followed by "That's computer animation not live action.. Shrek with Mechs?". Followed by "My god, they're on Endor!"
First time a trailer has made me go from mildly interested to "Wait until it's show on TV" in such a short time.
Cameron is in the position that often leads to disaster - trying to top his previous record-breaking achievement. While he may have had to wait a dozen years for the technology to catch up with his story, that 12 years has also left his story behind. We've seen it before, evil white men with technology, greed and ambition seek to destroy the idyllic existence of the poor barefoot natives: Pocahontas, Fern Gully, Dances with Wolves, etc.
We got that message in 1995, and now it's just a re-tread of the same old politically-correct Hollywood system. When we raid the rainforest, it's as often for medicine, but Cameron's bad guys just want "minerals". Let's not give anyone a choice as to who's the bad guy here. Let's put that same washed-out blue tint on all the bad guy sets, seen in every dystopic SF story since Minority Report and before - a tired old cliche. However, the people will flock to Avatar in any case. A piece of shit movie like this year's Transformers is up to 400 Million in box office receipts, so there is little correlation between quality and commercial success.
They made that one ages ago. Haven't you seen the trailer?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
See also Gamer. Movies like this do tend to come in clusters it seems...
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
Seriously? Since when has a live-action version of some stupid children's cartoon become science fiction?
This is yet another example of shit like Ghost Hunters being thrown under the genre.
What's next? Are we going to start classifying "The Snorks" as science fiction? Why not "Captain Planet"? Stop watering down the genre by throwing every two bit Saturday morning dog turd for children under the umbrella of the term!
http://web.archive.org/web/19990429131245/http://www.aolsucks.org/hacked.html .pinerc to just list his return email as postmaster@heavensgate.com
Someone gave total.snafu.org primary dns for this domain.
He set the Admin contact as his own name/location.
Was fun having the ability to slashdot a site before slashdot existed.
The owner of the AOLSucks.org called my isp where I worked asking "what are you doing?!?! redirecting heavensgate.com to us?!?!"
Two weeks of email made for quite a collection of the stuff folks were spamming to postmaster@heavensgate.com.
Finally got internic to put it back.
All with a simple forged email. I think he changed
and they did not have a pgp setup.
Oh well those were the days...
Still have the irc logs of the whole event unfolding on freenode #linpeople/#natter.
I think that Avatar is going to shake things up, not necessarily in a good way. A lot of people are going to take their kids to the movie expecting the "Airbender" Avatar version of the movie that M. Night Shyamalan is making, not a James Cameron original. Even when the movie was first announced and Cameron was tied to it, several movie outlets were showing pictures of the Airbender, and I'll even admit to seeing the trailer for Airbender at G.I.Joe and a kid behind me was freaking out that the name of the movie was wrong, that the preview was supposed to be Avatar. I can hear the news stories already about parents taking their kids to the movie and walking out because it wasn't what they expected.
wait til you go see "9" and then two months later they release "Nine"
Wow, you're amazingly not good at following plot points. Maybe there are holes in the plot, but they sure aren't the ones you listed.
As much as I want to rebut everything in great detail, it turns out I don't care quite enough. So a few... and I'll endeavor not to add any spoilers you didn't already give, and I'm dekarmaing this post to help.
6. Worker Prawns lack initiative. Definitely said early in the movie.
5. is because of 6.
3. If you PROCESS some material/chemical, it probably has different effects/uses than it had before you processed it. Otherwise why would you process it? Did you miss that whole bit of the movie?
2/3. That part about "powering the command module" - you made that up. At no point is powering a command module ever anything any characters are aspiring to. In the interest of avoiding spoilers, I'll leave it to you to figure out which part of those 4 words you might've gotten wrong.
Looking for freelance Actionscript (Flash/Flex) or ColdFusion work and/or freelance developers. Email me, put Slashdot
Seems like I should be able to Google those..I think I'll still skip it =)
It obvious that this film is another ABYSS. So the hardcore will find something to like. Most people will not get it. The BIG DIFFERENCE is that now pretty much the whole cast is like JAR JAR BINKS. 'Realistic' CG character DO NOT WORK. Hasn't Cameron heard of the Uncanny Valley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley. This film will not totally flop, it has explosion after all, but most people are going to hate it.
"The hype of the technology is inversely proportional to the quality of the story. For if the quality of the story is greater then the quality of the technology is stands to reason that the studio, director, producers, and industry would HYPE the BEST part of the film."
So regardless of how good the film is overall we can see, plainly that the technology of the film is more important then the story. The story thusly must come in second place. Not to imply that it will suck, just, that we know the content of the film comes in second place compared to the technology used to make the film.
Thus the 44th Law taken from a sign on 44th street near where I used to live. The sign read:
"People hype their best qualities in hopes of hiding their worst qualities..."
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
Haha, I posted a similar comment last week about the trailer and got my bumbum smacked royally by rabid fanboys. Now this story appears on /. I guess I wasn't alone in my assessment...
Who is this delectable creature with an insatiable love of the dead?
This "Avatar" is unrelated to that one. Needless to say, I was still rather confused.
Even more so, here.
I've been playing old school (Pre-EA) Ultima, where every third schmo on the street greets you with something along the lines of:
"Avatar, you must save my son from the daemons!"
"Avatar, seek out the rune of Compassion!"
"Avatar, have you seen my daughter that I left in a tree stump last week?"
...So I understandably mis-parsed the article title "Avatar, Has Sci-fi Found Its Heaven's Gate?"
>> Standing on head makes smile of frown, but rest of face also upside down.
1) It's James Cameron. Is this still Slashdot? Do I really have to explain who this is and why he deserves some credit?
2) IMAX 3D. It's phenomenal. Really, it is. The Avatar preview was one of the most exciting things I've seen, visually, in a long time. It was like playing Doom for the first time. Or the first time seeing bullet time in the Matrix. And I know what you're going to say, "a good film should be enjoyable on any medium". Sure, enjoyable. But would you say that a Rembrandt is just as enjoyable to watch as a monochrome poststamp reproduction? Or that you'd just as well listen to Pink Floyd over the telephone? No, it would ruin the experience. Cameron has always pushed the envelope both visually and technically. T2 and Aliens were mostly just very well designed and executed remakes of the original, mostly.
3) The plot. Most of us haven't read the screenplay. So we are basing our judgment on a two minute trailer. The premise of "Dances with Wolves" in space doesn't sound exciting, so what? It's exactly that; a premise. Most films are based on a simple premise, it's what you do with it that matters. I personally like the idea of a classic adventure film set it space, but maybe that's me. If you don't like a story about a young man who leaves his home planet to fight with a group of rebels against a technically seemingly superior power by tapping into some mythical power, so be it.
4) The trailer. I actually agree. I don't think it's well done at all. Too much slow-motion, which completely cripples the motion capture performance. After seeing it, I had serious doubts about going to the IMAX screening. I can only say, I'm glad I went.
Existenze, 13th floor, Matrix-1
I watched the trailer, and I'll be damned, the movie doesn't look like a cheap Myspace profile skin. Those usually are better quality than this movie. A race of tall blue Jar-Jars, are you kidding me?
I agree completely with the poster. Look at the example that another poster fahrbot-bot put in: Titanic. Who else could make a movie for which everyone knew the ending (in fact there was already a previously made classic film) and create the largest blockbuster IN HISTORY? Who else could blend a historic event from the almost dead past, and through plot contrivances make the story relevant and moving to a modern day audience? Who else could utilize the absolute state of the art deep-submersible technology to actually VISIT the site of the disaster to show people in an utterly fascinating way the remains of this tragedy and remind us that the passengers on that vessel were once living breathing people like all of us?
I believe the worldwide audience for that film was over a billion people. Can a billion people be wrong? Can any of the critics here claim to have done or made anything that has touched more than a tiny fraction of that number?
From what I understand (and once being in the film industry I have a little knowledge of this matter) he is not always the easiest person to work with (seemed fine to me). So be it; maybe he's like Steve Jobs, a real S.O.B. but capable of creating masterpieces. Or do you also think that everyone who bought an iPhone and a Mac are idiots? (Ok, I set myself up with that one).
On an aside, did you do know that he is a champion of space exploration? (In addition to being an accomplished engineer as well as helicopter pilot). Not only did he create an IMAX 3D film about a possible trip to Europa but he paid for (I believe from his own pocket) a set of designs for a Manned mission to mars. Very nice computer renderings of launch vehicles, landers and rovers; made not as eye-candy but as a physically realizable proposal. Of course his films themselves have pushed the state of the art of film making (sometimes painfully, just ask anyone who worked on Abyss). Remember when T2 came out with the metal blob? It ushered in a new era in computer graphics. Likewise early reviews have said Avatar may do it again.
Anyway, he believed so strongly in Titanic that he pushed Fox/Paramount (the film was so expensive the costs had to be shared!) to spend over $200M on it. When it went overbudget (perhaps because of the life size set he built in the newly created studio he opened in Baja California) he agreed to drop his cut of the gross (points). No need crying for his loss; after Titanic studios are willing to throw him money in the hope he'll do something for them (like when Disney financed his return to Titanic in "Ghosts of the Abyss"). Who amongst us have such faith in our convictions and abilities?
So I would tend to give Mr. Cameron the benefit of the doubt. Most people are probably not interested in spaceships and blue skinned aliens (With tails! Wrapped in fishnet!). But, like Titanic, by adding a "human" element and a love story (from the trailer I think there are two in Avatar) he may get more of humanity to watch something that they ordinarily would pass by and open their minds a little. Is your mind open?
It has long been replaced by soft porn in space, underground, underwater, or in another dimension. Played by the same characters who Jason used to kill at camp, oversexed, barely legal(sometimes not legal) jail-bait! They trade good acting and story for T&A or just plain blood and guts or both! Let's have a moment of silence for the Science Fiction genre. It was killed off by bad writing and pimply-faced kids who don't care about a story as long as the alien chick gets naked.
And then there's "Gamer" ("Who's Playing You?" is the tagline) that seems like yet another film coming out with the very same theme, before "Avatar" and "Surrogates" (Sept 4 release).
It's a me-too cluster!
Edith Keeler Must Die
Supposedly, David O. Selznick, who produced "Gone With The Wind", really wanted to top or at least repeat his act, and his most egregious failure to do so was the movie "Duel In The Sun", sometimes referred to as "Lust In The Dust".
In theory, theory and practice are the same; in practice they're different. (Yogi Berra & A. Einstein)
"There are multiple sides to every story and I'm fairly certain that in this day and age there would be a lot of outrage to see extraterrestrials being treated this way."
yes, exactly. people are outraged that aliens would be treated this way
but people are NOT outraged that other people are treated this way
the story is nothing but a parable about apartheid, or, more broadly, any large slum near a big city in the world: perhaps a billion people worldwide, treated like shit, and largely ignored by everyone else, right under our noses. and its just a fact of life... why is such an ugly fact of life accepted? that's the whole point of this movie. it's about the real-life district 6 (in cape town historically, not johannesburg). recall in the movie the hatred everyone feels for those living in district 9, right? and so it had to be emptied to an out of the way concentration camp, right? well, that's not a script writers fantasy life, that's simple historical fact for district 6
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_Six,_Cape_Town
the whole point of district 9 is to present this apparent lack of humanism as an analogy: aren't you outraged at how the aliens are treated? good. now would you please happen to notice the movie is 100% real?: just substitute your fellow human beings for aliens living in slums, and... suddenly we don't care
furthermore, the thinly veiled social criticism is not pointed only at whites, but also at blacks: remember the nigerian gangsters eager to eat alien body parts to gain alien powers? again, not a strange practice randomly thought up by a script writer: this is actual fact in modern day africa. people are murdered, their body parts traded as food and talismans, for the sake of voodoo beliefs liek getting rich
most horribly victimized are albinos. albinos are actually stalked, murdered, and butchered in africa and their body parts sold for cannibalism and talismans. disgusting, and 100% real:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7518049.stm
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Number and Quality of the torrents that are availble
If there isn't a Non CAM copy by the end of the 7th day after it hits the theaters then it must suck BAD
(assumes the torrents have seeds)
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
What I find most amusing about this story is that the last time I read lots of handwringing about how a movie was massively over budget and was headed for disaster was for a James Cameron film called "Titanic".
The cake is a pie
It's nice that a movie generates this kind of discussion, but seriously. Did anybody ever think that there was a meaningful difference between fantasy & science fiction? John Varley's _Titan_ is little more than an excuse for angels and centaurs in a "hard SF" setting. Silverberg's _Majipoor Chronicles_ use science fiction and space colonization as a backdrop for an agricultural, feudal backwater world where technology is a kind of magic. Gibson's _Neuromancer_ borrows (overtly) from both genres; just look at the name.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Ohhhh. Now I get it. D'oh! Thank you, I was very confused as to what all these aliens were doing in the plot of The Last Air Bender.
No good deed goes unpunished. - Avon, Blake's 7
It doesn't have to come from Asia to be an anime, you racist clod.
It doesn't have to come from Asia. It MUST come from Japan.
And by "come from Japan" I don't mean "made in Japan".
Simpsons are made in Korea, just like a great deal of anime nowadays, but that does not make them Korean.
That is, unless you are Japanese, from Japan, in Japan, speaking Japanese.
Then it is OK to refer to any animation as anime, but it is kinda like calling any animation "toon" as short for cartoon.
Sorry about the rant but hey...
It is not my fault you confuse you ignorance of genres with other people's racism.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
All I know about the book is from a couple reviews that painted it as a soupy mess of twelve-year-old girl crush fantasies. But last night I watched the movie with my daughter and it was surprisingly good. Presumably the director ripped out most of the tween romance novel crap. What's left is a pretty interesting take on how modern vampires might function. The most glaring fault I saw was that someone who has been around for over a hundred years would be content to spend his days going to high school, let alone fall hopelessly in love with a 16-year-old girl. There would have to be more interesting ways for an eternal being to spend his time. Other than that it was a decently entertaining flick.
Hmm, and if you read a 500 page murder mystery where the last two sentences plays out like this:
George Smith (a character not even referred to in the entire book) enters the room.
Inspector Jones says, "George Smith is the killer, because I am smarter than you are".
THE END.
Would you also make excuses for the author?
6 "Worker prawns lack initiative" - my point 6 was "Why is the shantytown full of alien weaponry? The reason this is such a big plothole is becase the worker prawns lack initiative - humans had to airlift them down to the surface via helicopter. I don't see the humans also airlifting massive quantities of weaponry up to and including powered armor down for the prawns to play with. Stripping the mothership of anything not nailed down for study yes, but letting the prawns hang onto it - not so much. If any prawns did have initiative they would have found a way to do some negotiation, but evacuating the mothership was a massive humanitarian (so sue me for terminology here) effort. Nothing whatsoever indicated the prawns were anything beyond passive aliens incapable of even getting out of their own excrement while they were on the ship.
5 Sorry, but the big question in my point 5 is, why, if they could have remotely controlled the fricken mothership(and a kid who wasn't even born/hatched/whatever did the remote piloting!) did they not just do that to start with.
3 "process", Yep, if you process crude oil into kerosene you have somthing with different properties than it originally had - but not radically different properties - they started with a black liquid, they ended with a black liquid. If the final black liquid could turn a human into a prawn, the original black liquid could be expected to have some significant effect on human DNA. I'm simplifying, but unlike you I have no need to make excuses for the intellectual dishonesty of the filmmaker.
the "command module" Clearly hypothesized (in the documentary voiceover - which must be taken as the Word of GOD given the lack of any followup or reference to any other modules on the mothership) to be a command module early on or did you not see that part of the movie? Obviously it had to be "powered" or "fueled" - Why didn't they use the command module immediately instead of undertaking a 20 year scavenger hunt? And for that matter, they were obviously doing something with scavenged human electronics - that were interfaced to something back in the command module. Why not use that to build a remote interface to the motheship?
"As much as I want to rebut everything in great detail..." I'm sure you wanted to until you started actually thinking about it, then you realized I was correct. I did find it acceptable mindless entertainment, but as "serious" or thought-provoking it failed miserably. The most disappointing thing to me is that while this movie was utter crap it did not have to be that way.
If the filmmaker had spent two hours working out a coherent story instead of "auditioning" and hiring Nigerian hookers to "negotiate" another 50 rands off the price the SFX folks were charging per week he could have made a far better movie. As it is, I feel the SyFy mythical monster of the week movies are better entertainment - and cheaper to boot. Hell I suspect (but have not verified by watching) that ECW may have a more thought-provoking storyline and better pyrotechnics than District 9.
You either believe in rational thought or you don't
Didn't anyone actually watch the trailer? I don't mean the effects or the monsters, I mean the part where they announce it's from the director of 'Titanic'. Not the director of 'Terminator 2', or 'Aliens', or even 'Abyss'.
In that moment, it became obvious to me they're not targeting it to the sci-fi action crowd. Anyone who thinks they are will doubtless be disappointed.
When I first heard Cameron say (many years ago now) that he wanted to revisit the sci-fi epic, I was giddy. Then, as details of this project trickled out, I started to have some doubts. Now that I've seen the latest, I'm crestfallen. I have absolutely no interest in a Last of the Mohicans meets The Last Samurai meets Dances With Wolves bit of tedious sermonizing on the topic of colonization or imperialism. Even less so if it's infused with the pacifist, blame-ourselves-for-everything-evil subtext that pervades modern cinema and other media. Perhaps I could overcome my aversion to this type of post-modern drivel if at least I could be treated to an extraordinary visual experience. Even here, it seems that Avatar will not deliver; it looks like cut-scenes from some Pixar/Halo mashup. I thought (hoped) that Titanic was the exception to an otherwise amazing body of work, but it seems that it was a course change for James Cameron. Bummer.
It doesn't have to come from Asia to be an anime, you racist clod.
Apparently you do.
Which is understandable, since obviously you are not getting any. Which explains all that pent up rage.
So I guess that you have to give it then. Don't let the big boys treat you like a bitch just because you do, though.
Remember. You are fulfilling a VERY important social role in your community. Just think of all those marriages that will be saved through YOUR... umm... "involvement".
And don't let anyone mock you just because you live under a bridge. That is your heritage and your RIGHT!
You guys have fought for those places for centuries and no puny human is going to chase you out of there just like that. Volkswagens be damned.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
OK, lets review what we've seen so far.
Spaceships? Check.
Mech-suits? Check.
Aliens? Check.
How could Avatar possibly be considered sci-fi...
It gripped her hand gently. 'Regret is for humans,' it said.
It doesn't do much to convince me that the movie will be legitimate science-fiction, rather than fluffy science-fantasy, when the aliens are bright anime-blue with giant cartoon doe-eyes.
Eh? Is there a rule somewhere that legitimate aliens must be brown with tiny slit-like eyes?
We live, as we dream -- alone....
Christ, it's science-fiction, not an accurate representation of quantum mechanics.
Did you throw a tantrum over how space ships fly and dogfight in Star Wars too?
5 Sorry, but the big question in my point 5 is, why, if they could have remotely controlled the fricken mothership(and a kid who wasn't even born/hatched/whatever did the remote piloting!) did they not just do that to start with.
They needed the command module to pilot said mothership, which couldn't happen unless they had the fuel. That was hard to deduce, huh.
It was probably out of fuel because, presumably, they were fleeing something, as refugees, they probably used the fuel during the trip, or perhaps they used it all up when docking said module with the mothership.
6 "Worker prawns lack initiative" - my point 6 was "Why is the shantytown full of alien weaponry? The reason this is such a big plothole is becase the worker prawns lack initiative - humans had to airlift them down to the surface via helicopter. I don't see the humans also airlifting massive quantities of weaponry up to and including powered armor down for the prawns to play with. Stripping the mothership of anything not nailed down for study yes, but letting the prawns hang onto it - not so much. If any prawns did have initiative they would have found a way to do some negotiation, but evacuating the mothership was a massive humanitarian (so sue me for terminology here) effort. Nothing whatsoever indicated the prawns were anything beyond passive aliens incapable of even getting out of their own excrement while they were on the ship.
Think of it like this.
You find an immense pile of what looks like gold, you begin taking said gold, only to find it turns to lead on human contact. This is only after you've brought it out of the cave/dungeon/whatever, what are you going to do with it all? Dump it.
The company didn't need every single weapon for study. It would be a logistical nightmare to keep all of them. They probably brought them all out on the ground, but upon realising how useless they were for humans, they probably just left them lying around.
Why does this movie even need explanation?
I guess people like you just don't enjoy anything unless it has an incredibly complex and deep philosophical commentary on the nature of alien/human relations that only a person with an IQ of 230 would understand.
Sorry, the company was trying to make a salable movie, not satisfy your ridiculous requirements, which would've made it more complex and less enjoyable than star wars 7 or star trek 14 or whatever they're up to these days.
Just extrapolate some filler to plug the holes you see.
1) alien stealth technology is better than 1980's human tracking equipment
2) the leaders fought after they landed, it took low level techie "christopher" 2 decades to fix it and gather processable "fuel"
3) Christopher and his friend had different goals, the fuel powered the device that transformed humans, it doesn't transform humans itself
4) Christopher was more effective than most prawns, but hardly more self directed, he shut down when exposed to complicated situations. He simply let himself get used by a militant who wanted to convert humans rather than leaving for home.
5) a hypothetical answer, chris, the only techie subcommander left, took 2 decades to grow an officer class prawn, who was better at tech than chris himself (fixed the planetary display for example)
6) theyre slave caste, theyll trade powerarmor worth millions for 100 cans of catfood, the leader caste was wiped out somehow
7) wikus was well written, he had no decent option but the one he took in most cases, his motivations should have been obvious (he cant ever be a human again without prawn help, how can he get that help)
The preview shows numerous catlike creatures. We travel to extrasolar planets. We create biological clones of existing fauna to attempt communication and understanding or suppression. The bad guy is the industrial/military complex that sends the avatars in. A simple, "I'm part of the problem, now I must fight." where the characters become sympathetic to the natives.
It could also be called SpaceFerngully (2009).
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
It's about the same as the Last Samurai. The protagonist is like Tom Cruise, and the aliens are like the Samurai. The protagonist 'reforms' and joins the aliens in their cause/fight. There are some elements of Gaia theory thrown in for good measure.
The Pern stuff really looked to me like horse novels aimed at teenage girls with fantasy and sci-fi trappings but written well enough to get away with it for most of the novels. The sci-fi bits in the last few novels annoyed me as well since they were filling in for fantasy assumptions I'd already made about the setting. It's like the bit in the Star Wars prequels where you find out the force is space malaria.
Who the hell wants to see a movie that revolves around a forum USER PIC? Stupid.
Unfortunately, that is what it becomes. Still a decent sci-fi movie.
Link! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Surrogates
The upcoming film is based on this comic book series, apparently. I'm more interested in that one, as they're apparently examining the harder science fiction in the concept. I also expect stuff to blow up because Bruce Willis is in it.
Troll? Seriously? Ignorant maybe, but hardly troll. It was a genuine question, and I thank everyone who took the time to correct me rather than just down-mod me.
"I'm not sure I like the fugnutish tone you used in your post!" -RogL (608926)-
But I can chose the experts I trust, and balance their opinions against outcomes.
I have missed lots of movies because critics I trust had panned it down. Then if by chance I see it on TV later, I normally agree that they were right.
Chosen the experts you trust carefully is part of being an individual, that is why you delegate a lot of decisions about your life to people that know more than you about certain topics that matter to you.
The hate of the expert is a nasty trend that should stop, nobody can know everything about everything.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
and TSCC has been so long ago that we can by now say that there will never again be any good sci-fi.
Come on, there have always been both good and bad ones. The matrix series counts as extremely recent, and terminator salvation simply suffers from too-many-sequels-disease.
ps. you need to replace the 'you' in 'you like it' by 'me'. For the blockbusters, they *do* care that as much people like it as possible. If that's not you, tough luck. But that doesn't mean there aren't any directors left that make movies that you do happen to like. If either would have been released in my country yet, i could maybe refer you to district 9 or moon, but alas, at least not yet. And perhaps they suck as well. if so, better luck next time.
I don't care if this movie is in 3-D. I don't even care anymore what the story is about.
Every time I see the trailer, I cringe. The world looks amazing, but those characters look so, so -- there's no other word for it -- STUPID!
Something about those faces just looks incredibly stupid to me. Why did they design the characters to look so stupid?
And then when they move, all I can think about is how these characters are CGI. It's distracting. They don't look lifelike or real in any sense. It's cartoony.
And I like cartoons sometimes, but I don't like stupid cartoons.
You'll know the answer to that question when Avatar launches. Think before you type.
Let's see. The Matrix sequels laid a bit of Dan Brown pseudo-philosophy on top of a series of disconnected scenes strung together to show off the special effects. Avatar promises to lay a bit of cyberpunk/videogame explanations on a simplistic story to show off the special effects and set design. What's your point?
Damn, you're thick.
He's saying that Matrix Reloaded killed the genre. The first matrix was a good movie, but there will never be another one of the same genre made because Reloaded sucked so bad.
He followed it up by saying, "you'll know the answer to that question when Avatar launches." He's saying Avatar, with its ridiculous budget, is going to get flop, lose tons of money to fox, and essentially kill sci-fi for the next 20 years.