Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Avatar — the Metacontextual Edition

Posted by samzenpus on from the oh-look-a-shiny dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Here's Avatar stripped of the distracting special effects. Rudyard Kipling would be proud." It's funny how something so visually amazing can have such an underwhelming and rehashed story.

15 comments

  1. Full of awesomeness by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Worth a read!!!

  2. Failblog win by dazedNconfuzed · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://failblog.org/2010/01/10/avatar-plot-fail/

    It's Pocahantas (or a zillion other stories) with just a change of names.

    --
    Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
    1. Re:Failblog win by Rei · · Score: 1

      That's a lot better than the main article. The main article mainly just repeatedly criticizes the movie for daring to provide backstory (gasp!) and for Neytiri saying (a single time) that the reason she saved him was that he has "heart" -- never mind that it was a clear metaphor for bravery given that she just watched him get chased by an overgrown cat and jump off a waterfall.

      Your link is a lot funnier, as it concisely harps on how much of an archetype this story is.

      --
      Stop it, stop it, it's fine. I will *destroy* you.
    2. Re:Failblog win by Yosho · · Score: 1

      Wow, thanks for pointing that out. Nobody has ever said that before. Not even the second line in the article!

      --
      Karma: Terrifying (mostly affected by atrocities you've committed)
  3. yeesh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    tfgdl;dr

  4. Actually if they wanted to prove anything... by Fotograf · · Score: 1

    ...all they did is that it have quite huge (although boring) story. When you look to transcript of say, Terminator, you would believe to die from boredom and how cool movie that was...

    --
    God's gift to chicks
    1. Re:Actually if they wanted to prove anything... by dhermann · · Score: 1

      If I read the transcript of Terminator, I notice that there is a main character with depth. And a supporting character with even more depth. And an original plot. And a villain that was not taken from a Captain Planet episode.

    2. Re:Actually if they wanted to prove anything... by Maximum+Prophet · · Score: 1

      And an original plot.

      No, it's quite well established that the plot for Terminator was ripped off some old "Outer Limits" episodes. Harlan Ellison even got into the credits. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_Ellison (Although, there's at least one other "Outer Limits" episode that was ripped off)

      --
      All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
  5. Titanic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ya, you didn't know the ship will sink?

    Entertainment isn't about education or an original story. And by the money it raked in, a bunch of people were entertained. The movie is really a $500 million proof of new movie technology. I don't think risking that kind of money on a whacked out story is worth it.

  6. There's no contesting... by TheVelvetFlamebait · · Score: 1

    ... the fact that Avatar has a pretty standard plot, but pretty much any plot, no matter how original, can be written up in a similarly snarky way, and seem stale and uninteresting.

    --
    You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
    1. Re:There's no contesting... by quercus.aeternam · · Score: 1

      Have you ever seeen any bollywood films? Those plots are generally quite involved - and frequently fantastically far-fetched.

  7. Why is this here? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why did this opinion of avatar make it onto slashdot? Yes, we know, people didn't like the film. Get over it. Furthermore, it's not tech related, it's an opinion of the MOVIE, not the tech behind the movie.

  8. Too much cynicism. by Fantastic+Lad · · Score: 1

    Some of the criticisms in this analysis are spot on, while some are just dumb and deliberately fail to see why the points being criticized do in fact work.

    EVERY movie Cameron has ever made has been formula to the bone. This one is the same. Its only two crimes are A) It was a 20 year old script which wasn't quite tight enough. And B), It criticizes American values and pits love and spiritual awareness directly against technology and human colonial expansionism.

    Touchy-feely is good in a sinking-ship movie because the 15 year-old girls watched it three times each, (minimum!). But here, where the core appeal is to Sci-Fi hungry guys, such a message is simply not going to be received without some murky looks and grumbling. -Ego-related discontent to be later masked beneath, "Legitimate Critical Analysis." -You know, because every big film with plot holes gets this kind of treatment. (I didn't see anybody pull apart Star Trek or the last Batman like this. . , and neither of them were anywhere near perfect.)

    Also. . . This may be a false reading, but it seems like it was it that creepy narrator guy who did a Phantom Menace analysis who inspired this. Monkey see, Monkey do. If you're going to be a movie critic, at least do it for the right reasons.

    Being cynical is not cool. Being objective is cool. There's a difference.

    -FL

    1. Re:Too much cynicism. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >Being cynical is not cool. Being objective is cool. There's a difference.

      Yes, they are not the same thing. Thanks for pointing it out Mr Obvious.

      When you get emails from an unknown person in Africa who has money to give you, are you automatically suspicious that its a scam or are you objective?

      People who say their are objective are usually full of shit. They are objective when it suits them or when they have no personal involvement.
      We all have strong opinions on things and trust me, people are rarely objective.

      You live long enough and you will see enough bull to make you a cynic.
      Listen to the media long enough and you should become a cynic.

      You are right about the chick flick factor. Lots of guys sat around Avatar fidgeting in their seats like they were watching Brokeback because the storyline was done to attract a female audience.
      We dont mind bad stories, bad acting and bad directing in Sci-fi as long as you throw in some jargon, some effects and explosions and cool toys/ships, just look at Star Wars movies, Star Trek movies
      But it is not and either-or proposition, there was discontent because of the chick factor index but that does NOT make criticism wrong: the story just sucked.
      But with Cameron this was expected so we we cant say its a surprised either.

    2. Re:Too much cynicism. by Fantastic+Lad · · Score: 1

      I'm not altogether clear on what you were saying with much of that except to say you appear to consider cynicism a valid response to life.

      I suppose definitions are in order, because perhaps you mean something I am not grasping. From my personal dictionary, "Cynicism" presupposes negativity and banality in all things, and actively warps observations until they fit this preconception. Objective observation, by contrast, requires that one take the bad with the good. (And vice versa, in this case.)

      Blind cynicism is as silly as blind optimism. Both entrap and fail to report on reality in a useful manner.

      People who say their are objective are usually full of shit. They are objective when it suits them or when they have no personal involvement.
      We all have strong opinions on things and trust me, people are rarely objective.

      Trust a cynic? That's rather paradoxical. Still, you are right. Objectivity is not the first or natural response one sees most often.

      You live long enough and you will see enough bull to make you a cynic.
      Listen to the media long enough and you should become a cynic.

      Well, the objective truth is that the media is full of falsehoods. I accepted that long ago. Cynicism however, according to my definition, would require that I give up from seeking knowledge altogether, and further, (though less obviously), that I abandon my sense of joy. "Media" is a big word and it includes materials far away from TVs and newspapers. There's plenty of knowledge and truth out there, but it cannot be found when one's eyes are clouded over with bitterness.

      I'm far from fault free on that point. I have tended at times to grow angry with people for not learning more quickly, but that doesn't help me one bit. Impatience is the first cousin to cynicism.

      -FL