My Avatar rant... (or, what movie did these gun bloggers all watch?)

[Sergeant Bob]

Didn't everyone who's actually SEEN the movie already weigh in here?

No. Well, now I going to change that. My wife talked me into seeing the movie, and I have to admit I enjoyed it quite a lot.
Yeah, it has some glaring flaws and is entirely predictable but, still very entertaining. Bonus! I got me a real nice pair 'O' Buddy Holly lookin' glasses now!

P.S. Cameron really is an idiot.


Cameron hearts ecoterrorism

January 16, 2010

James Cameron, king of the box office once more, is speaking out against critics of his film “Avatar.”

It’s clear the director really should stay quiet.

The man behind “Aliens,” “Titanic” and now the blue-skinned creatures inhabiting his latest hit, tells Entertainment Weekly that he digs ecoterrorism. (WWTW note: cannont find link to this at ew.com … will keep looking. The issue in question hit my mailbox today. Interview appears on page 35)

And no, that’s not taken out of context.

EW asked Cameron to respond to some of the criticisms aimed at “Avatar.” Check out how he responded to this one:

    EW: “Avatar” is the perfect eco-terrorism recruiting tool.”

    JC: Good, good. I like that one. I consider that a positive review. I believe in ecoterrorism.”

[Bigjake]

Saw Avatar on a pirated copy. 

Really glad I didn't pay actual money to see it.  Glaringly obvious plot with heavy handed politics,  the only thing that made it tolerable was the amount of Bushmill's I'd already drank. 

Sad really, because the CGI was pretty darned impressive.

[Perd Hapley]

JC: Good, good. I like that one. I consider that a positive review. I believe in ecoterrorism.”

Shouldn't that land him on the no-fly list?  Or is it the no-boating list? 

[freakazoid]

Tell yourselves "it's just a show, I really should relax".

lol, MST3K FTW 

Saw it last Friday. Loved it. Oh teh noes, a movie with a "predictable plot". It's not like everything hasn't already been covered in ancient plays already. And if they somehow didn't do it then the Simpsons and South Park has already done it. And I can't help but laugh at the people who are calling it nothing but leftist propaganda. It's a movie, you're acting just as dumb as the people who are getting all depressed after seeing it. Way to emotionally tied into it. And to the person who said about

Sayeth Hamlet:  "The play's the thing, wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King."

+1

What really got my goat was the helicopter pilot that joined up with the Na'vi.  I found it disturbing that everyone in the theater was cheering AGAINST the humans.  My 'just yesterday they shared  cafeteria, now she is killing them en mass' argument didn't reach many ears.

Pretty sure it was less against the "humans" and more against the evil people. And for the helicopter pilot lady, seemed she figured they weren't her comrades any more. Would it be any different if a soldier in the nazi army decided he didn't like the people he was working for anymore?

I also thought the 'he's gone rogue for breaking a camera' thing was a bit far fetched.  Guy in a 30 mil avatar body almost gets run over by a careless driver and then breaks the 30 dollar camera.  Oh yah, unforgivable, there is no going back.   

Careless driver? Were you not paying attention. The driver stopped because he was in the way. The head corporate guy told him to keep on going because he will get out of the way and then when he didn't he pushed on the stick to make it go forward. And the Marine commander guy, yeah I'm really bad with names, seemed to me to be looking for an excuse to go in with guns blazing.

[Ned Hamford]

Pretty sure it was less against the "humans" and more against the evil people. And for the helicopter pilot lady, seemed she figured they weren't her comrades any more. Would it be any different if a soldier in the nazi army decided he didn't like the people he was working for anymore?

Careless driver? Were you not paying attention. The driver stopped because he was in the way. The head corporate guy told him to keep on going because he will get out of the way and then when he didn't he pushed on the stick to make it go forward. And the Marine commander guy, yeah I'm really bad with names, seemed to me to be looking for an excuse to go in with guns blazing.

Sure, WE know that, but how would the guy in the avatar?  The wildly incompetent corporate guy set up a tragedy of errors. 

Back to the helicopter pilot, I stand by my belief it was too extreme a move, at the time.  Sure what was going on was horrible, but what does she do?  She mutters to herself and flies off, comes back guns blazing.  No open call to her pilots, no talk about sending word back home, no real communication of her dissatisfaction and general call of sensibility whatsoever.  I just think there should be a few steps before going guns blazing.  Heck, I think even Nazi soldiers should get that scene of confrontation.  Otherwise its just someone snapping and killing erstwhile comrades.  Think of those couple of US soldiers that just starting shooting or throwing grenades at their fellows.  THEY thought they were doing 'right.'  I think the general practice should be attempted mediation b4  killing. 

Is being against killing folks you know so bad?  Quigley Down Under had plenty of confrontation scenes.  I don't think a clear conscious comes without knowing for a certainty that no other option existed.  Sabotage before terrorism and whatnot. 

[longeyes]

The fact that it's a shoot-em-up videogame masquerading as a piece of escapist dramatic cinema doesn't make it any less dangerous.  Talk to young people and find out where their heads are today; then ask yourself why.  And explain to us why there are "adults" having Pandora Withdrawal Syndrome because they can't live in never-never-land.  I see the antecedents not in Cooper but in Sir Walter Scott, the going-over-to-the-other-side romance like Waverley.

The myths we make for our culture matter.

[freakazoid]

Sure, WE know that, but how would the guy in the avatar?  The wildly incompetent corporate guy set up a tragedy of errors.

He didn't have to know. He knew that they were wanting to destroy the place in order to get the mineral. He then sees this giant machine come in and destroy everything in its path and with no other course of action, since waving his arms trying to get it to stop failed, and being rightly pissed for what they were doing, he starts wailing on the cameras. Makes perfect sense to me.

Back to the helicopter pilot, I stand by my belief it was too extreme a move, at the time.

Well I think this is more of a matter of personal opinion. I believe given the circumstances, eminent destruction if nothing was done, she had no other choice but to start opening fire. That and since she already had been working with these people for what I'm assuming is a long time, she new who these people were and whether or not talking to them would even do any good. Take the extreme example of a nazi soldier. Do really think it would of turned out well for them if he decided to go and talk to his commanders that he was wanting to switch sides because he no longer believed in what they were doing? That, and this is a movie. We as movie goers know who are the bad guys and who are the good guys. So there is no need to show anything else.

[Angel Eyes]

Adding to the fun: the first Avatar-related fatality:

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/movies/man-died-after-watching-avatar/story-e6frfmvr-1225821333043

A 42-year-old Taiwanese man with a history of high blood pressure has died of a stroke likely triggered by over-excitement from watching the blockbuster Avatar in 3D, a doctor says.

The man, identified only by his surname Kuo, started to feel unwell during the screening earlier this month in the northern city of Hsinchu and was taken to hospital.

Mr Kuo, who suffered from hypertension, was unconscious when he arrived at the Nan Men General Hospital and a scan showed that his brain was haemorrhaging, emergency room doctor Peng Chin-chih said today.

"It's likely that the over-excitement from watching the movie triggered his symptoms,'' the doctor said.


[More at the link]

Time to sue James Cameron for wrongful death?




_{(I'm kidding)}