Being the sucker for gratuitous special effects that I am, I will be going to see it at some point... but I certainly will not be harboring any illusions about the "moral" of the story.
Too bad all the Pirates have all been routed out of the Bay.
I'm not gonna pay for it either, but I still want to see what half a bil buys in special effects...
In one of the comments someone called Cameron "Avatarded". Hilarious. Wired has a pretty funny spoof about Cameron and his insatiable need for effects: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/12/avatar-spoof/
Folks, this is James Cameron we're talking about. He took an excellent disaster movie and ruined it with a lovestory, so of course he's going to take an awesome action flick and ruin it with enviromental fundamentalist preaching.
Of course, why don't we just re-edit the thing -like some folks did with their VHS copies of "Titanic" to remove the stuff we don't like and leave the stuff we do? Or a re-editing to show the blue meanies as a bunch of destructive Luddites who cannot adapt to the changing of times?
The Nobel Savage myth just won't die. (See also: Dances With Wolves)
We'll probably rent it just for the sheer spectacle. Hopefully we'll be able to suppress the gag reflex enough to enjoy the special effects. I (mostly) managed to do that with Wall-E.
How is he going to manage to explain this: The aliens engage in close in melee combat. The humans can nuke the planet from orbit. If the acquisition of a metal is the primary force driving this planet's colonization, then why bother fighting hostile alien creatures at all? Why not just exterminate all life on this planet and then mine the dead rock for all it's worth?
I don't know if you've seen this site, but I've spent a good hour or two reading through all of the possible ways to destroy a planet. Very entertaining.
Yeah, you're watching James Cameron's brain explode for 3 hours, and that early part of the movie is a helluva slog, but the last 40 minutes is a battle sequence that is balls-out awesome. Or so I hear.
Just got back from seeing it, and if you are going to go yourself, I strongly recommend the 3D version. Takes a bit of getting used to, but the end result is damned impressive.
Visually, it has to be one of the most impressive and most realistic movies of its type. The lines between "real" and "computer" were almost non-existent, and in places, completely forgotten.
Story-wise, I have to admit it was not really as bad as some folks are making it out to be... Not a great story, mind you, not an original story, and not an unpredictable story, but in terms of political grand-standing, it was not nearly as bad as it could have been. In fact, the "green" aspect of it did not show up that often, and you were not really clubbed over the head with it until about 2/3s of the way in, when the protagonist decried the "sky people" (us/him) for destroying their "mother", and leaving nothing green on their homeworld.
As for the displacement of the natives by coercion, force, and death, it reminded me far more of what American settlers did to the Native Americans than what the greenies are accusing us of doing now - the humans were after precious resources (some-number-of-millions-of-some-currency per kilo) that just happened to be right smack-dab under one of the native's largest settlements (which, of course, just happened to be a tree). So, rather than trying to work a deal of some nature, we scorched the place, and moved in (and then got our asses handed to us). Yeah, like I said, it was a tree, so naturally "tree hugging" comes into play, but (not to spoil too much of the movie), that tree and the ecosystem around it ascribes very closely to some Native American concepts of nature and life being all wrapped up into one thing (strengthening the similarities I saw).
In all honesty, potentially greenie overtones or not, the humans in this particular movie were in the wrong (invaded an inhabited planet, stripped it of its resources, murdered sentient natives, displaced them, etc.). That said, any similarities between the humans in the movie and humans today are going to be fantastically tenuous, and more than a little amusing.
And in the interests of fairness, Sarah, I think you can originally blame those hick farmers at Agincourt for that particular meme...
Agincourt was a fight between technological equals... in fact the Brits won because they had the more appropriate technology for the situation.
But the noble savage idea isn't about who won. It's the perverse idea that living in a more industrialized culture where only 2% of us have to farm to feed the other 98 and our streets aren't covered in foeter makes us the bad guys. I call it "perverse" because it has an effect on ACTUAL policy... look for the romantic notions of agrarian peasant life that crop up as soon as we talk about building factories in the third world.
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Being the sucker for gratuitous special effects that I am, I will be going to see it at some point... but I certainly will not be harboring any illusions about the "moral" of the story.
Save the CGI forests!
Won't someone think of the server farms?
I also love special effects. If only there was a way to see the movie without spending any money on it...
Too bad all the Pirates have all been routed out of the Bay.
I'm not gonna pay for it either, but I still want to see what half a bil buys in special effects...
Boring hippie smurfs punish evil greedy humans for technology? That's not a very catchy tag line.
Mark: There are other sites. :) Of course, Cameron was smart. "Avatar" as a search term is going to make finding those torrents hard.
Enh, stick it in the Netflix queue. He won't make much money from it.
In one of the comments someone called Cameron "Avatarded". Hilarious. Wired has a pretty funny spoof about Cameron and his insatiable need for effects: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/12/avatar-spoof/
So it's like a current version of "Fern Gully" but w/ Cpl Hicks instead of a singing glob of tar.
Avatar: the premise that tribesmen with stone age weapons riding birds have a chance vs power armor.
Not.
Folks, this is James Cameron we're talking about. He took an excellent disaster movie and ruined it with a lovestory, so of course he's going to take an awesome action flick and ruin it with enviromental fundamentalist preaching.
Of course, why don't we just re-edit the thing -like some folks did with their VHS copies of "Titanic" to remove the stuff we don't like and leave the stuff we do? Or a re-editing to show the blue meanies as a bunch of destructive Luddites who cannot adapt to the changing of times?
The Nobel Savage myth just won't die. (See also: Dances With Wolves)
We'll probably rent it just for the sheer spectacle. Hopefully we'll be able to suppress the gag reflex enough to enjoy the special effects. I (mostly) managed to do that with Wall-E.
Dances With Smurfs indeed!
I haven't seen it, and I'm not going to.
How is he going to manage to explain this: The aliens engage in close in melee combat. The humans can nuke the planet from orbit. If the acquisition of a metal is the primary force driving this planet's colonization, then why bother fighting hostile alien creatures at all? Why not just exterminate all life on this planet and then mine the dead rock for all it's worth?
Greg Hunt: Since we're assuming for the sake of argument that no one cares about the morality of genocide...
Nuke it?
Naw.
Just smelt the planet where it spins.
Civilizations with star drives tend to also have planetary scale smelters, the smurfs will be the first to fraction off.
/EvilCapitalistMode
Geek:
http://qntm.org/?destroy
I don't know if you've seen this site, but I've spent a good hour or two reading through all of the possible ways to destroy a planet. Very entertaining.
Here's a different viewpoint from Cracked.com: "'Avatar' is Horribly Written, Way Too Long, Totally Worth It."
Yeah, you're watching James Cameron's brain explode for 3 hours, and that early part of the movie is a helluva slog, but the last 40 minutes is a battle sequence that is balls-out awesome. Or so I hear.
Tim, I like your thinking! ;)
This movie now has two alternate titles:
Avatard
Dances With Smurfs
:)
Avatar: the premise that tribesmen with stone age weapons riding birds have a chance vs power armor.
You can blame George Lucas for popularizing this imbecility with those damn Ewoks.
Just got back from seeing it, and if you are going to go yourself, I strongly recommend the 3D version. Takes a bit of getting used to, but the end result is damned impressive.
Visually, it has to be one of the most impressive and most realistic movies of its type. The lines between "real" and "computer" were almost non-existent, and in places, completely forgotten.
Story-wise, I have to admit it was not really as bad as some folks are making it out to be... Not a great story, mind you, not an original story, and not an unpredictable story, but in terms of political grand-standing, it was not nearly as bad as it could have been. In fact, the "green" aspect of it did not show up that often, and you were not really clubbed over the head with it until about 2/3s of the way in, when the protagonist decried the "sky people" (us/him) for destroying their "mother", and leaving nothing green on their homeworld.
As for the displacement of the natives by coercion, force, and death, it reminded me far more of what American settlers did to the Native Americans than what the greenies are accusing us of doing now - the humans were after precious resources (some-number-of-millions-of-some-currency per kilo) that just happened to be right smack-dab under one of the native's largest settlements (which, of course, just happened to be a tree). So, rather than trying to work a deal of some nature, we scorched the place, and moved in (and then got our asses handed to us). Yeah, like I said, it was a tree, so naturally "tree hugging" comes into play, but (not to spoil too much of the movie), that tree and the ecosystem around it ascribes very closely to some Native American concepts of nature and life being all wrapped up into one thing (strengthening the similarities I saw).
In all honesty, potentially greenie overtones or not, the humans in this particular movie were in the wrong (invaded an inhabited planet, stripped it of its resources, murdered sentient natives, displaced them, etc.). That said, any similarities between the humans in the movie and humans today are going to be fantastically tenuous, and more than a little amusing.
And in the interests of fairness, Sarah, I think you can originally blame those hick farmers at Agincourt for that particular meme...
And in the interests of fairness, Sarah, I think you can originally blame those hick farmers at Agincourt for that particular meme...
In some variation or another you can follow that story concept at least as far back as Vercingetorix against Gaius Iulius Caesar. That one's old...
Agincourt, Roman empire, whatever.
It was all sharp sticks vs sharp sticks.
Agincourt was a fight between technological equals... in fact the Brits won because they had the more appropriate technology for the situation.
But the noble savage idea isn't about who won. It's the perverse idea that living in a more industrialized culture where only 2% of us have to farm to feed the other 98 and our streets aren't covered in foeter makes us the bad guys. I call it "perverse" because it has an effect on ACTUAL policy... look for the romantic notions of agrarian peasant life that crop up as soon as we talk about building factories in the third world.
Note: All avatars and any images or other media embedded in comments were hosted on the JS-Kit website and have been lost; references to haloscan comments have been partially automatically remapped, but accuracy is not guaranteed and corrections are solicited.
If you notice any problems with this page or wish to have your home page link updated, please contact John Hardin <jhardin@impsec.org>