Rate Avatar (James Cameron)

[Krug]

Gave it a 7. The story was basically Dances with Wolves all over again. Still, you gotta commend them for making a piece of art. The creature design was beautiful, though was slightly disappointed the vehicles resembled/were those from Aliens. But I think best thing about it was how natural the creatures looked. Far enough from being human that you never once tried to do the Uncanny Valley thing with them, yet human enough that one could emphatise and understand their facial expressions.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Gave it a 9, it was the creation of a believable CGI world, not just a 3D one. This was fantasy, with sci-fi and it worked. Yes, the plot is that of Zulu or Custer and done for as long but hey, that is who we are, sure I would have like to have seen more morality from the CEO but I did not expect it.

• In my life I have seen only a handful of movies that changed things:
• Star Wars - saved Hollywood
• Indiana Jones - Action / Adventure and set the stage for the 80's
• Die Hard - Re-defined Action / Adventure the 90's
• Waterworld - first movie to cost over 100 million to make
• Titanic - first movie to make over a billion
• Lord of the Ring - the movie they said that could not be made

Now Avatar for creating the visuals and a world.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Gave it a 9, it was the creation of a believable CGI world, not just a 3D one. This was fantasy, with sci-fi and it worked. Yes, the plot is that of Zulu or Custer and done for as long but hey, that is who we are, sure I would have like to have seen more morality from the CEO but I did not expect it.

Well, he gave them an hour to find a diplomatic solution. I suppose they could have spend more on him and the conflict with the security commander... But that's less time spent on the beautiful CGI world!

 

[Krug]

BTW calling the macguffin unOBTAINium (geddit? geddit?) was like something out of a bad SNL sketch.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

It was honest. Who cares what it was? Dilithium, Neutronium, Einsteinium, Admantium, Mithril, Space Oil, In-Gold-Pressed-Latinum...

 

[catsclaw227]

Acutally the term Unobtainium is a real reference.

Unobtainium - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It may have started as a humorous reference, but it has been used by scientists for decades.

 

[Krug]

It was honest. Who cares what it was? Dilithium, Neutronium, Einsteinium, Admantium, Mithril, Space Oil, In-Gold-Pressed-Latinum...

It took me out of the movie everytime it was mentioned. Thankfully it was just mentioned a couple of times.

 

[delericho]

Well, the special effects were stunning. However, we're now at a point where good special effects don't make a good movie - now that a director can pretty much put whatever he can imagine up on the screen, good special effects are a minimum requirement (at least from Hollywood).

Fortunately, that's not all "Avatar" had going for it. The world they created, and the actually 'alien' aliens were utterly convincing, at least to me. I was amazed by that part of it.

I was less enamoured of the story, though. As others have said, it was just "Dances With Wolves" all over again.

Also, the 3-d shakycam work gave me awful motion sickness.

I give it a 7 - a good but not stellar result. Better than almost all of the films I've seen this year, though. This has not been a good year for films.

 

[Hjorimir]

I thought it was fantastic! I never found myself not enjoying whatever was on screen. I gave it a solid 9 and I'm sure to watch the movie again and again over the years.

 

[Aeolius]

I just got the chance to see the movie this evening. Holy Chrome! That was the most visually stimulating movie I have ever seen!

The story was suitably predictable, but I was so drawn into the world of Pandora that it was never a concern. It was like "The Dark Crystal" on steroids!

I think it definitely helps to have an overactive imagination; the ability to surrender to one's "willing suspension of disbelief". My wife, who dislikes TV specials like Discovery often shows, the ones where they depict how life might look in millions of years, would most likely not enjoy "Avatar".

I will be seeing this movie again, while it's in theaters.