The Catholic review of AVATAR

Pepe Silvia

luke. wrote:

get over yourselves, avatar has nothing to do with the 'americas' .. and the world doesn't revolve around the wars in the middle east... or the usa. its a friggen movie with blue people. the end

you better tell james cameron

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/ar ... 5809286903
War on Terror backdrop to James Cameron's Avatar

However, it also contains heavy implicit criticism of America's conduct in the War on Terror.

As the director of Aliens, The Terminator and Terminator 2, as well as Titanic, the highest-grossing film of all time, Cameron has a formidable box-office track record.

However, a string of films about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have flopped at the box office in the past two years, including the Reese Witherspoon vehicle Rendition and Lions for Lambs, which starred Tom Cruise, Robert Redford and Meryl Streep.

Cameron said yesterday the theme was not the main point of Avatar, but added that Americans had a "moral responsibility" to understand the impact that their country's recent military campaigns had had.

"We went down a path that cost several hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives. I don't think the American people even know why it was done. So it's all about opening your eyes."

Referring to the "shock and awe" sequence, he said: "We know what it feels like to launch the missiles. We don't know what it feels like for them to land on our home soil, not in America. I think there's a moral responsibility to understand that.

polaris_x

interesting ... i took my gf to see avatar on imax last nite (saw it a while ago) and she was crying for pretty much the last quarter of the movie ...

the story has been done before but this one has a modern context with the use of paramilitaries instead of an official military ...

anyhoo - typical with a james cameron movie - the dialogue is pretty bad but you can't beat the visual spectacle he created in this movie ...

anyways - this isn't a fantastical story in that multi-national mining companies are heading into developing countries where indigenous people live and are basically forcing them out ... they are poisoning their land and using paramilitaries to control dissent ...

anyhoo - gf was wondering if anyone actually gets that message - and i'm like 95% don't ...

FiveB247x

The message everyone gets is "cool 3-d effects and explosions". We are slowly becoming just like the movie "idiocracy".

polaris_x wrote:

interesting ... i took my gf to see avatar on imax last nite (saw it a while ago) and she was crying for pretty much the last quarter of the movie ...

the story has been done before but this one has a modern context with the use of paramilitaries instead of an official military ...

anyhoo - typical with a james cameron movie - the dialogue is pretty bad but you can't beat the visual spectacle he created in this movie ...

anyways - this isn't a fantastical story in that multi-national mining companies are heading into developing countries where indigenous people live and are basically forcing them out ... they are poisoning their land and using paramilitaries to control dissent ...

anyhoo - gf was wondering if anyone actually gets that message - and i'm like 95% don't ...

haffajappa

FiveB247x wrote:

The message everyone gets is "cool 3-d effects and explosions". We are slowly becoming just like the movie "idiocracy".

intro to that movie was awesome!
too bad it went down hill from there... had potential though.

markin ball

shitty plot + shitty dialogue = shitty movie.

shitty plot + shitty dialogue + the most amazing visual effects ever = shitty movie.

Byrnzie

FiveB247x wrote:

The message everyone gets is "cool 3-d effects and explosions". We are slowly becoming just like the movie "idiocracy".

I hear ya. I have a built-in aversion to Computer Generated Graphics. I detested the last three Star Wars films for this reason. Lucas didn't need CGI's to make the first three films and the special effects in those films were superb. Sometimes, with those later movies, I didn't know if I was watching a Sci-fi movie or a cartoon half the time.
I think CGI's are a lame sell out. And they just don't work.

Edit: I've still not gotten around to Avatar. I downloaded it and was quite looking forward to seeing it after reading about how much Republicans and Christians are offended by it's message. But now I just think, 'Who gives a fuck?'

Smellyman

jesus loved avatar

JonnyPistachio

Byrnzie wrote:

FiveB247x wrote:

The message everyone gets is "cool 3-d effects and explosions". We are slowly becoming just like the movie "idiocracy".

I hear ya. I have a built-in aversion to Computer Generated Graphics. I detested the last three Star Wars films for this reason. Lucas didn't need CGI's to make the first three films and the special effects in those films were superb. Sometimes, with those later movies, I didn't know if I was watching a Sci-fi movie or a cartoon half the time.
I think CGI's are a lame sell out. And they just don't work.

Edit: I've still not gotten around to Avatar. I downloaded it and was quite looking forward to seeing it after reading about how much Republicans and Christians are offended by it's message. But now I just think, 'Who gives a fuck?'

I have to agree with you on the Star Wars thing. Those last three were a mis-mosh of bragging rights in the CGI world. I first got scared that CGI was going to ruin movies when I saw Martix 2.. that scene where he battles thousands of Agent Smiths was awful. It looked like a video game or a cartoon. However, I didnt think Avatar was a good movie plot-wise, but it was a fun time.

JonnyPistachio

luke. wrote:

Byrnzie wrote:

OffHeGoes29 wrote:

100 million huh? Where did you get those facts? Iraq has only 24 Million and A-stan has 12 million people living there, did we kill 80% of there population?

Byrnzie wrote:

I wasn't referring to Iraq or Afghanistan. I was referring to the original inhabitants of the Americas.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... -important
'...In 1492, some 100 million native people lived in the Americas. By the end of the 19th century almost all of them had been exterminated. Many died as a result of disease, but the mass extinction was also engineered..'

OffHeGoes29 wrote:

Most of it was done by Europeans...

European settlers - the first white Americans. The contact between these two cultures - the whites and the natives - is what the movie avatar is an allegory of. Check the other thread if you need any further clarification.

get over yourselves, avatar has nothing to do with the 'americas' .. and the world doesn't revolve around the wars in the middle east... or the usa. its a friggen movie with blue people. the end

get over yourselves?! geesh, sounds like someone woke up onthe wrong side of the bed. nobody said anything about the world revolving around the Americas, but it's a little tough to ignore the wars going on if you live here. And i'd be surprised if Cameron doesnt have some influences from American history in Avatar. But Pepe Silva already showed that to you in detail. So I guess the the world does revolve around the Americas, huh?