Avatar

[Typhoid]

It's called "Shock and Awe" and it focuses on the psychological destruction of the enemy's will to fight rather than the physical destruction of his military forces."

I didn't know that.
Maybe I don't associate it with the (current) Iraq War because the phrase has been around for 15 years.

It's interesting you point out the Native American angle, though, as I saw the movie with one, and he also thought it alluded more to Native Americans than the Iraq War, but I'm not so sure.

I don't see how it couldn't, really. I mean, sure - there is a mineral they're trying to get (to be fair, they're not after oil in the Iraq War), but I mean - the indigenous race of the planet is pretty...native-esque. Everything is sacred, everyone is connected, everything has an energy. I don't know about you - but Iraqis are a little more civilized than some bows and some talk about life energy.

But that's just me.

[Typhoid]

[Bube]

So that's why it felt so similar..

[Angrist]

Related news: I bought 'Dances With Wolves' on DVD. Together with The Day After Tomorrow and I,Robot.

But I still haven't seen Avatar...

[DarkMaster]

So James Cameron stole Disney's Pocahontas story and Disney stole it from real life. James Cameron also stole the story of Titanic from real life. What a guy.

[Vampyr]

This just in: Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings was not an original story.

[The Germanator]

Originally Posted by DarkMaster

So James Cameron stole Disney's Pocahontas story and Disney stole it from real life. James Cameron also stole the story of Titanic from real life. What a guy.

And Titantic was a sappy, boring love story and not a that good of a movie. I understand that not much is original these days, but Avatar didn't even surprise me once.

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/29...elling-ri.html

Read the above link. If the film had even attempted to do some of those things the story may have been interesting, but it didn't.

I know, I'm sure James Cameron is crying into his $2 billion right now because I didn't like his movies. Terminator was rad though.

[KillerGremlin]

Fuck! Typhoid beat me to posting how Avatar = Pocahontas, Dances with Wolves, FernGully, Etc.

Average story/George Lucas-esque dialogue with amazing special effects. I enjoyed it quite a bit but had more fun at Star Trek this summer.

I was totally immersed in the world of Avatar and was feeling quite euphoric when he walked through the forest and things started glowing, and the part where he rode the dragon thing for the first time. The movie may or may not had racist undertones, and the whole story where the civilized white people destroy then save the savage natives is pretty fucking cliche (and racist...?...).

All in all it was good cinema, although it dragged on 40 minutes past its welcome. And the interspecies fucking was weird.

[manasecret]

I finally saw the movie yesterday in regular 3D. Tried to see it in IMAX 3D, but it was sold out for the next two showings.

The movie is a spectacle, and I admit I became totally immersed in the world of Pandora like a movie has not done for me probably since I was a kid. It brought out the mostly dormant sense of wonder in me, and for that, I love the movie.

For me, much of the plot was the visuals. For example, Jake is brought to a new world and is awed by seeing all of these amazing, wonderful sights for the very first time. At the same time, for me and I'm sure many others, we are seeing a 3D movie for the first time and equally awed by the amazing sights. Put simply, I felt what the character felt, which is what a good movie does.

Also, I really liked the scene when Jake first tried out his Avatar. I could feel the joy it must have been to go from paralyzed legs to not just working legs, but the strength and agility of his new avatar. I appreciate that they did this with subtlety. Jake doesn't come out and say he likes having legs again, which I think would be out of character, you simply understand the joy he has in it when he runs and runs and runs.

This theme is repeated throughout the film. Humans controlling avatars, avatars/Navi controlling animals, and finally human becoming Na'vi. The story of a broken human being finding his soul and saved because of it.

The allusion to the Iraq War is there but I think only in passing. Yes, the "shock and awe" and "fight terror with terror" are direct references, but I think meant only as ideas that the audience immediately understands. Oil and unobtanium could be seen as one in the same, but like Typhoid said, a Native American-type people connected to the earth and fighting with bows and arrows isn't anything like a Middle Eastern people. So, no, I don't think the movie is meant as an allusion to the conflict in the Middle East.

[Teuthida]

Stole me pic for video.

EDIT: Nice guy. Might do work for him.

[manasecret]

Work freelance for him?

[Teuthida]

Yeah I suppose since he does this for a living. Told him to email me if had any ideas. Would be a nice side thing to my comics. The exposure itself is amazing though. He linked to my rarely used (until Avatar came out) DeviantArt page. The bar graph for page views cracks me up:

Monday: 0
Tuesday: 5
Wednesday: 4
Thursday: 13
Today:780

[BreakABone]

Originally Posted by Teuthida

Yeah I suppose since he does this for a living. Told him to email me if had any ideas. Would be a nice side thing to my comics. The exposure itself is amazing though. He linked to my rarely used (until Avatar came out) DeviantArt page. The bar graph for page views cracks me up:

Monday: 0
Tuesday: 5
Wednesday: 4
Thursday: 13
Today:780

Look at you, imagine how many more hits you would have got if he linked to it correctly the first time.

[Teuthida]

Heh, I know right? His video had well over 300,000 views before I emailed him.

[Teuthida]

From the guy who did the Watchmen cartoon show intro.