Avatar - James Cameron Returns! (Spoilers in thread, obviously!)

You know, you have such a great roll going that at this point it would be kind of a pity for you to break it by actually seeing the film you keep wanting to talk about.

I mean, think of the pride you can take some day in the very distant future, lying on your deathbed, surrounded by loving children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren - wouldn't you like to be able to go out on a high note, reminding your descendants that, whatever may have happened in your life, you managed to get all the way through it without ever having seen Avatar?
 
What's interesting to me about the various types b*tching about Avatar proposing that 'nature-worship' can replace 'traditional' religions is that it's prime evidence that they didn't pay f*cking attention while watching the movie. Which makes their perspective virtually worthless.

What the Na'vi have is not a religion, at all. There isn't any faith involved. Their conception of Ewa is quite real, and demonstrable, and based upon direct physical experience and connection to the collective consciousness. No mythology, no imaginary characters, not even any need for recourse to 'miracles:' it's all real and therefore has no more to do with what we think of as 'religion,' than fish have to do, with bicycles.
 
Funny I thought 'traditional' religions did worship nature. Anyways, I'd be less worried about a new wave of tree huggers, and more worried about James Cameron becoming a deity...
 
Kellar42 said:
Funny I thought 'traditional' religions did worship nature. Anyways, I'd be less worried about a new wave of tree huggers, and more worried about James Cameron becoming a deity...
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The presently-dominant ones tend to assert that *they* are the 'traditional' religions.

Branding. We all know how that works.
 
MovieTickets.com is predicting Avatar to break Titanics all time B.O. record. They said there are still over 200 sold out theaters in the coming week(s).

I think it is a good possibility, it's going to get a boost from the awards shows and Oscars so those that haven;t seen it will be more likely to go see it.

Worldwide numbers aren't updated but I'll bet it's close to $1.5B right now.
 
Jason Ramsey said:
heard somewhere last night (guess one of the late night shows) a joke about that... was along the lines of "he forgot to get high before seeing the film" :)

Later,
jason
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There is a cult starting where all the kids are getting stoned and going to see it again. I bet that'll be good for another $100M B.O. gross not to mention what it's going to do for popcorn and snacks revenue.
 
ChipG said:
There is a cult starting where all the kids are getting stoned and going to see it again. I bet that'll be good for another $100M B.O. gross not to mention what it's going to do for popcorn and snacks revenue.
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Maybe they'll start marketing to that "audience" ala 2001--
flat0010spa.jpg

two_thousand_and_one_a_space_odyssey.jpg
 
Sad,

Didn't you do some of the set design?

To bad you didn't arrange a few things to resemble a peace sign for a subliminal message, or did you?
 
CallaghanFilms said:
Life was hard in 1863.
Life was hard in 1932.
In 2010, Life may be many things...hard ain't one of 'em.
Just sayin...
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Or how about this rephrase:

Life was hard as all poo pooing hell in 1863
Life was pretty darn hard in 1932
Life is hard in 2010, unless you're stinking rich

Sad Max said:
What's interesting to me about the various types b*tching about Avatar proposing that 'nature-worship' can replace 'traditional' religions is that it's prime evidence that they didn't pay f*cking attention while watching the movie. Which makes their perspective virtually worthless.

What the Na'vi have is not a religion, at all. There isn't any faith involved. Their conception of Ewa is quite real, and demonstrable, and based upon direct physical experience and connection to the collective consciousness. No mythology, no imaginary characters, not even any need for recourse to 'miracles:' it's all real and therefore has no more to do with what we think of as 'religion,' than fish have to do, with bicycles.
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I completely agree.

Same thing with all the blow hards getting all worked up about Avatar's supposed message of hatred for the military and the United States. Sure there are some jabs and criticisms that Cameron makes, but I hardly believe that he set out to make a movie that says "America sucks, and the US military are a bunch of baby killers." I think the larger picture is that the film says, look, its one kind of wrong to poo poo up our own ecosystems and environment, but isn't it a whole nother level of wrong to do the same to an alien culture's? Tied into this is the idea that maybe there would be a way to get the unobtanium from a different area of Pandora, one that is not directly underneath a Na'vi settlement. That never was mentioned by the corporate goons in the film, which to me shows that their downfall was pure greed and an unwillingness to try to truly understand the Na'vi culture (at least by the corp mining execs and mercs).

Its not like mining is inherently evil, nor is being a mercenary. It all depends on how someone goes about mining or being a mercenary. Also, just as the mercs in Avatar committed some atrocious acts of violence, in real life both American and foreign soldiers and mercenaries have committed war crimes as well. If the average citizen heard a news story about a group of soldiers committing a war crime, they wouldn't suddenly think, "I bet all soldiers do this stuff during a war." But when a movie has a soldier or a crooked cop or some character like that, some portions of the audience seem to assume the filmmakers are saying that all soldiers or all cops are like that. It just don't get this type of thinking. Just because there are a few bad apples in the cart doesn't give anybody the right to jump to stereotypes or irrational fear-tinged thinking.

Since when did a character in Avatar stand up and say, gee golly, humanity, capitalism, and the military are evil... KILL ALL HUMANS!!!!! ? Why is it that a single character or group of characters in a film are so often automatically assumed to be representative of an entire race, religion, or political party?

If anything the movie is more of a cinematic requiem for the Native Americans that were wiped out by the European Colonists than it is a treatise on how America is downright evil. I'm getting really tired of all the crap thrown towards anybody that actually questions things about this country. It's like they're being a traitor by raising questions about the good old US of A. I don't know about you guys, but I think if there ever were a time to question things about our country and way of life, the present day would be it.

Maybe the visuals of the movie are just that damn good, causing some viewers to not be able to recall the plot elements and major details of the film after having their brains temporarily frazzled?
 
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Nektonic said:
Or how about this rephrase:

Life was hard as all poo pooing hell in 1863
Life was pretty darn hard in 1932
Life is hard in 2010, unless you're stinking rich
Click to expand...
I stand by my original thought. Frankly, it is insulting to the greatest generation for today's kids to even ponder that "they got it rough". This, mind you, is the same generation for whom dodgeball and tag are seen as exclusionary and dangerous...
 
I really didn't think Avatar could top Titanic at the b.o. but I may have to eat my words.
 
CallaghanFilms said:
I stand by my original thought. Frankly, it is insulting to the greatest generation for today's kids to even ponder that "they got it rough". This, mind you, is the same generation for whom dodgeball and tag are seen as exclusionary and dangerous...
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HA HA... reminds me of The Survivor episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
 
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