My sons took me to see Avatar in 3-D last night....

[winyanstaz]

I think it is one of the most wonderful movies I have ever seen. :)
The scenery was breathtaking and as a pagan native american I could really relate to it.
Not to spoil the movie but psychics everywhere should see this movie :)

[northernlights]

1. it took me a while to get lost in it

but once I was there, I was totally there and did NOT want to leave. :D

[yellerpup]

2. Me, too.

Loved it!

[Silver Gaia]

3. Totally agree!

I've seen it twice now (once in IMAX 3D and once in 'regular' digital 3D), and both times, was deeply affected.

I was really shocked, but pleased, to see it win the Golden Globe for Best Picture last night! I think this was primarily because of the important message it sends, too -- a message that, hopefully, millions of people are starting to finally 'get.' Maybe it is helping to open up something collectively that has been much needed. I can hope...

[winyanstaz]

6. I loved it so much...my friends and I are all going to go watch it again...

and when it comes out..I am buying the movie :)
I am already working on making my moonlight garden glow more :P

[Cleita]

4. So I just came back from seeing it at the matinee and it was all

everyone said about it. It was of course primarily a special effects film and what glorious special effects there were married with animation. The spiritual part of the story was palpable but I think from reading reviews in other places, a lot of people didn't get it. The main message was that we had destroyed the mother goddess on our planet and now we were trying to destroy theirs. Of course there were the tributes to the culture of our Native Americans and what they suffered at the hands of the invading Europeans. I felt that the Navi didn't just represent Native Americans but people throughout the world who are indigenous people, such as the aborigines of Australia and the Pacific, the Himalayan people and of course those left in Africa and the North Pole who haven't yet had their civilization destroyed by invaders.

I personally have always had a strong affinity to the forest and try to find the wildest places I can at least to visit if I can't live there. I also enjoy traveling in the middle of the ocean, away from any communication and lights to just enjoy the star show the universe gives us there. I really believe we can blend our civilization with nature yet if we try hard enough. This is why I have an affinity to the fairy people, who are part of nature and I feel we have to work with them to restore our planet to the beautiful and bountiful home of not just humans but all other species we must share it with as well. Whether Cameron intended to bring out this aspect in his story or if it came out because the fairy people inspired him, I don't know but the message surely is there.

[winyanstaz]

7. I agree...as a Native American I did see a lot that reminded me of my own people...

But I also was relating it to Iraq, Afganistan and all the other native people that have been invaded.
I hope everyone gets to see this film and it makes them stop and think.

[Cleita]

13. It was heartbreaking when they destroyed the tree they lived in and quite

honestly it brought back hurtful memories of seeing lumber companies clear cutting I witnessed in the forests I lived in at one time.

[Fire Walk With Me]

8. You might also enjoy "Spirited Away" and "Princess Mononoke".

They are highly reverent to life and nature and spirit, and of condemning man's unconscious encroachment upon it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkWWWKKA8jY

HA! The trailer uses very nearly that phrasing! :D

And the dubbed versions are =awful=. Watch the Japanese language with subtitles...

[Cleita]

12. If that is out in DVD, I will have to pick up a copy.

Japanese animation is always special and they have such a great mythology and history to draw from for their stories.

[kentauros]

15. Both of those titles are by Hayao Miyazaki and are on DVD.

You might also look at his other titles, as well as those by his good friend, Isao Takahata, such as Grave of the Fireflies and Only Yesterday :)

[kentauros]

5. I'm glad some one else brought this thread up to the top in here

as I was a bit burned out from the "argue for the sake of arguing" Avatar-thread in the Lounge ;)

I did like it, though it took me a while to get used to the 3D. I was more focused on my eyestrain-headache for the first 20-30 minutes than the movie, so I may have missed some minor details during that time. But it was very much worth seeing that way; I just don't think I'll see it again until it comes on Dish. You see, the flaws in the story/message left me wanting much more, and less predictability...

I am happy the movie is so accessible to the masses, I only wish it had more depth to the Gaia ideas. I've read both science fiction and fantasy stories where that wasn't left to just what was on the surface, but included the entire planet. Even stars can be depicted as "alive" and conscious, whether the majority of the viewing public either accepts that or understands it. I don't know exactly how to convey that into this particular story, only that it could have added that much more of a twist or thought-provoking dimension.

I'm probably not as disappointed as I could have been, thanks to avoiding pretty much all reviews and stories about the movie until after viewing. I had managed to read one story about how some people have taken things to an extreme, where they want to commit suicide in order to be reborn into that world. When the writer mentioned the name of the element humanity wanted, I thought it was a joke by the writer. Sorry, but "unobtainium" is not a creative name for a substance or new element ;)

Still, everyone should see the movie once, preferably in 3D IMAX. Just don't expect the equivalent of Contact ;)

[OneGrassRoot]

9. This is the first I've shared about my experience...

I feel like such an outcast about this subject...lol...as everyone else has been so moved by "Avatar."

Me, not so much.

Like you, kentauros, the 3D experience wasn't so great for me. I really have a thing about anything being IN MY FACE. Yikes, the first 20 minutes or so of feeling like my personal space was being invaded was very disconcerting. :rofl: (The only time this didn't bother me was when cutie patootie leading man was in my face...close enough to kiss his lips ;))

Otherwise, I thought it was entertaining, BEAUTIFUL as far as scenery and other elements (nighttime in Pandora was beyond magickal), and all in all a good movie.

Yet, what kept it from being a powerful experience for me was that I felt it was so very, very predictable. I mean, I literally knew what was going to happen and what was going to be said before it occurred.

Maybe it's because these are subjects and concepts that are discussed daily in groups such as this but it had a "duh" quality for me. Of COURSE we're all connected by the energy found throughout All Living Things. Maybe that is groundbreaking for others though; if so, I hope it serves to inspire and awaken.

I do recommend people see it. It was an entertaining several hours. I kind of see it like a modern (or futuristic?) "Dances With Wolves." THAT was a very powerful movie to me.

:hi:

[Cleita]

10. This was in the genre of what they call a special effects movie.

I used to hang around film students at one time and one of the things with a special effects movie is that the story and acting are secondary to the effects and the action. This story of good versus evil, boy meets girl, a moral message, a bang up great battle and a happy ending is pretty standard. They want to keep you awed with the effects and the story and actors are only there to keep you interested while they wow you with the setting.

Although the 3D didn't affect my eyes like it did fifty years ago, I did find the bugs and fluff floating around my face kind of disconcerting too and I don't like those things in real life either, but it did make this fantasy world seem very real. I don't want to see this particular movie again but I would like to visit Pandora again in a sequel and I think they are going to do sequels from what I have read.

[OneGrassRoot]

11. good point

Yes, a special effects movie. That makes sense. The floaty nighttime special effect thingies were uber cool.

:)

:hi:

[kentauros]

14. The truly unfortunate thing about calling it an "effects movie"

is that it doesn't have to be lacking in a good story. For example, 2001: A Space Odyssey. The effects were phenomenal, even by today's standards and the story left you pondering it all not just days later, but years later ;)

I see Avatar as primarily an action movie, because that's what Cameron does best. His sequel to Alien was a military and action movie (much like Avatar) while the original movie by Ridley Scott broke ground by putting into the mainstream the idea of bio-mechanical lifeforms, at least in the movies. The idea had been around for years in science fiction stories, such as the creatures in Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama. Of course, I'd love to see that story or Niven's Ringworld or even Varley's Titan series turned into movies, but I'm not holding my breath waiting on Hollywood to create another 2001-type science fiction drama.

By the way, Titan has some similarities to Avatar, since the entire "world" is a living being :)

[Cleita]

16. It's nice if they can put a good, original story to it, but not essential.

Cameron seems to be a formulaic script writer, which is why he has to excel in other ways. Now I found the original Alien ground breaking with some nice touches that didn't happen in the generic Sci-Fi movie however I only saw one sequel and didn't bother with the rest. They were just retreading the old story. If you found a story in "2001, a Space Odyssey", then I must be really dumb. I know Clarke wrote a novel after the movie and filled in some details but I found it to be mainly special effects, which at the time in the fairly new Cinemax format made it breathtaking. There was the HAL segment, which was as much story as there was. It would have made a nice Twilight Zone story. I guess what we see is in the eye of the beholder. I always was one of those who wanted to look behind the camera and watch the sausage being made anyway.

However, this movie seems to have married special effects and animation in a pretty original way. He's also mixed up fantasy, with Sci-Fi and military action in a much different way than Star Trek so it seems pretty fresh. I liked it.