..Avatar Is a Big, Dull, America-Hating, PC Revenge Fantasy (John Nolte From Big Hollywood)

Big Hollywood ^ | December 11, 2009 | John Nolte

[C19fan]

Absent from the big screen for over a decade now, Oscar-winning director James Cameron returns armed with a reported half-billion dollars, a story he’s been desperate to tell for 15 years, and the very latest in cutting-edge visual technology. The result is “Avatar,” a sanctimonious thud of a movie so infested with one-dimensional characters and PC clichés that not a single plot turn – small or large – surprises. I call it the “liberal tell,” where the early and obvious politics of the film gives away the entire story before the second act begins, and “Avatar” might be the sorriest example of this yet. For all the time and money and technology that went into its making, the thing that matters most – character and story – are strictly Afterschool Special.

[x]

Cameron should have released “Titanic II”. At least that film would have made some dough.

I guess it was too hard to get around Leo dying at the end of Titanic I.

There was talk about setting a sequel in the early 20th century with characters who might be brother and sister -- or, well, avatars in some way -- of Jack and Rose, but it didn't pan out.

You could think of Revolutionary Road as the sequel with Rose and Jack moving to suburbia and hating it.

[ctdonath2]

Bump that! Does the movie actually refer to America? Are we to defend the notion of wiping out nations to strip-mine for rare minerals out of pure greed?

or is this story just a stock good vs. evil, greed vs. beauty, boy-meets-alien-girl tale?

I intend to see it. It doesn’t take a half-billion dollars and reshaping of an industry to tell the core story, it takes all that to tell the story with breathtaking comprehensive realism never seen before. I for one will suspend my disbelief in anticipation of an OK story told in marvelous detail.

[Petronski]

Maybe my wife and I will plan to miss it together ... this weekend.

My wife and I plan to miss it at the gala Hollywood premiere.

[spectre]

Enemy mine was a very depressing movie.

I can't wait to go and see Avatar..in 3D.

sw

[AnnaZ]

we figured all that out after the first extended trailer

Same here. The first trailer looked awesome, then a couple of weeks later we saw the longer one and I was, like, "Ugh... you've got to be kidding me." I really dislike overwrought cliché.

[ctdonath2]

The current aliens are nothing more than heavily anthropomorphic version of blue skinned humanoid types who have exaggerated “baby features” ie. big eyes and small noses, which are specifically designed to evoke more of an Emotional response to the viewer.

And herein lies the real-world tragedy of this movie: crossing of the "uncanny valley", only to have critics completely miss the triumph of doing so and complain "the aliens aren't alien enough."

In Avatar computer-generated major characters and scenery rendered in such believable comprehensive detail that, unlike The Polar Express and other near-photorealistic renderings, the entire sense of "computer generated" has been shed completely. Until now, rendering virtually live-action movies has suffered from the "uncanny valley" effect, where the computer-generated content is so nearly real yet lacks ... something ... which bothers viewers yet they cannot quite articulate.

I recommend the Wired article exploring the achievements of this long endeavor. The anticlimax Avatar will suffer is born of director Cameron's success in shifting the industry to make this success possible; if it's perceived as only marginally better than other all-digital virtual-live-action 3-D movies, that's because those other movies were in large part made possible by the drive to create Avatar.

[RobRoy]

;)

[BenLurkin]

Yes, it was

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL7ljBKqJdw

[Caesar Soze]

Sounds like Star Trek Insurrection, but with the Smurfs taking the place of the SoCal hippies.

[jimbo123]

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

Movies are made for the purpose of conveying a message, not for entertaining. The story line, plot, action are all to lull the viewer into a sense of suspension of disbelief, ready to accept the message.

[Alistair Stratford IV]

I saw this movie before...it was called Dances with Wolves.

[Since 2009-07-21]

Until now, rendering virtually live-action movies has suffered from the "uncanny valley" effect, where the computer-generated content is so nearly real yet lacks ... something ... which bothers viewers yet they cannot quite articulate.


Interesting. I definitely fall squarely into that category. I've found myself growing averse to movies filled with "digital effects" over the last ten years or so. It's almost a physical thing. I find digital stuff actually irritating. Oddly I respond to a lot of digital photos the same way. Maybe it's an age thing too......the trend in ramped up low frequency sounds in movie theaters drives me up the wall also. Must everything be audible at a thunderous, ear-bleeding level?

[myknowledge]

I guess the 'Hollyweird' movies you like are the ones that demonize Arabs instead of America.

Planet of the Arabs

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Does the movie actually refer to America?

As I understand it the bad guys speak, look, and act like Hollywood caricatures of bad Americans, so who cares if they use the word? Have you never heard of an allegory?

[Rastus]

Well played. Never even considered the fact that they can clone but can’t fix a spinal cord. Haha.

[Rastus]

I wouldn’t have seen this even if it was promoting conservative values. Those big blue aliens are exceptionally stupid looking.

[IronJack]

May I join you?

By all means. I don't know how big the theater is, but I suspect it will hold all the people who don't show up for this bomb.

[PLMerite]

“The current aliens are nothing more than heavily anthropomorphic version of blue skinned humanoid types...”

I bet Tiger would hit one.

Sorry.

[GeronL]

hi Anna!

Imagine all the great movies that never get made because Hollyweird is PC. It’s crazy.