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Author Topic: Avatar  (Read 3920 times)

JongWK

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« Reply #60 on: February 02, 2010, 02:26:59 PM »
9 Oscar nominations. Best Screenplay not included. ;)

Plus: District 9 and Up got Best Movie nods. Yeah!
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Seanchai
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« Reply #61 on: February 03, 2010, 02:19:00 PM »
"Thus tens of children were left holding the bag. And it was a bag bereft of both Hellscream and allowance money."

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Kyle Aaron

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« Reply #62 on: February 03, 2010, 05:04:47 PM »
I can see why it was popular, but it didn't excite me much.

A "bimbo" movie, I call it. Visually beautiful, not much content, and the content it did have was cliched. A perfect Hero's Journey. Campbell has a lot to answer for.

The foreign civilised guy makes a better savage than the savages can, only he can unite them. In Hollywood world there are no Geronimos or Shaka Zulus, only... um... hmmm, trying to think of a historical example of a foreigner uniting savages, but guess what, there isn't one. I wonder why. Fictional examples abound - funnily enough, white Westerners have a lot of fantasies of white Westerners uniting savages under their rule.

Now me, I would have thought that the utter destruction of a zillion year-old home to thousands of people would be pretty fucking good at uniting them, but apparently not.

Good thing the Colonel got himself killed in battle, if he'd survived he would have been cashiered - losing half or all his force against a bunch of spear-wielding savages. Maybe when he said "I could have left, but I kinda like it here," what he really meant was, "actually I've quite a bit of tarnish on my brass, am known among my peers as an idiot, and they only sent me here because they thought, it's only spear-wielding savages, not even he can fuck that up." Woops.
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« Reply #63 on: February 03, 2010, 08:35:56 PM »
Quote from: Seanchai;358975
A review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJarz7BYnHA

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« Reply #64 on: February 03, 2010, 09:50:04 PM »
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Senchai, I could kiss you.

That was the most hilarious thing I've seen for weeks!


Check out his Star Wars review.

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Bedrockbrendan

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« Reply #65 on: February 04, 2010, 09:57:44 AM »
Quote from: Kyle Aaron;358998

The foreign civilised guy makes a better savage than the savages can, only he can unite them. In Hollywood world there are no Geronimos or Shaka Zulus, only... um... hmmm, trying to think of a historical example of a foreigner uniting savages, but guess what, there isn't one. I wonder why. Fictional examples abound - funnily enough, white Westerners have a lot of fantasies of white Westerners uniting savages under their rule.
.


T.E. Lawrence is an example. The reality doesn't quite live up to the myth, but I think it still qualifies as a historical example.

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« Reply #66 on: February 04, 2010, 12:55:10 PM »
Quote from: Kyle Aaron;358998
In Hollywood world there are no Geronimos or Shaka Zulus, only... um... hmmm, trying to think of a historical example of a foreigner uniting savages, but guess what, there isn't one.
T.E. Lawrence, as mentioned just above.  But in general you're right, and it's yet another example of how Hollywood thinks that people in general, and Americans in particular, are dumbshits.  Hollywood producers are afraid that people simply can't or won't identify positively with someone who doesn't conform to their particular demographic.  Since the prevailing target demographic in Hollywood is: A) American, B) white, C) male, D) between the ages of 18 and 35, guess who the heroes of the movies are.

Ironically, the criticism that James Cameron panders to his audience seems to apply across many different social and political divides.

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« Reply #67 on: February 04, 2010, 07:16:10 PM »
Quote from: BedrockBrendan;359066
T.E. Lawrence is an example. The reality doesn't quite live up to the myth, but I think it still qualifies as a historical example.

The account we are given in the film makes him more of a leader than his own book, which makes him more of a leader than Arab accounts of the time. We white Westerners don't like to tell stories where white Westerners are just helpful advisers.
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Bedrockbrendan

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« Reply #68 on: February 04, 2010, 11:01:23 PM »
Quote from: Kyle Aaron;359142
The account we are given in the film makes him more of a leader than his own book, which makes him more of a leader than Arab accounts of the time. We white Westerners don't like to tell stories where white Westerners are just helpful advisers.


Sure, that is why I said the reality doesn't quite live up to the myth. He wasn't just an advisor, he also participated in some battles, and he was an important broker between the Arabs and the British. Clearly he wasn't a messiah to them, but he was significant.

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« Reply #69 on: February 06, 2010, 12:21:22 AM »
So apparently they're planning an Avatar 2. Which surely will be short. Maybe half an hour, tops.

See, surely Sully as an ex-Marine realised... Earth is not going to put up with a bunch of blue savage aliens chasing them off the planet with the rare and wonderful Unobtanium. I mean, a few thousand savages wiped out a whole company of Marines and their helicopters and battlemechs, rounded up the humans at gunpoint and sent them home. This is a defeat that makes Britain's Iswandalah look like a victory, at least the British got to stay in Africa after that.

So, apparently the trip was 5 years and 9 months. Give the humans that to get home, six months for the governments to sort their shit out and decide what to do, 5yr9mo for them to get back to Pandora, and... in exactly 12 years, the Earthmen come again.

Sully rallies all the Na'avi once more, they all gather together in one place with their dragons and spear and bows and arrows, and the Earth force says,



Avatar 2: the nuking. Well done, jakesully. You've got 12 years to schtup the girl, have fun.
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« Reply #70 on: February 06, 2010, 01:01:10 AM »
Saw it again today - sold-out show at 2:50 on a Friday afternoon. Amazing legs this thing has.

And you're right about the bombs, but I also think that with the mastery of Na'vi genetics that the corporation clearly has, a bio-weapon might not be out of the question.
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« Reply #71 on: February 06, 2010, 12:37:53 PM »
With their apparent mastery of genetic engineering, you'd think they'd make some new pollution-resistant trees for Earth and leave the Na'vi alone.

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« Reply #72 on: February 06, 2010, 01:12:01 PM »
Oh, now, you just shush.
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« Reply #73 on: February 06, 2010, 02:47:07 PM »
Hey, maybe that's what the Unobtaniumâ„¢ is used for -- genetic engineering.  So, if they totally denude Pandora for its resources, they can rebuild Earth.  Then they can relocate the Na'vi to reservations and/or ghettos on Earth's newly revived biosphere.  See, Kyle?  There's the basic plot element of Avatar 3 for you right there.

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Kyle Aaron

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« Reply #74 on: February 16, 2010, 06:25:46 PM »
So we've all heard stories of people becoming depressed after leaving the cinema (me, I was depressed during it, and happier afterwards), and of course the Otherkin have discovered their inner Na'avi. But this really is crazy.
   Palestinians take a cue from Avatar
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February 17, 2010



THE Israeli military may have begun to reroute its security barrier near the occupied West Bank town of Bilin, but Palestinians have kept their vow to continue non-violent protests at the site.

Dressing up as the bow and arrow-wielding blue natives of the planet Pandora from James Cameron's blockbuster film Avatar, the protesters drew photographers and amused onlookers, but the costumes did not prevent the almost customary Israeli military response, with teargas being fired to disperse the crowd.

The analogy between the forest-dwelling indigenes of Cameron's film and the Palestinians was not lost on Israeli humorists either.

The award-winning satirical program Eretz Nehederet (A Wonderful Land) on Israel's Channel 2 recently ran a sketch in which a comedian impersonating the country's ultra-nationalist Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, rejected claims that his policies had left Israel friendless in the world.

The spoof Lieberman then introduced the country's new best friend, ''an ally out of this world'' - the prime minister of ''Avatar''.

When the blue alien explains that the movie is about indigenous tribes resisting occupiers who exploit their land, the spoof Lieberman promptly shoots him.

The protests at Bilin have taken place weekly since January 2005. Israel says the barrier is crucial to its security, but Palestinians insist that its construction on occupied territory constitutes a land grab.
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