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Carolynn
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Avatar
Went to see Avatar last night. It was a really good movie with really over the top baddies among the mercenaries and of course the sleazy company man. The 3d effects were really well done with them integrated into the story rather than using them for shock value. The technology has come a long way, IMHO.
"It’s not given to anyone to have no regrets; only to decide, through the choices we make, which regrets we’ll have,"
David Weber – In Fury Born
David Weber – In Fury Born
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Lydia
- We Will Never Forget You - Rest in Peace
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On "Avatar";
Plot was trite and predictable. Characters were cliches. But the effects were mind-boggling. Magnificent scenery. 3-D effective.
Just my opinion.
BTW, I've been laid up with a busted ankle, and sitting at the compiuter ain't comfortable. Another 5 weeks of this hobbling and huge boot-cast.
Still around - Hugs
Lydia
Plot was trite and predictable. Characters were cliches. But the effects were mind-boggling. Magnificent scenery. 3-D effective.
Just my opinion.
BTW, I've been laid up with a busted ankle, and sitting at the compiuter ain't comfortable. Another 5 weeks of this hobbling and huge boot-cast.
Still around - Hugs
Lydia
"There comes a time ... when you must grasp the bull by the tail and face the situation."
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JoAnnDallas
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Wife and I went to see it at the IMAX in 3D. I have to admit, that watching it in 3D at the IMAX was a lot more assume than watching it in 3D in the normal theater. LOL
I agree plot was predicable, but he graphics was out of this world.I swear that the female chopper pilot that went over to the AVATOR side is the same chopper pilot in the TV series, "Trama".
I agree plot was predicable, but he graphics was out of this world.I swear that the female chopper pilot that went over to the AVATOR side is the same chopper pilot in the TV series, "Trama".
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DonnaT
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Haven't seen it, and don't plan on it, no matter how good the 3D is. I just don't like the idea of the humans being portrayed as invaders and killers.
Sorry to hear that Lydia. Hope it heals OK.Lydia wrote:BTW, I've been laid up with a busted ankle, and sitting at the compiuter ain't comfortable. Another 5 weeks of this hobbling and huge boot-cast.
DonnaT
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Angela
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Carolynn
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Oh, I don't know about that. Humans have been and can be invaders and killers. We often dress it up in some ideals or another, but we are killers if the circumstances are right, especially in groups with leadership issuing "orders".
If you don't care for the plot, then you likely didn't like Dances with Wolves, Little Big Man, Broken Arrow, nor the story of Pocahontas and Captain Smith, nor the story of Jamestown after they gained their foothold in part due to the aid of Powhatan. Then they started taking rather than trading for, employed mercenaries and by 1628 celebrated a massacre of a peaceful green corn ceremony by their mercenaries with religious observances and the governor of the colony wrote in his report to the stockholders to the effect and 136 of the godless heathens were sent to the nether world and their lands opened to settlement by the decent godfearing people of Jamestown.
Don't forget it was our own past governments policy of "pacification" to unleash the buffalo hunters on the Plains Native American's primary food source with such superior weaponry that in only 10 years the bison was nearly extinct, and Native Americans were reduced to starvation or going to reservations where their culture was to be replaced with a poor euroamerican version. If they survived at all.
Andrew Jackson appreciated the aid of the Choctaw and Chickasaw in the Battle of New Orleans so much that he ordered the siezure of their lands by forced treaty to appease some of his white supporters after his election as President, which resulted in their wholesale removal to Oklahoma. Earlier, the Cherokees (relatives of the Powhatan) were similarly treated, and the whole were followed by the Creek, Seminole and Osage removals.
Then there was the decimation of the Mandan and other tribes unto extinction by traders, missionaries, and US Army commandants giving those tribes along the Missouri River blankets contaminated with small pox and retrieved from recent graves or death beds, all of which were ordered by the heroic U. S. Grant who's main claim to fame was slaughter during the civil war, or his flunkies in the War Department as part of his Indian Pacification program.
Custer's last stand (Battle of Little Big Horn) was stimulated by investors back east wanting the gold of the Black Hills, which has never been successfully mined on any scale even today. Custer was a perverted little jerk who was seeking a higher generalship by grandstanding, the primary reason for his entourage including members of the press on all his "battles" which should have been called massacres. He made his adventures popular by including local people such as contractors supplying his army, allowing them to kill some Indians and have some fun.
Before Little Big Horn, he descended on the Washita River in Oklahoma destroying the dispersed winter camp during the desparate time of the year, taking lives and possessions of Cheyennes, including Black Kettle, the peace chief. No quarter was ordered. By his own account, they also slaughtered the horses.
Long after the removal, the Osage were being systematically murdered for their oil lands early in the 20th century by certain unscrupulous captains of industy in the east (by proxy of course, have you heard of Standard Oil?) until the FBI accidentally became involved.
Most recently, corporate greed has largely contributed to our current economic concerns which are far from in the past but are ongoing. Very typical of corporate America, actually where decisions are made in anonimity with rarely "anyone responsible". And the current "War on Terror" lead to the invasion of Iraq, using the excuse that Saddam might have been helping Al Quaida, though the intelligence sources said no. Chaney and his cronies tried to get Bill Clinton to do the job, but he saw what they were up to and declined. So they installed Shrub and of course he was ready for it to take care of his Daddy's mistake in '91 in leaving Saddam in power.
So, I think the depiction of greed, avarice and bloodlust by certain of the directors and mercenaries of the corporation in Avatar in the name of "progress" and the rallying speech by the director is quite likely to be accurate. I really don't see our species reacting any differently to the potential for fortune via ill gotten gains in only 154 years from now. Certainly has not changed over the last 10,000 other than in the sophistication of the weaponry.
If you don't care for the plot, then you likely didn't like Dances with Wolves, Little Big Man, Broken Arrow, nor the story of Pocahontas and Captain Smith, nor the story of Jamestown after they gained their foothold in part due to the aid of Powhatan. Then they started taking rather than trading for, employed mercenaries and by 1628 celebrated a massacre of a peaceful green corn ceremony by their mercenaries with religious observances and the governor of the colony wrote in his report to the stockholders to the effect and 136 of the godless heathens were sent to the nether world and their lands opened to settlement by the decent godfearing people of Jamestown.
Don't forget it was our own past governments policy of "pacification" to unleash the buffalo hunters on the Plains Native American's primary food source with such superior weaponry that in only 10 years the bison was nearly extinct, and Native Americans were reduced to starvation or going to reservations where their culture was to be replaced with a poor euroamerican version. If they survived at all.
Andrew Jackson appreciated the aid of the Choctaw and Chickasaw in the Battle of New Orleans so much that he ordered the siezure of their lands by forced treaty to appease some of his white supporters after his election as President, which resulted in their wholesale removal to Oklahoma. Earlier, the Cherokees (relatives of the Powhatan) were similarly treated, and the whole were followed by the Creek, Seminole and Osage removals.
Then there was the decimation of the Mandan and other tribes unto extinction by traders, missionaries, and US Army commandants giving those tribes along the Missouri River blankets contaminated with small pox and retrieved from recent graves or death beds, all of which were ordered by the heroic U. S. Grant who's main claim to fame was slaughter during the civil war, or his flunkies in the War Department as part of his Indian Pacification program.
Custer's last stand (Battle of Little Big Horn) was stimulated by investors back east wanting the gold of the Black Hills, which has never been successfully mined on any scale even today. Custer was a perverted little jerk who was seeking a higher generalship by grandstanding, the primary reason for his entourage including members of the press on all his "battles" which should have been called massacres. He made his adventures popular by including local people such as contractors supplying his army, allowing them to kill some Indians and have some fun.
Before Little Big Horn, he descended on the Washita River in Oklahoma destroying the dispersed winter camp during the desparate time of the year, taking lives and possessions of Cheyennes, including Black Kettle, the peace chief. No quarter was ordered. By his own account, they also slaughtered the horses.
Long after the removal, the Osage were being systematically murdered for their oil lands early in the 20th century by certain unscrupulous captains of industy in the east (by proxy of course, have you heard of Standard Oil?) until the FBI accidentally became involved.
Most recently, corporate greed has largely contributed to our current economic concerns which are far from in the past but are ongoing. Very typical of corporate America, actually where decisions are made in anonimity with rarely "anyone responsible". And the current "War on Terror" lead to the invasion of Iraq, using the excuse that Saddam might have been helping Al Quaida, though the intelligence sources said no. Chaney and his cronies tried to get Bill Clinton to do the job, but he saw what they were up to and declined. So they installed Shrub and of course he was ready for it to take care of his Daddy's mistake in '91 in leaving Saddam in power.
So, I think the depiction of greed, avarice and bloodlust by certain of the directors and mercenaries of the corporation in Avatar in the name of "progress" and the rallying speech by the director is quite likely to be accurate. I really don't see our species reacting any differently to the potential for fortune via ill gotten gains in only 154 years from now. Certainly has not changed over the last 10,000 other than in the sophistication of the weaponry.
"It’s not given to anyone to have no regrets; only to decide, through the choices we make, which regrets we’ll have,"
David Weber – In Fury Born
David Weber – In Fury Born
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Robyn Katie
- Miss Platinum Goddess
- Posts: 380
- Joined: Thu Oct 02, 2008 5:02 pm
Hi sisters,
Beyond all that's been said above, though ... predictable or not ... Avatar does do one thing: It offers the viewer a vision of beauty and wholeness and integration with the natural world that, to most people today, is nearly unknown.
Avatar. regardless of any perceived flaws, will win hearts and minds for its strangeness, its gorgeousness, and its revelation of a mystery that need not be alien to us.
That sense of wonder is almost extinct in movies today. People are hungry for it—you can tell by the droves of customers. They go to be possessed by the visionary quality of the film, not the things mentioned above. The wonderful jungle. The floating mountains. The curious, beautifully conceived, and by no means ideal Na'vi.
My wife and I have seen it once in 3D, and expect to go again, this time to see the IMAX version. To share a master's sense of wonder is not so easy to come by that it can be lightly ignored.
Me, a romantic? Oh pooh.
Love, Robyn Katie
Beyond all that's been said above, though ... predictable or not ... Avatar does do one thing: It offers the viewer a vision of beauty and wholeness and integration with the natural world that, to most people today, is nearly unknown.
Avatar. regardless of any perceived flaws, will win hearts and minds for its strangeness, its gorgeousness, and its revelation of a mystery that need not be alien to us.
That sense of wonder is almost extinct in movies today. People are hungry for it—you can tell by the droves of customers. They go to be possessed by the visionary quality of the film, not the things mentioned above. The wonderful jungle. The floating mountains. The curious, beautifully conceived, and by no means ideal Na'vi.
My wife and I have seen it once in 3D, and expect to go again, this time to see the IMAX version. To share a master's sense of wonder is not so easy to come by that it can be lightly ignored.
Me, a romantic? Oh pooh.
Love, Robyn Katie
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April Rose
- Miss Golden Goddess
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Apropos of what Carolynn posted, the Chinese government has removed Avatar from most theaters after a high volume of online posts and blogs comparing it to the wholesale eviction of many Chinese from their homes and land by greedy speculators abetted by corrupt government officials. It was very popular over there.
I am a vessel of the Goddess. Let me express my calling to a feminine life through nurturing love and relatedness.
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Michelle Miller
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I thought it was OK, but not nearly as good the character & dialogue driven pictures James Cameron's done in the past. It could have been so much better, but it's a story we've seen countless times before, dressed up in a shiny new wrapper.
-Michelle-
"Inside me, there's a thin girl, screaming to get out, but cookies & ice cream usually shut her right up."
"Inside me, there's a thin girl, screaming to get out, but cookies & ice cream usually shut her right up."
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Robyn Katie
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Hi sisters,
But then again, if we denounced story plots as cliches and micro-thin, we'd have to damn not only 99% of Hollywood's output, but much of the US fiction industry.
Not the point! This movie's shiny wrapper IS the story: Pandora, the planet, is the lead character, and it's hitting people hard.
You might be interested in the following thread about the "Avatar Blues" so many are experiencing. That unique visionary quality is reaching people in a sensitive place.
Ignore the interspersed snarky comments, and concentrate on the posts of substance. They give some clue how people are receiving Avatar—how it's connecting with them, how immersed in it they are, and what they're taking away from it:
http://rigorousintuition.ca/board2/view ... =8&t=26635
Credit where credit is due. This is a massive cultural experience that, IMHO, has nothing to do with either plot OR characters. It's an environment.
Love, Robyn Katie
But then again, if we denounced story plots as cliches and micro-thin, we'd have to damn not only 99% of Hollywood's output, but much of the US fiction industry.
Not the point! This movie's shiny wrapper IS the story: Pandora, the planet, is the lead character, and it's hitting people hard.
You might be interested in the following thread about the "Avatar Blues" so many are experiencing. That unique visionary quality is reaching people in a sensitive place.
Ignore the interspersed snarky comments, and concentrate on the posts of substance. They give some clue how people are receiving Avatar—how it's connecting with them, how immersed in it they are, and what they're taking away from it:
http://rigorousintuition.ca/board2/view ... =8&t=26635
Credit where credit is due. This is a massive cultural experience that, IMHO, has nothing to do with either plot OR characters. It's an environment.
Love, Robyn Katie
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Robyn Katie
- Miss Platinum Goddess
- Posts: 380
- Joined: Thu Oct 02, 2008 5:02 pm
Seems the world's largest nation is not amused.
The Chinese powers-that-be, after nearly a month during which Avatar has attracted big crowds, seem to have found Avatar subversive:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/ ... 3896902164
Love, Robyn Katie
The Chinese powers-that-be, after nearly a month during which Avatar has attracted big crowds, seem to have found Avatar subversive:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/ ... 3896902164
Love, Robyn Katie
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Azurielle
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