Immortal Chaos Wrote:
I went to see it with my friends last Friday. At least, I tried to see it.
My friends had decided to go see it in glorious Imax 3D; I tell them, I'll probably get motion sickness, I've not been feeling too well lately. The responce: "It will be good, I promise!"
In retrospect, I should have really learned by now that pretty much everything this guy promises is certain to go in the exact opposite way he insists it will. We show up a bit late due to one guy wanting to have a smoke before we went into the theater, and another taking 5 minutes to pick what he wanted to drink. I was beginning to predict the night going horribly wrong at this point. At least I was able to get my ticket and 3D glasses without trouble.
Enter the theater, and, as we should have expected from the opening night of a movie as highly anticipated as Avatar, it was packed. The only slots available to sit were the neck strainer seats in the first 2 rows. Needless to say, about 5 minutes into the movie, I can't even look at the screen without feeling I am about to vomit. I tried taking the glasses off and watching, watching trough one eye with/without glasses... nothing would remedy my ailment. After 5 minutes of trying to find a way to see the film, I came to the realization that It was just not going to happen. I thought briefly about just sitting there and listening to the audio and trying to piece together what was happening... and heck no. I wanted to see the movie in its fullness, not just hear half of it and have to re watch it another time.
I decided I would take a break, get outside, some fresh air, and see if I could manage to pull myself together and watch the rest of the film- I'd still have only missed the start at this point. I get up, barely making it out of the dimly lit room without exporting my recently consumed dinner, and make my way outside of the building. Looking back on it, I should have noticed that there were no people working the counters or anything. But I was too concerned about other things to notice.
So, I get outside, walk around, things are going well, I'm immediately feeling better... and then I turn to go back in and realize I'm locked out. It was a 10:30 showing after all, the theater actually closed before the last films finished.
There is no theater in my town, we have to drive about 40 minutes to the next one in order to see anything- walking back was not an option. My buddy had driven everyone, and I didn't think to get the key from him before leaving. Since they were all seeing the film, my friend's phones were off. What were my options? I had to find a place to loiter for the next 2 hours, I thought. Great. Just how I planned on spending my Friday night.
Let me touch on the fact that I'm a Canuk; yeah, we don't have all-year igloo's or anything, but Canadian winters are COLD and consist of SNOW. It was probably -15 degrees (c) outside.Nowhere within a 20 minute walk was open. I had at least an hour and a half of the movie to wait through. All I could do was curl up on the snow bank beside our car and try to sleep. I needn't explain in words how much that sucked.
So, instead of seeing avatar I spent over two hours (turns out the film is nearly three freakin' hours long) sleeping on a snowbank waiting for the movie to end. And here I am ranting about it on the internet.
Fun times.
Possibly I didn't feel that disappointed because I knew nothing about the movie and hadn't been following the hype building up to it?
Whereas I was hyped (and bitterly disappointed) in King Kong after being so mad on the LOTR trilogy, and in particular Return of the King, a rare third movie in a series, that not only eclipses the first two, but doesn't bomb and scar the name of the first two... (I'm looking at you emo Spidey 3 and X-Men 3).... Oh and for hype being shattered, also add Matrix Reloaded (and Revolutions seeing as they are one giant Kill Bill movie) .... curse you Wachowski brothers.. 
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tjohn323 wrote:So saw this on Sunday.
I thought it was terrible,
Brilliant CG...but the buck stops there.
And if I was to put my opinion down
Cameron has not done a good film since T2
(titanic sucked).
Well done to the guys and gals at Weta, Lola, Framestore etc
who contributed to the amazing visuals.
But Cameron would have to be the most over rated person
in Hollywood...possibly Im being a tad harsh cos everyone
at work was like ZOMG greatest movie ever.
But sorry... nice effects dont make a good movie.
Yeah I'll agree with that and everyone else who didn't like the story... but see this is the problem with big-selling blockbusters, they have to tone down any intellectual sides so audiences don't get scared or confused... I've come to appreciate deeper themes in movies.
When I was younger I used to hate gory parts in movies. I was scarred seeing the heart-ripping scene from Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom amongst other things, if you told me back then I'd be able to sit through Watchmen I wouldn't have believed you. I'm still not interested in watching any of the Saw or Hostel movies though, I still have a line. But my point is, when I got over seeing MA15+ standard violence I came to appreciate those kinds of films more. I actually enjoyed Zombieland more than I enjoyed Avatar to be honest. MA15+ films sometimes have deeper themes and more gripping elements than your standard teen-aimed M-rated action film.
Cameron seemed to be too busy crafting a plot that wouldn't go over anyone's head, either by his choice or his executives. As a result, the film fails to drive home what is ultimately a more serious and devastating issue.
One point I'll add finally, for those who haven't seen it, I'd encourage you to watch A Christmas Carol in 3D at some point (I think it's left cinemas now), the 3D animation is actually quite natural... it's animation so it's obviously different to Avatar, but the spacial depth is extremely convincing, and the film doesn't try and make awkward 3D effects jut out at different moments.
It seems like at least one media outlet wants to put words in the Vatican's mouth. Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore merely commented that the reviewer found the movie 'bland' and added "[The film] gets bogged down by a spiritualism linked to the worship of nature,"... also a seperate radio station from the Vatican added that Avatar "cleverly winks at all those pseudo-doctrines that turn ecology into the religion of the millennium."
Neither of those comments are any kind of a big deal. It's just those reviewers found problems with Avatar that become painfully obvious to most people who've watched the film and have certain standards on screenplay (except all those reviewers who are lobbying to change the 5 star rating up to 6 stars). Yet that hasn't stopped NineMSN from getting into a flurry, claiming that the Vatican was simply hating on the film because of religious differences.
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