Hmm, I don’t know if I would want to see this film, actually. It’s beautiful and all, but what bothered me was that line about calling the aliens savages. It reminds me of what happened in Pocahontas. I think that would bother me as far as this film is concerned.
Well, the B.O. reports are in, and Mr. Cameron is “king of the world” once again! No. 1 in the U.S. with an estimated $73 million in the opening weekend, and $159.2 million overseas. As Jake would say from the movie, “Outstanding!”
I watched one of those half-hour ‘making-ofs’ the day before yesterday, and the footage looks stunning! I don’t know whether this was done in the movie, but they showed a segment where Sigourney introduces the viewer to Pandora in a narration much like a nature documentary. I liked that. 
Just seeing all those animation studios at the end of the credits - he certainly got his money’s worth. I`m not too sure if a trilogy is best in order unless the next two take ten years each as well.
Mr. Cameron may well be on his way to becoming “King of the World”… only four weeks into its release,Avatar is now Singapore’s highest-grossing film of all time, taking in astounding $8.97 million, beating out (in this author’s opinion) the lackluster Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’s $84.3 million. And it did this in four weeks compared to TF2’s six.
As of now, it has also become the No. 1 film of all-time in Australia, India and China. It has also sat at the number 1 spot in Britain for the past month, although it was dethroned on the premiere week of a certain chipmunk movie. In North America, it’s number 7 of all-time and climbing, and also top at the B.O. for the past four weekends. The last film to pull off the feat of four consecutive weekends would be a certain bat and clown movie…
And it is the No. 2 grossing film worldwide, beating out heavyweights Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, and coming in just behind - you guessed it, a little film called Titanic.
I’d say it’s pretty well-deserved. 
It’s worth seeing. His work in sci-fi and epics is what Pixar is to animation. It’s well done. The world they created for the setting is the real star of the show.
I really enjoyed it! 3D is awesome!
I saw it yesterday. The visual effects are absolutely beautiful! Everything looks so real. It’s pretty impressive. I would LOVE to see some behind the scene featurettes on Avatar.
If you have cable, there’s a half-hour featurette on the making of that’s very interesting. You can find it on a variety of channels.
Having gone to experience the sci-fi epic a second time yesterday (in Digital 2-D, no less!), I think I’m ready to deliver my verdict on Avatar. Like Up, WALL-E, Speed and pretty much any of my ‘top’ movies, it’s hard to summarise my opinion in a single review, and I may have a tendency to ramble, so if you want to skip ahead, just read from the seventh paragraph onwards.
My brother told me his friend once said: “Promises are like babies. They’re easy to make, but hard to deliver.” Aside from that amusing analogy, Mr. Cameron did make a promise in the lead-up to Avatar’s release; this will be a film that will transform not only the way blockbusters will be made in the future (due to its revolutionary technology), but also rewrite the film landscape forever. Very grandiose promises for what looks to be one of the biggest cinematic events of the decade, among many hyperbolic statements thrown about in the media. But does the movie live up to the hype?
The answer, as I’m sure most of you are aware by now, is a resounding yes. If not in critical terms (which it most certainly is, by a majority of the reviews), at least in commercial success (it has hit number one film of all-time in several countries, and is well on its way to beating Titanic). With its recent win at the Globes, and a bright future for the Oscars ahead, there’s little doubt that Avatar has made the desired impact, and has proved all the naysayers wrong.
To be honest, I was once a cynic. I didn’t know what on Earth it was until the release of the cryptic teaser. Naturally, like most of the movies I look forward to, I was forgiving. Maybe this movie will be entertaining. Maybe this movie will blow my mind, much like Cameron’s previous efforts like Terminator 2 and True Lies, which I both love. But I had my reservations. What if it was all hype and no substance, like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen? Or what if it built up to the release only to collapse in subsequent weeks due to poor reviews, like Watchmen? I was afraid of being disappointed.
Then I saw the trailer before 2012 (another huge disappointment among many this year), and one of my friends sitting next to me told me “This looks awesome. Imagine the render times. I can’t wait to see this.” And then I thought: “You know what? Screw it, this looks amazing. I’m willing to believe that this will work, and I’m gonna judge it on its own merits, much like any film.”
I watched The Princess and the Frog, and Sherlock Holmes soon after, equally impressed by both of them. But for weeks after its December 17 release, I put off watching it, partly out of fear, and partly because I was away at the time and most of my friends and family already watched it. In the end, I decided to make a solo trip to watch it in 3-D, before its theatrical run ended (this was a fortnight ago, on the 4th of January). The reviews were favourable, and I was pretty confident to have high expectations.
And to an extent, the film did meet those expectations. From the beautiful opening sequence to the hold-your-breath final frame, Avatar dazzles with its high-tech wizardry at bringing a bunch of inanimate pixels and computer models to life. Cameron’s world is unlike any you’ve ever seen. Well, okay, it does have its precedent, looking like Kong’s Island from Peter Jackson’s King Kong, unintentional or not. Having an entire world digitally-made with little to no background sets has been done before in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. But never have I been immersed this deep in a world this detailed and intricate since Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. It’s a testament to Cameron’s bold vision; every leaf, every drop of water, every pore on Neytiri’s nose reaches new levels of realism. To describe more would ruin the thrill of discovery for newcomers, so I’ll leave it at: It’s big, bold, and beautiful. Like a dream.
The characters are well fleshed-out, each has their own motivations and relationships with each other. Each has their own story arc, their own ‘backstory’, and their own ‘belief systems’ to the situation. This, along with the presence of strong female protagonists (this time in the form of Neytiri and Dr. Grace Augustine) are the trademarks of Cameron’s characters, and I appreciated that.
Again, it’s best to figure out the story yourself if you have no idea, or you could watch the much better full-length trailer for a hint of it. Yes, the plot is predictable, though it does have a few surprises under its sleeve. Many have compared it to Pocahontas, Dances with Wolves and The Last Samurai. I would even mention it shares the same ‘virtual-reality-body’ concept as two earlier films this year: Gamer and Surrogates. But so what? Many of the best films have had inspirations from others. WALL-E owes its silent robot concept to Silent Running. Up probably was inspired by a Miyazaki classic, Howl’s Moving Castle. Does that make them any less worthy than their forebearers? Of course not. They deserve to be judged on their own merits. As for the predictability aspect, the best stories are the simplest, most universal ones.
The Godfather = Man becomes leader of his clan.
Citizen Kane = Old dude dies. He lived a great if troubled life.
Casablanca = Guy loves girl. They break up.
Just because you can see the end coming from a mile away (I figured it out during a pivotal sequence involving a certain character), doesn’t undermine the journey it takes to get there. And that journey is one heck of a ride. There’s just so many breathtaking sequences, indelible images (I loved the long shot of [spoil]the Na’vi running along the bridge in the Floating Mountains[/spoil] in particular) and engaging dialogue, that it would be much easier to experience it than to hear it being described.
It’s no mystery either that [spoil]the two leads will fall in love, and their developing relationship was well done, and does not feel contrived.[/spoil] The [spoil]‘teaching montage’[/spoil] in particular is one of my favourite sequences. [spoil]The kiss is on the level of WALL-E’s, it’s that touching and heartfelt.[/spoil] And the climatic battle delivers one of the biggest payoffs of any film this year. I choked with tears (the oh-my-god-this-is-so-awesome kinda tears) on my second viewing.
To be fair, I didn’t like the way [spoil]Jake regained the Na’vis’ trust after being exiled in the third act. His taming of Toruk was too convenient, and was used as a mere device to propel him into the leadership role required for the final battle. Also, the big battle was all too easily resolved by a Deus-Ex Machina, and while spectacular, felt a bit like a cheat to me.[/spoil]
But aside from that, this is a perfect example of how a blockbuster for the masses should be done: Jaw-dropping state-of-the-art technology that enhances the plot, not replacing it, well-developed characters you actually care about, and above all, a story. A well-worn one, yes, but one that is almost mythic in scale and scope. This is why we go to the movies. Larger-than-life storytelling that brings us together in a shared experience.
Along with The Princess and the Frog, Avatar has given me one of the best gifts for the holiday season: It made me feel like a kid again. So to Mr. Cameron and his talented team, thank you for ‘delivering’ the best film of the year and among my faves of all-time, and good luck for the Oscars.
Well, one of the reasons that they would want to make sequels, is because the first one took so long. You see, once the animated world of something like Pandora is made, the studio heads call the computer created things ‘assets’. This means, that since it took so long and so much money to manufacture the CGI world, they want to get their money’s worth with it.
So, this being said, the character models, and the different plants, ships, and creatures are already made, so they might as well be used - at least that’s the thinking…
-E
Nice review, thedriveintheatre. I agree with pretty much all of the points you made. I’m seeing it for the second time as well, but this time I’m seeing it in 3D which I am definitely looking forward to.
To be honest, I’m not exactly excited about the trilogy idea. While it’s nice to explore the rest of Pandora (and its surrounding universe), I feel this is one of those movies which are best left alone. Some, like Cars or Pirates of the Caribbean, I don’t mind having sequels, because they are fun enough to warrant further adventures of their characters. Plus, I felt the ‘world’ was not explored enough in those movies, so I’d like to see more. For Avatar though, it’s more like a fable or myth kinda story, like Pocahontas or ]Dances With Wolves, just one tale. One beginning, one ending. I felt we explored enough of Pandora as it is, and it would be pretty difficult to top the epic climax and ending. Of course, this is the man who made a better sequel to his sophomore film, so I believe he can do it again, but if he doesn’t, I’m satisfied with the conclusion. It was perfect.
Personally, I liked it better in 2-D. The 3-D screening I went to suffered from blurred images if you move your head sideways (so you have to face the screen dead-on to have the best view). And the glasses kept sliding down my nose and felt heavy after a while, so it’s distracting now and then. But otherwise, it’s a enjoyable experience, there’s an additional depth to Pandora, so you feel more immersed, and some nice ‘poke-your-eye’ moments. Have fun!
One thing I forgot to mention in my review is I like the attention to detail throughout. Things like the [spoil]images on the holo-computers, Augustine’s photos on the fridge, Parker’s subordinate scrolling too fast through the holo-map (haven’t we all experienced that with Cover Flow in iTunes? ), the soldier who waves to a passing chopper only to get his hat blown off…[/spoil] all these little details add up to a more rich and believable world. Much like what Pixar does all the time.
By next week it might pass the $100M mark in both South Korea and Australia. I’ve heard it’s been doing particularly great in Canada. Animators and lots of lonely people live in that country. On the first night I predicted it could be a box office titan and made a guess of $1.3-1.7B final box. It’s now still #1 almost everywhere and is passing $2.2B. However some guesstimates say it only has perhaps 60% the number of admissions of Titanic. Not a really good comparison because you have to give credit for a movie that people are willing to shell out $14-15 to see in IMAX 3-D or such. Also, with all the online downloading and larger dvd market, comparisons aren’t very good. Another thing: a very large part of the spring and summer admissions for Titanic were 13 year old girls seeing it again and again, that is seeing DiCaprio. And we still don’t know when the Avatar juggernaut is going to come down to earth.
Silly Dear John beat it this weekend, but won’t that movie fizzle with a 29% TM rating? For the week I will bet that Avatar will be close in box to this contender - just having a big Friday for a spanking new movie isn’t much to crow about. Can it stay #1 thru March (7 more weeks)? It’s done so worldwide for 2 full months now. My guess is that it won’t, largely due to a powerful front loading of box where Titanic was laughable in comparison up to this date: $331M domestic thru Feb 7th, vs a whopping $630M for our blue monkey friends.
Enough about the money. Titanic couldn’t have a sequel, but this sure will, and it will put the franchise in the league of LoTR. Good job Mr. Cameron. Btw, I’ve seen it 6 times now, 2x in IMAX. Unfortunately the plotline and music are not as emotionally overwhelming as a great Pixar movie, so this is close to the end for me. I imagine they will release a 2 disk dvd in late May, unless the box continues as with Titanic, but for reasons stated above, that is unlikely to happen.
Yeah, I heard it is also frequently compared to ‘Gone With The Wind’, which remains America’s biggest box-office champion of all-time, after inflation adjustment. But one of the producers, I forgot who, reminds us that people back then had little competition in terms of entertainment. In this modern era, Avatar not only has to compete with simultaneous film releases at the B.O., but other forms of new media like cable TV, radio, video games, etc. So really, Avatar deserves more credit than it’s worth.
Of course, a lot of adolescent boys could’ve been going for repeat viewings to see Zoe Saldana’s character. 
nods head Very surprised by that, too.
Anyway, I’m very pleased with its recent win at the Globes, and as I’ve mentioned on the Up boards, it’s going to be a tough fight between this, Up, and The Hurt Locker for Oscar Best Pic (which I still haven’t watched, but I think it should be reaching Sing shores pretty soon in time for Oscars season). Any one of these three win, and I’ll be a happy person.
In other news, the inventive Chinese has decided to take advantage of the film’s recent box-office success to pull a little tourism campaigning of their own. The Southern Sky Column in Zhangjiajie, Hunan province, will now be known as the Avatar Hallelujah Mountain, after local officials said photographs of the mountain had been used as the basis for Avatar’s fictional world of Pandora. I’m not quite sure whether to think of this as a brilliant promotional stunt, or mere crass exploitation. I mean, aren’t there copyright issues to consider, renaming a landmark after a fictional movie property? And I’m not quite sure how the locals would handle pronouncing the new landmark name. But you gotta admit, the resemblance is uncanny.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8480954.stm
And one of my favourite mash-up channels on Youtube has come up with a brilliant trailer spoof. Pixar/animation fans, you don’t want to miss out on this.
Avatar Wars
Massive box office and generally good critical reviews are big pluses in favor of Academy Awards for this movie. But where Lord of the Rings and Titanic could make Best Picture, I really don’t think Avatar is going to do it, and it will be real people acting that will be needed to make the mark. Sigourney and Worthington and Saldana lead the charge admirably, but they just aren’t as impressive as DiCaprio/Winslet and Elijah Wood/McKellan/Mortensen. It’s epic in scope, but the screenplay isn’t as good as what Tolkien and Mother Nature here on Earth came up with, even tho Cameron’s story is entirely original.
The actors in that organization, I would bet, will ruthlessly suppress any attempt to have themselves replaced by CG images, even if voices are supplied, and we know all about this from the animation world’s record at the Oscars. The real honors will just have to come from their peers and aficionados.
thedriveintheater: slight spoilers [spoil]Hurt Locker has educated many of us as to how a clandestine roadside bomb war is conducted. And it has good acting, making it seem as real as it can get. But bombs can get boring. There is a constant state of fear/violence. I just prefer a realistic movie with some sort of redemption over depressing HL, [/spoil] such as our little Tonka truck Pixar friend.
It doesn’t get more epic than this.
Avatar- Extended Collector’s Edition Trailer- On Blu-ray/DVD November 16
I like the fact the CDs come packaged in THREE sleeves! 
The new opening looks cool, but I’m still not gonna pick it up. I honestly found the movie to be a bit boring. Something I’d watch once in theaters, but not again really.
I’ve probably spent enough theatrically on Avatar already.
[size=59]Once in 3D, once in 2D, and once in IMAX 3D for Special Edition[/size]
I really love Avatar. I usually don’t care for what my dad calls “Liberalist propaganda”, but I’m all for eco-friendliness, and dude, it was a movie.
I loved it. I really liked the score; it was a tear-jerker for me.
That’s good of you to have your own opinion, IV. I fail to see how respecting indigenous culture, protecting the environment, and loving someone beyond their appearances (the whole point of the “I See You” theme repeated throughout the movie) can be reduced to “Liberalist propaganda”. These are essential traits of being a good, morally-upright human being.
James Horner’s soundtrack has not as many memorable tracks as recent movies I’ve seen (and some say he recycles themes from his earlier movies), but some of them are really beautiful, like 'Becoming one of the people" and “The Path to Heaven”.
I wonder what James has in store for the sequel. I read a recent article he’s in negotiations with Warner Bros. for a decade-long plan, but the bigwigs have low tolerance for that long a commitment. Come on, isn’t the director of two of the biggest blockbusters of all-time insurance enough? 