Rym, I disagree that your meta knowledge of "typical American film endings" ruled out the alternative you suggested. Avatar's been compared over and over to Dances With Wolves, and Avatar could easily have tipped that way, too.
Pete: Nukes were unnecessary. Just give them malaria-infected blankets.
It is as though the Native Americans' spiritualism had been reality, and the Ghost Dance had been successful in driving the white people back into the ocean.
Which is an interesting science fiction concept sure, but I can't help feeling that outside of a more meaningful treatment of the stereotype, it just feels like the mystification of the exotic. As if, from the white man (human) perspective, their lifestyle isn't valid without the presence of the supernatural.
Pete: Nukes were unnecessary. Just give them malaria-infected blankets.
You'd think a human civilization smart enough to engineer and grow a hybridized lifeform from DNA and tissue samples could just engineer a virus that was precisely coded to the Na'vi. You'd think said society could just tunnel to the the "unobtanium" (goddamnit) and mine it. The sad thing is that they're planning a trilogy from this shit. Everyone knows what the second movie would really be like: the Avatar equivalent of force:SPACE comes back with some cruisers, which glass the entire planet with nukes. Unless this gets all 40k and Pandora has, for reasons solely of Deus Ex Machina, something akin to a Tyranid Hive Fleet, I can't see how anything else is even remotely plausible.
Really, what it boils down to (at least for me) is this: Avatar does nothing. Even in the realm of derivative works solely for entertainment, I didn't feel anything leaving Avatar. Pete mentioned Iron Man; I left that feeling charged up and excited. For works that aren't entirely derivative, take The Hurt Locker. I left that feeling shaken and tense.
Avatar didn't do any of this. There may have been emotions provoked during the movie, but they were weak and short-lived. The sex scene was a squicky mood killer, and the characters were all one-dimensional. The timing was off to the point that the movie dragged, and the entire purpose of the film was to drop an anvil that ended up getting deflected by the crap writing and derivative nature of everything that surrounded it. Avatar was basically cinematic masturbation. Nothing more, nothing less.
We saw Brick and Breakfast with Scot this past weekend. I know I am a bit late to the game on Brick, which I meant to see when it came out years ago, but I am glad I eventually got around to seeing it. It was well done and hit its humorous and dramatic notes quite well, sometimes within the same moment. The juxtaposition of noir against a high school setting really highlight the indulgently fun elements of noir conventions. The performances were mostly strong, the film was really well paced, the dialogue was excellent, and the movie was framed incredibly well. On a side note, I really hope there is a spoof of Brick that is set in a kindergarten. Breakfast with Scot was okay. It was a bit muddled and heavy handed, but it has its funny and touching moments and some truly excellent child actors (though a couple piss poor performances from their adult counterparts were occasionally cartoonish). If you want to was a light film that touches on family and homosexual themes, then I would recommend it, but overall it wasn't anything to write home about.
Saw My Neighbor Totoro and Pom Poko over the weekend..
My only response...all the Ghibli films are on Netflix, right?
Pretty much yes. Didn't see any streaming at the moment though.
The only American movie I've watched recently was Black Hawk Down, which I hadn't seen since around when it first came out. Apparently I didn't remember any of it, and it was a lot more constant action than I thought it was. Still good of course. Otherwise, I've been going through the remaining Lupin III films I haven't gotten to yet. I just love how silly and off-the-wall those movies are.
Watched Pathfinder today. Good cinematography and battle scenes... Yeah... Not so much on the plot.
I do have to wonder why the Native Canadians didn't loot the fuck out of the viking ship. The only sword to survive was the one the kid had? No one thought to grab an axe? Come on there was a scene with the kid's adopted father using the sword to cut wood!!??!!
Transformers 2 came in on Netflix (blu-ray) today. Probably watch it in the morning.
I want to preface this by saying I'm a huge fan of the old Universal Monster Movies of the 30s. I went to see the new Wolfman, and I cried because of how much they desecrated that movie with crap. Lon Chaney Jr. must be spinning in his grave right now.
But that's not the movie I want to talk about. My favorite Universal Monster Movie is Dracula because it is not only a solid film on it's own and not only does it not have Keanu Reeves in it (sorry Anthony Hopkins but even you can't save that movie), but Bela Lugosi's performance is just outstanding each time I see it. I saw a re-scored version this time on the recommendation of a friend which I was a little skeptical of (since I'm attached to the original I guess). When I heard it was re-scored by Phillip Glass and the Kronos Quartet, I immediately gave it a look.
I was amazed, they made it better with the new soundtrack. Each scene has music where appropriate and is absent where appropriate as well. I cannot really describe it in words, other than it sets the mood each time when a new track comes on and people should give it a look and a listen.
I want to preface this by saying I'm a huge fan of the old Universal Monster Movies of the 30s. I went to see the new Wolfman, and I cried because of how much they desecrated that movie with crap. Lon Chaney Jr. must be spinning in his grave right now.
I want to preface this by saying I'm a huge fan of the old Universal Monster Movies of the 30s. I went to see the new Wolfman, and I cried because of how much they desecrated that movie with crap. Lon Chaney Jr. must be spinning in his grave right now.
Once again I'm overexaggerating again. No, I didn't really cry. More like rage really, I just used the word "cry" (albeit unsuccessfully) for dramatic effect.
I went to see the new Wolfman, and I cried because of how much they desecrated that movie with crap. Lon Chaney Jr. must be spinning in his grave right now.
Cheer up -- no one desecrated anything. No matter how bad the remake is, the original is still there, pristine and untouched. Go, have a look. I'll wait.
See? No harm done whatsoever. You can relax. Everything is okay.
I went to see the new Wolfman, and I cried because of how much they desecrated that movie with crap. Lon Chaney Jr. must be spinning in his grave right now.
Cheer up -- no one desecrated anything. No matter how bad the remake is, the original is still there, pristine and untouched. Go, have a look. I'll wait.
See? No harm done whatsoever. You can relax. Everything is okay.
What I really worry about with those remakes though is that the generation who had the original had something good to look forward to, not so in the case of the remake. Sure the new generation can check out the original but I still get the feeling of too little too late. At the very least, the remake somewhat wounds the integrity of the original despite how great it its.
At the very least, the remake somewhat wounds the integrity of the original despite how great it its.
I disagree. A remake stands on its own. Personally, I'd rather see a thoroughly interpreted remake - something that departs from the original but serves to also update it - than to see another movie like this come out.
And Joe Johnston gets to helm the Captain America movie... and they're thinking about casting John Krasinski of The Office as Cap...
Jim could make a good Cap. He's not someone I expected, but he's someone I'm not going to stick my nose up at. He atleast has the jawline.
Just watched the second Transformers movie. I found it much better than the first. It was just 20 mins too long.
Even with the ghetto bots? I do think the 2nd Transformers movie has some nice action scenes, but that's about it. It really should be done with no actors and just CGI'd robots.
Oh yeah, also saw Across The Universe over the weekend. Awesome and trippy.
While in the gym I watched, in silence, the end quarter of Transformers 2 a few times, playing on a screen on a treadmill a few meters away. I actually saw the same part again a few days later in the same fashion, plus other parts from the rest of the film. It looks utterly mindless, with continuous shots of the actors running away from robots who ineffectively swipe at them with unidentifyable limbs.
This evening I'm having a movie night at home, so popped out to the DVD store to rent a Cory Haim movie, preferably The Lost Boys. They didn't have a single film of his though, so picked Stand By Me, staring the other Cory.
This evening I'm having a movie night at home, so popped out to the DVD store to rent a Cory Haim movie, preferably The Lost Boys. They didn't have a single film of his though, so picked Stand By Me, staring the other Cory.
Don't forget Megan Fox's utter lack of talent. The film heavily features that.
Lies. Her Talents Are exactly what they hired her for.
It's just that her talents are "Breathe", "Pose like nobody actually ever does in real life", "Gasp and breathe heavily", and "Gasp and breathe heavily in revealing clothing"
It looks utterly mindless, with continuous shots of the actors running away from robots who ineffectively swipe at them with unidentifyable limbs.
Don't forget Megan Fox's utter lack of talent. The film heavily features that.
And her big-toe thumb.
And all that bullshit between Fox and Labeouf's characters. "Say you love me!", "No, you say you love me!", "Why don't you tell me you love me!", "You didn't say you love me!"
Comments
"Let's just nuke the place from orbit, it's the only way to be sure."
Ewwww.
Still not as horrifying.
Pete: Nukes were unnecessary. Just give them malaria-infected blankets.
Really, what it boils down to (at least for me) is this: Avatar does nothing. Even in the realm of derivative works solely for entertainment, I didn't feel anything leaving Avatar. Pete mentioned Iron Man; I left that feeling charged up and excited. For works that aren't entirely derivative, take The Hurt Locker. I left that feeling shaken and tense.
Avatar didn't do any of this. There may have been emotions provoked during the movie, but they were weak and short-lived. The sex scene was a squicky mood killer, and the characters were all one-dimensional. The timing was off to the point that the movie dragged, and the entire purpose of the film was to drop an anvil that ended up getting deflected by the crap writing and derivative nature of everything that surrounded it. Avatar was basically cinematic masturbation. Nothing more, nothing less.
Breakfast with Scot was okay. It was a bit muddled and heavy handed, but it has its funny and touching moments and some truly excellent child actors (though a couple piss poor performances from their adult counterparts were occasionally cartoonish). If you want to was a light film that touches on family and homosexual themes, then I would recommend it, but overall it wasn't anything to write home about.
My only response...all the Ghibli films are on Netflix, right?
The only American movie I've watched recently was Black Hawk Down, which I hadn't seen since around when it first came out. Apparently I didn't remember any of it, and it was a lot more constant action than I thought it was. Still good of course. Otherwise, I've been going through the remaining Lupin III films I haven't gotten to yet. I just love how silly and off-the-wall those movies are.
I do have to wonder why the Native Canadians didn't loot the fuck out of the viking ship. The only sword to survive was the one the kid had? No one thought to grab an axe? Come on there was a scene with the kid's adopted father using the sword to cut wood!!??!!
Transformers 2 came in on Netflix (blu-ray) today. Probably watch it in the morning.
But that's not the movie I want to talk about. My favorite Universal Monster Movie is Dracula because it is not only a solid film on it's own and not only does it not have Keanu Reeves in it (sorry Anthony Hopkins but even you can't save that movie), but Bela Lugosi's performance is just outstanding each time I see it. I saw a re-scored version this time on the recommendation of a friend which I was a little skeptical of (since I'm attached to the original I guess). When I heard it was re-scored by Phillip Glass and the Kronos Quartet, I immediately gave it a look.
I was amazed, they made it better with the new soundtrack. Each scene has music where appropriate and is absent where appropriate as well. I cannot really describe it in words, other than it sets the mood each time when a new track comes on and people should give it a look and a listen.
See? No harm done whatsoever. You can relax. Everything is okay.
Jim could make a good Cap. He's not someone I expected, but he's someone I'm not going to stick my nose up at. He atleast has the jawline. Even with the ghetto bots? I do think the 2nd Transformers movie has some nice action scenes, but that's about it. It really should be done with no actors and just CGI'd robots.
Oh yeah, also saw Across The Universe over the weekend. Awesome and trippy.
This evening I'm having a movie night at home, so popped out to the DVD store to rent a Cory Haim movie, preferably The Lost Boys. They didn't have a single film of his though, so picked Stand By Me, staring the other Cory.
It's just that her talents are "Breathe", "Pose like nobody actually ever does in real life", "Gasp and breathe heavily", and "Gasp and breathe heavily in revealing clothing"