AVATAR Thread: POCAHONTAS in Space!

[Paul MacLean]

Here's a recent inteview with Cameron from the New Yorker website, where he discusses Avatar and previous films. It also gives some telling insight into the director's highly driven, Type-A personality and Alpha Male mindset...

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009 ... ntPage=all

[Eric W.]

Here's a recent inteview with Cameron from the New Yorker website, where he discusses Avatar and previous films. It also gives some telling insight into the director's highly driven, Type-A personality and Alpha Male mindset...

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009 ... ntPage=all

He's a genius but I'd sure hate to work with him.

Heh, we can ask the cast of the Abyss about risking their lives to make that film, too.

[Paul MacLean]

Heh, we can ask the cast of the Abyss about risking their lives to make that film, too.

The sad part is, it really wasn't that great a movie.

[AndyDursin]

Heh, we can ask the cast of the Abyss about risking their lives to make that film, too.

The part is, it really wasn't that great a movie.

Not everyone loved it, but for me, THE ABYSS is one of the best films of the late '80s and is certainly a one-of-a-kind, unique genre film.

From what I've seen and read, I think AVATAR is going to be fortunate to approach THE ABYSS. I have a great deal of affection for that film (not so much the preachy director's cut ending) and especially the performances of Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. The movie's effects and technology were ahead of their time, but the human story and the relationship between those two characters is pretty much as satisfying and effective as anything I've seen in Cameron's films. They acted like real people, they felt like a real couple -- he got that aspect of the film dead on, and it's something I think Cameron has done effectively in many of his films: no matter how big the setting, or elaborate the F/X, there are always characters and a HUMAN element in his movies, be it THE ABYSS, TITANIC, or even ALIENS.

This movie is going to be almost all CGI and it's going to be interesting to see whether or not its computer-generated characters are going to be able to reprise the emotional connection that the main characters in THE ABYSS or TITANIC had and made with audiences. Are audiences ready to make the leap into embracing blue-skinned Jar Jar Binks clones the same way they did Kate and Leo?

I just don't get the impression this movie is going to work on the level they're intending...but it still could be a massive commercial success. If every Pixar movie can make $200 million plus there's no reason this one won't in terms of box-office. There's nothing out there and audiences are starving for something, especially if it's not just another sequel or remake.

[Eric W.]

Not everyone loved it, but for me, THE ABYSS is one of the best films of the late '80s and is certainly a one-of-a-kind, unique genre film.

Agreed. I especially have appreciated the expanded director's cut of the film as it really fleshes some things out nicely and brings the movie closer to Orson Scott Card's incredible novelization of the story.

I really wish we could get more movies like this.

From what I've seen and read, I think AVATAR is going to be fortunate to approach THE ABYSS. I have a great deal of affection for that film (not so much the preachy director's cut ending) and especially the performances of Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.

Yup, the ending is about the only thing out of that I'm not thrilled with but even that's a minor nit. I love everything else about that movie including all of the cast.

The movie's effects and technology were ahead of their time, but the human story and the relationship between those two characters is pretty much as satisfying and effective as anything I've seen in Cameron's films. They acted like real people, they felt like a real couple -- he got that aspect of the film dead on, and it's something I think Cameron has done effectively in many of his films: no matter how big the setting, or elaborate the F/X, there are always characters and a HUMAN element in his movies, be it THE ABYSS, TITANIC, or even ALIENS.

Don't forget a heck of a nice score by Alan Silvestri.

This movie is going to be almost all CGI and it's going to be interesting to see whether or not its computer-generated characters are going to be able to reprise the emotional connection that the main characters in THE ABYSS or TITANIC had and made with audiences. Are audiences ready to make the leap into embracing blue-skinned Jar Jar Binks clones the same way they did Kate and Leo?

It's a leap but I think so for at least one obvious reason: This movie isn't going to be catered to the kiddies.

I just don't get the impression this movie is going to work on the level they're intending...but it still could be a massive commercial success. If every Pixar movie can make $200 million plus there's no reason this one won't in terms of box-office. There's nothing out there and audiences are starving for something, especially if it's not just another sequel or remake.

It might win the holiday season outright. Hard to say at this point. I think it will do well and I think it will do even better in the home video market after the theaterical run.

I'm eager to hear what James Horner whips up for us in his long overdue return to science fiction.

[Paul MacLean]

I have a great deal of affection for that film (not so much the preachy director's cut ending) and especially the performances of Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. The movie's effects and technology were ahead of their time, but the human story and the relationship between those two characters is pretty much as satisfying and effective as anything I've seen in Cameron's films.

I agree it was extremely well-acted (though I wonder how much of the on-screen anguish isn't the real thing, given Cameron's well-documented reputation as a taskmaster), and it is a visual masterpiece...but I just found the story kind of slight.

For me his best is still Aliens, followed by True Lies.

[mkaroly]

I loved THE ABYSS and it still ranks as one of my all-time favorite movies. Of his otehr films, I do like ALIENS a lot. T2 and TRUE LIES (which is hilarious yet extremely hostile) are good too.

I am still not sold on AVATAR and doubt I will go any time soon after it opens.

[Monterey Jack]

It blows my mind there still aren't anamorphic transfers of either The Abyss or True Lies out there.

[AndyDursin]

It blows my mind there still aren't anamorphic transfers of either The Abyss or True Lies out there.

I don't get it either. Especially on Blu-Ray as well, just makes no sense.

[Eric W.]

It blows my mind there still aren't anamorphic transfers of either The Abyss or True Lies out there.

I don't get it either. Especially on Blu-Ray as well, just makes no sense.

Me either!

[Monterey Jack]

You'd think a "From the director of 'Avatar'!" tie-in would be the perfect time to finally do both prior Cameron films justice on DVD. It's been EIGHT YEARS since 9/11, so I think it's safe to finally do the True Lies SE we were promised back in mid-2001. Hell, the "money shot" of the 2012 trailer shows an airplane zooming between two collapsing high-rise buildings, so I don't know why Fox is still squeamish about a True Lies SE.

[Eric W.]

You'd think a "From the director of 'Avatar'!" tie-in would be the perfect time to finally do both prior Cameron films justice on DVD. It's been EIGHT YEARS since 9/11, so I think it's safe to finally do the True Lies SE we were promised back in mid-2001. Hell, the "money shot" of the 2012 trailer shows an airplane zooming between two collapsing high-rise buildings, so I don't know why Fox is still squeamish about a True Lies SE.

I thought it was nonsense to begin with. It doesn't prove a thing one way or the other.


I keep looking at footage and clips of this Avatar movie and I just am not fully sold on it. I think Andy's "Jar Jar Binks" allusion is sticking with me a little bit.

At the end of the day, this movie is going to have to have strong, real characters at the center of all the pretty CGI and such or it's going to be a very large, polished turd.

[AndyDursin]

A rather lengthy new trailer is out.

"You're not in Kansas anymore" -- SERIOUSLY, that's some of the dialogue in this movie??

Sadly it just reinforces what we've suspected -- that it's comprised of a hoary old, cliched story of an "evil corporation" filled with "evil white people" wanting to exploit a native people for profit.

We've seen it all before, and not one aspect of this picture's story seems remotely fresh in any regard.

I'm surprised Cameron spent years making this film and the story is something so trite that you can predict every place it's going to go just by watching the ad...as I said before I think this will make money simply because of its hype but in the long-term is going to fail to deliver what he was promising.

http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/video ... r-trailer/

[AndyDursin]

The entire aspect of making the marines the bad guys in this movie is also suspect given what our military is doing overseas. But, if that's too political, so be it.

[Eric W.]

The entire aspect of making the marines the bad guys in this movie is also suspect given what our military is doing overseas. But, if that's too political, so be it.

It's to be expected from Hollywood. Couldn't be more predictable or obvious.