James Cameron's Avatar

X-SOLDIER

Harbinger O Great Justice
AKA
X
I'm still properly excited about it, mainly because I am absolutely enamoured with the world building and such. Also, I know that my missus is incredibly excited for them.

Then again, I don't think that anyone is surprised that the perpetual optimist is excited about this. :awesomonster:





X :neo:
 
Then again, I don't think that anyone is surprised that the perpetual optimist is excited about this.
After Ungoliant had sucked the light from the trees Telperion and Laurelin, she found that there was a third tree but whose light was too potent and immortal for her to absorb. Thusly, Ungoliant left Valinor in tears for she could not absorb the light of the tree named X-SOLDIER.

#TotzCanon
 

Flare

Pro Adventurer
AKA
Flare
Then again, I don't think that anyone is surprised that the perpetual optimist is excited about this.
After Ungoliant had sucked the light from the trees Telperion and Laurelin, she found that there was a third tree but whose light was too potent and immortal for her to absorb. Thusly, Ungoliant left Valinor in tears for she could not absorb the light of the tree named X-SOLDIER.

#TotzCanon

This is flippin' amazing. XD
 

Ite

Save your valediction (she/her)
AKA
Ite
I mean, now that they have that Dances with Wolves shit out of the way, they can take the Avatar story in a more interesting direction. The setting is there, and that's really what we're there to see. The only way I could see this failing is if Blue Poser man ends up being some sort of chosen one. (I would rather have him not feature much at all, like he should take the role of all the nun friends in Sister Act 2 or Katara in Korra and just cheer the new heroes on from the sidelines.)
 

JechtShotMK9

The Sublimely Magnificent One
AKA
Kamiccolo9
Then again, I don't think that anyone is surprised that the perpetual optimist is excited about this.
After Ungoliant had sucked the light from the trees Telperion and Laurelin, she found that there was a third tree but whose light was too potent and immortal for her to absorb. Thusly, Ungoliant left Valinor in tears for she could not absorb the light of the tree named X-SOLDIER.

#TotzCanon

Does that mean there was a fourth tree named X-Death?

LotR x TLS x FF crossover confirmed?
 
Does that mean there was a fourth tree named X-Death?

LotR x TLS x FF crossover confirmed?
While we're at it we should throw in MLP:FIM, for great justice :wacky:
Because Fluttertree is canon!




All this can connect back to the magical gaia/consciousness trees of Avatar. :awesomonster:
 

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UWfdSHv.gif
 

X-SOLDIER

Harbinger O Great Justice
AKA
X

Well, for the most obvious reason, it's because Avatar is STILL the highest grossing film of all time – and even when adjusting for inflation it's still the second highest grossing film of all time (only a tiny bit behind the still-untouchable Gone with the Wind). Purely from a revenue perspective, it would be like not making The Empire Strikes Back after the success of Star Wars. Whether or not everyone has the same level of investment in the story itself is something else, but as a cash machine, the potential of Avatar is still pretty much second to none.


All I know is that I'll be watching them if they're any good at all. I love that science fiction (or in the case of Star Wars, "space fantasy") films with utterly insane budgets are really strong because that's the kind of movie that I DEEPLY love and enjoy the most, and hopefully it'll work out for the best. The world building in Avatar was still damn excellent, and really just covered a single region of the world, and there's a lot of cool stuff that could be done in that universe overall.





X :neo:
 

Cthulhu

Administrator
AKA
Yop
Anyway, let's see what this turns out like. I hope they'll be able to make the story a bit less Pocahontas or whatever tropes the first one was based on, and take it into a more original direction. I'm predicting it'll be a flop though; I think the original Avatar had the novelty of 3D going for it and the name of the director. I haven't noticed any popularity or cultural wossnames emitting from the original movie, like, spinoffs, merchandise, or people talking about it years later. With e.g. Titanic, I gathered at least that people went to the cinema dozens of times to watch it.
 

Strangelove

AI Researcher
AKA
hitoshura
four consecutive sequels tho

like, brother, see how each one goes before sinking all that time and money into it

let sam worthington go be in other films like kinda disappointing terminator films where he gets his shirt off and he's not a lanky blue cg alien under it

avatar doesn't feel like it has the kind of continued cultural appeal to sustain 4 whole sequels. maybe a sequel will booster it but maybe... wait for that to happen.
 

Octo

KULT OF KERMITU
AKA
Octo, Octorawk, Clarky Cat, Kissmammal2000
Anyway, let's see what this turns out like. I hope they'll be able to make the story a bit less Pocahontas or whatever tropes the first one was based on, and take it into a more original direction. I'm predicting it'll be a flop though; I think the original Avatar had the novelty of 3D going for it and the name of the director. I haven't noticed any popularity or cultural wossnames emitting from the original movie, like, spinoffs, merchandise, or people talking about it years later. With e.g. Titanic, I gathered at least that people went to the cinema dozens of times to watch it.

There were a few alien themed blue fleshlights :monster:

But for the most part nobody gives a shit. Not even on the level of something like Twilight.

Oh welp it's their money I guess.
 

X-SOLDIER

Harbinger O Great Justice
AKA
X
Also, the reason for a massive number of sequels immediately has to do with the way Avatar is filmed, edited, and assembled being VERY unlike any other traditional filming process. Because of the performance cap, James Cameron gets the performance he wants, and then actually goes back into the digital space with that performance and gets the shots that he wants after the fact. Basically with the techniques that the first film used, they can do something and get as much content as something like LotR did all in one bulk period, with an even easier time doing so, so it won't occupy actors' time nearly as long as four films typically would.

Even if you don't like the film itself, the behind the scenes stuff for how Avatar was made is properly incredible — especially for when it was made.





X :neo:
 

jazzflower92

Pro Adventurer
AKA
The Girl With A Strong Opinion
Also, the reason for a massive number of sequels immediately has to do with the way Avatar is filmed, edited, and assembled being VERY unlike any other traditional filming process. Because of the performance cap, James Cameron gets the performance he wants, and then actually goes back into the digital space with that performance and gets the shots that he wants after the fact. Basically with the techniques that the first film used, they can do something and get as much content as something like LotR did all in one bulk period, with an even easier time doing so, so it won't occupy actors' time nearly as long as four films typically would.

Even if you don't like the film itself, the behind the scenes stuff for how Avatar was made is properly incredible — especially for when it was made.





X :neo:

The effects are gorgeous, but even I think that it needs a story of high caliber to go with it. There is a big reason why people latched onto the villain rather than the main protagonists, because it's the same archetypes we've seen before in those kinds of movies. The problem is Cameron made the aliens too perfect to identify with them, and they are never portrayed as wrong or really nuanced as a group of people.
 

The Twilight Mexican

Ex-SeeD-ingly good
AKA
TresDias
Anyway, let's see what this turns out like. I hope they'll be able to make the story a bit less Pocahontas or whatever tropes the first one was based on, and take it into a more original direction. I'm predicting it'll be a flop though; I think the original Avatar had the novelty of 3D going for it and the name of the director. I haven't noticed any popularity or cultural wossnames emitting from the original movie, like, spinoffs, merchandise, or people talking about it years later. With e.g. Titanic, I gathered at least that people went to the cinema dozens of times to watch it.

'Tis a good point. I've seen the observation made before (maybe it was here, maybe it was tumblr) that for a movie that made so much money and was seen by so many people, our pop culture is oddly lacking in memes or other references to the thing. I've heard a grand total of one, and that was in person rather than on the Internet.
 

X-SOLDIER

Harbinger O Great Justice
AKA
X
There is a big reason why people latched onto the villain rather than the main protagonists, because it's the same archetypes we've seen before in those kinds of movies.

Did anyone really latch on to the villain? I mean, like any good villain, he stood out for all the archetypical villainous reasons. If anything, I still find Neytiri to be closer to the main character, even though we don't experience the story through her eyes. As well as the character I most enjoy from the film.

The problem is Cameron made the aliens too perfect to identify with them, and they are never portrayed as wrong or really nuanced as a group of people.

I'd disagree with this pretty strongly. I never thought of them as perfect at all. The tensions between Jake & Tsu'tey about his role within the Omaticaya Clan as an outsider specifically helped to give some depth to the Na'vi as a group of people especially in terms of their nuances on how they have differing views of the Humans and Avatars and the varying relationships that they've had with them since they arrived on Pandora.


'Tis a good point. I've seen the observation made before (maybe it was here, maybe it was tumblr) that for a movie that made so much money and was seen by so many people, our pop culture is oddly lacking in memes or other references to the thing. I've heard a grand total of one, and that was in person rather than on the Internet.

I have speculation here, but I don't have a lot of evidence other than the lack of evidence that you mention. I think that Avatar really broke out as a film experience more than anything else, which was in some ways helped by the fact that its story was incredibly simple and not like a lot of scifi things that have a bigger barrier of entry for their settings and plots. Avatar was accessible, and the sort of thing that, when it was released HUGE word of mouth got around as it being something that you NEED to see in the theater, moreso than I think probably any other film's ever had.

For good or bad, the setting and the experience of BEING on Pandora that the theater experience delivered wasn't like anything that came before it, and while 3D is much more of a staple in films these days, VERY few other films have really crept into that space of inhabiting the space behind the screen as well as Avatar did (although I'd personally put Dawn of the Planet of the Apes in that category as a close second – again, the work with Performance capture and transmutive performance here is a HUGE factor).

As such, it's not like Star Wars where you're quoting scenes or talking about ships and things, and it's not like other films where you're pouring over the nuances of the story, but it definitely made an impact in a VERY different way, but one that doesn't really serve itself to being shared or discussed in the same way we usually discuss films.

Again, I think that a LOT of this comes down to the mechanics of how the film was intentionally shot and assembled to be that kind of experience. The Performance Capture technology combined with the virtual cameras letting him pick shots in ways that literally aren't possible with traditional filmmaking AT ALL is something that you can't really properly sum up in discussion (a lot like trying to describe using really good VR after the fact).





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