AVATAR

[DarkwingChuck]

Re: AVATAR

No, this is the movie that's keeping "The Last Airbender" from using Avatar in its title. I'm much more interested in Airbender after finding out what Avatar is about. The plot just sounds somewhat confusing and mostly uninteresting.

[Stormy]

Re: AVATAR

No, this is the movie that's keeping "The Last Airbender" from using Avatar in its title. I'm much more interested in Airbender after finding out what Avatar is about. The plot just sounds somewhat confusing and mostly uninteresting.

I agree.

This is what filled the majority of Ubisoft's lame ass 2 hour press conference at E3 that practically put me to sleep.

[Eso Teric]

Re: AVATAR

Saw the trailer earlier, so as there is a thread, I'll leave my thoughts from then, here now.

Hmm, what's this... Starship Troopers? Those Mechs look like crap. More unintersting crap. Blue elves? Okay, Giant Blue Elves. They put that guy's mind in the giant blue elf. Explosions.

What a pile of crap.

[Caciss]

Re: AVATAR

I love James Cameron. I think I will love this.

[marcus]

Re: AVATAR

I just know this thing will bomb hard. Cameron has been working on it for some 15 years and I wouldn't be surprised if the budget was even more bloated than the predicted 240 million. The plot is generic "humans invade intelligent but tribal like alien "savages" meanwhile a human sees through the aliens point of view and becomes sympathetic" and the only appeal I can see are the new cameras being used to film it.

This is an over priced tech demo for new technology.

[John Mora]

Re: AVATAR

The plot is generic "humans invade intelligent but tribal like alien "savages" meanwhile a human sees through the aliens point of view and becomes sympathetic" and the only appeal I can see are the new cameras being used to film it.

Name five movies in the last ten years that are like that.

[Sejon]

Re: AVATAR

I've read lots of books like that.

But no movies come to mind.

[John Mora]

Re: AVATAR

The movie-going public doesn't read books! :V

[Duel]

Re: AVATAR

And movie novelizations. Who actually reads those? People who read books?

[Kefka Jr.]

Re: AVATAR

Atlantis: The Lost Empire.

Transformers, from a certain perspective.

[marcus]

Re: AVATAR

Name five movies in the last ten years that are like that.

Just off the top of my head without having to look anything up there's Battle for Terra and District 9 the former being a literal "humans invade savage aliens while a handful of humans sympathize" and District 9 has the savage aliens "invade" Earth but the humans treat them like garbage, extort their technology until the one human who spends more than 5 minutes with them sympathizes with their cause.

I'm sure if I actually searched I could find more within the past year but this is just an example of anti-imperialist/colonialist movies which are much more common outside the science fiction genre. The Last Samurai had Tom Cruise's character sent to eradicate the "savage" ronin but he sympathizes with the ronin and helps defend them when he finds out they're not the bad guys. The Imperium of Man in Warhammer are imperialist invaders and the few alien sympathizers depicted in the books are declared enemies of the empire. The BattleTech universe involved a massive invasion with the Clans, humans from a bygone era, with some of them sympathizing with the current state of the universe and help defend it against the other invaders.

This plot point is more prevalent in Japanese video games and anime (Japan loves anti-war, anti-imperialism stories) with the two instantly coming to mind Tales of Eternia (superstitious Inferians eventually invade the "barbaric" Celestians of whom they know nothing about) and Here and There, Now and Then (children are conscripted to fight in a pointless war while the enemy is made out to be barbaric frontiersmen until the main character lives among them).

[John Mora]

Re: AVATAR

District 9 doesn't count since it's the opposite, doofus.

[Eso Teric]

Re: AVATAR

District 9 doesn't count since it's the opposite, doofus.

wat

[marcus]

Re: AVATAR

District 9 doesn't count since it's the opposite, doofus.

That's not the point. The point is that "humans forcefully extorting an ignorant race out of their resources except the sole human character, who happens to be the protagonist, lives amongst them and realizes they're not so bad puts a stop to it" is a common literary trope among anti-imperialist writers.

It's an even blander allegory than the "Jesus Christ self sacrificing martyr" character.

[John Mora]

Re: AVATAR

No, the point is the point. The more broadly you interpret the premise, the more you're gonna find to support your argument, anyone can see that. My point was that there are few movies out there that use that premise, Battle for Terra being one of them. I don't count District 9 because it's different in a crucial way.