Avatar Might beat Titanic for the #1 Highest Grossing Spot

[flexy]

Shucks, I didn't see Titanic until years after it came out and it was an immediate favorite of mine. Admit it, it isn't just hype much less over hype. I have not seen it yet but I know there are a lot of very hyped movies that don't make it at the box office, many of them costing a lot of money to make. That this movie is breaking records says something!

same here, didnt see titanic for YEARS, furthermore i have an aversion against your typical chick flic But Titanic is a very good movie and i immediately liked it when i finally saw it. Havent seen many Cameron movies which *sucked* really, as opposed to eg...Emmerich who makes movies where you NEED to take out your brain before watching 'em otherwise you really cant stand it.

 

[Arkaign]

darn VB has no "thank you" button...lame...

Anway...the story was not less "lame" that 95% of other movie stories. LOTR, Star Wars, etc..etc... do me favor and examine their "story".

The "story" of LOTR can be summed up in a few sentences, STILL not making LOTR or Avatar a bad movie.

Its funny how there are people (especially here on ATOT) who gave rave reviews about the most retarded movies occasionally...but criticize Avatar because it didnt have a certain amount of "depth" or complexity. (Because all the other movies they watch are usually extremely deep and complex <--lol )

Avatar was a pretty good (if not excellent) movie on MANY levels, alone the level of CGI and details in the CGI...visuals, story etc... not perfect, but good on many levels for a fun 3 hours entertainment.

LOTR has a ridiculously superior amount of depth and conflict, not to mention acting caliber.

Star Wars I'll give ya, that's more simplistic filmmaking with largely terrible acting/directing.

What I last reviewed was 'Crazy Heart' which was probably 1/100th the budget, but a much better film!

 

[Barfo]

lol

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

lol

I thought you had like 10000 posts?Lol

 

[lifeobry]

Well, I gave it 2 out of 5 stars. The effects and usage of 3d and color, and overall technical details were outstanding, but just like the Transformers films, I can't give a good rating for just FX.

The story was derivative to extremes and utterly ridiculous at times. Yeah, we're going to perfect interstellar travel, yet not be able to solve simple problems at home or move our culture beyond 20th century USA stereotypes. Okay.

The acting was average to bad. I thought Sigourney Weaver turned in the best performance. Ribisi and that chick from Fast and Furious were just terrible.

The directing was technically decent, but again very unoriginal.

The sound was very good, though the music could have been better, that's not Cameron's fault though, Horner is normally better.

The length was somewhat excessive.

Anyway, a truly bad film I would give like .5 or 1 star to. I give Avatar 2 stars simply because it was obscenely unoriginal, and beyond FX had no real appeal as a film on it's own merits.

I really hope the next JC film is actually good on multiple levels. Titanic was a step above Avatar, but still felt a bit like a rail ride from one technical showpiece to the next, with a chick flick story filling the spaces between, along with an incredibly cardboard villain played by the capable Billy Zane.

What I'm saying is you can level those kinds of critiques against any of his other movies. Aliens was just a crashed-now-survive flick, T2 just a survive against an "unstoppable enemy", etc.. There is nothing in Avatar that is "obscenely unoriginal" compared to anything else he has done. The acting was on par with any of the other films, it's not like we're getting Oscar-caliber performances from Cameron's writing here.

I feel like you have an axe to grind against this particular movie, perhaps due to its extreme popularity.

You don't make $2 billion at the box office with something that has "no real appeal". The FX was an integral part of the experience, but if people weren't wowed by the story and the characters, the film would not nearly have been succesful as it has been.

 

[TecHNooB]

I thought you had like 10000 posts?Lol

lmao

@lifeobry

I think it's crazy you think Titanic and Avatar are his crowning achievements. Clearly T2 was better than both.

 

[Kaido]

FWIW, I saw it in Real 3D the other day, after seeing it in IMAX 3D when it first came out. IMAX is bigger, but Real 3D looks far better for the 3D effect - the effects popped out a lot more. IMAX has more of a depth to it, like you're looking through a window, while Real 3D actually popped out at your a lot more, like the old red/blue glasses movie.

If I were to see it a third time, I'd definitely do Real 3D again.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

lol

I thought you had like 10000 posts?Lol

Interesting...?

 

[growled]

lmao
I think it's crazy you think Titanic and Avatar are his crowning achievements. Clearly T2 was better than both.

All that is just personal opinion. Some like one film better and some another.

 

[Arkaign]

All that is just personal opinion. Some like one film better and some another.

I can accept that for a fact, and nobody should really take another's personal opinion too seriously, or ones own for that matter.

The thing is that virtually ALL of the reviews for Avatar say the same thing that I did :

Great FX, Visuals, technology

and..

Average to poor writing, characters, and acting.

Most of the reviewers were willing to give an overall positive grade due to the incredibly well done (best ever so far?) FX and technology, but I guess I'm just not that impressed anymore.

Even if T2 had the old-school effects of T1, it would still be a compelling film. The terminator character was tailor-made perfect for Arnie, and the supporting cast and writing were exceptionally well done for an action film. Aside from a couple of scenes, even Edward Furlong did really well, and his performance was crucial to carry the film.

Aliens was just genius on so many levels, and is widely regarded as one of the best action films of all time (along with T2). The cast was really diverse and worked together well, again the writing and pacing were really good, and the film holds up very well to this day.

Hell, T1 holds up really well as a film, the effects are dated, but the thing was just a good overall film.

Titanic is already being looked at as pretty much an FX marvel with a hit pop song that rode a giant wave of popularity, but is pretty forgettable overall. There were a number of characters that were incredibly short-changed beyond an almost 'walk-on' presence, and it's a shame they were written so thinly. As a technical masterpiece, it EXCELS truly. As a film about people, their motivations, and what makes things tick, it was pretty weak.

Avatar takes this to another level, it's like JC didn't even bother writing anything original whatsoever. He adapted Pocahontas into Space, and added a subtext about the evils that he perceives in our current times.

I listened to Cameron speak about Avatar on NPR recently, and he described how he really wanted to give some anti-Bush hits in the movie, and I thought that was pretty silly really.

I really dislike Bush (don't want to get P&N here), but is a future Space Epic really the place to do that? I don't want overt pro or con subtext in my fantasy or sci-fi movies where our world should be pretty irrelevant to that otherworldly storyline.

 

[lifeobry]

lmao

@lifeobry

I think it's crazy you think Titanic and Avatar are his crowning achievements. Clearly T2 was better than both.

T2 is actually my favorite movie, and while Avatar doesn't quite match up, it's still very good in its own right.

Avatar's story has been done before, but Cameron's strength is in presenting that story well. Cameron creates worlds and characters you actually care about and can believe in. That is something that so many movies cannot do.

The grown gentleman with his tween-age daughter sitting next to me at the theater was discreetly weeping at the sad part of Avatar. I was choked up too at that point. That rarely happens with me, that a film can make me feel actual sadness.

Anyways, I'm not saying the movie is the best thing on earth, but its success shows that its got something more than just special effects.