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Quicksilver6

I really, intensely hated this movie. I can’t even begin to describe how petulant and immature the mindset towards humanity this film has. It quite literally can be described as if it were a film made by teenage furries on Deviantart. The misanthropy and oversimplification of not only human history, but also military and political history, cultural interaction, and people in general felt like the biggest “Fuck you” I’ve ever gotten from rich white self-loathing Canadian who doesn’t like himself or humanity and is taking it out on the world in the most puerile fashion possible.

I really like how all the scientists were relegated to cardboard cut-out status in favor of the dumbest man in the world going on to become awesome by pure chance. Who needs things like analytical thinking and scientific method to determine the best course of action when a seed can resolve all the problems? Not that it really matters as they NEVER DO ANYTHING THE WHOLE MOVIE. What on earth did Max accomplish? Or Norm? They might as well have been transparent for all the good they did. I’m really impressed, guest who told me I wasn’t looking deep enough into the characters. All the sympathetic humans fail to accomplish anything or have any kind of a story arc besides the two women dying pointlessly and accomplishing nothing in the process. Norm’s anger at Jake disappears, accomplishing nothing. Max does nothing the whole movie. Trudy dies at the end, failing to accomplish anything. Grace also dies, accomplishing not much either. Great writing! I really felt like two cultures were really interacting and that humanity was given a fair shake. That totally isn’t going to inspire self-loathing and depression in people, or fuel stupid impossible fantasies about “I’m not human, I’M A SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE!”.

I also really liked how the Na’vi were HUGE RACIST ASSHOLES and wouldn’t even talk to humans unless they assumed an entirely new form, and how literally everything the humans did was wrong to them. Talking? Out of the question. Walking in the forest and getting attacked? Your human background and culture caused it, you foolish human. Exchange cultural background and information? Nonsense. Our way is the superior way and is catered to by a literal goddess. Working at improving yourself or your way of life is for chumps. Intercultural relationship going on? You don’t need things like a careful respect and balance of two cultures – it needs you to abandon everything you’ve ever known and assimilate into a new culture that has no respect for your past, history or place of origin! Because that’s worked out so well in human history. The RDA were no heroes, but jesus at least they TRIED to talk something out.

The only interesting character with ANY kind of internal moral conflict was the administrator Selfridge, and he was swinging wildly between “Yes I will give you a chance to resolve this peacefully” and “I AM A CARDBOARD CUTOUT OF A RACIST CEO FROM THE 1980′S BECAUSE NOTHING HAS CHANGED IN HUNDREDS OF YEARS DESPITE HUGE OVERHAULS IN RECENT HUMAN HISTORY”.

Fuck this movie. I don’t deny terrible things have happened and still happen to all kinds of people, or that our countries have their hands clean, but simplifying the past to the point where one side is all good and the other all bad, not to mention ensuring all the bad guys were poorly characterized white americans with nothing to describe them except mindless, poorly explained hatred, is taking the easy way out of a potentially interesting conflict and story.

jsmith0552

Yeah, but the protagonist is the a white guy too, so what point are you trying to make? I guess a lot of people would have really hated it if Cameron had made the protagonist any other race but white. And of course if the Na’vi weren’t blue skinned cat aliens but some identifiable culture, no one would have felt the need to see it at all. [We love our reality wrapped in fantasy] I honestly don’t know from what political or social realm Cameron was coming from when he made this. I know I didn’t care for it, but obviously a lot of people sure did. I’m seeing it attacked by one side as anti-American, anti-military, anti-capitalism, with a white guilt complex, yet I also see it attacked for the white savior plot (which really stands out btw). Some kind of way these two viewpoints don’t really seem to jibe. It’s really a tired plot that mainstream America seems to like so I don’t get the first group at all, except that recent wars in Iraq have made people over-sensitive to criticism of U.S. involvement in foreign countries that seem to be spurred on by economic reasons, or any films that cause people to make that connection. At another point in history I don’t believe a lot of people would have necessarily made that connection at all.
- guest
  
  What’s not to get? The “America/military/humans/capitalism is EVIL” stuff is what Cameron intended, because he’s simple minded and so is his target audience.
  The hypocrisy of said message coming from a rich, white, human guy who makes millions from capitalism and technology was NOT intended, because Cameron isn’t that self-aware.
  The “white savior” part was completely unintended on Cameron’s part, and just emerged because Cameron isn’t really “progressive” and neither are most progressives. There’s a reason why studies keep showing that political “liberals” give far less to charity than “conservatives”.
  - anon
    
    that is because liberals pay full taxes and conservatives pay none but they do donate to charities, I mean, the mormon church to advocate the death of the gays…
    - zero_miles_per_hour
      
      Conservatives don’t pay taxes? That’s impossible, that’s like half the people (or they’d never win elections), that’s like Greece before the collapse.
    - Dyne
      
      And idiots like this are allowed to vote. So your grand logic today is that only liberals pay taxes, and conservatives are somehow exempt from paying taxes based on their political ideology. Yes, there’s a vast conspiracy perpetrated by the US government to keep right minded individuals from paying their taxes. Because that makes any sense. Your second lesson is that there exists another vast conspiracy from the Mormon church to eradicate homosexuals, because there is actually evidence to support such a ludicrous accusation.. but of course there isn’t, but we don’t have to use facts, right? Do humanity a favor and just die. Mankind ill needs a brain such as yours.
- zero_miles_per_hour
  
  “White guilt” and “white savior” go hand in hand actually. Basically, the idea is “Don’t be afraid, I’m sorry for what white people did to you but I’m not like them, I’m here to help.”
  - Dan
    
    “White guilt” is kind of stupid in the first place, since we were kinda enslaving each other in the start of it all. Race only became a convenient excuse, when in reality, it would have most likely happened despite it. It wasn’t truly…”personal” at the root of it all. It’s time to get over it. Until we move on, it guilt only says we’re still that backwards that it’ll happen again. Leave it to the history classes, not hack film makers.
- http://twitter.com/Patrick_PHA13 Patrick Allen
  
  The protagonist is a white guy who abandons his species because he’s more enlightened than the rest.
  
  He’s Tom Cruise from The Last Samurai or Kevin Costner from Dances with Wolves.
  
  The bad guys are two-dimensional military and business types, and the two big baddies are pasty white types. Grunts are blue-collar whites, blacks, and hispanics, sure, but they also get killed like crazy, which fits into the common portrayal of soldiers since the Vietnam Era, ie. a bunch of colored people dying needlessly in the service of the white military-industrial complex. Same old, same old.
  
  I don’t think the movie’s a piece of propaganda. It’s just so stupid that it swallows a bunch of politically-motivated cinematic cliches whole so it can ignore any plot complexity and get on with the CGI.
Damon

I wasn’t a huge fan of Avatar, but reading you get so worked up and angry over a movie is actually making me like it all the more. It sounds like you allowed yourself to get swept up in the hype and then you paid the price with your attitude when the film didn’t meet your lofty expectations. Sucks to be you.
- Dan
  
  Someone’s a bit of a troll, eh?
- Daniel Burke
  
  Get a life, troll.
  - Herrerasaurus
    
    One is immortal so long as one has not a life.
dieeerp

after reading that rant. I like the movie even more.
DevilsAdvocate

So, the Civil War beginning because of different perspectives on enslaving coloured folk doesn’t envoke misanthropy or seem oversimplified to you?
http://www.facebook.com/nick.signedup.3 Nick Signedup

The movie is fucking awesome! your all a bunch of overgrown fat fucks who get jealous of success in movies! grow a pair! get out of the basement and actually do something with your lives.!! avatar is the best movie in the world with the record of 2.7 BILLION $$. like it or not he doesn’t give a fuck about what you retards think!! oh and avatar 2 and 3 are coming in the future looking forward to it BAHAH..

http://twitter.com/Smsff7 Steven

Pizza roll FTW Well they are better then this movie at least

Otend

Perhaps the definition of hype without backing. This movie, despite the supposed scope and grandiose visuals, lacks substance. It’s like a critically-accepted Michael Bay film.

http://www.facebook.com/daniel.westgate.100 Daniel Westgate

Unlike Micheal Bay there are characters that have something to them that is identifiable and somewhat relate-able, even if on the most shallow, primitive, dumbass level. On the other hand, it’s unoriginal. e.” So… fuck it.
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no…. no, no…”

mrrowland

Anyone who has seen this movie and has reached a mental age beyond finding the likes of Adam Sandler funny (I was around 16 when I figured this out), knows how lightweight this film is.

People defending it are always the ones who haven’t developed any taste yet. You can’t blame them for that really, most people don’t care enough to make the concerted effort.

Don’t fret petals, if you rewatch this film in 20 years time (or not bother – which I wouldn’t blame you for) you’ll find it has literally no charm/intrigue/intelligence/vaguely realistic social commentary/emotional depth/involvement… etc etc. All the things which you obviously currently don’t give a fuck about, one day you will realise are all-important. But it’ll have action. It’ll always have ACTION!!

http://www.facebook.com/richardhalo Alexandru Popa

One thing about Avatar : A Sci-Fi hyper 3D Pocahontas with great special FX. Just replace names from Pocahontas with the ones from Avatar (add some space ships and big guns) and you get the same plot.That’s all.

zero_miles_per_hour

I didn’t hate that colonel, actually I sympathized with him quite a bit. He was so excited that an ex-Marine was joining the Avatar team, because deep down he suspected that the scientists were such tools that they couldn’t even be trusted just to explain to the Navi what we needed, and then try to work out a peaceful way for us to get it. So when the colonel discovered their treachery and saw that the ex-Marine was the one who corrupted them, that he essentially turned double agent for the Navi because he was having too much fun pretending to be one of them, that was pretty tragic. If anything the colonel was far too forgiving of those traitors, which was essentially the cause of his downfall. And when it was revealed that the Navi didn’t want the tree to be disturbed because it’s where they kept all their ancestors in a perpetual state of living death, I strongly sympathized with the colonel’s desire to tear that hellish tree down and rescue the damned deathless souls trapped inside it.

http://twitter.com/Patrick_PHA13 Patrick Allen

I thought the Colonel was awesome. I was rooting for him.
http://www.facebook.com/daniel.westgate.100 Daniel Westgate

It’s more spiritual than that. They’re not “trapped” in it but a part of it. Everything is connected, remember? If they were simply trapped in it, Grace could have just came right back had her soul some direction.

On the other hand if everything is connected why do they need a tree in the first place? That was the first thing to grow and everything came from it or something? Now we’re sounding a little too mythological and supernatural here.

Now, the whole time I was wondering, “why doesn’t Jake just tell them that they only want the Unobtanium and not the tree itself? would it be so hard to go in their and get the fuel and leave? And if it would harm the tree, just take a little at a time.”

But then the Colonel is waaay too cartoony to compromise. “Fuck damn savages can’t tell me how to run my operation! Get out or die!” Yeah, so I take it, and hope you only sympathies with the colonel because all the other characters are even more stupid.

john

I like Avatar but get the criticism. It’s just a great movie to see in 3D unlike most of the shit that has come out since in 3D.

http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Halen/100003840392805 John Halen

This review sucks. All thru your star wars reviews you complain about the over complication of the plot. Now you’ve got what you want and your not happy. People likes the characters and sympathised with them. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I would fuck the shit out of a Navi.

http://twitter.com/psycho_pigeon bobby kirsch

lol avatar is poop face

Vague

“…Or Taco Bell.”

Panther

AHHH!! PITT! DDDD

Sb

You’re very strange.

Vimes

This movie was not dances with aliens it was furngully, and it’s storyline sucked was almost as if they spent all the money making the sets and then thought shit we need a story i know my kid just saw this film bout a magic tree and some fairys….

George Lucas

so manny idiots are posting comments!

iZoe

I never saw this film; had no interest in it. Guess it’s because Titanic is probably one of worst movies ever made. All the more hated because it won the Oscar. I lost respect for the Oscars that year too. Go back to the Alien and Terminator franchises James!

Daggoth

By the end of the movie I wanted the humans to win, and I wanted to see those Na’vi fucks burn in nuclear hellfire…. just my two cents

http://twitter.com/Patrick_PHA13 Patrick Allen

It’s the Empire on Endor’s forest moon all over again. Fucking fucking little fucking bear fucking Ewok fuck fuckers. Fuck!

I hate the Ewoks, Chuck. I hate ‘em.

some guy

navi means profet

advancedcaveman

I don’t believe for one second that anyone was actually making this movie for 15 years. The script was probably slapped together on weekend after Cameron found out that people have a bizarre hard-on for motion capture and he realized that he could make a metric shit ton of money if he made everything dumb enough and covered every possible base in the marketing.

Kinsey

Actually, there was a MUCH deeper and longer script for Avatar that would’ve run for six hours, called Project 600 or some such. I can’t remember where, but there’s a newspaper article out there that summarised it. Needless to say, it got chopped down.

http://twitter.com/Shahrukahn Piss Standing Up

Wat is the song playing at the end? Someone, anyone, please?

http://www.facebook.com/ben.lentaigne Ben Lentaigne

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpvcjAhBabA

proghead777

They’re not military, they’re mercenaries. They’re people who provide “security” (shoot people… or giant blue cat people, in this case) for money. You know, like Blackwater. This is stated very clearly in the first few minutes of the movie. I only point it out because it’s a very common criticism of this movie that it makes villains out of heroes. That’s not correct. It makes villains out of people who are willing to commit mass murder for profit. People do that sort of thing, you know. And I don’t think Avatar is as much about white guilt for the genocide of Native Americans as it is suggesting that we’re being a little naive if we think that people would never do such things again. If a corporation severely lacking in the ethics department had the means, the motive and, most importantly, the ability to act with impunity because no one’s around to even know what they’re doing, let alone stop them, they’d do it in a New York minute.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris-Webb/1405341955 Chris Webb

this movie reminds me of what mike compared paranormal activity to, a theme park ride. as a story it’s a pile of shit, but as a theme park ride it’s not to bad

deerstop

I agree with your critisizm. Plot was boring and predictable, characters were plain and uninteresting. I loved the film still. The visuals!

http://twitter.com/aliennetwork RP Clarke

I am posting in your webzone!

EdG4MES

dude the garbage pail kids comparison made me choke on my sandwich. thats some fucking funny shit.