Box Office Buzz January 22-24: Avatar Again

Wow, I thought we were done with these articles. Unfortunately, I guess not...

I've never even heard of those other two movies so I'd say Avatar has a good chance of winning again next weekend.

Unbelievable.

He's a CBM director though Sirprize we all do follow ups on CBM actors and directors doing interesting things. :] Cheer up i still love you

i bet if cameron had done terminator 3 it would of topped judgement day plus there would of bin better casting!

ugh

Great film. Can't see what's rediculous about it though.

HELL YEAH!!!

KI$$ THAT AVATAR H8RS (tyler) : D

This movie is a MONSTER. Can it be stopped?

Its not a little bit ridiculous ....
ITS JAMES CAMERON ...

The year is 2025. The United States wallows in the aftermath of a bloody civil war, biological and nuclear fallout ravgae the land and blacken the sky, seceding states militarizie their borders to keep out flesh eating humanoid creatures, pockets of lawlessness dot the country side and tribalism rules....but for the survivors there is a glimmer of hope....AVATAR IS STILL IN THEATERS AND STILL #1

Lol. It's a bummer for the TDK fans..

Below is a conversation I had online with a friend about Avatar. Whatever your feelings are, I think it's illuminating:

Me: I love movies. And I love to love them, not hate them. But I feel being critical helps me appreciate the truly good movies more. For Sci-fi (without even going into the established classics) my favorites include Gattaca, Children of Men, and District 9. I also love the "fun action flicks," but even The Matrix and Equilibrium had more compelling protagonists and fewer plot holes than Avatar. Just my opinion though.

Her: District 9 I was incredibly disappointed with. I think it could have been a far more powerful movie than it turned out to be. The graphics were cool, but the characters lacked depth, and the lead's sudden decision to be selfless at the end was unrealistic at best.

The brilliance that is Children of Men cannot be touched. It is in a league all it's own.

The first matrix was brilliant and original, but I think it began to be contrived by the second and third movies. They pushed it too much.

Me: But the "message" of Avatar was so simplistic is was almost meaningless. Nature = Good! War = Bad. As a friend of mine said, "It's liberalism for dummies."

And while District 9 isn't for everyone, I think the protagonist of the film was substantially more believable. Of course, these things are impossible to quantify objectively, but consider this:

--From a friend's review--

"In a way, the structure borrows heavily from Brigadoon, and the decision that Jake Sully must ultimately make in Avatar is no different–does he give up everything he has ever known and shun everyone he has ever cared about in order to stay in this enchanted world and preserve it or does he abandon these new people he’s come to love and destroy another way of life to preserve his own? The difference, however, lies in how they approach it. In Brigadoon, Tommy ultimately leaves Brigadoon, returning to New York, only to eventually go back to Scotland to search for it again. It’s by pure bubblegum bullshit magic that Brigadoon just happens to materialize when he gets there, a good 100 years ahead of schedule, but the point is that Tommy hesitated and had to weigh his options. Jake never really goes through such a crisis of identity in Avatar (and when a 1940s musical comedy deals with emotion more ambiguously than a 21st century science fiction film, you know there’s a problem). He is all too ready to convert completely into Na’vi, and even go so far as to kill hundreds of his former comrades in the process of saving his newfound home."

The protagonist in District 9, however, has a lot more going on. We see him ignorant, well-meaning, and intolerant. We see him tortured, abused, and literally crying and begging for help. He's less of a "hero" than Jake Sully, but more of a "person" and certainly a better actor. As far as his transformation goes, keep in mind that he doesn't become some sort of savior or champion or foretold chosen superhero for the aliens. He is a human being behaving humanly. He wasn't evil at the beginning, just a person. And he doesn't become a hero. He becomes a better person. Less epic, but more believable. But that's just me.

Other things bother me about Avatar. Mainly, illogical plot devices and an improbable dues ex machina. But I already talked about that in the most epic note thread of all time.
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=250502213464

Yes. Children of Men is amazing.

The Matrix.
Still awesome despite how terrible the sequels were.

Her: I guess I didn't need to see a lot of conflict in sully because he didn't seem particularly connected to his "comrades" in the first place. They ridiculed him for being handicapped, and even in the science lab he was a joke because they wanted his brother. He didn't seem to have a friend in the world until he met the Na'vi. In his position, I would have had no conflict at all about ditching the humans. So i guess I didn't expect any from him. His only conflict was in disobeying orders. Makes sense to me. I don't think he was a good actor. I think he was a better actor as an animated character because the animators were probably embellishing his features, but I don't think there was anything unbelievable about the character development in the script. It's a fluff fantasy adventure, that's all. Not a brilliant science fiction piece. And I think it's a wonderful fantasy adventure. If you don't like far-fetched fantasy adventures, don't see it.

Me: That's fair. I think a lot of my negativity is fueled by how critically acclaimed the movie was. I'm still reeling from the Hollywood Foreign Press decision. I haven't written nearly as much about, say, Twilight, because I think most people I associate with already know it's terrible and anyone who loves it wouldn't be convinced or even persuaded to see another point of view by anything I had to say.

But when the audience in my movie theater applauded, I became rather preoccupied with resentment.

I can be a bit of a grouch when it comes to movies, but I enjoy my fluff as well. I just like my fluff to know it's fluff. Avatar is being hailed as one of the greatest movies of all time. That makes my brain hurt. As far as fluff sci-fi movies that I like, did anyone see Treasure Planet? I love that. I submit as proof that I'm not a complete hater of fantasy/sci-fi fun :)