All in all, not too bad a way of passing time, but a little less hype would be nice - one could think that Fable taught the world a lesson (at least that hype was coming mostly from the Peter Moulynex himself).
The soundtrack wasn't BAD in the movie, but, at least to me, there way it could save the movie from the huge Narm in many scenes. The one where Papa Smurf (The chief) died was a particularly huge example for me. The music was dramatic, the token girl was turning on the waterworks...they were trying SO HARD to be dramatic, but it failed.
I mean, Papa Smurf had like...all of 2 minutes of screentime and almost no lines. I honestly didn't care one bit if he died. And the Narm really hit the fan when my buddy next to me said "This is just like the scene where that Ewok dies in Star Wars!" ( As seen towards the end of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQeuXki0L3I)
That was it. From then on, it was impossible to take any "Dramatic" moments seriously.
I dunno if it was a side-effect of the CGI, but it really, really felt like the actors were trying too hard.
As for Fable, it's still a wallbanger for me. Moulynex made crazy-awesome claims like "You'll be able to plant trees as a kid...and they'll grow into a forest you can adventure in when you're an adult!" or "How you treat people as a child will affect how they act when you're an adult!"
NONE of this was in the game, nothing you did as a child affected the world in any meaningful way, and the game as a linear, So Okay, It's Average RPG. Yet instead of the outcry that should've happened, people just went "Meh..." and it sold well enough for a sequel. Which promised the same things, and not only didn't deliver but was a buggy mess until patched. And THAT still sold well. The lesson: People apparently don't care if you flat-out lie to them?
Hell, if you've played any state-of-the-art game on a VERY high-end gaming computer, it's not that impressive. Things rendered in games area already approaching photo-realism. I can only hope that once it gets there, they stop looking for "OMG GRAFFIX!" and start looking at how to actually IMPROVE GAMEPLAY.
We can all learn something from the Legend of Zelda and it's triforce, Power is nothing without the courage and wisdom to make use of it..."I mean, Papa Smurf had like...all of 2 minutes of screentime and almost no lines. I honestly didn't care one bit if he died."
IAWTC. When watching that scene I thought "Oh, he's dead not...how much longer to the epic final battle that should happen after this." That's kind of the way I felt about Trudy's death. Though her death bugged me because she felt like a perfectly good waste of character.
Even with a weak plot, I think the movie could have been tons better with stronger characters. I mean there are plenty that are introduced, that seem like they should/could have some important bearing on the story, and have ten minutes at the most of screen time.
That or keep that flat characters, but use them as more tools for a better, more interesting plot.
It is possible to do use either method and still have a fairly good story. I've seen it done before.
edited 6th Mar '10 1:40:22 PM by Jumpingzombie
I can not deny the Avatar staff their hard work in creating the film's CGI, but after a certain point better graphics just do not make such an impression, at least I feel like that. It is true that graphics in Bayonetta, for example, are not on the Avatars's level, but that hardly matters, because they work, and pumping more polygons is utterly unnecessary "Look, we have better graphics than those other people!" "...Yeah, so?". And really, when they saw those floating rocks and were all "WOWZERS!!", I could not help but think 'Oh my God! A giant rock'. I have seen floating giant rocks posing as sky islands in the works of fiction before, just because you made them prettier does not make them better than those other rocks. Granted, they are more detailed, but I cannot help but think that I should demand a little more from a movie that is supposed to be brimming with imagination and never-before-seen-ideas, eh?
I may have been too vague - what I meant is that, during the last battle, the music tried to make me cheer for one side of the conflict (the Navi'i, of course) with pompous music when they started doing well and kill the Marines, whereas the Marines' doing well and killing Navi'i was accompanied with sad tracks. At least that is how I remember that.
Regarding Fable, I was really, really looking forward to that game, because of all the soon-to-be-revealed-as-lies Moulynex words. Alas, this did not come to be. Oh well, at least there is a lesson in that.
Edited to fix potholes, I still am learning Wiki Markup.
edited 6th Mar '10 1:43:34 PM by Cormoran
^^ This. Definitely this. My friend and I were laughing at how the Na'vi girl was absolutely HORRIFIED how her people were falling in slo mo.
That, and when that one Na'vi went on the plane, it took WAY too long for someone to shoot him.
New User HandleAfter that scene I wondered why the Navi didn't just gang-rush those openings. Even if they got shot down their big-ass dragons and nine-foot Navi bodies would have crashed into the shooters, at the very least disarming them long enough for them to stab everyone to death and then move on to stab everything else in the ship to death.
I mean, if one guy could do that much damage on his own, throw in half a dozen and the humans are screwed. It's not like they were needed somewhere else- most of them just flied around completely ineffectually right in front of the turrets getting shot at.
See you in the discussion pages.Yeah that was a bit of a wall-banger for me(I pointed it out to every person I saw the movie with). I saw part of the movie again(at a friends house, don't ask), and I HATE SAM WORTHINGTON!
Dear lord maybe it was just the writing, or the character, but God he makes me want to do bad things. He has so many bad lines and idiot ball moments, and well they are believable. I could actually see him doing these things. Is it to much to ask that in the next(yay sequels!) for Jake to die a horrid bloody, dishonorable death?
You will never love a women as much as George Lucas hates his fans.I have. I liked it, though it was a bit girly for my taste, but that's a design choice and not a graphical thing. I think you misunderstood. I wasn't accusing any particular game of being all graphics and no substance, just saying that it's a trend that next-gen things tend to have.
I think my Ur-Examples are Goldeneye and Perfect Dark (Both N64). Good games, by all means, suffering only from technical limitations (Framerate hits). Then comes the next generation. Here, they can keep (And enhance!) the stellar gameplay, eliminate the technical issues, and update the graphics. What do we get? Goldeneye: Rogue Agent and Perfect Dark Zero. Shiny graphics. No slowdown. HORRIBLE gameplay. They honestly didn't give two-craps about the gameplay or plot, expecting to carry it simply because of the "Revolutionary Graphics!" Both killed their respective series'.
Note: Yes, I do think they tried with Goldeneye: Rogue Agent. They tried to be innovative and come up with a good story, but IMO (And most reviews seem to agree) they failed due to repetitive, generic gameplay and an incredibly linear plotline. Perfect Dark Zero? Not so much. It was utter crap.
Or Battlefield: Bad Company. Upped the graphics considerably, but killed the gameplay. Or Stalker: Clear Sky; improved visuals at the cost of everything else.
It's a trend in games and in movies and I don't like it. Call me old-school, but I'd rather play a well-designed 2-D game with memorable characters, a great plot, and interesting gameplay than a shiny, but forgettable game that looks amazing but isn't innovative, has a clumsy, tacked on story, and a cliche'd plot. EA seems to be the king of this: Mass-produced "Amazing visuals", but also a mass-produced, lifeless plot in almost every game.
And this seems to be happening in the film industry in a big way these days. CGI and special effects seem to be upstaging good acting, engaging plot, and memorable storylines...
Dear lord maybe it was just the writing, or the character, but God he makes me want to do bad things. He has so many bad lines and idiot ball moments, and well they are believable.
I don't care if I catch flak for this one or not, because I truly believe it: Sam Worthington is a terrible actor. I'm convinced that he'd be just as terrible with good lines in a good movie, but bad writing just makes it so obvious. If anything, he made me my opinion of Jake turn from annoyance to outright hatred.
That, and when that one Na'vi went on the plane, it took WAY too long for someone to shoot him.
Overuse of Slow Motion CEMENTED it's Narm status. Nothing turns something into an absolute joke faster than an overuse of slow motion "Because we can". And I blame this one squarely on our lovable director James Cameron, who probably insisted on it personally. IMO, I might've been able to take it seriously if it was fast and brutally tragic. But slow and oh-my-god overdramatic didn't work for me (And many others, who were laughing and/or groaning) one bit.
Yeah, I got that too. And like you, it didn't work on me. I liked the marines a helluva lot more than the Smurfs. It really got me annoyed during the destruction of "Hometree". The stupid smurfs, most likely knowing what the humans can do and against Jake's clumsy, half-assed warning, FREAKING ATTACK THE HUMANS FIRST! And then, when the humans return fire and own their smurfy butts, they're the bad guys! Moral Dissonance if I ever saw it.
We can all learn something from the Legend of Zelda and it's triforce, Power is nothing without the courage and wisdom to make use of it...Ahh my eyes, my friend sent me a link to some fanficiton for Avatar, uhh and I though some of the movie was bad. I should have predicted it would be that bad. I could write better if I was stoned/drunk.
Anyway I agree completely with Worthington being a terrible actor. He is the main reason(among many other things) that I refuse to see the new Clash of the Titans. Anyway anyone wonder what would have happened had Norm been the major character. Sure he would have been a little more socially troubled then Jake, but you know he might have actually DONE HIS JOB.
You will never love a women as much as George Lucas hates his fans.Anyway I agree completely with Worthington being a terrible actor. He is the main reason(among many other things) that I refuse to see the new Clash of the Titans. Anyway anyone wonder what would have happened had Norm been the major character. Sure he would have been a little more socially troubled then Jake, but you know he might have actually DONE HIS JOB.
I'm sorry you had to see that fanfiction. We're trying to pass legislation to ban it, but the bill is stuck in congress. In the meantime, the brain bleach is in the cabinet. Use as much as you need.
In all seriousness, this movie has spawned some of the worst fanfiction I've ever seen, hands down. And I've seen My Immortal and Doom: Repercussions of Evil! I think it's the combination of bad writing, EXTREME hatred of humans (I think the blame for this is divided equally between the movie's Anviliciousness and the fact that a good 3/4 of the fanfic writers are furries!), and just plain bizarre plots. And, to my horror, each and every one has a terribly-written Na'vi sex scene. Yeah, thanks Fanfic writers. I REALLY needed that. The movie wasn't awkward and weird enough about it.
Also, since when you really look at it, Avatar is kind of an Idiot Plot due to Jake, if they put Norm as the main character, the movie probably would've been significantly shorter than 3 hours!
edited 7th Mar '10 9:52:14 AM by Echospeed
We can all learn something from the Legend of Zelda and it's triforce, Power is nothing without the courage and wisdom to make use of it...Doom: Ro E was a Stealth Parody. Squirrel King is just a virtuoso of satire. I've actually seen him admitting the whole thing was done badly on purpose on other site. And he mentioned the first site I ever saw his work by name and actually named correctly the first user to ever do a dramatic reading of it, so I'm abosulutely positive.
What I'm getting at is that Doom: Repercussions Of Evil is technically better than Avatar.
edited 7th Mar '10 10:10:00 AM by TheAdversary
Oh, I'm well aware it's a stealth parody. But due to there being an ABUNDANCE of fanfiction written that is exactly AT or BELOW that quality level, it still qualifies as an example.
Along those lines, I saw a modified version of it with an Avatar theme. I can't find it now, but it was hilarious.
Also, I got banned from a community for MY fanfiction of it (Alright, more along the lines of trollfiction, but still...), entitled 'Colonel Quaritch's Triumphant Return' Our hero, the Colonel Badass, survived by uploading his mind into his Mecha. The corporation recovered the Mecha, cloned him a new body, and loaded his brain into it.
Then he leads the humans on a glorious Warhammer40000 style crusade and wipes out all the Na'vi. Well...almost all. He puts a few survivors in a zoo. If THAT wasn't bad enough, I made sure to take some Na'vi names from bad fanfics and list them specifically as the Na'vi in the zoo. Needless to say,it was not well received. Well...the other trolls loved it...
edited 7th Mar '10 1:47:44 PM by Echospeed
We can all learn something from the Legend of Zelda and it's triforce, Power is nothing without the courage and wisdom to make use of it...You are aware that the human soldiers were the bad guys in this movie, right?
I'll admit it wasn't the best handled, due to all the Our Elves Are Better, but it never really got bad enough for me to think Screw You, Elves!.
Seriously, the RDA burn down a settlement. I don't care if the Na'vi aren't human or were given "warning", you can't really justify the RDA burning down a population center. It's a plain case of crossing the Moral Event Horizon.
That said, I think the final battle would've been better off playing the "sad music" for both sides. But then again, they were about to bomb another population center, so I can't blame the Na'vi for defending themselves.
God all I have to say is there is some bad fanfiction, which has now err resulted in my friend and I making a friendly bet that I could write something better. Uhh I hate him now, anyway I plan on doing some kind of Ewya-mind controlling space monster that created the Na'Vi from thoughts it picked up from humans. It just wants people to come to it so it can acquire their tech, and then something about world domination. I think it could be fun to start as a narmtastic Na'Vi love piece then turn them evil.
Anyway this is from some one who liked the movie, the fans ruined it for me BADLY.
You will never love a women as much as George Lucas hates his fans.Was he actually breathing the Pandora atmosphere, though? I haven't the stomach to watch the movie again, but in my memory of the scenes with him exposed to the air without proper support (shooting at Trudy's escaping gunship, and after the mech canopy is smashed in the final battle), none of them went longer than your average athletic/fit human could go without breathing before he put on a breathing mask, and that's without that 20 second leeway before Pandora's air kills a human. I mean, he wasn't trying to run a marathon without human-supporting air.
In their and my defense, not all furries are of the "eww, hyooomans!" mindset, nor are those kinds anywhere near a majority of the Furry Fandom. As with just about every other social type group out there, it's a small but incredibly vocal minority.
It's a sad commentary on humanity, I think, that people can be the best and worst of any fandom or appreciation group, at the same time, and some times even the exact same people.
Gone forever, as far as I know. And I didn't think to save it, because I was at a school computer between classes. I wish I had, though.
I realize not all furries are bad. I have many, many furry friends. But believe me, ONE bad furry is much, much, MUCH more memorable than a hundred good ones, unfortunately.
We have one that regularly makes animal noises in class, surfs furry porn sites at the student center, and has repeatedly tried to show curious bystanders "what a furry is" by showing them his copy of "Softpaw Magazine" that he always carries around. For those of you who don't know what that magazine is, consider yourselves lucky. For those who are foolishly curious anyway, here's a cover picture
◊. It's creepy, but SFW. However, rest assured that the rest of the magazine IS NOT.
You can imagine what sort of impression toward Furries this person leaves. And he has recently become a HARDCORE Avatar fan. When people start linking HIM to Avatar, Hilarity Ensues. I'm certain that similar situations are happening throughout the fanbase...
We can all learn something from the Legend of Zelda and it's triforce, Power is nothing without the courage and wisdom to make use of it...Okay, James Cameron can suck it, The Hurt Locker won best picture at the oscars, and Kathryn Bigelow won best director, both she and Barbra Streisend looked very touched.
But Sandra Bullock won best actress, what the fuck?
I can't have you close, so I become a ghost and I watch you, I watch you.As far as I am aware, he just breathed in as much air as he could and then hold his breath, but it looked so easy for him that I would not be surprised if he actually was a Blitzball player.
I know, they were stupidly evil, and did evil things, but if they wanted to play sad music during the battle, I would very much appreciate it if the music was used for the purpose of showing that the war itself was sad and tragic.
Humans should have just made use of this mysterious Pandora Internet and send a lolcat "Can I haz Unobtanium nao?", and a Rickroll or two, Navi'i would be too confused to fight.

Well, since the discussion is still going strong, I will just chime in: I have seen Avatar too, but I had the misfortune of reading the reviews a day before - my, talk about hype "Best film of the decade", "A masterpiece", "Never before had I seen such a wonderful picture". Sure, why not. The graphics, while not mind-blowing (I probably am in the minority, but the graphics of current-gen games, like Bayonetta or FFXIII really are enough for me, raising number of polygons does not really impress me) were very nice, and the story was "meh" at best.
One thing that I really, really disliked was how the last battle was played - and I do not mean the Deus ex Tree, but how, when the Navi'i were attacked, the music stopped or was trying to be morbid and sad, but when humans were literally slaughtered (being eaten, thrown from a very high altitude, impaled) it was heroic, as if I should cheer now. Well, sorry, but no, I will not.
Ultimately, the film left me with many questions, but - despite having time for needless excursions in showing frolicking young'uns - provided little answers, and I do not really care for finding out necessary information. And really, fading to black just as Jakesully (that joke have really gotten old fast) jumps onto the Red Dragon, only to later show the Dragon subdued? But I must say that the parts with the Colonel being all "I need no oxygen to breathe" were wonderful - now that is a man of action, too bad he was doomed to fail.
All in all, not too bad a way of passing time, but a little less hype would be nice - one could think that Fable taught the world a lesson (at least that hype was coming mostly from the Peter Moulynex himself).