I went to see this a couple of days ago.
Let me preface my remarks by saying that my 10 year old son absolutely loved it and gave it an 11/10. It appealed to him on a number of levels. The mix of fantasy and reality within the film, the fighting scenes, the special effects, the energy.
For my part, whilst I enjoyed it and the effects are brilliant I felt the underlying story was rather formulaic and didn't push the boundaries as much as the effects did.
Essentially this struck me as being a very thinly disguised story about the American Indians v The Big Bad Western Invader.
The tribe who are the centre of the story fight with bows and arrows, they are in tune with nature, they have rights of passage, even the language seemed similar in sound to American Indian.
Against them were the invaders with their fire sticks, driven by economic exploitation of the land.
Without giving the plot away it was a rather predicable story with a predictable ending.
So I'd give it 10/10 for effects but only 3/10 for the story.
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Did try and book for the IMAX at Greenwich but it was sold out for all the showings we wanted.
Yesterday we went to see Planet 51 to keep Harry happy. Oh dear!
Absolutely. I saw it at the Odeon, Leicester Square and the sound was as equally impressive. Plus it helps to have over 1000 people in the cinema imo.
I'm not sure, it doesn't have to be a masterpiece of a storyline but I was hoping for a little more characterisation. Cameron's previous films like Terminator 2 and Titanic had great effects, but a great storyline to back it up, and you need that to ensure longevity once the 'wow' factor has dimmed. Ok so in Titanic they spent 200 million sinking a giant boat, but it was the love story between Kate and Jack that gave it enduring appeal and raked in the 1.8 billion. The Avatar characters were pretty lifeless imo, and the storyline passed up so many interesting opportunities such as the effect on the marine of living this dual life. I didn't expect a probing analysis into the concept of what is truly real, but I think they could have squeezed a little bit of thoughtful stuff into such a long running time.
I can't see family's crowding around the TV to watch Avatar at Christmas in 10 years time, because once you've seen the effects you've seen it all.
It's been given the nickname 'Dancing with Smurfs', which is very apt
One thing Bing, I've got one lazy fu*ker of an eye and it works fine for me. The old style (crappy) red/green glasses weren't so great, but the new glasses don't give me the same issue. If you've not tried them, you might want to give them a go.
Interesting trying to indentify the different films etc that the film had dervied its component parts from, so far Lord of the Rings, matrix, covers of Yes Albums, Bury my heart on wounded knee, platoon etc,..
edit- Oh, and Zoe Saldana put in an excellent peformance I thought.
It's beautiful, but vacuous and hollow. If anything it was TOO colourful at times - almost nauseating. However, the 3D was awesomely realised - but still nothing more than a gimmick. Until I see it used in a proper, 'immersive' way, it'll always just be a gimmick to me. 2/10 for the story, 7/10 for the visuals. If I hadn't seen it in imax I would have been pissed - it would have been a serious let-down. As it was, it was OK - and I'd imagine if you;re a kid it's frickin' awesome. Jaded as I am though, it was nothing more than 'OK'.
Thought the story tried to ram the global warming and destruction of our earth message down my throat at times, which iritated me.
Give me a thriller like Se7en any day over this.
Todays world in a nutshell kimbo. (Supposed) Style over substance every time, in all apsects of life - from the plastic pub to the plastic football teams that dominate the TV schedules, to the plastic trainers that mugs pay £100 for...
That said, I enjoyed the film, despite the obvious plot and the ultra-sterotype characters.
What does that say about me?
proper little boys film to watch with their dad i thought transformers blew me away, if you have a little un go and see it and really enjoy it for what it is, a tale of make believe made in a way that only Holywood can
10 out of 10
i wanna be one of those blue fellas
.............
Just tie your scarf a little tighter then.
proper little boys film to watch with their dad i thought transformers blew me away, if you have a little un go and see it and really enjoy it for what it is, a tale of make believe made in a way that only Holywood can
10 out of 10
i wanna be one of those blue fellas[/quote]
I thoroughly enjoyed it, took my little boy too .. well little in the sense of 22 years old
A little harsh I feel Algarve; when has the mainstream ever been the epitome of nuance and subtlety? There are still excellent character driven films out there for those who want to see them.
I wasn't alive in the 70s or whenever, but I imagine back then it was still the case that the majority of people preferred catchy pop songs to Mozart.
I was also impressed with the 3D, just because I didn't think that it was done in a gimmicky way...not as many shots that were solely intended to show off that it was in 3D as was the case back in 3D's first go-round long ago, and did a nice job of making you feel in the middle of the action.
I thought that the real challenge of making this film would have been the mere conceiving of the ideas...mountains in the sky, that kind of thing.
Well worth a watch, but won't change the world. Neither did Titanic, but was still visually impressive, and incredibly popular. The earlier comment about the cost dictating the need for a story to appeal to a broad audience was bang on.