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at 29 Dec 2009: 10:40
Well, the movie has been out for a while now and is doing pretty well, so I'm wondering what the Fchan crowd thinks of it. I think the aliens, while not furry exactly, certainly have some classic furry characteristics and since xenomorphs are welcome on Fchan, I assume that the Na'vi from Avatar are as well.
As for the movie, I thought it was fantastic. I'll admit up front that the overall story wasn't exactly unique or original. In fact, going into the movie I assumed it would pretty much be Dances With Wolves meets Ferngully, and I wasn't too far from the mark there (in fact, one scene in particular _really_ was straight out of Ferngully, which made me chuckle).
That said, I thought the story was well done. The overall plot was simple and good (if not unique), the dialog wasn't cheesy, and the score was excellent. And, most obviously, the graphical effects were mind boggling. It is easily the most beautifully rendered movie I've ever seen, and it sets a new bar for everything else that comes after it. I saw it in 3D (unfortunately not IMAX) and after getting used to the glasses it was incredibly immersive. For a 2.5 hour movie it went by extremely fast.
Finally, it was obviously a fantasy/sci-fi film with furry characters. Call me lame if you want, but this gave the movie a little "extra" for me in that I felt drawn towards the Na'vi (where others seem to be repulsed by the "giant smurfs"). As is usually the case with these kinds of movies I felt a little sad at the end, just because I couldn't be a part of that world and the story was, after all, just a fantasy.
Cameron said if this film does well he already has material for another 2 movies. I'm looking forward to seeing what the story is for these movies and just hope they are as well executed as the first.
Anyway, didn't mean for this to get tl;dr. If you've seen it, what did you think of the movie? There was a lot of cool discussion over on Slashdot a few days ago, but I wanted to see what some fellow furries thought.
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at 30 Dec 2009: 07:38
Visually I enjoyed the movie, however the dialog WAS cheesy as all hell. Not long into the movie they use the term unobtanium in a completely serious way. Considering that unobtanium is a long running engineering joke it's possible that it was intended to be humorous when the ore was called unobtanium, but it failed to get so much as a chuckle from a packed theater. I found it to be immersion breaking and unrealistic that the apparent actual name given to the substance was that.
Aside from that geeky gripe, the visuals were stunning and did the best job I've seen so far in avoiding "that is CG'd" moments. There were a few but they seemed the exception rather than the rule. For the most part it was easy to forget that most of what was on screen in many scenes was computer rendered.
There seemed to be flow issues and weak plot that made it a simply good movie instead of a great movie, but I have to wonder if there exists a longer version that was deemed to long for theaters but will be featured on a director's cut section of the inevitable BR/DVD release
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at 30 Dec 2009: 21:14
>>2
It's kind of funny that the Unobtainium bothered you, but I also saw that nobody in the theater laughed at it. I did chuckle, but to be honest I'm not sure if it was supposed to be a joke or not. Unobtainium has a long history in fiction as an impossible element and it's kind of normal to see it in a film (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtainium). I laughed just because it reminded me of The Core (and the god-awful movie that was).
My guess at the time was that most of the audience just didn't get the (potential) joke and was just paying close attention. This was actually kind of funny because there wasn't much noise or moving around in the movie theater as there often is with longer movies. At one point I turned around to look at the stadium seats behind me and saw everyone just sitting looking attentively at the screen, with these big 3D glasses on. It looked freakishly like something out of Orwell or a zombie film where people are getting brainwashed.
Anyway, other than that I remember any real problems with the dialog.
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