Is it actually good, or just a meme?

Is it actually good, or just a meme?

Yes. It was a total meme, a very enjoyable meme, practically irresistible if you saw it in the theaters, in 3D. Hell, it's even decent on a home TV if you were to catch it on cable or in a hotel room or something.
In short:
1. Astonishingly good visual FX and CGI
2. Actual good use of 3D (immersive, made you feel like you were in the forest as opposed to just things poking the screen at you)
3. Perfect "this could be you" set up for maximum effectiveness

The common complaint is that the story is bland but.. who fucking cares? Also, it's not bland. You could say it's Dances with Wolves in space, but as it turns out, that's fucking awesome.
Additionally, the characters being archetypal is a valid criticism, but probably the key to the films worldwide success. It's gotta be one of the most translatable films of all time–it takes one glance to understand who the characters are and how they should behave.

Finally, and this is sort of a retrospective appraisal as it was before MCU domination, but the film is not irony poisoned and "self-aware" IE constantly fucking winking at the camera so we know it's "cool". The film takes itself very seriously. It's unflinchingly sincere. Probably a good part of why the sequel did so well.

I didn't even see Way of Water and I can't wait for the third film to release. Abatap sneed

high iq

never claimed that, immeasurable like i said but to try in put it in words is the biggest piece of theology in this century, i think this movie is simple in all of its levels, the message is clear but at the same time the most grandeous

Worldbuilding

Damn, didn't know it has that, thought it was just "DA BLUE HIPPIES R ALWAYS PURE GOOD AND DA HUMIES TRYNA SAVE THEIR WORLD ARE ALWAYS CARTOONISHLY EVIL

People pretend these weren’t culturally important and quickly forgotten but the zeitgeist was real. There were Na’vi language classes, renewed interest in planetary bodies with the potential for life like Europe and Ganymede, and EVERYONE had seen the first one, even grandmas and alcoholic uncles.

Cameron genuinely knows how to make use of 3D tech.

WELL it's just fun because the humans are the alien invaders with advanced tech
they try to negotiate with the locals to gain resources but the holiness of the site is poorly understood / trivial to the humans so they gas them out and then bomb the fuck out of the place idk man

it's really nothing like what you just described desu the humans are "evil" but in an extremely realistic way lol, no way we are crossing millions of miles of space and then saying no when we find an insane reserve of the most valuable substance known to man

It's been so long I can't even remember Abataps eternal response to this question.

It's puuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrfect

I watched it for the first time when I was 15, at the movies with my old man. Didn't care much for it since I had little perspective.

Throughout my young adult years, I was too busy trying to be unique and edgy with my tastes, so obviously any time someone asked me what I thought of Avatar, I'd say it's boring shit that serves no purpose other than high def spectacle, which was, to me then, a complete waste of my time, movies had to be deep and metaphorical and layered and, now I realize, pretentious. I didn't know any better.

Where I'm at now, I've come to realize it is precisely what I want in a movie, all of it. If I want deeper meanings, I'd rather skip the middleman and go straight to reading philosophy. Movies, at their most essential, are the best tool, to most people, me included, for escapism. Avatar not only achieves that end, it concludes it. The story is just the right amount of archetypal so that I can manage the plot just fine in the back of my mind, while taking in the disarmingly fantastical breadth of Pandora. It's not a matter of mental capacity to keep up with events unfolding, but one of total liberation from that which isn't displayed on the screen, that is, letting yourself be completely embraced by a bioluminescent mimicry of Earth. That takes effort, albeit of a different kind. Once you give in, it takes you by the hand and never lets go. The pacing is flawless, the emotional beats are visceral (largely thanks to James Horner) and the visuals would make the greatest renaissance painters blush with embarrassment.

Those who complain about its narrative, namely that it's already been done, are missing the point. Movies make the unreal real. In 1896, there wasn't an actual train in that screening room. In 2009, there wasn't an actual planet with floating islands inside the mall. But in both of those instances, it damn felt like it. And that's beautiful. What I wouldn't give to see it for the first time now that I understand...

Well, lucky you the second movie is re-releasing in theaters in the fall

It's bland, even with the visuals. Same thing with the sequel. Notice how both of them have been completely forgotten in the public's eye?

Zero Cultural Impact: The Movie

It was so powerful on release it actually made people kill themselves

I don't think there's another movie that can claim that feat. The only reason the 2nd one didn't have the same effect was because the (((elites))) thought Avatar flew too close to the sun, and it almost woke up the sheeple from their golem condition into mobilizing to save the planet, so they answered with massive subtle messaging campaigns in ads and other (((hollywood movies))), (((production delays))) so the public forgot it, little by little, and who can forget, ((((((content creators)))))) parroting the same fabricated criticism that it's "dances with wolves in space" or "pocahontas in space", completely ignoring that the point was EXACTLY to take a familiar story much older than film, to then present it in a completely unprecedented and groundbreaking way.
Unfortunately, by the sequel's coming out, the damage had already been done. I'll never forgive them.

It's actually good and its sequel is much more so. Went from being a 7/10 well-executed Pocahantas ripoff to a 9/10 something more original

>It was so powerful on release it actually made people kill themselves

I don't think there's another movie that can claim that feat.

hey

True, and funnily enough, at least in online circles, people who love one tend to like the other as well. Funny how that happens, I guess it's just for those with a soul.

This movie prevents people from killing themselves, anon.

This movie prevents people from killing themselves, anon.

No need, because god will do it for them.

#
Thank God I waited til the home release to finally watch the sequel. I would have killed myself if I had to sit through that shit in the theater. I swear the fucking god that shit was ten hours long.

foregoing the most important element of the Avatar experience, the right audiovisual environment

You dummy. I came a total of 5 times during those 2 and a half hours.

It's visually impressive if you like CGI slop. I found it extremely boring but your taste may be different.

She died not by choice. Avatar moviegoers actually walked to the nearest tall bridge and jumped from it after it was over

The novelty of looking at endless cgi porn died over a decade ago. Shit is fucking boring.

It's beautiful, but I'm often quite bored while watching it

Anything with bleeding-edge technology and gimmicks is going to be fun, but it's too long and the story too bland.

Sorry crazy Avatar guy.

The message of the film is essentially in order to become a real human being you must lay day your life in an act of revolutionary violence against the state and alot of people either are so media illiterate that they didn't recognise it or politically do not like that message.

I thought the message was love (lust) is stronger than race (species).

Absolutely not, the whole blue skin and tail is just narrative. Pandora, the navi, the company, these are all just facets of our current and past self and Cameron is saying that there is a way out of this current tulper but only the brave and courageous will escape, the rest of us will be stuck playing mini golf in our office on a space ship like the corporate guy. That's the way I interpreted it at least.

there is a way out of this current tulper

by breeding with blue cat people? idgi

Absolutely, all cinema (good cinema) more or less talks about the same thing, it points in the same direction, films communicate with each other.
How could it be otherwise, when both are Christian movies? (Even if Cameron declares himself an atheist or agostic, that's irrelevant because it's not an atheist movie.)

Anon, connecting with a work of art emotionally is also connecting with it intellectually. Faith doesn't need intellect, because faith is the irrational act of stopping rational thought and believing in something greater.

Escapism

What escapism? Avatar has been the biggest projectile, the Acme-brand bomb with which cinema declares itself against capitalism, materialism, superficiality, and vanity the very things it criticizes and also operates within.
The very best thing is that you like Avatar without understanding it, thats faith and genuine emotion. Thats the whole thing this movie strives for.

Its half based for promoting unity with nature but half cringe for promoting being a race / species traitor. But like others have said, its worth watching just for the visuals alone. Id recommend to watch it overall.

with which cinema declares itself against capitalism, materialism, superficiality, and vanity the very things it criticizes and also operates within

it literally was only made to make fuck you money you retard

She died not by choice

Well, if we're being technical about this. The 'free-will' god bestowed upon her, had her chose to believe in Jesus in the first place. Which in turn, would've seen this film have a profound impact on her to the point she died. Whether the gore was that horrible to her, or the thoughts of her belief in Jesus rush through her head and ramped up her anxiety to the point her heart gave out.

Basically bible thumpers choose to be that passionate about their beliefs that seeing it blown up on a theater screen drives in that emotional impact.... I'd say she did it to herself.

Jujubees was memed but didn't catch on

mostly a meme

The 'free-will' god bestowed upon her

No such thing, metaphysically if God is beyond time and all knowing, He already knows how everyone's life is going to go down to the most minute detail, meaning you're not actually free in thought or choice since your entire life has already been decided before you were born. God wanted her to die, and that fate was entirely out of her control.

just a meme, it's about as basic as basic can get

It's literally "Fern Gully" with a $250 million film budget.... yeah, it look pretty an all, but it's a story we've seen in every children's movie and saturday morning TV show.

i mean yeah, that doesnt take away anything i said, it reinforces it

That's what butthurt haters actually believe

Cry more.

makes a top shelf cgi blockbuster on the latest 3D tech only to rake in trillions, kills millions of specimens from the plastic waste required to put up the spectacle

also adds a one dimensional message about how 'humans BAD nature GOOD' so it's not too obvious it only wants to make money

"durr it's against capitalism and materialism or sum'n"

you are looking at something obvious through I don't know how many tinted lenses that it's actually something which it is obviously not, for reasons I can only assume are idolatry for James and autism. this theme park ride which *needed* countless thousands of tonnes in disposable plastic to allure people is somehow pro-environment and anti-capitalism because it says it is? hello??

it's like environment-preachy billionaires who travel everywhere in their private jets with crazy emissions and offload their disproportionate share of the blame by claiming the awareness they're responsible for offsets the damage they directly cause

Kino in highest order
We didn't know how good we had