It suffers, don't get me wrong. It's another "white guy saves the natives" type of movie and the main character is the least interesting character in the show, there's a lot of very silly old-school SF hand waving, and the characters are largely one-note.
BUT, in classic Cameron style, the women characters don't suck, there's plenty of big battles, it's visually nice, and tho it's an old, tired sort of story, there are a few interesting things he does with it (again, particularly with the world building, tho the society building is so stereotypically "native american stand-in" it made me cringe). It's a movie I'll get on DVD, but I won't be re-watching it a million times in the theater.
It was not disappointing, but it wasn't the best thing ever, either. I'll have a proper review up soon, but it'll have spoilers!
I have come to expect so much more from Sci fi stories as the quality of the writing and story development not to mention characters improves year by year. when I heard that Avatar was written so long ago I did wonder if it might suffer from being a writers "favorite child" finally on the stage, with the writer not quite realising that story was not the equal of some of the writing of today, still Im off to see it tomorrow.
ohhh yeah, this movie was *definitely* a trunk novel. Sad, really. I wish he'd have written something fresher that would do the visuals justice.
The "wow, I've seen this story 800 times and really can't get over that whole cat people=Indians" factor may not have struck me so smartly in the face if it'd come out in 1975 (of course, I also would have been 5).
Reminded me of the new Star Wars movies. I admired what he was trying to do, but the story, writing, and execution were off.
STILL: adventure story with strong female characters. Sadly, that part of the whole equation is still lacking in most movies often enough that I went to this one entirely for that reason.
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Labor is hard work. Forcing
women to labor against their will -
is slavery.
"I'm not afraid of storms,
for I'm learning to sail my ship."
-Louisa May Alcott
"No person is your friend who demands your silence."
-Alice Walker
"I never expect men to give us liberty. No, women, we are not worth it until we take it."
- Voltairine de Cleyre
"The vote means nothing to women.
We should be armed."
-Edna O'Brien
"The dogma of woman's complete historical subjection
to men must be rated as one of the most fantastic myths
ever created by the human mind."
-Mary Ritter Beard
"They sicken of the calm that know the storm."
-Dorothy Parker
"I got kicked out of ballet class because I pulled a groin muscle.
It wasn't mine."
-Rita Rudner
"Adventure is worthwhile in itself."
-Amelia Earhart
"Don't be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin." -Grace Hansen
"I never realized until lately that women were supposed to be the inferior sex." -Katharine Hepburn
"Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow
talent to the dark place where it leads." -Erica Jong
"I have always had a dread of becoming a passenger in life."
-Margareth II, Queen of Denmark:
"I'm never going to be famous. My name will never be writ large on the roster of Those Who Do Things.
I don't do any thing. Not one single thing."
-Dorothy Parker
"You can't be brave if you've only had wonderful things happen to you." -Mary Tyler Moore
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." -Anais Nin
"No more tears now; I will think about revenge." -Mary, Queen of Scots
"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in
which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the
thing which you think you cannot do." -Eleanor Roosevelt
"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." -Muriel Strode
"People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute." -Rebecca West:
"If you're going to hold someone down you're going to have to hold on by the other end of the chain.
You are confined by your own repression."
-Toni Morrison
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-Hannah Arendt
"If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it."
-Toni Morrison
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-Ingrid Bergman
"We know that we can do what men can do, but we still don't know that men can do what women can do.
That's absolutely crucial. We can't go on doing two jobs."
-Gertrude Stein
"The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off." -Gloria Steinem
"It's all make believe, isn't it?" -Marilyn Monroe
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without signing them, was often a woman." — Virginia Woolf
"I'm just a person trapped inside a woman's body."
-Elayne Boosler
"Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed.
If I fail, no one will say, 'She doesn't have what it takes.'
They will say, 'Women don't have what it takes.'"
-Clare Boothe Luce
"Soon they'll be telling you you can't be Batman, Shakespeare, President, or God.
Little fat baby, going on schoolgirl, you can be anyone, but it won't be easy."
-Marilyn Hacker
"We've begun to raise daughters more like sons...
but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters."
-Gloria Steinem
"Remember our heritage is our power; we can know ourselves and our
capacities by seeing that other women have been strong."
-Judy Chicago
"My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people:
those who work and those who take the credit.
He told me to try to be in the first group;
there was less competition there."
-Indira Gandhi
"I want to walk through life instead of being dragged through it."
- Alanis Morissette
"Nothing will work unless you do."
-Maya Angelou
"Feminism is the radical notion that women are people."
-Cheris Kramare and Paula Treichler
5 comments so far. What are your thoughts?
Oh thank you, you are a reviewer I trust so I'll go to see it when it opens here in NZ with less dread. I so want it to be good.
It suffers, don't get me wrong. It's another "white guy saves the natives" type of movie and the main character is the least interesting character in the show, there's a lot of very silly old-school SF hand waving, and the characters are largely one-note.
BUT, in classic Cameron style, the women characters don't suck, there's plenty of big battles, it's visually nice, and tho it's an old, tired sort of story, there are a few interesting things he does with it (again, particularly with the world building, tho the society building is so stereotypically "native american stand-in" it made me cringe). It's a movie I'll get on DVD, but I won't be re-watching it a million times in the theater.
It was not disappointing, but it wasn't the best thing ever, either. I'll have a proper review up soon, but it'll have spoilers!
I have come to expect so much more from Sci fi stories as the quality of the writing and story development not to mention characters improves year by year. when I heard that Avatar was written so long ago I did wonder if it might suffer from being a writers "favorite child" finally on the stage, with the writer not quite realising that story was not the equal of some of the writing of today, still Im off to see it tomorrow.
I enjoyed it while being aware of its faults... The Last Samurai/Last of the Mohicans/Pathfinder + The Dark Crystal + Aliens = Avatar.
Loved the visual style and Sigourney Weaver was excellent, as usual.
ohhh yeah, this movie was *definitely* a trunk novel. Sad, really. I wish he'd have written something fresher that would do the visuals justice.
The "wow, I've seen this story 800 times and really can't get over that whole cat people=Indians" factor may not have struck me so smartly in the face if it'd come out in 1975 (of course, I also would have been 5).
Reminded me of the new Star Wars movies. I admired what he was trying to do, but the story, writing, and execution were off.
STILL: adventure story with strong female characters. Sadly, that part of the whole equation is still lacking in most movies often enough that I went to this one entirely for that reason.
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