Love that movie!

I just know i'd love your DVD collection :love:

Rewatched Fellini's Satyricon , but this time on the big screen.
Just look at how mesmerizing this is. Magnificent piece of art. It's like plunging in some kind of nightmarish trip... unbelievable.


^Just check this collage I made today... Nothing less than epic.

Satyricon is so great. I really, REALLY need to own that.


http://i12.servimg.com/u/f12/12/82/64/77/avatar14.jpg

Ehh.... I'm so torn on this.

On the one hand, the script completely blows. The dialog is, at best, kind of clunky (at worst, completely facepalm-worthy), there's very little in the way of character development in places it's sort of required--like when your primary villain has no real motivation, you have a problem--and it feels like a huge part of the early part of the plot is just kind of ignored/brushed aside (WTF is "Unobtanium"--why are they even on the damn planet, really).

On the other hand, it's SO GODDAMN PRETTY. The production design just makes it so engaging to watch, it pretty successfully takes you out of how dumb the script is for a pretty large chunk of the running time. And given how dumb the script is (and the drawn out running time), that's saying a lot.

So I kind of hate that I enjoyed it, but I would totally watch it again. It's frustrating though--if Cameron had given his script to a better (more subtle) writer, it could've been SO good. The story arc is a little cliche, but there's potential there--the mythological framework is great, and again, SO GODDAMN PRETTY.

I quite enjoyed the movie, I don't think the story was terrible, just very simplistic and traditional. That being said some of the dialogue (primarly the obvious Iraq war references) is rather cringeworthy and I would have liked the villians to have had more defined, deeper motives. But oh well, that's not one of Cameron's strong suits. What he is strong at is entertainment and getting you caught in the tension of the moment.

The visuals are fantastic, but I think people need to know that Pandora is not as original as they think.

Of course I of all people am gonna notice when a movie looks like one big Yes album cover. So much of this movie's visuals are lifted straight from the work of Roger Dean.

His work featured a lot of the things Avatar has, floating moutains, twisting arches, psychedelically colored dragons and bonsai-esque trees.

And I think it goes waaaaay beyond coincidence.

http://www.progarchives.com/forum/up...agon_klein.jpg
http://cache-04.gawkerassets.com/ass...gonsgarden.jpg
http://blog.signalnoise.com/wp-conte.../i_avatar2.jpg

These aren't copyrighted ideas, but jeez Cameron, would it have hurt ya to give this guy a little credit?

I think they have admitted to being influenced by Dean's work although I'm not sure there's been any kind of official credit. It's hard to credit all your influences anyways .. I'm not bothered. I loved seeing Roger Dean's floating islands basically come alive on screen. ;)

Yeah, I don't really care. Imitation is the ultimate form of flattery after all.

It's cool to see a movie inspired by one of my favorite artists.

Too bad Cameron got James Horner to compose the music instead of you know who.

http://www.harpsandjams.co.uk/images...n-from-god.jpg

And that's about the 50th time I've seen this one. Best musical ever - no doubt about it. I'm a huge admirer of John Landis' sense of humour in his writing too. Writing stuff that's genuinely funny is a very hard thing to do, and the guy pulls it off brilliantly here.

^ I grew up on that movie, love it. Best part is when they sing "Stand By Your Man" in the redneck bar

I saw American Beauty for the first time last night, and I really liked it.

American beauty is champion! I love that film. I must find my dvd now. I lost it a while back :(.