I went again the other day and watched it on IMAX. The photography is
spectacular. However, I did notice more *barrowing* or *stealing*, as others
might put it, not only from Star Wars and Dances with Wolves, but also Last of
the Mohicans and it's not just one scene form these films but multiple scenes.
I might go back one more time, specificly to count the scenes and movies
ripped off. This is my only real criticizm of the flilm, however, it's still a
must see just to witness the direction movies are going in the future. I can
only imagine what could be done using this technology to bring the Mahabharata
and Ramayana to film.
________________________________
From: ShempMcGurk <shempmcg...@netscape.net>
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tue, December 22, 2009 9:13:38 AM
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: AVATAR
--- In FairfieldLife@ yahoogroups. com, TurquoiseB <no_re...@.. .> wrote:
[snip]
> If you're shooting for the
> best, steal from the best. And Cameron did.
[snip]
Quentin Tarantino, of course, made "stealing" ideas, scenes, plots and dialogue
snippets from other movies an art form...and he announced that he was doing it
loudly and clearly.
"Stealing" of course only works when done properly; then it is both art and
"homage". When it's done improperly, it's neither art nor homage, just plain
stealing.
And it is the latter that came to mind this past week-end when I finally saw
the supposed cult movie "Boondock Saints" by Troy Duffy.
Here's who Duffy stole from: Pulp Fiction, Platoon, Silence of the Lambs, Blue
Velvet, Kill Bill, the Godfather, and, yes, even "Seinfeld". But it was
horribly cliche-ish and badly done.
As for Avatar -- which I haven't seen yet -- I am incredibly excited just
reading the box office tallies as reported in places like boxofficemojo. com .
Other than the fact that Cameron has already had a Cinderella story with
Titanic I would use that phrase to describe what is going on with Avatar. It is
very exciting to see one's vision come to fruition as it is with Cameron and,
at the same time, see it reflected in Box Office. Sometimes financial success
and true art DO mix and perhaps this is an instance in which it does.
I was not a big fan of Titanic although I have liked previous movies that
Cameron has done. But as Barry explains -- and pretty much every critic who
I've seen or read also says -- this is something special. So it is really nice
to see the payoff now for Cameron after risking so much money for his vision.
It is the same way I felt for Mel Gibson when he made Passion of the Christ, a
movie I've never seen and probably won't (I'm not into homoerotic dei-icide
snuff films as I think Christopher Hitchens called it). Gibson was rejected by
every studio so he put his own money into it and ended up making northwards of
$200 million.
