Avatar by James Cameron

[Nević Nenad]

I didn’t see this one yet, and I am not sure whether I will in the future, because of several reasons.


I can’t see 3D movies and images because of my eyes, so I will maybe wait for 2D DVD edition.


Other reason is that I am not sure that I will go in the movie anymore, since in October I had very negative and for me unusual experience in cinema theatre.


My girlfriend and I were in the cinema to watch Surrogates. We were in the biggest cinema in our city which hall and theater itself is pretty big. We were waiting in front of for the people to get out of the previous movie. The door opened and crowd walked toward us, at that moment I felt something like some wave was pushing me from people. It was almost like physical touch. They were walking around us and I felt that "wave" all around me, and was causing some kind of vertigo, like I am on boat. It was very unpleasant.


We walked in and sat on our seats but now my condition get worse, I became almost claustrophobic. Then the commercial for the movies went on, and it was even worser. First we saw commercial for 2012 and then Avatar, it seemed to me very negative, and I was even considering leaving cinema. Fortunately very soon started Surrogates, quick shallow fun, and I calmed down.


That was first time that I had experienced something like that and I was in smaller room and in greater crowds before, and even in that same theater with even more people around me. Well, maybe Avatar is negative in my memory just because of my phobias . . . :/

 

[vinny]

My girlfriend and I were in the cinema to watch Surrogates. We were in the biggest cinema in our city which hall and theater itself is pretty big. We were waiting in front of for the people to get out of the previous movie. The door opened and crowd walked toward us, at that moment I felt something like some wave was pushing me from people. It was almost like physical touch. They were walking around us and I felt that "wave" all around me, and was causing some kind of vertigo, like I am on boat. It was very unpleasant.

I've experienced something a little like that before, when visiting places with a lot of people, such as London. It has a kind of psychic 'weight' that hits you, that does feel kinda claustrophobic. I guess London has it's own particular brand of unpleasant aura, being a major center in the Axis of Evil, and all that. (complete with wall to wall CCTV, and disturbing Orwellian announcements on the trains etc)

 

[Adobe]

I watched it. I liked it. I was inspired by it. Yet, in an effort to not be sucked into something so quickly, I’m standing back and asking, what could be used as “mis-directional programming?

Something I think of from time to time is that the Cs said “ It will begin when the programming is complete” I’m thinking what could a large mass of the population walk away with…? Large 12‘-14’ aliens = good, and human race = bad. I would like to mind melding and be with them and leave the humans. I don’t want to be here anymore, I want to become one of them.

So if there does, in the future, come a group of other worldly being offering hope, and a way to get out of the clutches of the bad corporate human race (skip lessons and get back to eden), would the mass be more or less likely to want to submit ?

I’m just thinking, as I said, I enjoyed the ride too.

Adobe

 

[alphonse]

Sorry if this has already cropped up.
I am travelling for work, and saw this on CNN in the hotel bar with the sound off, and did a quick google search.

My eyes were not playing tricks - Avatar Blues exists!

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/11/avatar.movie.blues/index.html

(CNN) -- James Cameron's completely immersive spectacle "Avatar" may have been a little too real for some fans who say they have experienced depression and suicidal thoughts after seeing the film because they long to enjoy the beauty of the alien world Pandora.

On the fan forum site "Avatar Forums," a topic thread entitled "Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible," has received more than 1,000 posts from people experiencing depression and fans trying to help them cope. The topic became so popular last month that forum administrator Philippe Baghdassarian had to create a second thread so people could continue to post their confused feelings about the movie.

I hope the above link works if any one wants to read on. FWIW I saw the film, and it didn't make me feel depresssed... a little "sleepy " perhaps......

 

[Z...]

I guess London has it's own particular brand of unpleasant aura, being a major center in the Axis of Evil, and all that. (complete with wall to wall CCTV, and disturbing Orwellian announcements on the trains etc)

That is very true. I felt it every time I visited. It's like I loose my gravity center as soon as I step out of the plane - for the lack of better words to describe it.

 

[Nević Nenad]

I guess London has it's own particular brand of unpleasant aura, being a major center in the Axis of Evil, and all that. (complete with wall to wall CCTV, and disturbing Orwellian announcements on the trains etc)

That is very true. I felt it every time I visited. It's like I loose my gravity center as soon as I step out of the plane - for the lack of better words to describe it.

Or like swaying on the boat. Interesting is that I felt that in the crowd which just watched Woody Allen’s movie "Vicky Cristina Barcelona".

 

[ana]

I guess London has it's own particular brand of unpleasant aura, being a major center in the Axis of Evil, and all that. (complete with wall to wall CCTV, and disturbing Orwellian announcements on the trains etc)

That is very true. I felt it every time I visited. It's like I loose my gravity center as soon as I step out of the plane - for the lack of better words to describe it.

Or like swaying on the boat. Interesting is that I felt that in the crowd which just watched Woody Allen’s movie "Vicky Cristina Barcelona".

This also happens to me, I think your explanation of the wave causing vertigo is a very good description and it is really unpleasant, for this reason I try to avoid places with large concentrations of people, and if there is no choice I make an effort to concentrate on myself in an attempt to minimize the transfer or interaction with unwanted energy.
I think of it as different units of consciousness interacting, if there is a consciousness unit more aware and alert interacting with a group of sleeping units, the cahotic energy of the sleeping ones and the energy of the more aware unit will interact as two opposing forces.
The only one noticing the impact is the more aware unit, too much noise and chaos together OSIT :P

 

[Aidylsun B.]

I finally saw Avatar last week and haven’t gotten the movie off my mind. The story, color, 3D FX, the echo of drums from different cultures and the imagination of the creators left me in awe. It was another movie that made me wonder what the world looks like from behind the eyes of the truly gifted and creative people.

Yeah, there’s a message in there but it isn’t one we haven’t seen or heard before. And maybe, just maybe, it served as a good reminder of lessons that still need to be taught. Isn’t it likely that humankind will always fight over natural resources like oil, diamonds, gold, fertile land or the best watering hole? A rock worth twenty million a kilo? Well? And who or what really prevails when greed is the primary motivation? Then there was the love story between two beings from different worlds. I wonder who can identify with Jake Skully when he said, “All I ever wanted was a single thing worth fighting for”.

 

[dannybananny]

By ALESSANDRA RIZZO
Associated Press Writer


VATICAN CITY (AP) -- "Avatar" is wooing audiences worldwide with visually dazzling landscapes and nature-loving blue creatures. But the Vatican is no easy crowd to please.

The Vatican newspaper and radio station are criticizing James Cameron's 3-D blockbuster for flirting with the idea that worship of nature can replace religion - a notion the pope has warned against. They call the movie a simplistic and sappy tale, despite its awe-inspiring special effects.

"Not much behind the images" was how the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, summed it up in a headline.

As the second highest-grossing movie ever, "Avatar" is challenging the record set by Cameron's previous movie "Titanic."

Generally it has been critically acclaimed and is touted as a leading Oscar contender.

Bolivia's first indigenous president, Evo Morales, has praised "Avatar" for what he calls its message of saving the environment from exploitation. But the movie also has drawn a number of critical voices. Some American conservative bloggers have decried its anti-militaristic message; a small group of people have said the movie contains racist themes.

To Vatican critics, the alien extravaganza is just "bland."

Cameron "tells the story without going deep into it, and ends up falling into sappiness," said L'Osservatore Romano. Vatican Radio called it "rather harmless" but said it was no heir to sci-fi masterpieces of the past.

Most significantly, much of the Vatican criticism was directed at the movie's central theme of man vs. nature.

L'Osservatore said the film "gets bogged down by a spiritualism linked to the worship of nature." Similarly, Vatican Radio said it "cleverly winks at all those pseudo-doctrines that turn ecology into the religion of the millennium."

"Nature is no longer a creation to defend, but a divinity to worship," the radio said.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said that while the movie reviews are just that - film criticism, not theological pronouncements - they do reflect Pope Benedict XVI's views on the dangers of turning nature into a "new divinity."

Benedict has often spoken about the need to protect the environment, earning the nickname of "green pope." But he also has balanced that call with a warning against turning environmentalism into neo-paganism.

In a recent World Day of Peace message, the pontiff warned against any notions that equate human beings with other living things in the name of a "supposedly egalitarian vision." He said such notions "open the way to a new pantheism tinged with neo-paganism, which would see the source of man's salvation in nature alone, understood in purely naturalistic terms."

The pope explained in the message that while many experience tranquillity and peace when coming into contact with nature, a correct relationship between man and the environment should not lead to "absolutizing nature" or "considering it more important than the human person."

The Vatican newspaper occasionally likes to comment in its cultural pages on movies or pop culture icons, as it did recently about "The Simpsons" or U2. In one famous instance, several Vatican officials spoke out against "The Da Vinci Code."

In this case, the reviews came out after a red-carpet "Avatar" preview held in Rome just a stone's throw from St. Peter's Square. The movie - which has made more than $1.3 billion at box offices worldwide, partly boosted by higher 3-D ticket prices - will be released Friday in Italy.

"So much stupefying, enchanting technology, but few genuine emotions," said L'Osservatore in one of three articles devoted to "Avatar" in its Sunday editions. The plotline of aliens who live on a distant unspoiled planet and the humans who want to pillage their resources is a universal theme that can be reminiscent of past colonizations and wars, the paper said. As such, it is easy to relate to it, but also unoriginal.

"Everything is reduced to an overly simple anti-imperialistic and anti-militaristic parable," it said.

In America, the big numbers and media hype have been accompanied by some controversy.

Blog posts, newspaper articles, tweets and YouTube videos have criticized the film, with some calling it "a fantasy about race told from the point of view of white people" and that it reinforces "the white Messiah fable." Cameron says the real theme is about respecting others' differences.

An LA Times blog noted that the movie "has inflamed the passions of right-wing bloggers and pundits."

"Cameron incensed many voices on the right by acknowledging of-the-moment messages about imperialism, greed, ecological disregard and corporate irresponsibility," it said. Anti-smoking lobbies have denounced the cigarette-puffing character played by Sigourney Weaver.

Back at the Vatican, the reviews did praise the groundbreaking visuals of the movie.

Vatican Radio said that "really never before have such surprising images been seen," while L'Osservatore said the movie's worth lies in its "extraordinary visual impact."

 

[sid]

Looks like the disinfo campaign is going full on, someone must be getting deperate I imagine. They are inadvertently leading masses thinking into anything to do with higher spirituality and work on self to worshiping the nature. Whether it's Jesus, Mohammad, or Shiva, aliens or now nature, a diety must exist and Church wants to play their part. One pathocracy ends and another one starts! I wonder if that's the kind of message "Avatar" is also projecting on the masses, "Forget all religions and start worshipping trees!"

 

[Nienna]

Looks like the disinfo campaign is going full on, someone must be getting deperate I imagine. They are inadvertently leading masses thinking into anything to do with higher spirituality and work on self to worshiping the nature. Whether it's Jesus, Mohammad, or Shiva, aliens or now nature, a diety must exist and Church wants to play their part. One pathocracy ends and another one starts! I wonder if that's the kind of message "Avatar" is also projecting on the masses, "Forget all religions and start worshipping trees!"

I have to agree with you.

The church cannot have people realizing that it is within themselves and nature that the creator resides. That they, themselves, have the power to create change - in themselves and in the world.

I went and watched Avatar because a friend had asked me to go with her. After reading all of the reports here about it, I wasn't really interested. But I am glad that I went.

Unlike others, I had no problem with dissociating, although I did, but not as much as I used to just watching TV. I also didn't identify with any of the characters, which for me is a first. So maybe it had to do with what I read here from everybody and I was ready to not succumb to - whatever.

I have to agree with Cameron. I came away with the thought the this was a film that was trying to show that even though someone is extremely different from you, say Muslims, that does not mean that they are bad. But, he could not use any human group to depict what he was trying to show because then the shite would really hit the fan. So he chose aliens. Something that is truly different from "us." He showed how the human race is less human than aliens. He showed how horrible war is for both sides. The killing and destroying and emotional damage it causes.

Boy, you can really understand why he is having the "right" screaming at him. He has depicted the very thing that they are championing. War, famine, destruction, ponerized soldiers and psychopaths. Everything that the governments of the world are.

Is it a lead in to video games. Yeah, probably. But I really think that he was trying to get a message across. Even if it was subconsciously. I can't help remembering the C's saying just recently that help was coming. Could one of the ways this could be is by people creating things, even if subconsciously, that show the world how despicable things have become here?

Anyway, my 2 cents.

 

[Mikey]

I watched it yesterday in 3D. I really liked it! The story is relatively simple, but nevertheless gripping. And it was not cheesy. The 3D experience of the exobiological jungle at night with the Jupiter-like planet at the sky really was awe-inspiring ... just the imagination that this might be real SOMEwhere in our universe.

I could not detect any programming, except that Alien-looking characters are now so common in movies, that I guess, that when real aliens would stop by, people wouldn't be scared at all.

I can recommend this movie. Lean back and enjoy!

 

[Aidylsun B.]

Is it a lead in to video games. Yeah, probably. But I really think that he was trying to get a message across. Even if it was subconsciously. I can't help remembering the C's saying just recently that help was coming. Could one of the ways this could be is by people creating things, even if subconsciously, that show the world how despicable things have become here?

I was looking at the Avatar movie website and noticed that action figures are already available so, a video game can't be far behind. I'm not a "gamer" but I can already imagine what the video game would look like. My only hope is that it will be rated "E" for everyone.

 

[Joe]

- Jake Sully the crippled human much prefers his "virtual life" of JakeSully the alien.
Not unlike how people playing video games really immerse themselves and some even go so far as to like the virtual world better than the real world.

I should say first that I didn't watch the movie in full, I scanned it by jumping forward to get the overall gist. So maybe I missed something. From what I saw however I think Michael's remarks above hit closest to the main effect of the movie. It promotes dissociation into a fantasy land inhabited by blue aliens with whom all the good people on earth can live and interact in an ideal environment and in peace. NOT with other humans, but with blue aliens with tails. It doesn't exactly ground people in the reality of the world in which we all currently live. Also, the story was very formulaic, especially the fight scene at the end. I am repeatedly in awe of the lack of creativity of most film directors and their inability to do something that has NOT been done countless times before. I'm just glad that the Cohen brothers turn out a decent movie once in a while.

 

[anart]

It sounds from the input like that pretty much sums it up, Perceval.

I could not detect any programming, except that Alien-looking characters are now so common in movies, that I guess, that when real aliens would stop by, people wouldn't be scared at all.

Most programming is undetectable - that's why it works... ;)