Has anyone seen Avatar yet?

See it in theaters. In 3D. It's worth it. I seriously forget I was watching special effects. They're that good.

I don't really want to - I hope I'll enjoy it more than I think I will.

Happy New Year, Raj.

that it's just another ripoff.

I hope that answers your question. 

You must see it in 3-D on a big-ass Imax screen if at all possible.  If Imax isn't available, regular 3-D will do.  But you really need to see this one in 3-D. 

I don't think Cameron will disappoint you. 

under any circumstance, see this movie. You have been warned.

www.youtube.com/watch

...well that sounds like a treat if I can find one.

As a devout pessimist I really don't believe in the concept "Happy New Year" but I won't pee on your parade

I'd have to go to Atlanta to see it in I-Max but they do offer it in 3-D here.

Absolutely gorgeous visuals, 3D that feels like a natural part of the film rather then a gimmick, solid performances (both the regular performers and the mo-capped people), solid action scenes, a plot that might not be the most original ever but still works, etc.  Definately the best spectacle film of the year, if not quite the best overall film (that still goes to Inglorious Basterds, and Up in the Air is a solid film as well). 

But you must see it on the big screen, and i saw the 2d version fucking lousy third world country.

I don't think there is a single gay reference in any of his movies. I   liked Avatar  - it's about 40% live action & 60% CGI - after awhile a suspension of disbelief sets in & you are taken away to another world. The last 45 minutes is one long battle scene. Unlike alot of other movies this one must be seen & on the big screen.

Avatar stunk to high-hell. If it weren't for Cameron's Abyss, Aliens and T2, this movie would be derided, lampooned and called out for the pile of festering caramelized feculent slime that it is.

This movie is rife with terrible acting, horrific dialogue, and its 'message' is delivered through constant abuse of moral hazards. We have moral relativism, betrayal and treason being perpetrated for the greater good. The greater good of course being subjective so a movie like this promulgates the idea that all crimes against any state or authoritative entity are justifiable.

This was a 3D wrapped celluloid that without the stunning (yet stupid looking, e.g., blue-cat-deer-women with human breats) visuals would, especially in novel form, be a bloody laughing stock.

The aliens stunk horribly. What's with the talking bi-peds with two eyes, a nose and a mouth. Has it ever occurred to these so called "creative" people that new life might be a colony of nano-bots, a slime mold with group intelligence, life that aspirates with copper based blood, non-DNA self replicating life forms? Why is everything a blue monkey with breasts? At least in 1969 when Star Trek was populated with "old-form" Klingons that looked like a bronzed human they were on a near-zero budget, but at least they were totally re-defining sci-fi and giving a window into the future. Also of note in this mediocrity contests, gravity on Pandora is for everything but the floating rocks? The physics, weaponry, strategy of the military and the plausibility of the whole thing is beyond fantasy, its moronic and so implausible that its distracting and ridiculous. No, this isn't Blade Runner, Terminator, BSG, Star Trek. This is like getting crystal-skull-raped.

Crap like Avatar, especially after T2, Star Trek, Star Wars (Ep 4,5 only), is shocking. Its showing that Cameron is a master of marketing mass subscribed explosion fests laced with politically motivated parables and drivel and sub-themed with nothing intellectual because there is nothing beyond the visual veneer, it is fundamentally puerile trash that's been hussied up to look like way more than it actually is. It is trash which is the opiates of the McDonald's eating masses.

Anyone who defends this movie is simply a below average or nearly average mind that can't see past visuals that are no more complex of a stimulus than a piece of string is as a cat toy. They are incapable of rational or critical thought and are very likely a wage slave heavily in debt working towards no particular end, lost in life, and movies like this are a form of escapism where they "want to believe" and become immersed in something because their own lives are basically mundane, insignificant and unimportant.

Moral hazards. Identity politics. Thinly veiled political positions. Preaching to the customer/consumer/viewer. Moral relativism. Severe lack of plot, dialogue and finally acting capability.

This is a turning point for the world. It is showing how things that stimulate basal sensory centers in the simplistic human mind lead the herd into mindless oblivion.

The Navi are flawless, they have no strata in their society or any inter-tribal strife. The bad guys here are 100% bad, and have no capacity for rational thinking or empathy, except scientists in white coats, they have all the wisdom, empathy and intelligence and are always right. The characters were utterly simplistic, like toys and images made for pre-verbal children. Its like having tele-tubbies broadcast in massively expensive exquisite 3D where every frame is lovingly crafted to present to you some of the flattest, most uninspiring characters ever created.

This movie is clearly well below average, if you liked it you are the reason Hollywood is cranking out garbage these days. This man spent 10 times what District 9 costs and made a movie far worse, (not that District9 was any benchmark or the cat's meow), and this huge budget could have given 10 directors a shot at making something good. No wonder Linda Hamilton divorced this drunken train wreck of a truck driver idiot Cameron.

This block-bustering famous director / famous actor garbage has to stop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAPyipuT-Jg

Yeah, all too often CGI, 3-D and other special effects are there to dazzle you while ignoring good character developement and plots. Given there are no gay robots in this movie I'll check it out.

Yep, on science fiction movies and tv series often using the humaniod form in many of it's aliens. Even the aliens in Cameroon's "Alien" had two arms, two legs and a head. But the alien had no eyes which was cool. With CGI they should be able to create whatever they want. One motive for making them humaniod could be so the audience can better relate to them and have empathy for them. Would you have been happier if the aliens looked like slugs?

In general, I thought Avatar rocked!  Cameron has done it again.  Let's be honest here: he's far from being the greatest screenwriter, but he's a very gifted storyteller and one helluva filmmaker - and he has the best batting average of any director in Hollywood. 

Okay, so it's Dances with Wolves-meets-Ferngully in outer space, but I really found myself sucked into the world of the Navi, thanks largely to the incredible visuals, of course.  I believed the love story and rooted for the Navi as opposed to the money-hungry, trigger-happy humans, led by Giovanni Ribisi and Stephen Lang (in a ridiculous, grotesque characterization that was undoutedly the foulest element of the movie).  The film's other flounderings (in addition to Lang's one-note character) were mostly just little things, hardly worth getting as worked up over as some Crankylanders: the voice-over was a bit clunky (especially at the beginning), the cheesy song that rang in the end credits didn't belong (it took you out of the moment), things like that.  Oh, it was nice seeing Sigourney Weaver (whose career was arguably MADE by Cameron, thanks to her Oscar-nominated work in 1986's Aliens) with a nice role.

As for Nine, I agree with Mal.  A great cast but lackluster songs except for Fergie's number.  I think the film would've worked better as a straight drama, without song-and-dance.  I mean, I wanted to like the basic story about an Italian filmmaker who can longer find his voice despite (or because of) the presence of so many influential women in his life, but I kept getting taken out of the moment by these unspectacular songs.  I gotta say though, Penelope Cruz has NEVER looked better than she does here...and Judi Dench sure can sing.

HS

There must be a beverage

No gay robotsssssssssssssss

Looks like the Renaissance Fair people may have competition for biggest nerd of the year award.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk2vR8w2sjc

{;-) Dan in Miami

PS:  Actually this looks like it might be fun to do. Once.

 From the NY Post.  The best tabloid in NYC:

When "Avatar" returns to IMAX theaters on Friday for a limited run aimed at adding to its $2.7 billion box-office bonanza, viewers will get to see yet another cinematic breakthrough: Na'vi sex.

Director James Cameron has added nine minutes of footage to his blockbuster, some of which extends the love scene between hero Jake Sully's avatar and Neytiri, his 9-foot-tall blue lover. Beneath the sacred Tree of Souls, they mingle their anemone-like braids in alien union.

"The tendrils move with a life of their own, straining to be joined," reads a leaked page of the script that describes the scene. "JAKE rocks with the direct contact between his nervous system and hers. The ultimate intimacy."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/blue_man_grope_EoID010B7X7VWYsT2AAssI

{;-) Dan in Miami

Where he keeps going back and redoing his films trying to "fix" them. Titanic could be changed to where it's nothing but Leonardo floating dead in the freezing ocean for two hours. Hey I'd watch that!