pouët.net

Elend: district 9 has the benefit of taking place on planet earth. I was referring to the serious buttload of background work was done for Avatar to the planet Pandora and it's flora & fauna at least superficially internally consistent.

Sure it may look cheesy and "Disney" at some points, but as the redlettermedia review you posted points out, there's a definite, calculated, reason for it (hint.. the end result being 2.8 billion USD).. And yeah, i do agree with pretty much every point in that review, and every other movie review that guy's ever done :-)

However, yes District 9 is by far the better movie of the two, if such comparisons are needed. (I do feel the Shrimps in that film were quite cliche videogame aliens as well, as were lots of the avatar critters)

FYI If you want some of the best budget-to-visuals/design ratio in sci-fi, check out monsters

BTW ... even TBL "borrowed" the flying mountains years before Cameron but 'em on a big Hollywood silver screen.
Weren't they originally from some japanese animé ?

Oh, and for the "reason that it raked in $2.8 bln in theaters" is simply the fact, that they cranked up the entrance fee to an almost unbearable level.
Without the 3D experience factor it's just 2+ hrs of blue CGI creatures running around in fluorescent forests.

uncle-x: prawns, not shrimps. huge difference :)

I like prawn crackers!

I agree word for word. If this was a typical Disney cartoon, it would've worked, but it was way too colourful and kitschy for a serious film.

Compare it to a film like The Neverending Story where they have created an incredible and convincing fantasy world, with many deep and realistic looking creatures, and Avatar looks so tacky. The former movie keeps things subtle and atmospheric, whereas Avatar just seems to be screaming with desperation with all its colour and detail.

Oh and if you've not seen Neverending Story in recent years I high recommend checking it out again. Obviously it has its flaws, but is still one of the most visually impressive movies I've ever seen and a true underrated classic.

@Wade: Oh absolutely. I checked it out, when it came out on blu-ray and was quite amazed to see how well it has aged and what a great movie it actually is. I was prepared for a lot of cheezy childhood memories, but it's actually really great. :D

Since someone brought up District 9, I have to say that I really hated that movie. I wanted to punch the lead character in the face a quarter of the way through the movie already...the rest was just torture.

More like Gulliver's Travels published in 1726.

I walked out of District 9. Hated it.

Well, both Avatar and District 9 have this really annoying "Humans are evil" bullshit, but apart from that, I quite liked D9. I especially appreciated that they didn't feel the need to over-CGI everything Michael Bay-style. The slums look like real slums.

Apropos "Humans are evil", that new planet of the apes movie was great. A bit too clicheé, but the effects and open ending was nice and it was not as cheesy as i originally thought.

Watch films, not movies.

Transformers 3 was fucking awesome!

Avatar was ok, but i don't care for blue cat people and the story was dumb. 3D was p good though.

And I hate myself for knowing what stupid anime those screenshots Exin posted come from. Fuck anime, fuck it forever.

District 9 owns.
"Humans are evil" -> the base and conclusion of the whole kubrick filmography.

i watched avatar only for the jungle scenery/vegetation. the blue cats, storyline and overall other sci-fi 3d rubbish was either too cliché or unappealing that i couldn't find it interesting. i favor more of these details!

@Okkie: Haha, I am with you on that "fuck anime" thing. xD I tried to watch Anime, I tried to like it. I really did. Watched about 20 "critically acclaimed" movie, and not a single one was to my liking. ;O

Other than that: The new Planet Of The Apes is indeed veeery nice. I was quite surprised.

And Super 8 was boring. :(

Yup, it's either that or the older branch: "machines become human and humans become mechanised"
(Metropolis, Terminator, Surrogates, Transformers ... )

No. :) A way to simplistic explaination that doesn't hold water. There is clearly something about the movie/store that strikes a chord with people, having them going to see it time and time again. The "3D premium" alone doesn't even come close to explaining why "Avatar" has made almost one billion dollars more than "Titanic" (also a Cameron-movie btw).

Super 8 was crap. I expected more after the teaser-trailer, but muh.
District 9 was awesome. I would like to watch that movie again sometime.
I dont watch Avatar because I don't want to be dissapointed.
Those blue-animal-human thingies looks too gay on the trailer i watched... :P

I am still amazed how good looking the first Alien still is today. Talk about good use of special effects.

On a side note I completely agree about what has been said on Avatar's colors feeling like Disney, and I guess everyone is agreeing on the shallowness of the plot.

i liked avatar. i mean, story is crap, but the visuals excited me! D9 was also very cool.. i guess i am just easy to entertain.

@Gloom: Well yeah, its success surely wasn't solely based on the higher ticket prices. But that 3D ticket price addition is still quite a big amount, which no one should forget. But then: Of course it was also very popular amongst the people and that's what I absolutely don't get. There are many popular movies, which I don't like. But with 7 out of 10 movies I can at least understand why they were so popular. Not with Avatar, though. ;( I do understand why Titanic was very popular. Or Harry Potter. Hell, even Twilight.

@Zavie: Oh yeah. Quite a gorgeous looking film, especially on Blu-ray. Some goes for Aliens, which could be re-played as it is in cinemas today and no one would notice the lack of CGI. (Whereas the older Planet Of The Apes movies look quite dated in comparison to the new one :p)