Recent movies I've seen that are definitely worthwhile...

In 3-D, no less.

 

I agree, Avatar is a great movie. I'd also recommend A Christmas Carol even though it had one scene that I felt was just useless to the story but made for some "Disney fun" it was, overall, a really good movie. Oh, yeah, it's 3D was ok but not as good as "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs."

 

I have an issue with the typical Hollywood idiots casting the American Military in a negative light.

Hey assholes, because of the military you get to make movies that are spoken in English.



//Rant off
//Disclaimer: Have not seen the movie, but heard anti-military slant from two different sources.

 

Haven't seen it yet (may go tomorrow) but from what I've heard the characters are all cardboard cutouts. In the case of the military, that means hyperaggressive dumb-as-a-box-of-hammers staereotypes. Then again - from what I've seen and heard from folks who've gone Avatar is basically another "special effects porn" movie. Simplistic plot, cutout characters - just enough structure to string together a series of special effects "money shots". So I'm not expecting much beyond some pretty CGI sequences..

Andy,
also tired of dumb military stereotypes in films

 

Seeing as the 'Cons' are starting to out-weigh the 'Pros' I think I'll pass on Avatar. Next weekend I'll pull out twenty hours plus of 'Band of Brothers' & a six pack of beer............

Let's see, six beers, twenty hours..........

THINK I'LL NEED MORE BEER!

 

I've sat and watched the Band of Brothers twice. Both times it was on a Sunday and I did them from start to finish. This was a great series!

 

Band of Brothers was a fantastic series. And as a bonus, MAJ Winters and several of the others are native Pennsylvanians. Pennsylvania pride : )

Speaking of good military series, if you haven't seen it I highly recommend HBO's miniseries "Generation Kill". Based on a book of the same name, it follows a unit of Marines on the march north to Baghdad during the 2003 invasion. Really good stuff..

Andy

PS. Bringing this back to gaming, Band of Brothers could make a good campaign model.. say an alternate Greyhawk history where the Great Kingdom sweeps into Nyrond and the Iron League before gtting bogged down, then the good guys in turn sweep back into the Great Kingdom and make a drive on Rauxes. I've always been a big fan of filing the serial numbers off of good stories and using them in gaming : )

 

Band of Brothers was on yesterday. I caught a few episodes whilst visiting the inlaws. They are all Marines (which would explain their lack of interest) but I am going to lend them my box set copies for a all day viewing. It is such a great series!

 

For those who are reading "criticisms of the American military" in Avatar, I would have to say that's woefully uninformed at best. Consider the fact that the soldiers seen in the film aren't working for a government at all, rather they are mercenaries in the service of a corporation attempting to exploit the resources of another place, paying little heed to the local ecosystems and populace.

This sort of think is not unprecedented in history.

 

I have to agree with tstone. Avatar is more about what happens when corporate greed controls its own private army. Of course, there is some amount of sympathy for the corporate guy who seems to be pushed by the testosterone laden mercenary.

Personally, this movie would better be compared to a movie about Native Americans (or South Africans) who are having their land stolen but it portrays the natives in a positive light. It is definitely meant as a critique of imperialism but, hey, I always like to root for the underdog anyway.

As to the special effects, I found they were very well blended with the movie to the point you couldn't tell live action from CGI at times. The concept of downloading one's brain into an Avatar so that you can roam about is pretty darn kewl as well.

At the very least, I recommend it to the geek for the wonderful interplay of special effects with the real world. For the more discerning, look at it as a commentary on the proper use of power when dealing with native populations.

<Now, you may have fun with your socially conscious geekpreacher. >

 

True, and if the soldiers in Avatar were government troops...dealing with the American Indians wasn't exactly a shining chapter in the story of the US military, either.

They were just "following orders", but as established at Nurenberg, this is no excuse.

 

My main issue with Avatar is that from what I've heard its just a tired rehash of the same old hackneyed plot - "evil corporate overlords unleash their brutish troops on noble savages". Blah blah blah..

If I wanted social commentary on the oppression and wiping out of indigneous folks, I'd watch "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee." Of course, then I'd make it a double feature with "The Black Robe" to remind me that a lot of the "savages" weren't so noble as some make them out to be, either. There's good and bad in both sides of any conflict.

On the science fiction side of the house, the evil corporate types sending troops in thing was done - and done well - in Aliens. The evil troops vs innocent indigenes was done in Return of the Jedi, albeit not so good as Aliens <g>.

If Avatar is just "Dances With Wolves With Blue People" made as an excuse to shocase fancy FX (as one friend summed it up), I'd rather just watch "Dances With Wolves" and then watch a DVD of just plain CGI FX.

I'm not saying I won't watch Avatar when it comes out on cable; heck, I may see it in a theater just since the FX look better on a big screen and they are the only selling point. But I'm not going to get excited about it just based on the media hype machine..

Andy,
movie curmudgeon ; )

 

My annoyance with the film was stated with the disclaimer that I had not seen it yet. Will I? Sure, but at a later date. Much later date.

I am glad to hear that since you saw the movie it was not a typical Hollywood take a dump on the military and portray them as psychotic, crazed, senseless violent types- that have done their service only to get out and become a basket case or murderer (wow, that was a long sentence).

 

The complaint at a rehash of old stories makes me want to laugh and cry simultaneously. There is no such thing as an original story, just new circumstances. As for the complaints as to the repetition of Avatar's particular message: If we weren't so universally stupid as a species, we would have learned the lesson of tolerance long ago. Our Levantine traditions prevent us from losing our sense of exclusivity, however.

 

I just watched Inglorious Basterds and was amused. I wasn't laughing my tookus off, but I was amused. Tarantino did a decent job re-writing history. Man was it graphic. I think that is about all I can say.

 

I just wished the story stayed on Brad's character. I loved the over-the-top attitude he possessed, and found the film got boring if he was not in the scene.


//Disclaimer: I am not a Brad Pitt fan.

 

Not many species on Earth are tolerant of others. Most of the meat-eating (or omnivorous) ones kill the others (and their own kind) for food, territory, etc. Some even (like cats) kill for pleasure or to alleviate boredom. Humans really aren't all that different. I would imagine that God or Evolution (or both) made us that way. Of course we have the ability to reason whereas many other species do not, but that seems to make little difference in the baser desires of any species, humans included. But, honestly, doesn't that ability to reason just get in the way of Evolution? Tolerance is probably the reason we are nearing an over-population problem. One could argue that tolerance is the really stupid trait. War is just natures' way of controlling human populations.

My wife is a bit of an environmentalist, whereas I would love to see every tree on the planet bulldozed (well, not really, but it makes for an amusing family dinner-time discussion). Something that she, and many other environmentalists I have listened to or spoken with, frequently fail to account for is the fact that we are PART of nature too. Our actions cannot be discounted as all part of the "Big Plan". Of course, it is possible that there is no Big Pan, in which case, provided we insure some continuity of species (or not, it really won't matter), who really cares about the squirrels and the butterflies?

The point, you ask? We aren't really all that stupid of a species. Tolerance is over-rated. And our Levantine traditions kept the balance (generally speaking) of our species in place until "science" and "modern notions" came along and screwed it up. Sure we now have running water in our homes (well, the Romans had that too), and I dare say, it was Science, not those old fuddy-duddy traditionalists, that invented nuclear weapons, and the other things that are destroying this planet.

Though I have not seen it yet (maybe today!), Avatar looks like one big Survival of the fittest flick with the added detractor of making out the guys with the robots (humans) to be contemptible, impractical, and just plain stupid. It would have made more sense for the "evil corporation" (that employs us) to just kill everything on the moon and take what it needed. Quite frankly, Darwin would have been proud of his species had they done that. Anyway, sorry for the rant. Now back to the normal Druvas we all love and know!

 

Sure you're not. Sure you're not... :lol:

 

Disclaimer: I am not against retreads of stories. You are completely correct that every story has been told before, its just the details that change. I *am* against poorly written (ie. "tired") retreads of old stories, however. With a hundred versions of "noble natives fighting the oppressive invaders", why bother watching the ones that suck? Note: movie suckage of course is relative - as always, one man's turd is another man's life-changing wonder movie.

As for Avatar, I suppose I'll have to see it now to verify (or not) my current impression of it as "CGI porn" (films in which CGI sequences take the place of sex scenes, and are strung together with some sort of pathetic plot to justify it being a film and not an extended series of CGI effects scenes).

Andy

PS. For a good "natives vs colonialists" movie, watch "The Mission." It doesn't have a shiny, happy Hollywood ending but it is a fantastic film.

 

Druvas, two points...

1. If evolution is just about survival, wiping out our planetary life support system, the biosphere, is counterproductive.

2. Evolution isn't just about survival. Survival is not the highest order of things. As conscious beings, with reason and a soul (whether you believe in it or not), we have realized there are higher, nobler concerns. There is right and wrong. And our realization of this is one of the things that elevates us above the rest of the animal kingdom. Our imperfection at this doesn't make it any less true.

Stepping of MY soapbox...