I replied to a reply that was a reply to a reply to a reply that was a reply to a reply that was a reply to a reply to a reply that was a reply to a reply just so I could be near the top of this list because it is so important that everyone know that I, JAKE am so important and cool.
Yes, ever hear of corpse bride? Or public enemies? Maybe you’ve heard of once upon a time in Mexico, or Charlie and the chocolate factory? All of those were stupid, overwritten crap and all of them featured Johnny Depp. And even if HE does a great job, tim burton’s direction will SURELY ruin the film.
Once Upon a Time in Mexico is one of my favorite movies.
I liked Fear and Loathing in as Vegas, other than those Johnny Depp sucks. The only Tim Burton movie I ever liked was Big Fish.
You must be one of those annoying goth Tim Burton fanatics. Nightmare before Christmas was mediocre, just as the remake of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was lackluster.
True dat. Tim Burton has a brilliant gift for the visuals. But he is a below-average director. His sense of plot pacing, crescendo and denouement are quite crappy. Johnny Depp is certainly talented, but he can’t save everything.
Really, it’s all on your personal tastes. Just because you don’t enjoy his type of film doesn’t mean it isn’t a good film. You just don’t enjoy his twisted style of movies.
Although I must agree… Corpse Bride wasn’t very good.
The new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory fallowed the original book much more than the previous movie, and it was twisted and creepy just like the book. I liked it, it’s all personal choice. I like Tim Burton because he’s one of the only current film directors that keep expressionism alive.
That is certainly a reference win. South park episode, where Cartman’s ideea gets “stolen” by Cameron (in the end) and turned into Avatar. season 13 ep 11-12 or 13
That movie ticks me off. It is not even remotely a Sherlock Holmes story. If you want to make a movie, dandy, just don’t steal the name of other stories.
I wholeheartedly concur. Of COURSE some things are a little updated for a modern audience, but on the whole, it was VERY MUCH in the spirit of Sherlock Holmes. I’m a huge fan, and have read all the stories. I was immensely pleased
how stupid can someone be. in the year 2010 it is eventual that all sorts of human scenarios have been written down in a book or in a screenplay.
avatar is one of the most amazing universes ever created by the fantasy of man. this movie is based on its universe and not on its plot. when u realized that , go and see that movie one more time. sherlock holmes will be as fascinating as terminator 3! and if u like terminator 3 ur a hopeless case
wait, so you’re saying that every single possible combination of events even slightly feasible in human history has been copyrighted?
has a movie ever been made where a talking coke can goes into the ocean to rescue a gigantic submarine that turns out to just be a shadow that this guy say of his boat?
i agree that the plot’s not the point but can you honestly say that any possible plot ever has been made into a product?
I agree the CG, and the planet itself is amazing, but is the plot as good as the CG? No. Is the dialog as good as the environment? No. Does the plot resemble pocahontas? yes! Could they have adjusted the plot so that the similarities to other movies would be diminished? Yes. Could they have improved the movie with editing? Yes! BTW, My favourite character was Grace, a character I don’t think you’ll find in pocahontas. (Not that I have watched most of it mind you)
The plot could have sucked, but then atleast no one would be comparing it to the plot of disney movies, becaues I am sure that’s not what he was going for…
But how did NO ONE in charge of making that movie, or being in that movie, not notice this obvious similarity? They could have atleast changed some of the plot line…
Someone wrote that down in ancient Egypt. Claiming that everything conceivable had already been thought up. I think a few more things have been written about by now.
He wasn’t correct then and you aren’t correct now.
Right. Plot fail. Because there are only like 7 possible story lines in all of existence, so we should crucify James Cameron and Walt Disney both for using one of them instead of inventing an eighth. It’s funny that people will whine about this, but will completely accept crap ass live action Scooby Doo movies, Starsky and Hutch, The Mod Squad, or any other remake of a so called “classic” from their childhood that was actually just a piece of crap show anyway. Peter Jackson’s King Kong was beautiful to look at, but not in any way original. Nobody bitched about that?
I can’t wait until there is a Fall Guy and MacGyver crossover movie starring Chuck Norris.
first off king kong was not intend to be and original. it was a REMAKE. second u couldnt come up with better story then what u gave us. im sry but i dont wanna see this piece off crap movie. i seen graphics like this everytime i look into my ps3
So this movie is automatically a piece of crap in your mind even before you see it? You sound too biased already.
And by the way, there is no way in hell the graphics on a video game are near as good as they are in this movie. You obviously have no clue what you are talking about.
I second this. The PS3 has good graphics… But still doesn’t compare to Avatar. I especially liked it in 3-D. They used the technology very well instead of just using it to make pies fly out into the audience. (Like a certain 3-D show at Disney World.)
And who cares if it is almost the same movie as Pocahontas? Lets just call it “Pocahontas in Space” and get on with it. It was a great movie with good acting, great visuals, and a tried and true plot.
yeah everyone should take a philosophy class just so we know wtf are the “7 archetypal stories in human history” to be able to successfully argue over the internet, in some blog’s comments section next time a movie comes out that uses one of them and just has too much hype around it for people to care.
good morning
No, you should take a philosophy class so you can become an educated individual and genuinely understand the stories you read and watch. By the way, please try to break your thoughts into more than one sentence, that disgusting run-on was painful to look at.
Wait, I forgot, this is the internet age where being smart is uncool and English is being reduced to acronyms and chatspeak. Carry on!
“By the way, please try to break your thoughts into more than one sentence, that disgusting run-on was painful to look at.”
Fail. That was a run-on. The words following the last comma constituted a related but independent clause, and should have been separated by either a period or a semicolon.
Funny that, I would call that an Americanism. Especially seeing as how keen they are to bastardise the English language and still have the audacity to call it English.
Plot fail, that asides, it was still a good entertaining movie, visually stunning et cetera……
Right… That’s the only reason you should take a philosophy class… you can understand us clowning you.
And the only reason you should take a math class is so you can understand it when you are shown the equation of how much more retarded you are than average human.
pwnd
oh sorry for captain english major I’ll do this.
Pwnd – Verb: see pwned, pzwnd, or PWNED LAWL
pwnd (a derivative from owned) is a higher level of ownage.
For example lets say a whiny twat is trying to come off as being smart over the internet, and some other internet goer takes note of this and takes it upon themselves to point out the various flaws that come from trying to seem smart (hot, cool, interesting) or anything else over the internet in a humorous manner.
Well sir that person is pwnd, or pwned, and should hang there head in shame.
But first they should receive their medal for being a walking wiki on the internet.
Congratulations you’ve been double pwnd
If you had anything above a 5th grade education you would know that the name for the plot used in Moby Dick, Heart of Darkness and tons of other similar plots is the “Sacrificial quest.”
“Overcoming the Monster” with a flavor of “The Quest” – See mythological stories regarding Jormundgand, Leviathan, and the like. Granted, its the small intertwined relations of the characters that characterize a story, but the point remains.
To the forum here:
Avatar I will be renting, as it looks pretty, but there was more advertising effort put into the fact that James Cameron directed it, and in all honesty its not the first time i’ve seen the Human race invade a Jungle habitat. For god sakes. look at a HALO screenshot, then an Avatar screenshot. Similar much? Evil Empire vs. Native Jungle habitat, seeking to overrun? Didn’t George Lucas do something like this around 6 years ago, with the same “plasma cannons vs. catapaults” design?
Besides, the fact that Avatar(like WALL-E) is a subtle suggestion to, and bolstering of, the current commercialized Green Movement absolutely disgusts me. Take care of Earth from the start! People, you’ll go buy a Prius to be Eco-friendly, then drive your Prius to CVS to pick up your antibiotics for your case of the rhinovirus that will sit in non-biodegradable containers in your bathroom cabinet, until your pour those chemicals down the drain into the *gasp* ECO SYSTEM, because they weren’t working on the common cold. Which, according to popular belief, is still of the bacterial variety…:-P
(The author would like to apologize for their soap-box segway rant that occupied more space than needed here.)
I will give you that but Cameron wrote(94 I think) Avatar before the green movement. Only reason it wasn’t made back in the 90s was because he was waiting for the tech to catch up to what he wanted visually for the film. So anyone saying it’s trendy… well that mostly just timing of when it came out. Personally Avatar was the first film I’ve expected to like have haven’t been disappointed. Wolverine: Origin sucked, and any other movie that has come out that I have like is because I expected it to suck and it didn’t… I work at a theater and have only run into 2 people who haven’t liked Avatar on some level.
The Quest, for Ahab as the tireless seeker and Ishmael as the reluctant carry-on.
The ‘there and back again’, for Ishmael as the single survivor of the legendary journey and battle between the unstoppable force and the even more unstoppable force.
Of the seven, Moby Dick is the inverted ‘Slaying the Monster’ archetype. I.e. the protagonist (the captain, not the narrator (although this is arguable)) goes off to kill this whale whom seems invincible. It is ‘inverted’ because the whale is actually a symbol of all that is natural and good ect.
And this isn’t philosophy – this is English 101. Pretty basic English as well.
He’s talking about a naive classification system that divides all plots into 7 possible types while not allowing for any other possible classifications. Based upon its initial assumptions, there is no other way to classify things. You can take a philosophy class on such things, but you’d mainly be wasting your time, as its a stupid argument.
See: K-means clustering. If you pick any K bins and use them to bin up any set of n samples based upon their distance from these bins, you will be assured that all samples will be binned into one of the k bins.
Yeaaah, but people didn’t spend $300 freaking million on that garbage. Those stories had better plot then this movie. At least the characters were relatable.
I don’t like Scooby Doo or Starsky and Hutch, and I don’t know what the Mod Squad is.
King Kong was a really, really terrible movie. Avatar…looks gorgeous, though I’ll admit the Ferngully-type plot has annoyed me since childhood (and I really do love nature, go figure).
It’s definitely true that there are only so many plots in the world, but some plots are repeated with more style, depth, and class than others. The imperialist mindset has done sickening damage throughout history, and it’s good to be reminded of that. However, I feel movies like Wall-E speak through a more original voice than the plot outline above.
Pretty sure you’ll find that Pocahontas was real and lived in pretty violent times… But I’ll agree, Avatar is probably more violent than the Disney film.
It’s Disney, what do you want? I don’t base my history papers on their movies, I just sort of disregard most of what I know about history and enjoy the singing. :p
he is comparing it to history, how man comes in and takes whatever he wants w/o any reguard to anyone else, just like we did to the Indians, the gov wanted there land so they just took what they wanted with NO REGUARDS to the Indians, they did not care as long as they got what they wanted! That’s the way man as been for thousands of centurys, they are slefish w/o love of goodness.
Well, I still liked Avatar and the message behind it, it’s true! And people sometimes need a remiinder of the past, because those who ingore it are doomed to repeat it!
AGREED. Screw the bastardized form of propaganda known as modern entertainment. Messages and ideals are being pounded into society by entertainment with a level of effectiveness that Hitler could only dream of.
I forget who mentioned it but, Fern Gully and Avatar are remarkably similar. Take out the violence from one and the singing from the other and you have essentially the same plot. Of course man taking place of Hexusssssssss.
Wow, I really am a nerd, c’est la vie. Time to go beat one off…..
Mwah…………………. ha…………………………………………………………………………….. ha.
Ha ha ha ha di ha.
Si vos instar sicco quis is opes tunc vos iustus attero vestri vicis. Rideo risi risum meus arse off.
Later peepers
She’s becoming a hawk. The more hawk-like she becomes the more confused she is as a leading lady… when everyone’s looking at her going “Damn, you got a beak lady!” and she thinks she’s being the mysterious object of desire. Hugh Grant deserves combat pay for doing a romantic comedy with her.
She looks like she could be John Elway’s cloned horse sister! And now I want to watch Ladyhawke again, but instead of the original score, someone needs to write a new one that is NOT synthesizer based and dub it in.
In a fit of nostalgia I watched this with my kids a couple of weeks ago. I was shocked to discover that Alan Parsons had done the soundtrack – I had no memory of that at all. I liked the Parsons Project albums way back when, but the style just didn’t work as a soundtrack.
Well, if you read something that says in the title “Avatar Plot” before seeing the movie, then you ruined the movie for yourself. Sometimes “spoiler alert” is simply a given.
My favorite made-up substance name is “wonderflonium”. In Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog, the main character steals some. Of course, in this case, it’s intentionally a comedy.
Well, if it’s really called unobtanium, than I’m very very afraid how they translated it for the german synchronization…
Something like Schwerzukriegbarium?
Would it surprise you very much to hear that it wasn’t translated? Just use the German pronunciation of Unobtanium (-an-, not -ain-) and you’re there.
Nerdy physicists might in my opinion well choose to stick the now generic name to something found six years’ travel away (single trip) and not exactly common even there.
In engineering or thought experiments, unobtainium is a humorous concept for any extremely rare, costly, or physically impossible material needed to fulfill a given design for a given application. The properties of any particular unobtainium depend on the intended use. For example, a pulley made of unobtainium might be massless and frictionless. However, if used in a nuclear rocket, unobtainium would be light, strong at high temperatures, and resistant to radiation damage.
Well ok its a real concept rather than a mineral mined from Pandora
You know, I JUST learned about this today after having the above conversation! Apparently it’s a term dating all the way back from the 40s. A friend of mine told me about it, so I did a little research, and you’re absolutely right.
Though it doesn't negate the fact that it's still a stupid name. :p
Just to point out, the definition from UnhappyVegemite was pulled from Wikipedia, which goes on in much more detail. (Cite your sources next time ) Anyhow, it is used in some circles, but in a tongue-in-cheek manner. I have to hope that that director was just making an ill-planned joke. At any rate, it was mentioned in what? One scene? I *facepalmed* even though I knew it was coming, but luckily it didn’t really detract from the movie due to its minimal usage.
Oh, and keep in mind that if he’d just made up a non-existent mineral name instead, everyone would be jumping on him for that instead.
Think about it…
Americinium america
chromium chrome
californium california…
now use your microscopic brain and think.
it’s not intended to be clever, they are named with a prefix that describes a trait, location, or person somehow linked to them.
Isn’t “unobtainium” from a Jules Verne story or at least an adaption of one of his stories in which they travel to the centre of the earth to give the planet’s core a kick start etc, etc…..????
Unobtainium is actually a term used for an ore or metal that is impossible to find, very costly, or cannot exist. Said metal or ore is perfect for a certain application, having any property necessary.
“Unobtanium” — nothing new here. In a wonderfully awful movie titled “The Core”, Delroy Lindo’s character invented an alloy that looked like a couple of “bucky-balls” that he dubbed unobtanium. With it he built a cross between a locomotive, a tape worm, and a dildo in his journey to the center of the earth.
Oakley sunglasses had touted their rubber nose pieces to made from unobtanium for a few years before “the core” was released onto the masses. Perhaps they still do.
James Cameron is just “being green” Recycling all these ideas has to be getting him some nods from Gore and his pet man-bear-pig.
There are lots of pretty flowers…….and a bit of singing.
Whilst watching the first 20 mins I was sat there thinking, well it is very clever, but it is a bit girly, then there was some mindless violence and everything was OK with the world.
I wouldn’t call an entire fleet of human ships being destroyed by flying dragons and ferocious Na’vi warriors with bows and errors that “girly”. Plus, it had lots of explosions. Any movie with explosions in it is automatically “manly”.
sounds like anyother “New World” movie to me… they are all somewhat similar. The reason why Avatar made so muc money is because James Cameron was behind it all. If it was something that Spike Lee made, no one would have payed attention to it… ZING!
As we are routinely reminded, white people are inherently evil, especially if they are part of the military or a corporation, and we should all kill ourselves out of shame.
How about they make a “new world” movie where the arriving party brings medicine and technology to the natives, and the natives can now stop pooping in the sand?
Yeah… Something about Hollywood you should know… Nothing’s original anymore. Everything is recycled nowadays. Some things that are recycled are from horrible movies or books that never made it, and the second or fifth time they’re remade they make it. The Pocahontas plot is probably one of the most common. Stranger goes to new world, meets girl, has conflicts, etc. The Avatar movie has a new look, is all.
Yeah but the message is clearer in Avatar. (Message being: What man does to get what he wants. He will do anything, even destroy en entire civilization.)
But I completely agree with the fact that this is exactly like Pocahontas except there’s a mom. Pocahontas didn’t have a mom and Neytiri did.
Have u noticed that Walt Disney had mother issues?
To be fair, the lack of mothers/evil stepmothers were in the original versions of those stories. The original little mermaid did have a grandmother, who told her of humans’ short life spans and immortal soul (which merfolk lacked), and who blinged her granddaughter out in heavy, painful to wear accessories when she got to visit the surface for the first time.
Not so much that Walt Disney had mother issues…most of those films were adaptations of fairy tales written hundreds of years ago. In the original stories the characters had no mothers and/or had evil step-mothers.
I think in Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid she had a mother, who was barely mentioned, but all the other characters had no mother or an evil step mother in the original stories.
Fairy tales have characters in peril who must act on their own to resolve the problem. The principle peril a child faces is losing it’s mother. True 500 years ago, true today.
1. Yes, I think he/she/it was real.
2. Dunno whether I buy the part about being “nine.”
3. Safety.
4. I’m thinking English is his/her/its second language.
It’s a fail because just like Michael Bay, James Cameron is stringing someone else’s story along with OMG WOW effects and Super Action Time Go! action throughout the entire movie. What I’m trying to say is, it is hideously unoriginal, to the point where it could be considered plagiarism.
I actually turned to my wife as I was leaving this movie and told her “I feel like I just watched a more awesome version of Pocahontas.” Glad that someone was able to show me why.
Its a WIN. Its not the movie being a copycat, actually it is the first time that story has found a fitting realisation. Its like if first Volkswagen builds a Camaro, then Chevrolet does
Maybe the effects and the whole technical thing behind Avatar is revolutionary, the story and thats for sure isn’t.
You can’t replace a bad story with massive effects (although Michael Bay thinks so) so in my opinion Avatar isn’t that great movie the world thinks it is.
Here it was only $8 for the matinee, but we didn’t get the 3D version — we live too far out in the sticks.
Howdy failpeeps — been lurking here a while, hoping to join your merry band…
Got to admit, I like Pocatar better than Avahontas
Pun fail: brain battery @ 0%
But the movie was fun! I’d say, go see it anyway, just for the fun and don’t worry if it’s not The Greatest Plot of All Time. We had a blast — and it wasn’t just the explosions >
damn.. it’s just pocohontas.. but then in the future and not in the past and 3d.. awesome movie though.. I saw it, i loved it, but this is quite dissapointing and a anti-climax..
Halo FAILs. It’s a failed attempt to imitate real shooters (for the PC) for console-tards. Who, with their stupid thumb-sticks, can’t control a target cross, even if their life depends on it.
I’ve been an avid player of first person shooters on both console and PC, and can control my crosshairs for beautiful headshots equally effectively on both gaming platforms. Mor0n.
And yet when people are threatened by political fails they do all-out rants. It’s funny to read them and then see that no one replied. It meant no one cared.
I prefer the ‘Hog. Comes in your choice of chaingun, guass gun or rocket launcher. Can also be equipped with someone riding shotgun with rocker launcher or fuel rod cannon for extra destruction.
Plus the Ghost can’t stop and turn as fast has the ‘Hog when using the brakes.
I protest that Avatar is actually based off of some book where an ex-military guy goes off to some planet where they’re trying to mine something and has to be a native and then ends up leading them to the revolt.
I know people who’ve read it.
So yeah, not Pocahontas, just the same storyline (that has been repeated dozens of times) seriously, don’t you people know there are only 5 original stories according to Tolkien?
The same point applies to action films, murder mysteries, teen flicks, slasher flicks and so on. There are not that many different story lines, period. In this case, the oppressed locals rise up and smite the foreign devils with a convert leading them, Last Samauri for example.
Regardless of the little details that are different, Avatar had the plot of about half of all the war movies ever made. There are only a certain number of plots possible (right now the number is around 130, I belive, new ones are only figured out every few years).
Pocohontas is based on a true story darling. I think its the first Disney film to be based around a real historical character and events. So it was “made” years before James Cameron was even alive.
The Disney version of Pocahontas is based on a true story and while some part of the story matches with historic reccords alot doesn’t.
The main part of the Disney story for example, the love story between Pocahontas and captain John Smith is not true.
The Disney version of Pocahontas is basicly just another version of the Romeo and Juliet thing.
Does that mean James Cameron is a member of the undead, being alive since 1595, is quite a feat for anyone, but even the 1800’s when all the lovey stuff was added would make him pretty ancient.
You DO know that Disney’s Pocahantas bears almost no resemblence to the actual historical events… That’s even looking past the sentient trees, raccoons, and hummingbirds. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed it as a child, but to suggest the plotline of that Disney movie (the portion that you posit James Cameron “stole”) has anything to do with the real events is in and of itself… fail.
Except it looks like he changed stuff to make it more like Pocahantas!
The changes actually stole away all the nuance and backstory, especially the level of desperation and hopelessness that existed back on Earth, and introduced plot holes where none had been before.
Like the giant floating mountains. No one seems to notice that those must be made almost entirely of ‘unubsuckium’ to be floating like that! But in the original, they were the primary source the company was after. The mountains become nothing but a plot device to help the Na’vi win the war.
The Na’vi only won in the original script due to a clever trick by Sully, which made everyone think the tree-goddess-thing had created a virus capable of wiping out every human.
I wish he’d stuck with the original story. It was far superior to what it mutated into.
This is exactly what I thought when I was watching the movie. I kept expecting Colors of the wind to play at any moment. Good acting, though. And the backgrounds were soooooo pretty.
But yeah, I’m pretty sure no one likes this movie for it’s predictable plot.
Saw the movie. it wasnt all that good. some great affects but an awful plot and very predictable. still the last half-hour wasnt bad but its very true about pocahountus. cameron should be done for palargerism
Except that “unobtainium” is a long running joke that’s been around longer than this movie – if it’s going to be called that after release anyway why not just call it by it’s name in the first place?
i like how the “plot” of your comment was SO original and different from all the others on here. its like your failed at being original about telling us all that the plot was unoriginal. I think you “should be done for palargerism” [sic]
About half of it are good observational coincidences. The rest are actually wrong and, while a bit similar (as would be several other movies), aren’t copies or exactly alike.
“Copies or exactly alike” isn’t the point here. Plots are characterized by a few pertinent attributes. When these coincide for two stories, the differences in detail don’t really matter. “Shane” and “Pale Rider”? Nameless guy comes to town, saves locals against bad guys in charge, despite denouncing violence, leaves with people presumably tougher and able to defend themselves. It doesn’t matter that Eastwood’s character in “Pale Rider” isn’t named Shane, does it? They are the same basic story regardless.
Except in reality, as soon as they get back to earth and report, a massive invasion fleet would be sent. I guess in Avatar II we find out how that works out. I still enjoyed the film though.
I guess that’s true and not. I was thinking it through because I’m a nerd, but the whole thing was caused from one person’s greed with his benefactors with the military backing him up. So it’d be interesting if Earth would come around and want to bomb/destroy it totally even though they got their unobtainium under the living tree… they just wanted to blow the ever living pewp out of the mother tree… doubt people would go for that so long as they could mine the ore under the already destroyed part…
This is EXACTLY WHAT I THOUGHT. THAT AND DANCES WITH WOLVES (/agree with Zonis). I still liked the movie, even if the plotline was way overused. Well, hey, I like manga, so I’m used to overused plotlines.
this isn’t a fail. Whoever wrote the first text about Pocahontas was writing a text about that, not Avatar. If anything this is just a testament to how ridiculous filmmaking is today and how little OC that is being made.
I’m a bit sick of people talking bad about “Avatar”. The Similarities between “Avatar” and films like “Pochahauntas” and “Dances With Wolves are unmistakable, but that doesn’t make “Avatar” a bad film. Also, Don’t forget that everyone’s favourite comedy “The Hangover” has several similarities to “Dude, Where’s My Car?”.
For a movie that’s 1) 10 years in the making, 2) James Cameron’s “from-conception-pride-&-joy” film, meaning he WROTE & directed it, you’d figure he’d be just a bit more innovative with the plot schemes and have less dependency on allegory and realife parallels…and yes, a bit derivaitive nonetheless.
For AVATAR, I give James Cameron huge credit in the CGI department (top notch!), but even then, it loses a little shine when you go and watch other CGI-clad movies of recent (check out some of the foreign films coming out of Asia & Europe).
For me, AVATAR would have had far more CGI dazzle if it came out as little as 3 years ago…AND YES JAMES CAMERON ALREADY MADE BACK OVER 2x THE $$$ HE SPENT MAKING IT, so I’m a bit of a hater, I’ll grant you that.
or also Little Big Man, Broken Arrow, The New World, Last of the Mohicans and about a hundred other westerns. Gotta face it, it was a “genre salad” – all pasted together out of other people’s ideas. Cameron’s one of the best action scene directors ever, and one of the lamest writers.
It’s every movie about a white messiah who falls for chief’s daughter, who saves him and then he “goes native” to become a new tribal leader. So old, SO FAIL!
You know you could do this with virtually any film. There are no original story lines, everything is borrowed from someone else. I don’t know why everyone picks on Avatar specifically, it’s not like Cameron went on and on about how amazingly original the story is. If you want to bitch about originality, go bitch about the constant Hollywood remakes of older but far superior movies, book adaptations, etc. That’s where the real originality fails are.
I think it’s great to pick on AVATAR.
People had been buzzing about James Cameron finishing that movie for years. To boast that “AVATAR WILL CHANGE THE WAY MOVIES ARE MADE” is pretty much opening the floodgates for criticism.
Of coarse if it weren’t so damn derivative, it have gotten far less criticism in the story category…but even a child could see how unoriginal the story was…and for a movie 10 years in the making, I personally expect something I’ve never seen before, but that’s not what I got.
Don’t get me wrong, the CGI in AVATAR was the best yet!!!
However, like I posted earlier, If it came out as little as 3 years ago or more, the CGI it would have truly blown me out of my seat.
- There’s just too much comparable CGI film out there these days, and not just here in the USA, but international films as well. there’s some damn good directors coming out of Asia and Europe.
The whole “this will change ____ forever” is instant fail now. CGI and gaming quality are dated to the second, and every plotline ever made was etched into a stone in Mesopotamia 7,000 years ago.
…but Mesopotamia 7,000 years ago is really reaching for vagueness.
I believe a plot line can be more authentic simply by killing all the characters off – including the protaganist (it’s what the audience least suspects).
That’s just one example.
Disney doesn’t Created the Story,
1995 (Walt Disney)
Several films about Pocahontas have been made, beginning with a silent film in 1924. Captain John Smith and Pocahontas (1953) was released in mid-century.
Glad somebody mentions that.. Walt Disney took thing from other and copyright it…. The song In the Jungle belong to an african group who never got copyright for there song…
Disney stole from the original Alice in Wonderland…Etc…
So what if James Cameron took the ideas of Pocahantas from Disney, it’s probably didn’t belong to them in the first place!!
I totally agree with you Johnsmith
Ah, but Disney stealing the idea in the first place doesn’t mean that Cameron didn’t steal it as well. The point is that he was unoriginal, not that Disney is as well.
Thank you for validating my thoughts. I have been railing about this for a while but everyone looks at me like I’m drunk or crazy. Titanic was lame, Avatar is lame all these HUGE COLOSSAL BOX OFFICE SMASH HITS are mind numbing. Fancy special effects seem to mesmerize most movie goers and keep them from realizing the story line and acting are heavy handed and preachy pablum.
Regardless of the plot being reused, overall it is an awesome movie, with its 3D effects and the creation of all the local creatures. All of it has a certain flow that most movies lack.
Too many people here go on and on about allready seen plot etc..
Well, as a biologist, what i loved about this movie was the make-up of all the creatures on Pandora.
It felt REAL, and consistancy existed between species all over the planet area. I was almost in tears over the way he gets bioluminescense to look so natural.
And about the lot: People go see this kind of movie because it is spendid action and a happy ending… AKA an ADVENTURE….
(Unless you only like to see philosophic/braintweaking Tarantinic movies.. Well for my part, i like both…
That’s one of the points of Avatar, it’s ability to express that we haven’t changed since this point. That our attitudes would still allow this kind of destruction and genocide today. That it was completely believable that our race would destroy cultures for money, and that, just maybe it’s time to change that mindset.
… yes and now every movie that use that kind of plot: ”That our attitudes would still allow this kind of destruction and genocide today.” is now a blockbuster.
Like District 9… wich is also a boring FAIL.
People like that little hippie thing about the cruelty of humanity… oohhh the human race is so cruel!! Look what we do to ourself and to the alien races!! omg that movie is soooo deep and reeeeaaalll! 10/10
first off, although avatar is similar to pocahontas, it’s only the same in the extreme generics of plots, and if we went into that, then tons of people have copied from pocahontas and tons of other disney movies and other fairy tales. but there are glaring differences in the specifics of the plot. Pocahontas never tries to kill John Smith, she only runs because she doesn’t understand him. And Neytiri stops from killing Jake Sulley on a message sent by Eywa, not the the seeds of that tree are messengers for Eywa, the tree itself is not like Grandmother Willow. The colonel is not like Radcliffe, because the business man is actually in charge. The colonel is actually more like John Smith in function in that he is brought along for protection. Neytiri doesn’t help Jake Sulley like Pocahontas, Neytiri is ordered by her father, and huge difference since Pocahontas’s father ordered her to stay away from the settlers. Neytiri also feels betrayed by Jake because of what he was ordered to do, find a way to get them out of the tree ontop of the metal. Pocahontas never feels betrayed by Smith, she only got upset when the kid killed Kokoum. Also, while yes Tsu-tey and Sulley don’t get along at first, when the “Sky People” betray him, Tsu-tey and Sulley become brothers in not only arms but purpose. Also all the settlers turn on Radcliffe at the end, the only ones who turn on the mining program are the scientists and Trudy. Smith is seriously injured and he has to go back to England to get well, Jake is never seriously injured that he has to go back to Earth, and he stays in a changed form, Smith never hinted at changing himself to the American indigenous population. There are many more large differences that I could go into.
In conclusion, while the plots of Pocahontas and Avatar are very generally the same with are larger conglomerate trying to take over a land/material that is not theirs, the actual movies are much more different than alike. And at the same time, Pocahontas is the same as many stories before it was copyrighted by Disney, so the plot is a continued plot but each of the stories are unique in it’s own way.
finally somebody who talks lick of sense.
if you`re going to call a movie horrible for being unoriginal, pick seven that are good and you`re limited to those.
Remember…there’s people who think THE CONDEMED is a “good” movie, so lets put “good” aside and look at what truly matters.
- I’ve got seven movies right now, which all have more originality and influenced by **FEWER** books and oldie-films than AVATAR (in both plot and presentation)…
1) Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas
2) Brazil
3) Pulp Fiction
4) THX 1138
5) Children of Men
6) A Clockwork Orange
7) Time Bandits
That’s all in roughly a 4x decade span, and I can pull 100’s more.
MAYBE avatar did copy pocahontas. the script for avatar has been around for 14 years, which was about the same time that pocahontas was released, 1995.
but then again, the general plot of this movie is quite generic. there are tons of books and movies with similar plot. its the context, setting, visual effects and many more that set avatar apart
Dude I have been saying that Avatar is a Pocahontas rip-off ever since it came out but I could not have said it more hilariously than this picture. You are truly awesome!!
This reminds me of the parallels between Star Wars and Eragon. I mean, “Evil imperium versus good rebellion”, “farmer boy gets his parents killed, learns by a former dragon rider/jedi that he is special blah blah” and “epic battle between the evil leader of the imperium and said boy in the end”. And there is more.
No it’s not. The original script of Avatar was genial, but there is nothing special about the movie aside from pretty graphics. The characters were unrealistic, and the plot was laughably predictable. The only unpredictable thing was just how much of Jake’s god-modding the movie could take.
The script for Avatar was actually released and circulated at the same time as Titanic.
Now, Titanic came out in 1997, but production started in 1995. This means the script was out, what, a year before then, so 1994.
Pocahontas was released in 1995. Which means the script for Avatar was written about the same time as Pocahontus was being made, and before any release of that script occurred.
The reason Avatar was not made 15 year ago was they didn’t believe that they had the technology to give the film credit – which is true. It’s a stunning film.
So, the likelihood is that it is not a copy of Pocahontus, but more likely something that was written in the trend of the time… as you may notice, even today, loads of films get released in trends… we’re just coming out a Vampire one, and heading into a Post-Apocalypse session.
You and everyone else making this argument has failed to see the piont. Pocahontus was a REAL story about the colonization of North America, so history fail on all of you. That was the point of this fail. Old story, even older than film, with a political statement added (see comments made by Cameron himself), and you have a great cgi with a lame plot.
Dude.. He is comparing Disney’s Pocahontus plot (1995) and Avatar…
We all know Pocahontus was real, but the story in disney’s movie is not real. They changed it so it is more like a fairy tale..
1) He made shitload’s of money with it, even though it’s a bit of a repeated story. = WIN
2) Disney is jealous, and so in a clever counter move recruit millions of people to complain about how awfull the movie was even though they secretly did enjoy looking at it as well. = WIN
(Since pissing Disney off is the second most honourable thing for a human to achieve)
(the other is buying a cheezburger for ur lolcat)
3) Avatar was a good movie and there should be more focus on other movies which are crap… Featuring highly disabled glittering vampires who keeping complaining they bleed out of their Butt-hole.
How is making a shit load of money a sign of quality? Titanic sucked. Avatar is passable only due to the 3D. JC has a high school level writing ability and his dialog sounds like somebody in grade nine wrote it – predictable. HE can’t write so he go over the top with explosions and ‘weaponry’. GI Joe meets the off spring of a smurf & jar jar binks.
James Cameron never tried to hide the fact that his story is based on Pocahontas. He even says so, flat out, in interviews. It is an intentional reinterpertation. It’s not a Plot Fail, it’s a Reimagination Win.
This movie also reminded me of the game Borderlands, both were on the planet Pandora for mining and the mind link reminded me of the teleport system. I kept expecting a Skag to come out and the first time I saw the dragon thing I thought “look is a Rak”.
Phew. That’s good to know. ‘Cause I have this idea for a movie… I think it will be a hit:
A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away: a poor, ten-year-old, farm boy has a seemingly impossible dream: he wants to be the next Moképon trainer. But, sadly, he realizes he does not have enough Mokébucks to buy the required Mokéballs (they’re made of unobtainium, and are thus very Moké-expensive). But when the evil Darth Rocket blows up his house, he is taken in by his Uncle Ken, who gives him his first Moképon and teaches him to use the Schwartz to control it. There are also some fancy, glowy swords somewhere. And maybe an elf. Anyway, after being trained in the ways of the Schwartz, and Moképon, the boy (name: Duke Pierunner) ultimately overthrow the evil Darth Rocket, and Duke becomes a Moké-Jedi knight. And it will, of course, be presented beautifully, because that’s what matters.
Whoever wrote this made up stuff about Pocahontas and John Smith to exaggerate similarities with Avatar. Want examples?
1. Historical record never shows a relationship between Pocahontas and John Smith.
2. Pocahontas was never promised for marriage to Kocoum, and later married John Rolfe and had a kid with him.
3. The settlers never attacked the natives for gold. Just something else that was made up.
Hardcore fail d00d. Get in the conversation: Watch the Disney film. Then watch Avatar. Then tell me they are not (basically) the same story. I personally love them both… but they are very very parallel.
oh wtf this is nothing new! in the avatar story, cameron wrotes everything what he had liked when he was young, also the pocahontas story! so that sh**-paper have nothing to do with “fail” !?
While this may be true, Avatar was written in 1994 and Pocahantas was released in 1995, the same year that the script for Avatar was leaked. So technically, Avatar wins.
Nope. The movie Pocahantas really has nothing to do with historical events… The names are the same and nothing else. Oh, and there were boats… yes, definately a few boats. The argument here is that the plots of the movies are similar, because what happened in real life doesn’t resemble either movie at all.
Not that great a fail…sure, there’s tonso similarities between the two, but the original text here was probably written by the person who submitted it, deliberately in a way to point out all the similarities. Would have been funnier if it had accidentally looked so similar.
(“Just before they kill him, the settlers arrive” ? o_O)
I have to admit. I thought I would only like Avatar from a visual perspective (iMAX 3D motion capture) but when I saw it I also liked the story. Thats not to say that I thought the story was original in any way. I immediately recognized that this plot had been done a million times, James Cameron made it work in Pandora though. Although where they lose major points is in any attempt to make it original. Many things were just completely uncreative.
“Hmmmmmmmmm what should we call the unobatainable resource after which the settlers are after?”…. “How about unobtainium!!!”…..”You sir are a freaking genious”
I took that as a ‘background’ joke.. making the whole thing more symbolic. Like: that man is always after some ‘unobtanium’, and will do anything to get it….
Where may i find the whole story of Pocahontas on only 1 page ?? LOL, just here.
That means the joker here made a summary of Avatar. Then removed the words from the Avatar story to use Pocahontas expression, and then bar them and put back Avatar words outside the rows of the text to make look Avatar as a copy of Pocahontas.
One of the proof is that Tsu’tey did try to kill Suli, but after he allied himself to him, which didnt happen in Pocahontas.
Oh and, in Avatar, there were scientists and military units who rebelled against their own army, and in Avatar, army is working for private enterprises, not governments.
I actually went through and counted. Not counting The Last Samurai and Dances With Wolves, there are 1,204 other movies with plotlines similar to that of Pocahontas and Avatar. Thought you ought to know.
they are both different stories and if u saw the movie u’d know that i’m kinda getting sick of these threads about comparing avatar to other movies because u can do that to every single freakin’ movie ever made gosh it’s getting old =/ it’s a good movie so give it a break
yeah – why not just do a remake – like the upcoming 39th edition of Robin Hood? That’s OK – right? Just remake a movie for the hundreth time. But if you change it around a little – then – whoa! STINKER! :rolleyes:
Avatar is a good, fun film. What it lacks in story it more than makes up for in visual stunning. I took my kids to see it and they couldn’t stop talking about it. Not couldn’t, wouldn’t. When I was six, I remember thinking that Raider’s of the Lost Ark was made just for me. That’s why movies are made in the first place.
How many NAZI fell in love with jewish ? Fighting back the nazi army ?
And Pocahontas really existed, as the powatans. Powatans are the indians who saved americans by giving them turkeys when americans were dying of hunger when they arrived in america. Then Americans thanked them by shooting them.
Pics or it didn’t happen. The Nazi traitors, I mean. I thought the ability to dehumanize the jewish was a major requirement to be a Nazi. Could you maybe give one example of a Nazi marrying a jewish person?
Going through the comments I noticed that no one mentioned the possible Science-Fiction roots of Avatar.
In this case when I saw the movie I clearly saw in the movie Alan Dean Foster’s Midworld from 1974 and LeGuin’s novella The Word for World is Forest. I esspecially notice the uncany similarities to Midworld. Esspeicailly as in Midworld the trees are connected and their is some sort of global intelligence that the natives can commune with. Also like Midworld the natives are very human like. (In fact they are modified humans) I suspect the same in Avatar. Well I could go on.
The plot in Avatar is similar too the two novels, in that in the end the natives use their ability to understand and use the world they live in to destroy and drive out the settlers exploiting their world. Also the scene with the plants that rapidly retreat when touched is an almost perfect copy of a description in Midworld.
Did anyone else notice some of the direct scene to scene correlations?
Example: The “showing you our way of life” montage had several scenes that were directly lifted from the “Colors of the Wind” montage.
In random news, the “hot topic” has almost 2,500 posts. And has successfully made me angry at myself for clicking “Notify me of follow up comments via e-mail”
Hey, kid! Yeah, youse. Ya wanna buy a plot? Come on, everybody’s doin’ it. You’ll get rich, an’ famous, an’ all dat otha junk. You’ll feel on top of da world! Cmon, first one free? Awright, I’ll be lookin’ fer further business wit ya. Later, kid. (/End shady plot-dealer dialogue.)
If you see southpark’s “Dances with Smurfs” you know whats going to happen most of the movie!(I saw it yesteryday) also in my book this is more of a win.
just put Jesus in a conversation, and a can of worms are opened. no wonder they killed the guy.
but yeah, I think the story of the savior is a story copied by other earlier stories for sure. I don’t think they had copy rights back then, thats why NEO can save us now!!!!
off course, the story of savior was written before the actual savior came, or will come (for the jews).
You will see how in avatar II he comes back again in human form to save the sky people, but then he is killed by the blue man group for not using INTEL and using an Apple instead. Then a whole revolution starts with the iCoholics and iPeeps and the iRish, over religious control of wasEarth and iMoon.
Ironic, this is exactly what my husband said about the movie after he saw it with a friend. I wasn’t interested in it because I expected it to be a bleeding-heart green-leafer movie. Turns out, I was correct.
it’s much more than that, i didn’t care for pocahontas at all but Avatar was amazing, the general story line while similar had many differences that made the movie very fun to watch
1. Watch any random movie
2. Watch another movie
3. Write your own 1 page summary that fits both stories best
4. Add handwriting to make changes for the second movie
5. Call it FAIL
For example, Die Hard with a Vengeance was just the same as Star Wars.
Luke/McClane fights Bad Guys/Evil Empire and saves Wife/Princess.
1) Hero fights on larger dominant team, 2) Hero has enemy encounter & change of heart, 3) Hero tries persuading his own team not to attack enemy, 4) Hero’s team doesn’t listen and attacks enemy anyway, 5) Hero joins enemy, now allies, to fight against his own team, 6) Death/Destruction/Sacrifice, 7) Final Battle, Hero prevails and stays with enemies, which are now life-long allies.
- This is a ball-park story observation that was easy to guess less than halfway through watching AVATAR, and that’s not a compliment.
- The only good thing I saw was ultra-detailed CGI and special effects.
I am so glad someone else pointed this out. These 15 and under kids on here haven’t lived enough to understand that there is no such thing as an original idea-everything has been done, redone, and redone before. LOL…just because you realized that some movie you saw has a similar plot as something else does not mean you had an epiphany! Movies repeat themselves. Music repeats itself. History repeats itself. Pick up a newspaper from 40 years ago and and the stories are the same as today. Anyone out of their teeny years understands this, but I guess many of you will have to wait a few years to realize this.
Saying “IT’S ALL BEEN DONE BEFORE” is true until you get to the sheer elements of story writing.
- It’s easy to do a movie with an original plot / story…Just know your history of cinema, literature and actual historical events, AND THEN DON’T F%$#IN COPY IT. Do something truly original, or at least ‘more’ original.
EXAMPLE: 1) protagonist dies, 2) antagonist lives…those two simple ideas can lead a story to some fairly original places, if the writer is keen on styles of story progression.
Avatar was such an amazing movie! I guess it was kinda based on Pocahontas but seriously who cares? I saw it three times in the theaters and I really want a sequel. The best info I could find was this, scope it out: http://www.kaycircle.com/index.php?q=What-is-the-avatar-2-release-date
Thanks, everyone, for all the laughs! Reading the comments here was much more enjoyable than watching Avatar (or anything by James Cameron, or any movie that thinks substituting graphics for a storyline is acceptable) would have been.
I guess I owe y’all $15 or so… except I don’t really pay for content.
What you all people don’t know, is that Avatar’s plot was created by James Cameron much sooner than Pocahontas’ ! He imagined this story when he was 14. So stop criticizing please !
Avatar is only ground-breaking visually. It would be fun just to shut off the sound and insert your own dialogue (but I guess that’s been done before, too).I won’t criticize the plot–there aren’t that many new plots in the world (or evidently out of this world), but the dialogue was crap.
The plot was bad and rehashed (but how many plots are there in the world–or out of it?); the dialogue was worse. Visually, it was interesting, beautiful, even, but I found myself bored and knowing what would happen. Not exactly a complicated story but fun if you’re 12 or under.
wow, there is actually a bigger similarity between Avatar and Atlantis than with Avatar in Pocahontas, i guess everyone is talking about Pocahontas because of the big major point, a larger powerful planet trying to run out a small indigenous population for something as unnecessary as gold or a new metal. And that is most recognizable in the Indians vs. Settlers stories.
I know that the story is far from original, but firstly, consider the fact that the Avartar was written by James Cameron fifteen years ago – five years before DIsney’s Pocahontas.
The point is not to be original, it is to explore the science fiction genre in a deeper and more reflective way… and of cause to create a half billion dollar blast of an action adventure with revolutionary special effects and CGI!
But the Pocahontas true story is not at all like Disney’s Pocahontas story. Historically there is no documentary evidence that Pocahontas ever met John Smith, other than his diary, which was found after John Rolfe had met her and married her. There is a large debate going on in the historical community about whether John Smith jumped on the bandwagon so to speak or if he ever did actually meet her. Which in his diary it was only in the fact she saved his life from being killed. But not because they knew each other or any of that Disney nonsense.
I find this funny.
Even if the plots are almost identical, James Cameron has been working on this story for years. He’s planning on making sequels BECAUSE he has a whole STORY worked out in his head. He just wanted to see how successful Avatar was.
Even if it was almost identical to Pocahontas, this movie was WAY better, and had a lot of underlying themes. You can actually relate to the characters, feel the emotion that’s being portrayed. Probably one of the best movies to come out recently.
And those who are saying that the plot is similar to a many different things you’re seen, read, or heard about…who cares?
Let’s see any of you write a story that is completely and utterly original where the plot, characters, objects (plants, landforms, etc) and such are in no way similar to ANY other plots, characters, and objects in ANY way.
Do something that hasn’t been done before in any way, and then you can criticize and say it’s a terrible movie.
So, in order to criticize something, I first have to be able to do it myself? If I go out to eat and am served a steaming pile of shit, do I have to eat if because I, myself, am not a cook?
There are original stories out there. The fact that terrible movies like this and others can make a single dollar back makes me sad for humanity.
Wow, lighten up Kevin! Not every movie has to be Acadamy Award material. Movies can be for uplifting intellectual stimulation (not many of those) or mindless escapism (majority). Or they can be for any number of things in between. If it takes someone away from the BS of their existence, why should that make you sad for humanity. Heck, people used to pay movie prices to see laser light shows, Avatar is no worse than that.
How one cares to be entertained is one’s own business.
No, it’s getting all this crap because it got sucked into the culture wars-and perhaps it had it coming.
My comment to my wife as I walked out was “that was a Dune ripoff, just subtract water and replace ‘Spice’ with ‘inobtainium’ and subtract water” and my second was “I wished the movie had used something other than humans as the invaders because now Rush is going to be all over this.” I would have preferred that Avatar rip off the Psychlos (BTW, Battlefield Earth – same story except the humans on the “getting” end of the stick) or the Vogons rather than have it stir the partisan feces like it is now.
Anyhow, the backlash really has nothing to do with the quality of Avatar and everything to do with the right wing wackos being all bent because the left wing wackos make most the movies – except for Ronald Reagan and Arnold I guess. So, now they are attacking it from every possible angle. If they didn’t like the “message” it would just be another pretty movie with a recycled plot they would ignor.
By the way, I thought hand-edited plot was a hoot even though I enjoyed watching Avatar for the 3-D show. I find it equally annoying that people can’t laugh at something like that just because they thought Avatar was a piece of cinematic genius.
Even if it was, is that any reason it should be spared a little satire? Of course not!
Yeah there are similarities, but the order in which the events occured are not all the same .. the would be blue husband didnt due until almost the end .. also where is the vertibird pilot chick in Pocahontas .. you can find similarities from just about any move and an older film …
note i am also not saying avatar didnt rip off .. most of the creatures or human vehicles were taken from a movie or video game.
All in all its still a good movie worth watching
Clearly, the winning point of Avatar was the technology that was used to transpose actor muscle and body movements onto an animated screen. In this respect, the film was a great success.
I am sure that if this technology had been combined with a more original story than a hish-hash of “Pocahontas plot”, it could have been a exceptionally great movie.
I honestly liked Avatar. The details and thought that went into making the entire world of the movie make up for the partially stolen plot line. I’ve seen it three times.
I don’t care how parallel the story is…as long as the environmental morals embedded in the movie are brought to the mainstream audience wrapped in the package of an emotionally moving story that would otherwise maybe fail to be recognized by ignorant consumerists busy w/self entertainment.
We’ve been repeating stories for thousands of years. Just look at all of the religions. People just like good stories, so what if they’re retold – they always are. If someone else can bring it to us in a beautiful fashion and changing the names, good, it feels new!
Lol’d so hard. I spent the hour after my family left the theartre trying to convince my mom that the movie was not a beautifully animated simple environmental awareness story, but in fact a beautifully animated crappy Pocohontas ripoff.
haha i agree with someone up there, reading the comments is alot more entertaining than reading the actual post itself.
i learned alot, as i never had to study philosophy in my coll.
and im from malaysia, and the movie tickets for avatar cost 7 bucks on a wednesday, so essentially i watched it for 1.40 Euros. or 1.16 Pounds.
so it wasnt a waste of cash to me as i can barely buy anything else for that amount.
but that aside, i did like the movie. sure it was super draggy in some parts, but overall the live in the jungle and run free feeling was quite prevalent and i liked that.
p.s. does anyone here play dota? cause the Ikran really looks like the Faerie Dragon hero. i half expected it to shoot an orb or something.
That was quite funny actually haha. I want to see Avatar but maybe I’ll just go watch Pocahantas (ignore horrible spelling if I got that wrong) instead!
It’s cool that everyone is finding connections with plots that are the same in Avatar in the comments page. The biggest connection I found when I watched it was that it was a ‘Green Movie’.
Seriously, how many green movies at the moment involve no more plants on planet earth? Let’s take for example Wall-E: Humans leave planet Earth because they’ve ruined it. The only way they could come back was when it was finally capable of surporting life again.
The connection?
James Sully mentions that where he comes from there is no more green and no mother because it had died.
But this line in the movie made me think of one thing: Hasn’t Cameron heard of National Parks?! Geez….
It also featured other features of a ‘Green Movie’ such as the natives being tree huggers. Since when had hippies became cool?
————————–
I also found it had some connection to movies like ‘Alien’ when the only way of traveling the universe was to freeze your body while you were travelling…
And I’m sure that floating mountian stuff isn’t original either.
nothing origional anymore. everything will resemble something previously done. regardless Avatar is the greatest concentration of awesome in the history of earth. and thats still while spread over 2 hours 40 minutes.
im tempted to curse at the person that did this. they’re opinion is valid, however much i hate them for it.
Well, despite the fact that you have to somewhat mangle the two-and-a-half-hour plot to fit it into the bracket, what we’ve basically learned is that James Cameron has taken a classical story and given it awesome visuals, an amazing score, aliens and mecha. I don’t…really see how that is actually a fail.
This is true in some ways. But, in the big scheme of things there are only certain number of main plots to a story. This is far from a FAIL. The real fail is that someone made this annotated picture. 3D has never been this good before, Cameron is not only showing us a good story with a new twist, but also what technology we have for movies today.
Took my boys to Avatar and I hated it but didn’t want to diss the movie in case they they liked. My oldest son then said “that was a cross between Disney’s Pocahontas and Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth”. Seems like other people saw the same lame plot similarities. Cameron couldn’t hide a bad story within his visual effects. I’d rather see a movie with a good story and no FX.
Did anyone actually went to see avatar expecting a story? It was marketed as a “special effects only” movie, so why should it mean anything? Lame-ass movie
Man, you got to it first but the second I seen the preview to this movie I said it looks like a Pocahontas movie with a little bit of smerf’s mixed in. mainly a Pocahontas movie rip off lol
And don’t forget: A movie is a hole. The universe, the plot, the actors, the FX, etc…
We already know the plot source and the actors……and for the universe landscapes…check VUE software.
Hahaha I realized that both stories were almost the same like the first time I see the trailer while i was waiting for 2012 and yes, this is the epic win of the new decade.
Lmao I’m sure this has been said….. but the only fail here is that it took you so long to think of this…. people have been sayin this Pocahontas crap since before the movie came out and the same thing can be done for nearly every movie out there…. In short You are as unoriginal as the story you are calling “Fail”
I actually found it to be much closer to Dances With Wolves than Pocahontas, only it ended the way that Dances With Wolves SHOULD have ended. Anyway, there’s no such thing as an ORIGINAL PLOT, it’s all been done before in one way or another. It’s how you TELL the story that makes it different and interesting, plus all of the LITTLE details that you change in the telling.
Up In the Air, 9, Lovely Bones, I’m sorry but there are PLENTY of ORIGINAL plots.
and IMO, even the 3D wasn’t that good unless you accept that 9ft tall beings with carbon-fiber bones still have no weight, and move their fingers and toes as if they were made out of liquid soap.
BTW, why does a Robot Suit need a robot knife? Doesn’t Quaritch have to say “THAT’S a knife!”, like Crocodile Dundee?
Because this person is the first to notice the same basic plot used over and over, lol. It was still a kick ass movie whether or not the plot was reused, it’s done all the time just with better graphics each time.
You forgot one other story to combine it with. The story of Tecumseh, how he rallies tribes from all over the nation to fight against the common enemy. Same deal, a man tempted by one who is not his race as well. Unfortunately Tecumseh did not win in his battle for his tribal lands in Ohio and Kentucky. It’s only plot fail if you don’t see the real message, quit worshipping machines and connect with Nature.
it’s strethcing a bit….. but it fits. I suppose its a typical story line. But Avatar was a great film. Let’s be constructive. There were no cool enormous and flyable terradactle’s nor 9 foot tall carbon fiber alien’s in Pocahontas.
it’s more like pocahontas meets final fantasy. I mean seriously, the monsters, the plants, the toruk is most likely a version of bahamut, flying rocks appear in final fantasy 12.
At the first 5 minutes of the film action, I was feeling like it was a like another star wars movie thing. needless to say, ideas seems like its just rotating at this point for movie directors. Just cut the guy some slack and let go to the postscripts.
We-ell… I liked it. Plot notwithstanding, it was a beautiful movie with OK characters (if a little cliche) and good sci-fi elements.
And I LOVED Sherlock Holmes. No, it may not have been 100% Sir Conan Doyle, but it was a damn good movie in its own right.
I work at a movie theatre where the average expectancy is 300 people – not per show, but per day, and Avatar, without fail, sells out at least twice a weekend for a month now.
There’s a few layers of meaning in Avatar, and you have to peel them back to realize it’s complete garbage at its core.
At first, the human dialogue seems stupid and their motivations shallow. They’re after unobtanium? Really? And they have a science vessel, where all of their science takes place? But then, if you think about it, this was done on purpose. See, the point is actually that we, as human beings are destroying the earth for no good reason.
Then you think about that, and realize that that’s utter bullshit. We’re destroying the earth for lots of good reasons. We’re destroying it to build roads and run society, and make sick people less sick, and create progress, and continue along on our path towards a brighter future. Greed is just one of the many reasons the rain forest gets chopped down. Of course, none of this changes the fact that we are destroying our planet and we need to stop, but the truth is humans are more complicated than that.
So, sure, an environmentalist who likes to keep things easy might drive their oil powered car up the paved highway to the giant, multi-screen theater and wear their plastic 3D goggles through the movie and at the end say “Man, they are so right!” But if Cameron wanted to change minds he failed, because anyone with half a brain is going to say to themselves, “This isn’t about me. I don’t destroy the environment for some nameless rock. I’m simply trying to pave the world’s roads or keep the cars running, or build theaters, or make plastic for 3D goggles.”
Also, Holmes was amazing and, while changed slightly from the books, still very true to the Doyle character, who was never some passive intellectual, but an active adventurer who used his brain to solve problems.
James Cameron wrote an 80 page script for Avatar in 1994 planning it to be released in 1998 after Titanic, but he had to wait for technology to catch up. Pocohontas was a 1995 film.
Avatar is a beautiful piece of crap. Shine it up all you want and it’s still a piece of crap. A lot of time/money/effort was spent on the impressive visuals which were combined with predictable dialogue wrapped around tried and tested formulaic plot devices. Which means that this film will never be remembered as great but will make a big profit.
Well, Avatar might not be original (really similiar to Pochaontas or Lion King (think about it) and even a few more “Disney” arround) but it is indeed a great movie with a perfect way to imerse the spectators into the story and the world of Pandora, that is something to hail J.C. for his work!
By the way, where in Avatar does Nayriti comes to save Jake Sully?
The movie is a closeup of Pochaontas story but after the first atack of the “settlers” there is not very much in common…
Whatever you can say you will never be able to take the merit from James Cameron and time will tell that…
He did a great movie you like it or not!
Oh man, I watched Pocahontas over my winter break, then saw Avatar just last week and I’m sooo glad to know I’m not crazy for thinking they were exactly the same! xD
Well..
let’s not leave out the part where it copies Jarassic Park.. because I saw some dinosaurs there… and the matrix, because really, Jake’s hooked up to a machine living in a somewhat pretend world… and Michael Jackson’s ” Earth song” video, because the tree destruction scene looked pretty jacked… and the smurfs, because the Na’vi are blue.. and Final Fantasy, because those sky people and creepy animal battle scenes.. and hey! didn’t they use bow and arrows in LotR? Didn’t J.R.R. Tolkien also make up elvish? I hear the Na’vi language is made up… James Cameron, you fool!
And what about any romantic comedy, where boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back… ” The ugly truth”, ” She’s all that”, ” the wedding date”, ” 10 things I hate about you”… wow.. you’re right. This movie is Shit! James Cameron didn’t even invent 3D!!! He Copied the polar express or IMAX or someone else!! He even copied himself for using Sigourney Weaver!
Observation win, for observation fail, for avatar plot fail…. emmm
thumps up bro, nothing’s original nowdays, whats makes it original is how u paste the pieces together
For being ‘Ferngully with Guns’ this movie was pretty good!
James Cameron admitted that the concept was not original but the visual detail that the movie offered was well done. I truly enjoyed how different yet detailed Pandora was.
Hey, nobody noticed the resemblance to DUNE? Outworlder attains messiah status on planet being devastated by hostiles after valuable resources. Said messiah leads heretofore dangerous native creatures in successful defense against the hostiles. Both contain much environmental & anti-technology propagandizing.
wow…. you all are absolutely ridiculous!!!!! seriously! stop bashing the movie! it was a great movie! anyone can find connections to other movies JUST LIKE THIS ONE!!!! it is really hard to day to make an original movie… yes the main basic story has been done…. besides i am sure there was a movie that came out before pocahontas that has THE SAME STORY!!!!!
P.S. Get a life all of you! stop bashing movies!!! F4GS!!!!
So because some overweight Disney fanboi sitting in his mom’s basement wearing his Mickey Mouse pajamas drinking chocolate milk from his Donald Duck sippy cup got his Goofy underoos in a bunch over Avatar being similar to Pocahontas is supposed to make the movie bad. Give me a break. Go watch the movie and judge it on it’s own merits.
Considering the plot for Avatar was made 10 years before either Pochahantas or FernGully, you all fail for ignoring this. Grow up already and go watch it to see for yourself
True, but Pochahontas is based on a true story.. Indians vs. europeans.. No doubt that the plot for Avatar was inspired by the Indians vs. Europeans..
An exact copy like that, unreal yeah.. but definitely inspired by “the new world”
(Not the movie, the actual reality)
This movie, although good, is really just a cross betwen Ferngully and Dances With Wolves. Not even kidding. I vote that in the sequel they resurrect Andrew Jackson. He would just have to walk out, snap his fingers, and point, and all the Na’vi would be like, “Ohhh snap!” Haha. Trail of Tears in no time. THAT would be an epic win.
(And yes, I know it was a terrible thing, don’t get all offended, please. )
Once Upon a Time In Mexico is Crap. I can’t stand that movie. The one thing that always gets me is the fake arm. What the hell is up with that?? El Mariachi is the only movie in that series I like.
But pretty much all of Depp’s other stuff I like, even Charlie in the Chocolate Factory. I haven’t seen Corpse Bride or Public Enemies, but I would have no reason not to like either of them off hand. They seem like decent enough movies.
Oh my good LORD.
._.
I don’t know what to say. Sure, I knew Avatar was like Pocahontas but GEEZ, I never really looked into all the little details. Seriously all that’s going through my mind now is “wtf”… look, even his initials are the same: J.S.
haha!
Watching the previews, I remember thinking “this movie is going to be JUST like Pocahontas.” Nevertheless I watched it with my boyfriend, and was corrected…its JUST like Pocahontas, only with nipples.
I will say this and ontopic. James Caron wrote the story 15 years ago, but there was not the technology to do the film back then so he waited untill now. And he said that in 2009 and that will be 1994 if we count back. Pocahontas came to the theatres in december 1995. So maybe it is a coincidence that is has the same plot. just saying.
I laughed so hard when i read this, i completely didn’t see it until now. What i did see was the American Governments war on terror glorified tho which as a Canadian makes me sick. Opposing Government wanting mining rights to a place that ain’t theirs.
Special effects wise, Avatar was the bomb but it’s sad that people only look at how awesome it is because of the special effects. There’s more to a movie than that, an original plot would be nice.
You’ve missed the point. It was a beautifully crafted movie. The story is old. White man comes to ‘where ever’ to destroy the original life and mother earth, but is won over by what’s right and true love. Nothing to do with Pocahantos.
Don’t you think that Pocahontas has a few pluses on Avatar for the musical aspect? Its a classic, “Colors of the Wind”, “Just around the Riverbend” anyone? Even so, everyone says that Avatar is a great movie in its own right, don’t you mean the application of technology was great. It probably could be transcribed to a “Dora the Explorer” episode, but everyone would be just as amused with the 3-D aspect. Whoopee, we are all easily distracted.
It’s definitely not observation win, as it involves only paying attention to the observations that confirm his hypothesis, and ignoring or distorting the ones that don’t. For instance, the endings are actually quite different — in Pocahontas, John has to return to England so they can save his life, and they _don’t_ end up together, unlike in Avatar. This is bad observation and bad science. Honestly? They are similar in many respects, as they tell the same sort of story and thus use some of the same tropes and plot elements. But Avatar isn’t the exact carbon-copy of Pocahontas this makes it out to be.
Also, I hate to say it, but the graphics really weren’t that impressive. Some of the high-end games today are pretty close to it, and what edges it does have are much less amazing when you consider that games have to be rendered in real-time on a single machine, while the movie was rendered in advance on a blade server. Where it really excels was the integration of CGI and live action — I have never seen it done quite so seamlessly. The one place I can remember where I could really see where one ended and the other began during their interaction was during the climactic battle, in which, if you look closely, it’s possible to tell when some of the Banshee/Ikran heads turn from CGI to animatronic models to interact with (eat) the humans.
Also, no, Pocahontas doesn’t have the edge over Avatar in music. Avatar had an amazing soundtrack — just because it isn’t packed with actual vocal songs doesn’t mean it’s not good.
“Avatar” does have an amazing soundtrack… because it has the same soundtrack as “Enemy at the Gates.” I guess James Horner couldn’t come up with anything new.
I enjoyed the movie, for what it is. CGI fest + explosions + interesting soundtrack. Really, there are many potential historical allegories this could be linked to. (Britain in Infia, Belgium in the Congo, et cetra.)
hey theres another film about the same plot as avatar…..i saw it when i was a kid…..i remember theres a men who was in the forest and a company was trying to make a supermarket something like that with big machines but in the forest was already own by faires …….so the faires turn the man to a tiny size and they show them all…..(same as avatar)…..i want to know the name of the movie please…thank u very much for reading
LIKE, SRSLY?!?! o3o Omg…I knew about the thing about the romantic thing and the thing about invading the place where the…Avatars or whatever live (I never watched the movie so bear with me) and blaaah and how Avatar was like Pocahontas.
But I never knew…the DETAILS that Avatar has that is exactly the same as Pocahontas. Dear god =3=
Damn….there are definitely some things you are absolutely misconsidering in this thread:
1) This is a typical story about imperialism. Arrogant, technical superior folks go into unknown territory, most of them to find treasure. If there are indigenous folks in their way they get eliminated. This is the story of mankind in the last couple of hundred years! Add some cheesy romance with one person of each side and you got the perfect hollywood story. I bet there are hundreds of similar stories used in movies.
2) James Cameron is the director of the movie, not the story writer. How many directors create the stories of the movie on their own? Almost none. Directors receive stories and try to make something good out of them. Avatar succeeded there in my opinion. Pocahontas sucked.
And by the way: Did anyone call Peter Jackson a copycat for making Lord of the Rings? Or Danny Boyle for Trainspotting? This list of great movies with a taken story could be endless…
3) There are several revolutionary ideas realized in Avatar, the revolutionary animations are only the sugar on top. For example was the language of the aliens developed during 4 years and is completely usable with grammatical rules and everything. The idea with the huge neuronal net across the whole planet Pandorra and the interaction between folra and fauna is great. The little details that describe this culture are thought through and are amazing to watch.
4) Let’s consider this was a remake of Pocahontas (which is far exaggerated I think): If someone manages to make a crappy movie (Pocahontas is considered to be the worst Disney Masterworks ever) into something that feels so awesome when you watch it, I think that’s quite an accomplishment!
Not takin’ it as seriously as you think.
We just had this discussion at lunch with some work collegues. One guy referred to this thread (sent me the link), saying this is the reason why this movie is a fail. I HAD TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT ^^.
Okay i must admit, I like discussions very much.
Btw: Okay, Cameron may have written the story……but that just proves he is even less of a silly copycat.
@chel: if no one took it a little seriously, then this discussion would even more boring and all about rofl, looooool and such repetitive statements as your “dude, don’t take it so seriously ….”. Why discussing anything anyways? ;P
Movies aren’t about the words that summarize the story, they’re about how the story is told. And Avatar has told the ‘oppressor messiah’ story better than anyone. Even Dances with Wolves.
Complete utter FAIL! Firstly, Jake isn’t attacked by what’s his name. Secondly he isn’t sentanced to death, just bound. Third the ’settelers’ attack and drive of the ‘indains’ before they attack again and are brought to justice. 4th, nature isn’t connected through the ‘circle of life’ its more pyschail than that. 5th, the ubonatium isn’t Na’vi’s. Its just there.
So what if the plot was similar to effin pochahontas. it was still a great movie over all. No one seemes to be getting the damn message the movie was sending in the first place.
first
“I’m happy for you… Really”
Me too…. good post though. Funny stuff
Yes it is. And IMHumbleO, to answer the title question, definitely Avatar plot Fail.
yep. all my friends, my grandma and I noticed the parallel too.
It’s tied between Pocahontas and Fern Gully.
I thought “Ferngully” for adults with significantly more @$$-kickery, though sadly lacking the voice of Tim Curry.
well, its the biggest win of the year. i hope alice in wonderland gets better.
Why, is she sick?
Nice one.
I replied to a reply that was a reply to a reply to a reply that was a reply to a reply that was a reply to a reply to a reply that was a reply to a reply just so I could be near the top of this list because it is so important that everyone know that I, JAKE am so important and cool.
JAKE,
you have issue!
No fool, we’re going to kill him. And Simba too
it’s her…
That is was amazing. I’m a die hard Lion King fan, and that made my night(: Thank you(:
and that was fail. Sorry about the broken english. o.o
I love Lion King so much I named my cat after the hyena played by Whoopi Goldberg! =)
The lion king is based off of “Hamlet”. Lion king 1.5 is also a retelling of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead”
I actually thought the exact same thing before I read your post.
Ditto that! I immediately thought of the hyenas.
“Yeah, we’ll be prepared!…for what?”
“For the death of the king!”
“Why, is he sick?”
ha! You must be my soulmate.
WIN!
Defenittely win…
You mean Kimba?
Zing!
Alice in Wonderland looks like a tragedy waiting to happen
Nothing is a tragedy when it involves Johnny Depp.
False. False and fail.
Except corpse bride
And 21 jump street.
That movie was decent. It was sort of like Nightmare Before Christmas II.
Yes, ever hear of corpse bride? Or public enemies? Maybe you’ve heard of once upon a time in Mexico, or Charlie and the chocolate factory? All of those were stupid, overwritten crap and all of them featured Johnny Depp. And even if HE does a great job, tim burton’s direction will SURELY ruin the film.
What the hell is wrong with Corpse Bride? I agree with the rest, but really, CB was a good film
Once Upon a Time in Mexico is one of my favorite movies.
I liked Fear and Loathing in as Vegas, other than those Johnny Depp sucks. The only Tim Burton movie I ever liked was Big Fish.
blasphemy! Tim Burton rules.
You must be one of those annoying goth Tim Burton fanatics. Nightmare before Christmas was mediocre, just as the remake of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was lackluster.
True dat. Tim Burton has a brilliant gift for the visuals. But he is a below-average director. His sense of plot pacing, crescendo and denouement are quite crappy. Johnny Depp is certainly talented, but he can’t save everything.
Yeah, and even Johnny Depp can’t compare to Gene Wilder. Can’t even come close
Really, it’s all on your personal tastes. Just because you don’t enjoy his type of film doesn’t mean it isn’t a good film. You just don’t enjoy his twisted style of movies.
Although I must agree… Corpse Bride wasn’t very good.
Once Upon a Time in Mexico?! Really?!?! Worst movie of the series. Completely pointless, aimless, and more less.
However, Sleep Hollow was very enjoyable. First and last time since The Adams Family that Ricci was watchable.
The new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory fallowed the original book much more than the previous movie, and it was twisted and creepy just like the book. I liked it, it’s all personal choice. I like Tim Burton because he’s one of the only current film directors that keep expressionism alive.
CB was a great movie! And, Ann Coulter was great in her first serious role.
Tim Burton Rules
Ever watched the astronaut`s wife?!
For the most part TIM BURTON RULES! and when paired with Jhonny Depp the two equal epic win. THE END.
did you see Sweeney Todd?
eff a bunch of alice in wonderland by burton… i’m waiting for american mcgee’s!
I hope so too. Can’t wait to see it.
Couldn’t have put it better myself!!
Fern Gully gave me nightmares as a child
I hated that movie so much
Im happy not being the only person who noticed it!
I’d say Fern Gully, Pocahontas, and Dances with Wolves.
I said the same thing, but with an alien twist
I found parallels from Matrix and Fern Gully.
How bout Dances with Smurfs, Periwinklehontas, and Last of the Bluehicans?
and dances with wolves
I like that your grandma went to see avatar.
oh and by the way i lol’d so hard on this fail
We’re proud of you. No, really.
:[
True, I quit.
avatar? I thought he meant strip bar
In Sovi3t Russ1a, bar strip YOU!
and shoots you with arrows, yo!
I saw that too… It was amusing.
of soft rubles?
More easy to see, like large-type books for seniors…
My friend calls it “Dances with Smurfs.” That about sums it up. The theater gave me a raincheck! Sherlock Holmes, here I come!
That’s a South park episode.
That is certainly a reference win. South park episode, where Cartman’s ideea gets “stolen” by Cameron (in the end) and turned into Avatar. season 13 ep 11-12 or 13
no, wendy stole it and sold it to cameron for a good sum,
Its 13
I highly reccomend Sherlock Holmes. It trumps Avatar by far.
That movie ticks me off. It is not even remotely a Sherlock Holmes story. If you want to make a movie, dandy, just don’t steal the name of other stories.
I thought it was very much a Holmes story. Have you read the books or are you relying on the Basil Rathbone movies?
I wholeheartedly concur. Of COURSE some things are a little updated for a modern audience, but on the whole, it was VERY MUCH in the spirit of Sherlock Holmes. I’m a huge fan, and have read all the stories. I was immensely pleased
I have been reading the books for about forty years. The Rathbone movies were Rathbone movies. Jeremy Brett was the best Holmes actor.
The stories were the Victorian ideal of mind over adversity.
how stupid can someone be. in the year 2010 it is eventual that all sorts of human scenarios have been written down in a book or in a screenplay.
avatar is one of the most amazing universes ever created by the fantasy of man. this movie is based on its universe and not on its plot. when u realized that , go and see that movie one more time. sherlock holmes will be as fascinating as terminator 3! and if u like terminator 3 ur a hopeless case
wait, so you’re saying that every single possible combination of events even slightly feasible in human history has been copyrighted?
has a movie ever been made where a talking coke can goes into the ocean to rescue a gigantic submarine that turns out to just be a shadow that this guy say of his boat?
i agree that the plot’s not the point but can you honestly say that any possible plot ever has been made into a product?
No, but that does remind me of an acid trip I had once.
I wrote that script about the coke can and the sub that was a shadow of a guy’s boat, and I’m suing your acid trip for copyright infringement.
That actually sounds like a funny plotline…
You must be the biggest dumbass on this planet.
I agree the CG, and the planet itself is amazing, but is the plot as good as the CG? No. Is the dialog as good as the environment? No. Does the plot resemble pocahontas? yes! Could they have adjusted the plot so that the similarities to other movies would be diminished? Yes. Could they have improved the movie with editing? Yes! BTW, My favourite character was Grace, a character I don’t think you’ll find in pocahontas. (Not that I have watched most of it mind you)
The plot could have sucked, but then atleast no one would be comparing it to the plot of disney movies, becaues I am sure that’s not what he was going for…
But how did NO ONE in charge of making that movie, or being in that movie, not notice this obvious similarity? They could have atleast changed some of the plot line…
Thomas…
Agreed. And you managed to point out the one non-CGI related win of the whole movie, and that’s Sigourney Weaver.
Someone wrote that down in ancient Egypt. Claiming that everything conceivable had already been thought up. I think a few more things have been written about by now.
He wasn’t correct then and you aren’t correct now.
It was King Solomon and it is from the Bible.
I have been trying to say what you just got into 1 nice paragraph – thanks
yeah Sherlock was awesome.
Didn’t know Sherlock was a ninja tho XD
I prefer Last of the Bluehicans, though I had also considered Periwinklehontas. Funny, clever post! Should have hired this author as screenwriter.
I wrote a review too:
“Avatar – Movie, or Theme-park Ride?”
http://invisiblemikey.wordpress.com
Too long did not read
They gave you a raincheck? were the speakers the problem, because I think we were in the same theater!
Shurlock Holmes was a total disappointment, but thats proly because I’m a huge fan of the books, I’t was Tony Stark trying to be a detective…
Right. Plot fail. Because there are only like 7 possible story lines in all of existence, so we should crucify James Cameron and Walt Disney both for using one of them instead of inventing an eighth. It’s funny that people will whine about this, but will completely accept crap ass live action Scooby Doo movies, Starsky and Hutch, The Mod Squad, or any other remake of a so called “classic” from their childhood that was actually just a piece of crap show anyway. Peter Jackson’s King Kong was beautiful to look at, but not in any way original. Nobody bitched about that?
I can’t wait until there is a Fall Guy and MacGyver crossover movie starring Chuck Norris.
You could write something. Words come so trippingly to your tongue. Don’t let your talent go to waste.
Ummmm … “talent”? Fall Guy? MacGyver?
*crickets*
Now, Plato … Scorates … Shakespeare … THEY were writers….
In fact, Socrates never wrote a damn thing, other people had to write down what he said so that’s a mini-fail here.
Totally agree, Socrates a great writer? pseudo-Philosophical knowledge fail.
I think you’ll find that Scorates was a brilliant writer, you’re getting confused with Socrates…
is this a Bill & Ted reference? “Socra-tease” vs “So-crates”? If so, Win, if not, then ???
Er… reading fail?
S-C-O-rates vs. S-O-C-rates, as per boburns.
first off king kong was not intend to be and original. it was a REMAKE. second u couldnt come up with better story then what u gave us. im sry but i dont wanna see this piece off crap movie. i seen graphics like this everytime i look into my ps3
So this movie is automatically a piece of crap in your mind even before you see it? You sound too biased already.
And by the way, there is no way in hell the graphics on a video game are near as good as they are in this movie. You obviously have no clue what you are talking about.
I second this. The PS3 has good graphics… But still doesn’t compare to Avatar. I especially liked it in 3-D. They used the technology very well instead of just using it to make pies fly out into the audience. (Like a certain 3-D show at Disney World.)
And who cares if it is almost the same movie as Pocahontas? Lets just call it “Pocahontas in Space” and get on with it. It was a great movie with good acting, great visuals, and a tried and true plot.
Yeah, but no gaems.
that’s a win there, as for myself the best movie i saw in 2009 is Metal Gear Solid 4 and its cutscenes
Wait… who’s crucifying Cameron and Disney? Who’s whining? No one’s overreacting here, just pointing out the similarity between movies.
No one asked you
7 possible story lines? What the dick are you talking about?
He’s talking about the 7 archetypal stories in human civilization idiot.
Take a philosophy class.
yeah everyone should take a philosophy class just so we know wtf are the “7 archetypal stories in human history” to be able to successfully argue over the internet, in some blog’s comments section next time a movie comes out that uses one of them and just has too much hype around it for people to care.
good morning
Win
No, you should take a philosophy class so you can become an educated individual and genuinely understand the stories you read and watch. By the way, please try to break your thoughts into more than one sentence, that disgusting run-on was painful to look at.
Wait, I forgot, this is the internet age where being smart is uncool and English is being reduced to acronyms and chatspeak. Carry on!
“By the way, please try to break your thoughts into more than one sentence, that disgusting run-on was painful to look at.”
Fail. That was a run-on. The words following the last comma constituted a related but independent clause, and should have been separated by either a period or a semicolon.
you just got smoked.
Oh noes!
*makes Mario Bros coin sound* Win!
So that we can become educated individuals? Sorry, I was too busy taking REAL classes..
Philosophy programs/classes are a joke, displaying your amazing spelling and grammar skills is not going to change that.
Wow, those are some amazing spelling and grammar skills!
Funny that, I would call that an Americanism. Especially seeing as how keen they are to bastardise the English language and still have the audacity to call it English.
Plot fail, that asides, it was still a good entertaining movie, visually stunning et cetera……
No it’s chav-speak. And only chavs speak it. I would know, I’m british but I’m no chav
Actually there’s no such thing like proper english, not in britain and definetely not in america, everyone speaks differently and its just that
Right… That’s the only reason you should take a philosophy class… you can understand us clowning you.
And the only reason you should take a math class is so you can understand it when you are shown the equation of how much more retarded you are than average human.
You mean the 7 non-existant archetypal stories, right?
Tell us which one of the 7 Moby Dick is and I’ll take (another) philosophy class. Idiot.
pwnd
oh sorry for captain english major I’ll do this.
Pwnd – Verb: see pwned, pzwnd, or PWNED LAWL
pwnd (a derivative from owned) is a higher level of ownage.
For example lets say a whiny twat is trying to come off as being smart over the internet, and some other internet goer takes note of this and takes it upon themselves to point out the various flaws that come from trying to seem smart (hot, cool, interesting) or anything else over the internet in a humorous manner.
Well sir that person is pwnd, or pwned, and should hang there head in shame.
But first they should receive their medal for being a walking wiki on the internet.
Congratulations you’ve been double pwnd
Yeah…
If you had anything above a 5th grade education you would know that the name for the plot used in Moby Dick, Heart of Darkness and tons of other similar plots is the “Sacrificial quest.”
“Overcoming the Monster” with a flavor of “The Quest” – See mythological stories regarding Jormundgand, Leviathan, and the like. Granted, its the small intertwined relations of the characters that characterize a story, but the point remains.
To the forum here:
Avatar I will be renting, as it looks pretty, but there was more advertising effort put into the fact that James Cameron directed it, and in all honesty its not the first time i’ve seen the Human race invade a Jungle habitat. For god sakes. look at a HALO screenshot, then an Avatar screenshot. Similar much? Evil Empire vs. Native Jungle habitat, seeking to overrun? Didn’t George Lucas do something like this around 6 years ago, with the same “plasma cannons vs. catapaults” design?
Besides, the fact that Avatar(like WALL-E) is a subtle suggestion to, and bolstering of, the current commercialized Green Movement absolutely disgusts me. Take care of Earth from the start! People, you’ll go buy a Prius to be Eco-friendly, then drive your Prius to CVS to pick up your antibiotics for your case of the rhinovirus that will sit in non-biodegradable containers in your bathroom cabinet, until your pour those chemicals down the drain into the *gasp* ECO SYSTEM, because they weren’t working on the common cold. Which, according to popular belief, is still of the bacterial variety…:-P
(The author would like to apologize for their soap-box segway rant that occupied more space than needed here.)
I will give you that but Cameron wrote(94 I think) Avatar before the green movement. Only reason it wasn’t made back in the 90s was because he was waiting for the tech to catch up to what he wanted visually for the film. So anyone saying it’s trendy… well that mostly just timing of when it came out. Personally Avatar was the first film I’ve expected to like have haven’t been disappointed. Wolverine: Origin sucked, and any other movie that has come out that I have like is because I expected it to suck and it didn’t… I work at a theater and have only run into 2 people who haven’t liked Avatar on some level.
Not speaking of ‘INTRODUCING NEW TECHNOLOGY’ (pff, new in the 50’s) that’ll make tons of trash – just think of all those abandoned stupid 3D glasses.
Which “one” archetypal story for Moby Dick? Hmm…
The Quest, for Ahab as the tireless seeker and Ishmael as the reluctant carry-on.
The ‘there and back again’, for Ishmael as the single survivor of the legendary journey and battle between the unstoppable force and the even more unstoppable force.
Finally, the Monster…duh.
Now, go back to college. Idiot.
Of the seven, Moby Dick is the inverted ‘Slaying the Monster’ archetype. I.e. the protagonist (the captain, not the narrator (although this is arguable)) goes off to kill this whale whom seems invincible. It is ‘inverted’ because the whale is actually a symbol of all that is natural and good ect.
And this isn’t philosophy – this is English 101. Pretty basic English as well.
English 101? If you had taken it, you would know that it should be “goes off to kill this whale WHO (or that) seems invincible,” NOT “whom.”
I agree with Gophergun. And philosphy classes are for dipshit pussies who need to feel smart.
He’s talking about a naive classification system that divides all plots into 7 possible types while not allowing for any other possible classifications. Based upon its initial assumptions, there is no other way to classify things. You can take a philosophy class on such things, but you’d mainly be wasting your time, as its a stupid argument.
See: K-means clustering. If you pick any K bins and use them to bin up any set of n samples based upon their distance from these bins, you will be assured that all samples will be binned into one of the k bins.
See also: Confirmation bias.
lol. Thank you!
Wait, who said that the folks that think Avatar is derivative also like all the movies you listed there?
Shut Up. You’re whining now? Beside, those movies were named after the original and not a original “renamed”. you’re a bitch too by the way
Yeaaah, but people didn’t spend $300 freaking million on that garbage. Those stories had better plot then this movie. At least the characters were relatable.
I don’t like Scooby Doo or Starsky and Hutch, and I don’t know what the Mod Squad is.
King Kong was a really, really terrible movie. Avatar…looks gorgeous, though I’ll admit the Ferngully-type plot has annoyed me since childhood (and I really do love nature, go figure).
It’s definitely true that there are only so many plots in the world, but some plots are repeated with more style, depth, and class than others. The imperialist mindset has done sickening damage throughout history, and it’s good to be reminded of that. However, I feel movies like Wall-E speak through a more original voice than the plot outline above.
YOU my friend ROCK!!!
those were remakes idiot. avatar wasn’t, it was plagiarism
im also happy 4 him… isnt that a coincedence?
its a win!!
gj
bj.
ak
AA
gg
ja
fist
and then deep throat
You called?
LOLOL He was trying to be a pedophile! Oh and it’s not good to have ‘deepthroat’ as a name
I’m just glad that you are also the first to leave…
LOL! The plots are almost exactly the same, only Avatar is more violent!
More violent?????
You don’t know much about history…
am I right?
Are you kidding me??? He isn’t comparing it to history, he’s comparing it to Pocahontas.
Pretty sure you’ll find that Pocahontas was real and lived in pretty violent times… But I’ll agree, Avatar is probably more violent than the Disney film.
Pocahontas: Real and actually a cartoon that sings in English.
I agree
Ok before you say Pocahontas is REAL as innacted by Disney you need to check your facts. The Disney movie is just as fictional as Avatar. =)
Well, It’s based on proper historical fact. The film and the characters are probably fake.
IIRC, the real Pocahontas was twelve.
It’s Disney, what do you want? I don’t base my history papers on their movies, I just sort of disregard most of what I know about history and enjoy the singing. :p
he is comparing it to history, how man comes in and takes whatever he wants w/o any reguard to anyone else, just like we did to the Indians, the gov wanted there land so they just took what they wanted with NO REGUARDS to the Indians, they did not care as long as they got what they wanted! That’s the way man as been for thousands of centurys, they are slefish w/o love of goodness.
You’re right, we should have left the land to the Indians so that they could still be pooping in the sand.
Yeah, instead of crapping in fresh water flushed into the nearest river…
Municipal plumbing WIN
ahem. im a girl…
Well, I still liked Avatar and the message behind it, it’s true! And people sometimes need a remiinder of the past, because those who ingore it are doomed to repeat it!
Some of us are tired with bullshit “message movies.”
then dont watch them smartie pants
If you’re annoyed with comments like that, don’t read them, snicker pants.
If you’re trying to make fun of someone because of a stupid remark, don’t copy it because it isn’t obvious, dickpants.
Dickpants? Isn’t that the point of (around 50%) of pants? To keep that in there?
AGREED. Screw the bastardized form of propaganda known as modern entertainment. Messages and ideals are being pounded into society by entertainment with a level of effectiveness that Hitler could only dream of.
WIN WIN
An interesting disscussion would be, ” What are these messages and ideals?
GOD WIN
I forget who mentioned it but, Fern Gully and Avatar are remarkably similar. Take out the violence from one and the singing from the other and you have essentially the same plot. Of course man taking place of Hexusssssssss.
Wow, I really am a nerd, c’est la vie. Time to go beat one off…..
This is definitely an observation win. I saw that D1sney movie as a kid, so I get it.
This was a win.
I also think that it has striking similarities with Princess Mononoke.
was thinking the same thing..
Your name should be made into a fail just for saying that
I want you to be the proud parent of my poo.
Mwah…………………. ha…………………………………………………………………………….. ha.
Ha ha ha ha di ha.
Si vos instar sicco quis is opes tunc vos iustus attero vestri vicis. Rideo risi risum meus arse off.
Later peepers
I think it’s a win
Nice, way to copy James Cameron! lol
Nice, way to copy your comment! lol
I hope this post didnt ruin the movie im going to see today…
If it is Sherlock Holmes…you should be fine.
Or that awful looking move with Hugh Grant and that woman from Sex and the City.
If I ever think that is a good idea….please poke my eyes out with red hot pointy things.
You mean chili?
…or pokers, or burning sticks yes.
Or nipples.
win
She looks like a foot.
yet they still let her on TV
poking the eyes out with red hot pointy things is called abacination. Just thought everyone should know there was a word for that.
I don’t think that’s Greek.
Malaka is definitely Greek
Thanks I was wondering what that was
Surely you mean:
Or that movie with Huge Grant and that awful looking woman from Sex and the City.
?
how huge is this “Grant” you speak of?
I guess you are thinking of a different movie. One with more nude parts, that is.
She’s becoming a hawk. The more hawk-like she becomes the more confused she is as a leading lady… when everyone’s looking at her going “Damn, you got a beak lady!” and she thinks she’s being the mysterious object of desire. Hugh Grant deserves combat pay for doing a romantic comedy with her.
Didn’t she start off looking like a horse?
sarahjessicaparkerlookslikeahorse.com/
She looks like she could be John Elway’s cloned horse sister! And now I want to watch Ladyhawke again, but instead of the original score, someone needs to write a new one that is NOT synthesizer based and dub it in.
In a fit of nostalgia I watched this with my kids a couple of weeks ago. I was shocked to discover that Alan Parsons had done the soundtrack – I had no memory of that at all. I liked the Parsons Project albums way back when, but the style just didn’t work as a soundtrack.
That’s mean! I demand that you apologize to the horses!
She was giggidy-hot in L.A. Story with Steve Martin.
Please, movie gods, stop with the Hugh Grant already! He is not, never was, and can never be a leading man, especially in a romance. Just stop it.
Well, if you read something that says in the title “Avatar Plot” before seeing the movie, then you ruined the movie for yourself. Sometimes “spoiler alert” is simply a given.
Totally spoiled Pocahontas for me.
I actually think I want to see pocahontas now…
It’s like he did a Disney Mad Lib or something. “Hey Peter Jackson, I need a noun!”
LMAO!
Please can you just reply to the FIRST COMMENT PLEASE and not start a new one!! Reply Chains are conversations and that is ANTISOCIAL
So when is Pocahontas being filmed in 3D?
When this is published?
I have to say though…..they finally got 3D to work, praise all that glows in the dark.
Should we all praise U K@?
*makes note to self, quit eating uranium*
I wouldn’t got to Chernobyl for a night out in future, K@.
Just go about 3 Mile or so?
*Takes a t.*
*Leaves something in the honesty box.*
I live 7 miles from the coast, opposite us, on the estuary is Bradwell. Yes I am in the blast zone….woo hoo.
♪ we’re all on the same side when the mushroom hits the sky ♪
Which reminds me: “unobtanium“?
did we just cause disney to sue james cameron? :s
hope so… that guy sucks
Yeah…as soon as Disney can prove they own that story, same as Cinderella.
they should do so with the south parck guys, they used the movie too,, along with smurfs.. they are all blue
I just read some comments below. Did they really use unobtanium in the movie? How sad.
Do you really want us to answer that?
Is it too much to hope for that it was used to be ironic or funny?
I’m afraid so. Cameron thought the name was very, very clever.
That being said, I loved the movie. It wasn’t without its faults, but I was completely engrossed throughout.
My favorite made-up substance name is “wonderflonium”. In Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog, the main character steals some. Of course, in this case, it’s intentionally a comedy.
Wishalloy.
It was stupid the first time when they used the word unobtanium in the movie Armageddon.
Or Core
You think Armageddon was the first time unobtanium was used?
It’s an actual term that is used for any very rare substance.
Was it an animated discussion?
Yes, “unobtainium” is actually a real word, used in real life, particularly commonly in engineering fields.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtainium
Just because it’s real doesn’t make it right.
Unobtainium: slightly more believable than “impossibletogetium”
veryhardtogetinamillionyearsium?
Well, if it’s really called unobtanium, than I’m very very afraid how they translated it for the german synchronization…
Something like Schwerzukriegbarium?
In Russian version they called it simply. A mineral.
Would it surprise you very much to hear that it wasn’t translated? Just use the German pronunciation of Unobtanium (-an-, not -ain-) and you’re there.
Nerdy physicists might in my opinion well choose to stick the now generic name to something found six years’ travel away (single trip) and not exactly common even there.
LOL win
Unobtanium is real.
In engineering or thought experiments, unobtainium is a humorous concept for any extremely rare, costly, or physically impossible material needed to fulfill a given design for a given application. The properties of any particular unobtainium depend on the intended use. For example, a pulley made of unobtainium might be massless and frictionless. However, if used in a nuclear rocket, unobtainium would be light, strong at high temperatures, and resistant to radiation damage.
Well ok its a real concept rather than a mineral mined from Pandora
You know, I JUST learned about this today after having the above conversation! Apparently it’s a term dating all the way back from the 40s. A friend of mine told me about it, so I did a little research, and you’re absolutely right.
Yeah….
Make sure you never watch this… it’s too much like other things you have seen.
Like… Star Wars for instance, don’t watch that either – it’s basically the old story of the wizard’s apprentice retold with space ships.
And King Kong… that’s just Beauty and the Beast with a big monkey.
Actually… pretty much every story you have ever seen can be summed up in 2 works… Homer’s Iliad – and the complete works of William Shakespeare.
Just go read those and you can stop going to movies altogether.
Shakespeare’s version of ‘Debbie Does Dallas’ was too wordy for my liking.
I found Shakespeare’s Debbie Does series innovative, risk-taking and ultimately uplifting.
But there’s no accounting for taste.
You can’t tell me what to do.
That’s very SS of you by the way.
“Zeze are za book ve will read! No Ozzas!”
I really hope you’re just trolling!
And they’re best read in the original Klingon.
Qap!
It’s true that the same general plot archetypes have all been done, but that doesn’t mean that excuses two stories from being waaaaay too similar. XD
In any case though, I agree, read Shakespeare! Can’t really do much better than him.
I made that stuff last week. Except now I call it ‘Ifounditium’. :]
Just to point out, the definition from UnhappyVegemite was pulled from Wikipedia, which goes on in much more detail. (Cite your sources next time
) Anyhow, it is used in some circles, but in a tongue-in-cheek manner. I have to hope that that director was just making an ill-planned joke. At any rate, it was mentioned in what? One scene? I *facepalmed* even though I knew it was coming, but luckily it didn’t really detract from the movie due to its minimal usage.
Oh, and keep in mind that if he’d just made up a non-existent mineral name instead, everyone would be jumping on him for that instead.
Think about it…
Americinium america
chromium chrome
californium california…
now use your microscopic brain and think.
it’s not intended to be clever, they are named with a prefix that describes a trait, location, or person somehow linked to them.
Isn’t “unobtainium” from a Jules Verne story or at least an adaption of one of his stories in which they travel to the centre of the earth to give the planet’s core a kick start etc, etc…..????
Unobtainium is actually a term used for an ore or metal that is impossible to find, very costly, or cannot exist. Said metal or ore is perfect for a certain application, having any property necessary.
“Unobtanium” — nothing new here. In a wonderfully awful movie titled “The Core”, Delroy Lindo’s character invented an alloy that looked like a couple of “bucky-balls” that he dubbed unobtanium. With it he built a cross between a locomotive, a tape worm, and a dildo in his journey to the center of the earth.
Oakley sunglasses had touted their rubber nose pieces to made from unobtanium for a few years before “the core” was released onto the masses. Perhaps they still do.
James Cameron is just “being green” Recycling all these ideas has to be getting him some nods from Gore and his pet man-bear-pig.
LOL! Are you being serious?! Pocohantos is 1437 years old!
Is there singing in Avatar too?
There are lots of pretty flowers…….and a bit of singing.
Whilst watching the first 20 mins I was sat there thinking, well it is very clever, but it is a bit girly, then there was some mindless violence and everything was OK with the world.
I wouldn’t call an entire fleet of human ships being destroyed by flying dragons and ferocious Na’vi warriors with bows and errors that “girly”. Plus, it had lots of explosions. Any movie with explosions in it is automatically “manly”.
…I was only refering to the first part!
The “bows and errors” I have to see – I wasn’t aware that etiquette could be so destructive.
You have met DW right?
The pen is indeed mightier than the sword, but it’s the *Fooom* I worry about. Hi k@, BF!
Hi you, Good holidays?
*Happynewyearsqueezes*
i take it you mean bows and arrows….
GBF, you don’t seem yourself today…
LOL @ bows and “errors”. EPIC FAIL sir.
Lol, bows and ERRORS!! Win!!
… Yeah, I”m lame.
Yes, but those bits came from “Lion King”.
sounds like anyother “New World” movie to me… they are all somewhat similar. The reason why Avatar made so muc money is because James Cameron was behind it all. If it was something that Spike Lee made, no one would have payed attention to it… ZING!
That’s because Spike Lee is racist.
I promise you this movie is cringe-ingly racist.
Reverse racism is good, though…somehow. I heard it somewhere. Leave me alone.
As we are routinely reminded, white people are inherently evil, especially if they are part of the military or a corporation, and we should all kill ourselves out of shame.
*prepares to commit seppuku* THE SHAME!!! D:
How about they make a “new world” movie where the arriving party brings medicine and technology to the natives, and the natives can now stop pooping in the sand?
Kevin, when do you stop being heinous?
Yeah, I knew the film felt familiar…. lol
OMG!!9th/10th!!!W00t!when will this novel*snicker* be publisehd i must get it!!!
Nice way to write a game storyline.
…the tried, trusted and only way, it seems.
Good stories are worth retelling.
yup,like chicken licken
In Soviet-Russia licken chicken you!
ummm…. wut?
i thought that in Soviet Russia Dogs walk you…oh well
What good story??
fail. what a waste of time. i think its well established that this movie is not getting recognition for its story or for the originality of the story.
Yeah… Something about Hollywood you should know… Nothing’s original anymore. Everything is recycled nowadays. Some things that are recycled are from horrible movies or books that never made it, and the second or fifth time they’re remade they make it. The Pocahontas plot is probably one of the most common. Stranger goes to new world, meets girl, has conflicts, etc. The Avatar movie has a new look, is all.
Yeah but the message is clearer in Avatar. (Message being: What man does to get what he wants. He will do anything, even destroy en entire civilization.)
But I completely agree with the fact that this is exactly like Pocahontas except there’s a mom. Pocahontas didn’t have a mom and Neytiri did.
Have u noticed that Walt Disney had mother issues?
Cinderella=Evil stepmom
Ariel=No mother/queen
Snow White=evil slavedriving queen/NO MOM
Belle=No mom
Sorry I went off track there.
To be fair, the lack of mothers/evil stepmothers were in the original versions of those stories. The original little mermaid did have a grandmother, who told her of humans’ short life spans and immortal soul (which merfolk lacked), and who blinged her granddaughter out in heavy, painful to wear accessories when she got to visit the surface for the first time.
Not so much that Walt Disney had mother issues…most of those films were adaptations of fairy tales written hundreds of years ago. In the original stories the characters had no mothers and/or had evil step-mothers.
I think in Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid she had a mother, who was barely mentioned, but all the other characters had no mother or an evil step mother in the original stories.
Aaaand I just read PQ’s reply after I wrote mine…sorry for the repetition there!
Fairy tales have characters in peril who must act on their own to resolve the problem. The principle peril a child faces is losing it’s mother. True 500 years ago, true today.
True with music too, done and done, mixed, spliced, given a beat….. but it’s still the same old shit. S.S.D.D.
I prefered dances with smurfs.
Judy loves you enough all ready!
Shouldn’t it be Smurves?
Blast! Now I’ve got myself thinking about it.
A bad case of Smurvy? (Or just down in the Schlumpf?)
No, it’s Smurficles.
K.I.L.L. S.M.U.R.F.S.
Haven’t seen it. Thanks for spoiling. Now I don’t want to see it. I don’t even know what 3D is.
You live in 2 dimensions?
…^^ lives in a flat, not an apartment.
At least in your flat world you can have flat mates. I stuck in this stupid cubical world.
So you can’t Picasso and choose?
(Nice tie-in AV)
No, we are stuck in this primitive cell.
Should I paint my cell blue or pink?
Depends on the (nucleo)Tides.
Dwelling on what color will make an impression on us is just a waste of monet. Besides, I think Pink Turns Blue eventually.
That is a truly post modern concept.
Oh, get realism!
I had to come out of lurkerdom JUST to let you guys know this right here just made me laugh so hard I nearly peed myself.
Ah, art humor FTW.
Join in S.C.
Humor is good for the soul, Saturday’s Child. And being a “regular” here is addictive as hell.
Join us! JOIN US!
I’M NOT ADDICTED TO FAIL BLOG!!! I CAN QUIT ANYTIME I WANT TO. maybe. i think. i’m pretty sure. maybe.
*HAPPYNEWYEARSQUEEEEEEEZIESCOYOTE!!!!*
Thanks Little Girl. A big pitcher of freshly squeezed to you as well.
I hope you’re doing well. Haven’t seen you on the blog in quite a while, and I worry about you when you don’t post.
I’ve been about. Not as much as in the past (See! I’m not addicted.) Still on the road to recovery. How’s with you?
Good to hear it, sweetie.
Working my a$$ off at work. Wish I could get paid to post, instead. That would DEFINITELY be my dream job….
Shadow and I had a weird one this evening. It was at the bottom of ht tp://failblog.org/2009/04/23/word-choice-fail/
I can’t decide if mrs. potato head was real or not. What is your take?
Bizarre. Simply. Bizarre.
1. Yes, I think he/she/it was real.
2. Dunno whether I buy the part about being “nine.”
3. Safety.
4. I’m thinking English is his/her/its second language.
I have to ask my Dadaism for permission first…
Only if the pH changes.
Well said that chic, funny too for a pun!
I tend to live in 4 myself..
I live in 8.
I was hoping to live in more.
Do your work and find me more Physicist.
*pokes with stick*
These physicists. They just string you along.
Well that is the theory anyway!
*waves*
Quantum? It damn near killed ‘em!
But musically they seem to have a good (algo)rythm [sic].
If they’re out of time, they’ve probably gone Chopin and they’ll be Bach in a minuet.
*pokes*
*tickles*
*giggles*
:[
i live in 56.7
its quite fun travelling between vrexexes
Ruh-roh … Somebunny’s not quite living in reality.
If you were just going to see it for the plot they you should be glad it was “spoiled”. That’s like… the whole point of this fail.
Actually I was going to see it because everyone said how cool this movie was.
it is a cool movie, but youre never gonna find a film that isnt similar to something else
similar? or a rip off?
Yabba dabba do, Yabba dabba do
Flintstone vitamins are good for you,
Want a raspberry red or lemonm yellow?
All i know is I am a hppy fellow.
Poco who?
Poker? i did not touch her.
how high are you on a scale of 1 to “dude im on pandora”
dude, my sister is called pandora
get off my sister you pervert
Let’s hope she hasn’t been opening any boxes lately.
*Browses past comment whistling tunelessly*
Tip her?
I did not touch her.
better on than in…
deff. an Observation win
I agree, I can’t see failure, he did it so right
WIN !!!!!!!!!
Ahh, james cameron, we all love him for his imagination
both of them, lol (James Camerons, not imaginations)
Sry, ahh, james cameron we all love him for his james cameron
i think this is more of a win. and WOW gosh i cant believe how similar avatar and pocahontas were.
Yes, so why was this a fail? They are very similar.
It’s a fail because just like Michael Bay, James Cameron is stringing someone else’s story along with OMG WOW effects and Super Action Time Go! action throughout the entire movie. What I’m trying to say is, it is hideously unoriginal, to the point where it could be considered plagiarism.
I actually turned to my wife as I was leaving this movie and told her “I feel like I just watched a more awesome version of Pocahontas.” Glad that someone was able to show me why.
I knew it felt familiar but I haven’t seen Pocahontas in a while so I didn’t know why it was familiar.
Although I think Avatar is better because there’s no Broadway-style singing in it. (lol)
James Cameron is a much better director than Michael Bay, IMO.
Any random person off the street is a better director than Michael Bay.
It’s a fail because it’s on Fail Blog. If it were a win, it would be on Win Blog. That’s two blogs down. Thanks for calling.
Pocatar!
That’s better than “Avahontas”
What’s wrong with Avahontas?
”
)
“gen” foarte tare Pocatar
Definitely a win.
Or a James Cameron fail.
Didn’t the title say the exact same thing you just did?
Its a WIN. Its not the movie being a copycat, actually it is the first time that story has found a fitting realisation. Its like if first Volkswagen builds a Camaro, then Chevrolet does
It’s a trap!
Our cruisers can’t repel unoriginality of that magnitude.
“Our cruisers..” LMFFO!!
Maybe the effects and the whole technical thing behind Avatar is revolutionary, the story and thats for sure isn’t.
You can’t replace a bad story with massive effects (although Michael Bay thinks so) so in my opinion Avatar isn’t that great movie the world thinks it is.
The “world”?
It could also be “Dances with Wolves, now in 3D”
I paid 12 euros to see a pocachontas remake?
i paid 14€…
i paid 15 pounds (about 14 euro)
No, it’s about 16.68€
where are you all going to the cinema? £9 where i go for a 3D film. and i thought i was paying high. £15??!
I downloaded it |3
I love living in eastern europe i watched it in 3D for about 3 euros
I paid $14 to see it
Here it was only $8 for the matinee, but we didn’t get the 3D version — we live too far out in the sticks.
Howdy failpeeps — been lurking here a while, hoping to join your merry band…
Got to admit, I like Pocatar better than Avahontas
Pun fail: brain battery @ 0%
But the movie was fun! I’d say, go see it anyway, just for the fun and don’t worry if it’s not The Greatest Plot of All Time. We had a blast — and it wasn’t just the explosions
>
I think we paid about $12 for a matinee-3D. IMAX would’ve been like $22 >.<
Whoa… 7,60 EUR is where it’s at here…
I paid $10 for 3D (or 7 euros). And that is expensive over here.
Paid £7.55 for it… then stole the 3D glasses.
Its 25 dollars here.
I paid 13,50 euros…
I paid 150 Kronor (around 15 Euros)
I paid ~25 equivalent in salt, but it had much more value back then…..
damn.. it’s just pocohontas.. but then in the future and not in the past and 3d.. awesome movie though.. I saw it, i loved it, but this is quite dissapointing and a anti-climax..
The fail or the blog?
This comparison was honestly the first one I made when I saw previews.
uhauhauhua i think it’s Observation Win !!!
Smurfahontas…
This is my favorite name yet!
:waves: Hi…another lurker brought out of the woodwork for this fail…
This made my day =]
Blue Pocahontas is not awesome
And now i’m not horny
15 years to make a movie with Pocahontas story and Halo 3 Vehicles….
The warthog rules!!!!
no no NO!!!! the ghost rules the warthog cant boost!
Halo FAILs. It’s a failed attempt to imitate real shooters (for the PC) for console-tards. Who, with their stupid thumb-sticks, can’t control a target cross, even if their life depends on it.
Pointless Rant Fail.
I’ve been an avid player of first person shooters on both console and PC, and can control my crosshairs for beautiful headshots equally effectively on both gaming platforms. Mor0n.
Translation: my name is ______, and I’m an addict.
Hello, ______!
n00b move d00d. 3 things to never bring up in a public forum:
1.) Politics
2.) Religion
3.) Gaming Preference
You will never prove yourself right or wrong, you will only piss people off.
And yet when people are threatened by political fails they do all-out rants. It’s funny to read them and then see that no one replied. It meant no one cared.
so… what you are saying is people care more about their gaming than their politics? Go America (and the rest of the world too I guess…)
I live in the rest of the world…
I prefer the ‘Hog. Comes in your choice of chaingun, guass gun or rocket launcher. Can also be equipped with someone riding shotgun with rocker launcher or fuel rod cannon for extra destruction.
Plus the Ghost can’t stop and turn as fast has the ‘Hog when using the brakes.
List of Halo vehicles “featured” in avatar:
Hornet
Vulture
Warthog
Cyclops
List of relevant points:
*crickets*
I protest that Avatar is actually based off of some book where an ex-military guy goes off to some planet where they’re trying to mine something and has to be a native and then ends up leading them to the revolt.
I know people who’ve read it.
So yeah, not Pocahontas, just the same storyline (that has been repeated dozens of times) seriously, don’t you people know there are only 5 original stories according to Tolkien?
10,000 B.C. ????
The same point applies to action films, murder mysteries, teen flicks, slasher flicks and so on. There are not that many different story lines, period. In this case, the oppressed locals rise up and smite the foreign devils with a convert leading them, Last Samauri for example.
But in Last Samuri they all die; do all the blue people die in Avatar?
Regardless of the little details that are different, Avatar had the plot of about half of all the war movies ever made. There are only a certain number of plots possible (right now the number is around 130, I belive, new ones are only figured out every few years).
my favorite part as well, is that Jake Sully and John Smith both have the same initials.
You forgot to add at the end “all made by Advanced graphics and special effects”
That’s not a fail, it’s an epic win!
That’s not a pie, it’s an angry squid.
That’s not an angry squid, it’s a Rorschach test.
That’s just an ink blot, did you stamp on my Squid?
*looks confused*
*Pays a few quid for stamps*
*Posts pie to K@*
*Gets sinking feeling*
*Is not sure who is angry*
*Blots out memory*
*opens door to postman*
*rips open parcel*
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh pie!
*doesn’t understand a word of what you’re saying*
Now you FAILed. For FAILing to be able to think, that it is BOTH at the same time.
didnt james cameron write avatar in like 1993? when was pocahontas made?
1595-1617?
Or if you meant the film 1995.
LOL * 1000
Pocohontas is based on a true story darling. I think its the first Disney film to be based around a real historical character and events. So it was “made” years before James Cameron was even alive.
James Cameron is alive? I thought he was a bot.
…This is true.
The Disney version of Pocahontas is based on a true story and while some part of the story matches with historic reccords alot doesn’t.
The main part of the Disney story for example, the love story between Pocahontas and captain John Smith is not true.
The Disney version of Pocahontas is basicly just another version of the Romeo and Juliet thing.
Sure, that’s why we’re zeroing in on how it’s the love affair which makes the correlation so apt. Except…not.
The talking tree was real. LOL.
It got cut down and was made into toilet paper by George Washington! D:
AVATAR script was written before than ‘Poke a hontas’ was made
Does that mean James Cameron is a member of the undead, being alive since 1595, is quite a feat for anyone, but even the 1800’s when all the lovey stuff was added would make him pretty ancient.
Damn it! I mean Hooray. See above thread for comment.
You DO know that Disney’s Pocahantas bears almost no resemblence to the actual historical events… That’s even looking past the sentient trees, raccoons, and hummingbirds. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed it as a child, but to suggest the plotline of that Disney movie (the portion that you posit James Cameron “stole”) has anything to do with the real events is in and of itself… fail.
Yeah, I read the earliest version.
Except it looks like he changed stuff to make it more like Pocahantas!
The changes actually stole away all the nuance and backstory, especially the level of desperation and hopelessness that existed back on Earth, and introduced plot holes where none had been before.
Like the giant floating mountains. No one seems to notice that those must be made almost entirely of ‘unubsuckium’ to be floating like that! But in the original, they were the primary source the company was after. The mountains become nothing but a plot device to help the Na’vi win the war.
The Na’vi only won in the original script due to a clever trick by Sully, which made everyone think the tree-goddess-thing had created a virus capable of wiping out every human.
I wish he’d stuck with the original story. It was far superior to what it mutated into.
This is exactly what I thought when I was watching the movie. I kept expecting Colors of the wind to play at any moment. Good acting, though. And the backgrounds were soooooo pretty.
But yeah, I’m pretty sure no one likes this movie for it’s predictable plot.
People fail to create new ideas! Fail failing fail.
when i watched avatar it made me think of Fern Gully
The only thing that coulda made Fern Gully better was giant guns.
I guess now my life in complete, eh?
LoLWalker you’re frekin’ right
Saw the movie. it wasnt all that good. some great affects but an awful plot and very predictable. still the last half-hour wasnt bad but its very true about pocahountus. cameron should be done for palargerism
And you, sir, should be “done” for spelling.
*grimaces*
….and punctuation.
….and absent capitalisation.
Please, spare the person for “palargerism”. I want that to be a real word!
Especially with a name like “unobtanium.” Really, who couldn’t tell how the plot was going to end from there?
LOL the unobtainable unobtanium!
Tie-in with The Core, perchance/
Except that “unobtainium” is a long running joke that’s been around longer than this movie – if it’s going to be called that after release anyway why not just call it by it’s name in the first place?
well, he did make the script first (2 years before) but failed to make a movie out of it.
i like how the “plot” of your comment was SO original and different from all the others on here. its like your failed at being original about telling us all that the plot was unoriginal. I think you “should be done for palargerism” [sic]
Really?
So…
What you’re saying is that this was a copy of a famous classic plot… but the famous plot is still bad?
couldn’t come up with a name for the unobtainium, other than unobtainium.
couldn’t come up with a name for the planet more original than “pandora”
couldn’t write an original story.
wasn’t this movie supposed to change cinema forever?
wikipedia [dot] org/wiki/Unobtanium
america. will never learn
No, no, no. The period goes at the end.
Thanks for playing!
It can be any time during the month, not just at the end, silly.
Ask yer mom.
I’m just tickled by the ’shot with arrows, yo’ bit!
That is an inclusive OR. It’s both a FAIL and a WIN. Even when you look at it.
see also ferngully
Woo! Fern Gully!
yes that is what i said with woo
…and grammar.
Sorry, I got a bit excited.
Its common knowledge that Hollywood screenwriters use two accepted methods to tell their story; Madlibs and Manatees w/idea balls.
But where is the badger, hat, paint method? How could you forget that?
That’s tinseltown in blighty.
“Tinseltown in the rain~”
…Sorry. I’ll leave now.
The cake is a lie.
Avatar is a lie.
The lie is a cake
Epic observation win
Karl May: Winnetou
everything else is just a rip-off
I’m sure I’d find this hilarious if I’d actually seen either of these films, or knew anything about them…
WIN!
Pure win
Pure Wine!
Does anyone else notice the “yo!” after “shot with arrows”?
ya I was wondering about that to
Well I don’t have to see the movie now Thanks a bunch you just saved me a bunch of time.
And money. Lots of money that you can spend on something else now.
About half of it are good observational coincidences. The rest are actually wrong and, while a bit similar (as would be several other movies), aren’t copies or exactly alike.
“Copies or exactly alike” isn’t the point here. Plots are characterized by a few pertinent attributes. When these coincide for two stories, the differences in detail don’t really matter. “Shane” and “Pale Rider”? Nameless guy comes to town, saves locals against bad guys in charge, despite denouncing violence, leaves with people presumably tougher and able to defend themselves. It doesn’t matter that Eastwood’s character in “Pale Rider” isn’t named Shane, does it? They are the same basic story regardless.
That’s a win if you’ve seen the movie and liked it.
It’s not a bug, it’s a feature!
Cameron never denied, that Avatar would be very similar to Pocahontas.
So this is a futuristic adaptation to Pocahontas … and the problem is?
The resemblance is uncanny! Except, in Avatar, the Na’vi win. Unlike the colonialists.
Except in reality, as soon as they get back to earth and report, a massive invasion fleet would be sent. I guess in Avatar II we find out how that works out. I still enjoyed the film though.
I guess that’s true and not. I was thinking it through because I’m a nerd, but the whole thing was caused from one person’s greed with his benefactors with the military backing him up. So it’d be interesting if Earth would come around and want to bomb/destroy it totally even though they got their unobtainium under the living tree… they just wanted to blow the ever living pewp out of the mother tree… doubt people would go for that so long as they could mine the ore under the already destroyed part…
I always thought of it more as a Dances with Wolves in space.
Only three and a half days shorter.
LOOOL Absolutely right!
Is this comment a hommage to Ghostbusters?
‘Cause Sigorney Weaver is in both? Or am I overreaching here?
There is no Sigorney, only LOOOL.
The Sigorney is a lie, then?
It’s okay, if there’s no Sigourney, we’ll just clone a new one and hope she spawns alien babies.
This is EXACTLY WHAT I THOUGHT. THAT AND DANCES WITH WOLVES (/agree with Zonis). I still liked the movie, even if the plotline was way overused. Well, hey, I like manga, so I’m used to overused plotlines.
Lol oh dear…I think its observation win! XD
this isn’t a fail. Whoever wrote the first text about Pocahontas was writing a text about that, not Avatar. If anything this is just a testament to how ridiculous filmmaking is today and how little OC that is being made.
That’s the point?
Whoa, you meant Original Content, right? Because practically all I’ve seen in the theaters for years have been scripts written in that other OC.
Hollywood’s fault for making it, or the general public’s fault for actually paying to see it?
isnt this from funnyjunk?
I’m a bit sick of people talking bad about “Avatar”. The Similarities between “Avatar” and films like “Pochahauntas” and “Dances With Wolves are unmistakable, but that doesn’t make “Avatar” a bad film. Also, Don’t forget that everyone’s favourite comedy “The Hangover” has several similarities to “Dude, Where’s My Car?”.
For a movie that’s 1) 10 years in the making, 2) James Cameron’s “from-conception-pride-&-joy” film, meaning he WROTE & directed it, you’d figure he’d be just a bit more innovative with the plot schemes and have less dependency on allegory and realife parallels…and yes, a bit derivaitive nonetheless.
For AVATAR, I give James Cameron huge credit in the CGI department (top notch!), but even then, it loses a little shine when you go and watch other CGI-clad movies of recent (check out some of the foreign films coming out of Asia & Europe).
For me, AVATAR would have had far more CGI dazzle if it came out as little as 3 years ago…AND YES JAMES CAMERON ALREADY MADE BACK OVER 2x THE $$$ HE SPENT MAKING IT, so I’m a bit of a hater, I’ll grant you that.
or more like, “dude, we have our car, now where’s our friend?”
|the kid|
“Also, Don’t forget that everyone’s favourite comedy “The Hangover” has several similarities to “Dude, Where’s My Car?”.”
So, suck movie mirrors suck movie? Okay.
I Take it your not a fan of “The Hangover”?
You can’t repel plagiarism of that magnitude!
Hahahaha!!!
You can’t repel win of that magnitude!
Watermark covers text. Failblog fail
HOW CAN WE GET THE ORIGINAL SUBMISSION SIZE?
I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE A BIGGER SIZED PICTURE THAT’S EASIER TO READ.
THIS IS BADASS!!!
This movie SO did not rip off Pocahontas or Ferngully.
It was Dances With Wolves in Space, plain and simple.
Dances With Spacewolves?
Sweet.
Dances with Ultramarines more like it…
or also Little Big Man, Broken Arrow, The New World, Last of the Mohicans and about a hundred other westerns. Gotta face it, it was a “genre salad” – all pasted together out of other people’s ideas. Cameron’s one of the best action scene directors ever, and one of the lamest writers.
It’s every movie about a white messiah who falls for chief’s daughter, who saves him and then he “goes native” to become a new tribal leader. So old, SO FAIL!
Man I was l laughin’ the entire time I read this. It does sound the same though!
Oh, observation win, definitely. Very nice.
Win.
Pocahontas had no happy end she died of a disease form europe and their children selling souvenirs to europeans
You know you could do this with virtually any film. There are no original story lines, everything is borrowed from someone else. I don’t know why everyone picks on Avatar specifically, it’s not like Cameron went on and on about how amazingly original the story is. If you want to bitch about originality, go bitch about the constant Hollywood remakes of older but far superior movies, book adaptations, etc. That’s where the real originality fails are.
I think it’s great to pick on AVATAR.
People had been buzzing about James Cameron finishing that movie for years. To boast that “AVATAR WILL CHANGE THE WAY MOVIES ARE MADE” is pretty much opening the floodgates for criticism.
Of coarse if it weren’t so damn derivative, it have gotten far less criticism in the story category…but even a child could see how unoriginal the story was…and for a movie 10 years in the making, I personally expect something I’ve never seen before, but that’s not what I got.
Don’t get me wrong, the CGI in AVATAR was the best yet!!!
However, like I posted earlier, If it came out as little as 3 years ago or more, the CGI it would have truly blown me out of my seat.
- There’s just too much comparable CGI film out there these days, and not just here in the USA, but international films as well. there’s some damn good directors coming out of Asia and Europe.
The whole “this will change ____ forever” is instant fail now. CGI and gaming quality are dated to the second, and every plotline ever made was etched into a stone in Mesopotamia 7,000 years ago.
truth be known!
…but Mesopotamia 7,000 years ago is really reaching for vagueness.
I believe a plot line can be more authentic simply by killing all the characters off – including the protaganist (it’s what the audience least suspects).
That’s just one example.
here, here!
He in Poca in Space
he btw Dune and Star Wars^_^ =D
Win for Disney
FAIL for James Cameron
Disney doesn’t Created the Story,
1995 (Walt Disney)
Several films about Pocahontas have been made, beginning with a silent film in 1924. Captain John Smith and Pocahontas (1953) was released in mid-century.
Disney already had a lawsuit over the rights of Snow White its sad that everyone think all story animated by disney are created by disney -.-
Glad somebody mentions that.. Walt Disney took thing from other and copyright it…. The song In the Jungle belong to an african group who never got copyright for there song…
Disney stole from the original Alice in Wonderland…Etc…
So what if James Cameron took the ideas of Pocahantas from Disney, it’s probably didn’t belong to them in the first place!!
I totally agree with you Johnsmith
Ah, but Disney stealing the idea in the first place doesn’t mean that Cameron didn’t steal it as well. The point is that he was unoriginal, not that Disney is as well.
I fear the Disneyfication of the Marvel universe.
But the picture says FAIL. I don’t understand. This is one of the biggest WINs in recent history. They should correct and re-post this one.
Seriously.
You just don’t get it, do you?
At least this man knows the truth.
Oh good. Another blockbuster movie spectacular I DON’T HAVE TO SEE!
why is this fail? I see it as some serious win.
Well, at least my thought that the film felt familiar (and was, quite frankly, crap anyway) was not misguided
omg, that’s bad
D
What can I say? They were made from each other.
Thank you for validating my thoughts. I have been railing about this for a while but everyone looks at me like I’m drunk or crazy. Titanic was lame, Avatar is lame all these HUGE COLOSSAL BOX OFFICE SMASH HITS are mind numbing. Fancy special effects seem to mesmerize most movie goers and keep them from realizing the story line and acting are heavy handed and preachy pablum.
REMEMBER FLYING PIRANHAS 2
You mean you guys didn’t notice during the time you were watching the movie? Didn’t take a dumb paper for me to see that.
Regardless of the plot being reused, overall it is an awesome movie, with its 3D effects and the creation of all the local creatures. All of it has a certain flow that most movies lack.
THIS i can relate to.
Too many people here go on and on about allready seen plot etc..
Well, as a biologist, what i loved about this movie was the make-up of all the creatures on Pandora.
It felt REAL, and consistancy existed between species all over the planet area. I was almost in tears over the way he gets bioluminescense to look so natural.
And about the lot: People go see this kind of movie because it is spendid action and a happy ending… AKA an ADVENTURE….
(Unless you only like to see philosophic/braintweaking Tarantinic movies.. Well for my part, i like both…
It was pretty. That’s seriously all I’ve been able to say about it.
That’s one of the points of Avatar, it’s ability to express that we haven’t changed since this point. That our attitudes would still allow this kind of destruction and genocide today. That it was completely believable that our race would destroy cultures for money, and that, just maybe it’s time to change that mindset.
… yes and now every movie that use that kind of plot: ”That our attitudes would still allow this kind of destruction and genocide today.” is now a blockbuster.
Like District 9… wich is also a boring FAIL.
People like that little hippie thing about the cruelty of humanity… oohhh the human race is so cruel!! Look what we do to ourself and to the alien races!! omg that movie is soooo deep and reeeeaaalll! 10/10
district 9 was originally halo…. sooooo the plot was far from original.
Yeah… And Disney stole it from others before..
1995 (Pocahantas Walt Disney)and several films about Pocahontas have been made, beginning with a silent film in 1924.
WIN
first off, although avatar is similar to pocahontas, it’s only the same in the extreme generics of plots, and if we went into that, then tons of people have copied from pocahontas and tons of other disney movies and other fairy tales. but there are glaring differences in the specifics of the plot. Pocahontas never tries to kill John Smith, she only runs because she doesn’t understand him. And Neytiri stops from killing Jake Sulley on a message sent by Eywa, not the the seeds of that tree are messengers for Eywa, the tree itself is not like Grandmother Willow. The colonel is not like Radcliffe, because the business man is actually in charge. The colonel is actually more like John Smith in function in that he is brought along for protection. Neytiri doesn’t help Jake Sulley like Pocahontas, Neytiri is ordered by her father, and huge difference since Pocahontas’s father ordered her to stay away from the settlers. Neytiri also feels betrayed by Jake because of what he was ordered to do, find a way to get them out of the tree ontop of the metal. Pocahontas never feels betrayed by Smith, she only got upset when the kid killed Kokoum. Also, while yes Tsu-tey and Sulley don’t get along at first, when the “Sky People” betray him, Tsu-tey and Sulley become brothers in not only arms but purpose. Also all the settlers turn on Radcliffe at the end, the only ones who turn on the mining program are the scientists and Trudy. Smith is seriously injured and he has to go back to England to get well, Jake is never seriously injured that he has to go back to Earth, and he stays in a changed form, Smith never hinted at changing himself to the American indigenous population. There are many more large differences that I could go into.
In conclusion, while the plots of Pocahontas and Avatar are very generally the same with are larger conglomerate trying to take over a land/material that is not theirs, the actual movies are much more different than alike. And at the same time, Pocahontas is the same as many stories before it was copyrighted by Disney, so the plot is a continued plot but each of the stories are unique in it’s own way.
you talk too much
definitly a win
finally somebody who talks lick of sense.
if you`re going to call a movie horrible for being unoriginal, pick seven that are good and you`re limited to those.
Remember…there’s people who think THE CONDEMED is a “good” movie, so lets put “good” aside and look at what truly matters.
- I’ve got seven movies right now, which all have more originality and influenced by **FEWER** books and oldie-films than AVATAR (in both plot and presentation)…
1) Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas
2) Brazil
3) Pulp Fiction
4) THX 1138
5) Children of Men
6) A Clockwork Orange
7) Time Bandits
That’s all in roughly a 4x decade span, and I can pull 100’s more.
Both “Fear and Loathing” and “A Clockwork Orange” are directly taken from novels of the same name written decades before the movies.
Your position is abysmally weak and intentionally overlooking the evident fact that AVATAR just isn’t ground-breaking enough story-wise.
CGI/SPEC EFFECTS = Superb
STORY/PLOT = Bleeeghhhh :p
Excellent essay from a FAILNamer.
MAYBE avatar did copy pocahontas. the script for avatar has been around for 14 years, which was about the same time that pocahontas was released, 1995.
but then again, the general plot of this movie is quite generic. there are tons of books and movies with similar plot. its the context, setting, visual effects and many more that set avatar apart
True That. Avatar if very great. Possibly best movie i’ve seen.
Ive said it once and i’ll say it again, crap movie.
I just cant understand why it is so overrated.
Because it cost enough to feed a medium sized country and/or small continent for a decade.
You forgot the major hype there was.
So what was the last truly original idea film to be made?
Superbad. Obviously.
Police Academy 6.
Well, what about Being John Malkovich?
Spaceballs
i’ve never seen pocahontas. but this is just… LOL
Dude I have been saying that Avatar is a Pocahontas rip-off ever since it came out but I could not have said it more hilariously than this picture. You are truly awesome!!
You have to admit being shot by giant poison arrows in the throat is a lot more epic than being brought to justice.
Most of disney’s stuff is ripped-off as well, and still they are the ones that sue everyone, so they might smack avatar as well.
the movie is a lie.
|the kid|
The cake is, too.
|shadow|
:O the cake is not a lie
EPIC WIN!!
is this fail? this is a win ^^
This reminds me of the parallels between Star Wars and Eragon. I mean, “Evil imperium versus good rebellion”, “farmer boy gets his parents killed, learns by a former dragon rider/jedi that he is special blah blah” and “epic battle between the evil leader of the imperium and said boy in the end”. And there is more.
Pocahontas was a real person, who inspired many stories, books, and movies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocahontas
Definitely a win as far as I’m concerned. It only makes me sad that this story still needs to be told because people haven’t gotten the memo!
Avatar sucks. Really.
And Avatar is genial. The plot appears in many places, but nowadays is almost impossible to have new ideas.
No it’s not. The original script of Avatar was genial, but there is nothing special about the movie aside from pretty graphics. The characters were unrealistic, and the plot was laughably predictable. The only unpredictable thing was just how much of Jake’s god-modding the movie could take.
This photo shows what all of us thought when saw Avatar, but no one had uploaded to internet till now XD
The script for Avatar was actually released and circulated at the same time as Titanic.
Now, Titanic came out in 1997, but production started in 1995. This means the script was out, what, a year before then, so 1994.
Pocahontas was released in 1995. Which means the script for Avatar was written about the same time as Pocahontus was being made, and before any release of that script occurred.
The reason Avatar was not made 15 year ago was they didn’t believe that they had the technology to give the film credit – which is true. It’s a stunning film.
So, the likelihood is that it is not a copy of Pocahontus, but more likely something that was written in the trend of the time… as you may notice, even today, loads of films get released in trends… we’re just coming out a Vampire one, and heading into a Post-Apocalypse session.
You and everyone else making this argument has failed to see the piont. Pocahontus was a REAL story about the colonization of North America, so history fail on all of you. That was the point of this fail. Old story, even older than film, with a political statement added (see comments made by Cameron himself), and you have a great cgi with a lame plot.
Dude.. He is comparing Disney’s Pocahontus plot (1995) and Avatar…
We all know Pocahontus was real, but the story in disney’s movie is not real. They changed it so it is more like a fairy tale..
Why AVATAR was/is Awsome!
1) He made shitload’s of money with it, even though it’s a bit of a repeated story. = WIN
2) Disney is jealous, and so in a clever counter move recruit millions of people to complain about how awfull the movie was even though they secretly did enjoy looking at it as well. = WIN
(Since pissing Disney off is the second most honourable thing for a human to achieve)
(the other is buying a cheezburger for ur lolcat)
3) Avatar was a good movie and there should be more focus on other movies which are crap… Featuring highly disabled glittering vampires who keeping complaining they bleed out of their Butt-hole.
Avatar: Win
Bleedin butt Vampires: Fail
+1
How is making a shit load of money a sign of quality? Titanic sucked. Avatar is passable only due to the 3D. JC has a high school level writing ability and his dialog sounds like somebody in grade nine wrote it – predictable. HE can’t write so he go over the top with explosions and ‘weaponry’. GI Joe meets the off spring of a smurf & jar jar binks.
It’s also the plot of Dances With Wolves…and…and…
It’s how you tell the story, and Avatar did a beautiful job.
Good thing I wasn’t making any plans to go watch this movie any time soon.
I’m with you, let’s go get a beer.
LOLOLOL,
FAIL
srsly tho… he is stoled from all those european settlers, give us our commission for creating a story line for this bitch.
omnum vagina
yea, the exact same can be done with Disney’s Aladdin
do you like vagina too?
James Cameron never tried to hide the fact that his story is based on Pocahontas. He even says so, flat out, in interviews. It is an intentional reinterpertation. It’s not a Plot Fail, it’s a Reimagination Win.
Agreed. I quite liked the movie. Can’t understand all the ripping, the movie was said to be revolutionary for it’s effects, not it’s storyline.
This movie also reminded me of the game Borderlands, both were on the planet Pandora for mining and the mind link reminded me of the teleport system. I kept expecting a Skag to come out and the first time I saw the dragon thing I thought “look is a Rak”.
Totally best movie ever. People forget that it’s not the originality of the story that matters, it’s the way you present it.
IMHO, James Cameron epically won with Avatar. Those of you who think otherwise can go back to your realistic, original, uninteresting crap movies.
(truth)
Avatar=AWESOME
(/truth)
Phew. That’s good to know. ‘Cause I have this idea for a movie… I think it will be a hit:
A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away: a poor, ten-year-old, farm boy has a seemingly impossible dream: he wants to be the next Moképon trainer. But, sadly, he realizes he does not have enough Mokébucks to buy the required Mokéballs (they’re made of unobtainium, and are thus very Moké-expensive). But when the evil Darth Rocket blows up his house, he is taken in by his Uncle Ken, who gives him his first Moképon and teaches him to use the Schwartz to control it. There are also some fancy, glowy swords somewhere. And maybe an elf. Anyway, after being trained in the ways of the Schwartz, and Moképon, the boy (name: Duke Pierunner) ultimately overthrow the evil Darth Rocket, and Duke becomes a Moké-Jedi knight. And it will, of course, be presented beautifully, because that’s what matters.
I’m gonna be rich.
*gets in ticket line*
Don’t forget to put in a nice montage or two.
Just remember, PLEASE DON’T EVER MAKE THE THREE PREQUELS.
shit that is awesome. You make me laugh man. Perfect slam!!
+99999999999999
I haven’t really seen anyone say that Avatar was a bad movie… We are all discussing the paralells of the plots of them… Jeeze.
Grandmother Willow -> The Tree of Souls = The Old Willow Tree of Souls?
Whoever wrote this made up stuff about Pocahontas and John Smith to exaggerate similarities with Avatar. Want examples?
1. Historical record never shows a relationship between Pocahontas and John Smith.
2. Pocahontas was never promised for marriage to Kocoum, and later married John Rolfe and had a kid with him.
3. The settlers never attacked the natives for gold. Just something else that was made up.
Nice try.
It was comparing THE DISNEY MOVIE to Avatar, not the actual historical event.
Hardcore fail d00d. Get in the conversation: Watch the Disney film. Then watch Avatar. Then tell me they are not (basically) the same story. I personally love them both… but they are very very parallel.
I think the bigger fail is admitting you saw Disney’s Pocahontas. Just how old are you d00d?
I knew it all the time! D:
oh wtf this is nothing new! in the avatar story, cameron wrotes everything what he had liked when he was young, also the pocahontas story! so that sh**-paper have nothing to do with “fail” !?
While this may be true, Avatar was written in 1994 and Pocahantas was released in 1995, the same year that the script for Avatar was leaked. So technically, Avatar wins.
Apart from the story of Pocahontas is way older than the film. In fact… isn’t it a true story?
Nope. The movie Pocahantas really has nothing to do with historical events… The names are the same and nothing else. Oh, and there were boats… yes, definately a few boats. The argument here is that the plots of the movies are similar, because what happened in real life doesn’t resemble either movie at all.
Not that great a fail…sure, there’s tonso similarities between the two, but the original text here was probably written by the person who submitted it, deliberately in a way to point out all the similarities. Would have been funnier if it had accidentally looked so similar.
(“Just before they kill him, the settlers arrive” ? o_O)
Not getting this fail.
And isn’t going to other planets a rip off of Star Trek and/or Lost in Space?
Isn’t Star Trek a rip off from Fritz Lang’s Frau im Mond?
How is this a fail???????
Things I’ve heard Avatar compared to (and I agree with all of them): The Matrix meets The Last Samurai, Dances with Smurfs, and now Pocahontas.
FernGully!!!
I agree that it seems similar. However, the biggest difference between Avatar and Pocahontas is……Avatar wasn’t a waste of my time and money.
I have to admit. I thought I would only like Avatar from a visual perspective (iMAX 3D motion capture) but when I saw it I also liked the story. Thats not to say that I thought the story was original in any way. I immediately recognized that this plot had been done a million times, James Cameron made it work in Pandora though. Although where they lose major points is in any attempt to make it original. Many things were just completely uncreative.
“Hmmmmmmmmm what should we call the unobatainable resource after which the settlers are after?”…. “How about unobtainium!!!”…..”You sir are a freaking genious”
I took that as a ‘background’ joke.. making the whole thing more symbolic. Like: that man is always after some ‘unobtanium’, and will do anything to get it….
Where may i find the whole story of Pocahontas on only 1 page ?? LOL, just here.
That means the joker here made a summary of Avatar. Then removed the words from the Avatar story to use Pocahontas expression, and then bar them and put back Avatar words outside the rows of the text to make look Avatar as a copy of Pocahontas.
One of the proof is that Tsu’tey did try to kill Suli, but after he allied himself to him, which didnt happen in Pocahontas.
Oh and, in Avatar, there were scientists and military units who rebelled against their own army, and in Avatar, army is working for private enterprises, not governments.
Headshot, your joke doesnt work
Angry rant is angry, Alexandre.
Just to point out, the soldiers in Pocahontas were working for the Virginia Company, not specifically the British government.
agrees
Yeah, the only things I thought of when I saw Avatar was Pocahontas and The Last Samurai. Lol observation win.
Actually, win – the movie was *supposed* to be a metaphor for the European colonisation of the Americas.
-Z
my opinion thats a WIN
I know, right?
how has no-one mentioned the talking-old-lady willow tree in both films?
ah wait, scratch that…
the entire time i was watching avatar, i was thinking that exact same thing
This one is bogus…
Of course they are the same movie.
So is;
Dances with wolves
The last Samurai
and 1356 other movies.
I actually went through and counted. Not counting The Last Samurai and Dances With Wolves, there are 1,204 other movies with plotlines similar to that of Pocahontas and Avatar. Thought you ought to know.
Y’all know that Avatar’s script was made before Pocahontas was even thought of. It’s script was like 1991. It’s a pocahontas fail.
The only difference is that Pocahontas is based on a true story and there was even a movie made 1953..
but the pocahontas movie isnt at all the true story. they (poca. and smith) never met as far as we know.
It’s called the “great white messiah” they abound.
they are both different stories and if u saw the movie u’d know that i’m kinda getting sick of these threads about comparing avatar to other movies because u can do that to every single freakin’ movie ever made gosh it’s getting old =/ it’s a good movie so give it a break
did no one else notice the similarities to Tarzan as well??
This fail was a waste of time
yeah – why not just do a remake – like the upcoming 39th edition of Robin Hood? That’s OK – right? Just remake a movie for the hundreth time. But if you change it around a little – then – whoa! STINKER! :rolleyes:
I think it’s more that he was trying to make it seem original than it wasn’t. The merit of remakes is that they’re honest about what they are.
Avatar is a good, fun film. What it lacks in story it more than makes up for in visual stunning. I took my kids to see it and they couldn’t stop talking about it. Not couldn’t, wouldn’t. When I was six, I remember thinking that Raider’s of the Lost Ark was made just for me. That’s why movies are made in the first place.
How many NAZI fell in love with jewish ? Fighting back the nazi army ?
And Pocahontas really existed, as the powatans. Powatans are the indians who saved americans by giving them turkeys when americans were dying of hunger when they arrived in america. Then Americans thanked them by shooting them.
History knowledge fail.
Pics or it didn’t happen. The Nazi traitors, I mean. I thought the ability to dehumanize the jewish was a major requirement to be a Nazi. Could you maybe give one example of a Nazi marrying a jewish person?
They were still British as that point in time.
Do you have a flag?
No flag no country… new rules.
That I just made up.
And can back up with this gun! That was loaned to me by the NRA.
Going through the comments I noticed that no one mentioned the possible Science-Fiction roots of Avatar.
In this case when I saw the movie I clearly saw in the movie Alan Dean Foster’s Midworld from 1974 and LeGuin’s novella The Word for World is Forest. I esspecially notice the uncany similarities to Midworld. Esspeicailly as in Midworld the trees are connected and their is some sort of global intelligence that the natives can commune with. Also like Midworld the natives are very human like. (In fact they are modified humans) I suspect the same in Avatar. Well I could go on.
The plot in Avatar is similar too the two novels, in that in the end the natives use their ability to understand and use the world they live in to destroy and drive out the settlers exploiting their world. Also the scene with the plants that rapidly retreat when touched is an almost perfect copy of a description in Midworld.
Did anyone else notice some of the direct scene to scene correlations?
Example: The “showing you our way of life” montage had several scenes that were directly lifted from the “Colors of the Wind” montage.
In random news, the “hot topic” has almost 2,500 posts. And has successfully made me angry at myself for clicking “Notify me of follow up comments via e-mail”
No, that’s a win.
Hey, kid! Yeah, youse. Ya wanna buy a plot? Come on, everybody’s doin’ it. You’ll get rich, an’ famous, an’ all dat otha junk. You’ll feel on top of da world! Cmon, first one free? Awright, I’ll be lookin’ fer further business wit ya. Later, kid. (/End shady plot-dealer dialogue.)
Didn’t I see that in a movie once?
Not a movie I know of.
That was a joke.
That was playing along, but alright.
Also Fern Gully and Dances With Wolves.
Needs a bit of changing around at the end, though. The chief and “not-so-to-be” hunk are flip flopped in Avatar…
This is funny, though…really. Nice one, realizing the parallel.
If you see southpark’s “Dances with Smurfs” you know whats going to happen most of the movie!(I saw it yesteryday) also in my book this is more of a win.
if you really think about it, all plots come from the story of Christ. One comes back to save the people and blah blah specially the matrix.
Right…as if there were no stories before Christianity. Don’t you realize that Christianity is a shameless rip-off of stories from much earlier?
That, sir, deserves an epic win!
I thought the story was a little familiar…
Oh a lot of fail.
Wow. It’s hard to wade through all the trolls on the weekends.
*sigh*
Isn’t it obvious, someone filled in his mad-libs paper, so he had to cross it off and redo it.
Slightly OT:
Why isn’t there a “Retun to Bottom” link on the blog? I think the PTB are definitely top-ist.
just put Jesus in a conversation, and a can of worms are opened. no wonder they killed the guy.
but yeah, I think the story of the savior is a story copied by other earlier stories for sure. I don’t think they had copy rights back then, thats why NEO can save us now!!!!
off course, the story of savior was written before the actual savior came, or will come (for the jews).
You will see how in avatar II he comes back again in human form to save the sky people, but then he is killed by the blue man group for not using INTEL and using an Apple instead. Then a whole revolution starts with the iCoholics and iPeeps and the iRish, over religious control of wasEarth and iMoon.
Ironic, this is exactly what my husband said about the movie after he saw it with a friend. I wasn’t interested in it because I expected it to be a bleeding-heart green-leafer movie. Turns out, I was correct.
it’s much more than that, i didn’t care for pocahontas at all but Avatar was amazing, the general story line while similar had many differences that made the movie very fun to watch
lmfao!
Just so much to say.. I think it has probably been said tho. Lol how can you not hit this with something funny? lol
this isn’t a fail. this is an epic win.
ITS STILL AWESOME! YOU CAN”T CHANGE THAT!
but netyri is blue and pocahontas is red…
Politics politics politics.
I had already been calling it “Dances with Wolves III: In Space.” But actually, Pocahontas might be a better fit =p
actually it’s even closer to fern gully.
1. Watch any random movie
2. Watch another movie
3. Write your own 1 page summary that fits both stories best
4. Add handwriting to make changes for the second movie
5. Call it FAIL
For example, Die Hard with a Vengeance was just the same as Star Wars.
Luke/McClane fights Bad Guys/Evil Empire and saves Wife/Princess.
FAIL
Sounds like you’re asspained about your favorite movie being a rip-off of Pocahontas
1) Hero fights on larger dominant team, 2) Hero has enemy encounter & change of heart, 3) Hero tries persuading his own team not to attack enemy, 4) Hero’s team doesn’t listen and attacks enemy anyway, 5) Hero joins enemy, now allies, to fight against his own team, 6) Death/Destruction/Sacrifice, 7) Final Battle,
Hero prevails and stays with enemies, which are now life-long allies.
- This is a ball-park story observation that was easy to guess less than halfway through watching AVATAR, and that’s not a compliment.
- The only good thing I saw was ultra-detailed CGI and special effects.
Im hungry.
I am so glad someone else pointed this out. These 15 and under kids on here haven’t lived enough to understand that there is no such thing as an original idea-everything has been done, redone, and redone before. LOL…just because you realized that some movie you saw has a similar plot as something else does not mean you had an epiphany! Movies repeat themselves. Music repeats itself. History repeats itself. Pick up a newspaper from 40 years ago and and the stories are the same as today. Anyone out of their teeny years understands this, but I guess many of you will have to wait a few years to realize this.
Saying “IT’S ALL BEEN DONE BEFORE” is true until you get to the sheer elements of story writing.
- It’s easy to do a movie with an original plot / story…Just know your history of cinema, literature and actual historical events, AND THEN DON’T F%$#IN COPY IT. Do something truly original, or at least ‘more’ original.
EXAMPLE: 1) protagonist dies, 2) antagonist lives…those two simple ideas can lead a story to some fairly original places, if the writer is keen on styles of story progression.
I love that song
Jake Sully becomes leader of Na’vi and unites them in a war against his own species.
FAIL, John Smith didn’t do that.
Bah. Totally showing this to my friends, I said that they were alike when I saw the trailer and none of them believed it. This will prove my point.
Avatar was such an amazing movie! I guess it was kinda based on Pocahontas but seriously who cares? I saw it three times in the theaters and I really want a sequel. The best info I could find was this, scope it out: http://www.kaycircle.com/index.php?q=What-is-the-avatar-2-release-date
If anyone has more info, post it!
You smell.
captain obvious strikes again. “fail” fail.
Thanks, everyone, for all the laughs! Reading the comments here was much more enjoyable than watching Avatar (or anything by James Cameron, or any movie that thinks substituting graphics for a storyline is acceptable) would have been.
I guess I owe y’all $15 or so… except I don’t really pay for content.
Observation Win.
Avatar is the fusion between Pocahontas and Command&Conquer Tiberian Sun
What you all people don’t know, is that Avatar’s plot was created by James Cameron much sooner than Pocahontas’ ! He imagined this story when he was 14. So stop criticizing please !
And I created the Plot of Titanic when I was 10.
Pocahontas is about a true story.
You think a Disney movie is factual? HAHAHAHAH, that’s the best laugh I’ll have all week.
obviously a win…
Avatar Plot Fail. Been saying exactly same stuff for ages now but ‘no Avatar is so groundbreaking’. So WIN to whoever did this
Avatar is only ground-breaking visually. It would be fun just to shut off the sound and insert your own dialogue (but I guess that’s been done before, too).I won’t criticize the plot–there aren’t that many new plots in the world (or evidently out of this world), but the dialogue was crap.
The plot was bad and rehashed (but how many plots are there in the world–or out of it?); the dialogue was worse. Visually, it was interesting, beautiful, even, but I found myself bored and knowing what would happen. Not exactly a complicated story but fun if you’re 12 or under.
funny thing
Also avatar has a lot of similarities with atlantis, the disney movie. just sayin
wow, there is actually a bigger similarity between Avatar and Atlantis than with Avatar in Pocahontas, i guess everyone is talking about Pocahontas because of the big major point, a larger powerful planet trying to run out a small indigenous population for something as unnecessary as gold or a new metal. And that is most recognizable in the Indians vs. Settlers stories.
This is exactly the same observation that my wife and I made when we saw it. A very expensive Pocahontas remake.
I know that the story is far from original, but firstly, consider the fact that the Avartar was written by James Cameron fifteen years ago – five years before DIsney’s Pocahontas.
The point is not to be original, it is to explore the science fiction genre in a deeper and more reflective way… and of cause to create a half billion dollar blast of an action adventure with revolutionary special effects and CGI!
You do realize that Pocahontas is a true story that happened nearly 400 years ago right?
But the Pocahontas true story is not at all like Disney’s Pocahontas story. Historically there is no documentary evidence that Pocahontas ever met John Smith, other than his diary, which was found after John Rolfe had met her and married her. There is a large debate going on in the historical community about whether John Smith jumped on the bandwagon so to speak or if he ever did actually meet her. Which in his diary it was only in the fact she saved his life from being killed. But not because they knew each other or any of that Disney nonsense.
So obviously photoshopped.
I find this funny.
Even if the plots are almost identical, James Cameron has been working on this story for years. He’s planning on making sequels BECAUSE he has a whole STORY worked out in his head. He just wanted to see how successful Avatar was.
Even if it was almost identical to Pocahontas, this movie was WAY better, and had a lot of underlying themes. You can actually relate to the characters, feel the emotion that’s being portrayed. Probably one of the best movies to come out recently.
And those who are saying that the plot is similar to a many different things you’re seen, read, or heard about…who cares?
Let’s see any of you write a story that is completely and utterly original where the plot, characters, objects (plants, landforms, etc) and such are in no way similar to ANY other plots, characters, and objects in ANY way.
Do something that hasn’t been done before in any way, and then you can criticize and say it’s a terrible movie.
So, in order to criticize something, I first have to be able to do it myself? If I go out to eat and am served a steaming pile of shit, do I have to eat if because I, myself, am not a cook?
There are original stories out there. The fact that terrible movies like this and others can make a single dollar back makes me sad for humanity.
Wow, lighten up Kevin! Not every movie has to be Acadamy Award material. Movies can be for uplifting intellectual stimulation (not many of those) or mindless escapism (majority). Or they can be for any number of things in between. If it takes someone away from the BS of their existence, why should that make you sad for humanity. Heck, people used to pay movie prices to see laser light shows, Avatar is no worse than that.
How one cares to be entertained is one’s own business.
No my friend there really aren’t original stories out there… That is what makes me sad.
So funny! Total fail!
C’mon, this is James Cameron. Remember what he did with “It sank”?
OBSERVATION WIN
Avatar is realy good films….
In your country Avatar watch in 3d???
I Am Legend 2 will be at cinema?
Sorry:^_^
What chats at you is?
Avatar was a great film. and btw. in about one day this FAIL has got over 500 comments? wow awesome! spare time fail. XD jokin.
Very cool post.
lol @ everyone whining about a movie because it’s better than all others.
No, it’s getting all this crap because it got sucked into the culture wars-and perhaps it had it coming.
My comment to my wife as I walked out was “that was a Dune ripoff, just subtract water and replace ‘Spice’ with ‘inobtainium’ and subtract water” and my second was “I wished the movie had used something other than humans as the invaders because now Rush is going to be all over this.” I would have preferred that Avatar rip off the Psychlos (BTW, Battlefield Earth – same story except the humans on the “getting” end of the stick) or the Vogons rather than have it stir the partisan feces like it is now.
Anyhow, the backlash really has nothing to do with the quality of Avatar and everything to do with the right wing wackos being all bent because the left wing wackos make most the movies – except for Ronald Reagan and Arnold I guess. So, now they are attacking it from every possible angle. If they didn’t like the “message” it would just be another pretty movie with a recycled plot they would ignor.
By the way, I thought hand-edited plot was a hoot even though I enjoyed watching Avatar for the 3-D show. I find it equally annoying that people can’t laugh at something like that just because they thought Avatar was a piece of cinematic genius.
Even if it was, is that any reason it should be spared a little satire? Of course not!
:d
OMG! I totally learned the greatest moral from Avatar: white people are evil and will kill/destroy/exploit anything they can.
Thanks!
For f*ck sake.
Avatar was written in 1994. Pocahontas was first released in cinemas in 1995. Great minds think alike.
I think the bigger fail is being older than 23, having no kids, and admitting you saw Disney’s Pocahontas.
Or older than 14 if you’re a male.
win
Yeah there are similarities, but the order in which the events occured are not all the same .. the would be blue husband didnt due until almost the end .. also where is the vertibird pilot chick in Pocahontas .. you can find similarities from just about any move and an older film …
note i am also not saying avatar didnt rip off .. most of the creatures or human vehicles were taken from a movie or video game.
All in all its still a good movie worth watching
Clearly, the winning point of Avatar was the technology that was used to transpose actor muscle and body movements onto an animated screen. In this respect, the film was a great success.
I am sure that if this technology had been combined with a more original story than a hish-hash of “Pocahontas plot”, it could have been a exceptionally great movie.
HAHAHAHA!!! The exact same goddamned story…ROFLMFAO!!!
I honestly liked Avatar. The details and thought that went into making the entire world of the movie make up for the partially stolen plot line. I’ve seen it three times.
I don’t care how parallel the story is…as long as the environmental morals embedded in the movie are brought to the mainstream audience wrapped in the package of an emotionally moving story that would otherwise maybe fail to be recognized by ignorant consumerists busy w/self entertainment.
Nicely done, whoever-did-the-above-paper. I loved Avatar.
they used failblog to resolve their differences?
FAIL. In avatar, eytucan dies before tsu-tey.
fuuuuuuuuckkkk sheeeeeeet
I PICK COTTON
I PICK COTTON
I think Avatar is a pretty cool guy. eh kills aleins and doesn’t afraid of anything
We’ve been repeating stories for thousands of years. Just look at all of the religions. People just like good stories, so what if they’re retold – they always are. If someone else can bring it to us in a beautiful fashion and changing the names, good, it feels new!
matt bateman goes to my school, im pretty sure its the same guy considering he would do something like that
Hi. I don’t know any Amys.
I agree. It’s so predictable.
Lol’d so hard. I spent the hour after my family left the theartre trying to convince my mom that the movie was not a beautifully animated simple environmental awareness story, but in fact a beautifully animated crappy Pocohontas ripoff.
Maybe Ney’tiri will marry another Avatar like a slut as Pocahontas did.
avatar best movie forever
haha i agree with someone up there, reading the comments is alot more entertaining than reading the actual post itself.
i learned alot, as i never had to study philosophy in my coll.
and im from malaysia, and the movie tickets for avatar cost 7 bucks on a wednesday, so essentially i watched it for 1.40 Euros. or 1.16 Pounds.
so it wasnt a waste of cash to me as i can barely buy anything else for that amount.
but that aside, i did like the movie. sure it was super draggy in some parts, but overall the live in the jungle and run free feeling was quite prevalent and i liked that.
p.s. does anyone here play dota? cause the Ikran really looks like the Faerie Dragon hero. i half expected it to shoot an orb or something.
win
no one ever said the themes were original. The movie just stretches them out. Hell, dancing with wolves is no different.
That was quite funny actually haha. I want to see Avatar but maybe I’ll just go watch Pocahantas (ignore horrible spelling if I got that wrong) instead!
It’s cool that everyone is finding connections with plots that are the same in Avatar in the comments page. The biggest connection I found when I watched it was that it was a ‘Green Movie’.
Seriously, how many green movies at the moment involve no more plants on planet earth? Let’s take for example Wall-E: Humans leave planet Earth because they’ve ruined it. The only way they could come back was when it was finally capable of surporting life again.
The connection?
James Sully mentions that where he comes from there is no more green and no mother because it had died.
But this line in the movie made me think of one thing: Hasn’t Cameron heard of National Parks?! Geez….
It also featured other features of a ‘Green Movie’ such as the natives being tree huggers. Since when had hippies became cool?
————————–
I also found it had some connection to movies like ‘Alien’ when the only way of traveling the universe was to freeze your body while you were travelling…
And I’m sure that floating mountian stuff isn’t original either.
Errrr…. I thought the theme of the movie was colonization????
Destroying another civilization’s heritage and claiming it as their own????
And this is why Avatar and James Cameron Suck… what a horrible movie.
nothing origional anymore. everything will resemble something previously done. regardless Avatar is the greatest concentration of awesome in the history of earth. and thats still while spread over 2 hours 40 minutes.
im tempted to curse at the person that did this. they’re opinion is valid, however much i hate them for it.
Well, despite the fact that you have to somewhat mangle the two-and-a-half-hour plot to fit it into the bracket, what we’ve basically learned is that James Cameron has taken a classical story and given it awesome visuals, an amazing score, aliens and mecha. I don’t…really see how that is actually a fail.
STOP WHINING
hahha so true. it’s like if the tarzan company decided to play pocahontas in blue outfits
This is true in some ways. But, in the big scheme of things there are only certain number of main plots to a story. This is far from a FAIL. The real fail is that someone made this annotated picture. 3D has never been this good before, Cameron is not only showing us a good story with a new twist, but also what technology we have for movies today.
hear hear Dave
Took my boys to Avatar and I hated it but didn’t want to diss the movie in case they they liked. My oldest son then said “that was a cross between Disney’s Pocahontas and Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth”. Seems like other people saw the same lame plot similarities. Cameron couldn’t hide a bad story within his visual effects. I’d rather see a movie with a good story and no FX.
Did anyone actually went to see avatar expecting a story? It was marketed as a “special effects only” movie, so why should it mean anything? Lame-ass movie
n1
I’m last by now. Yay.
They are similar… they are both based on events that happened in American history
That’s pretty awesome. I guess when you think about it, the two stories are pretty similar.
Man, you got to it first but the second I seen the preview to this movie I said it looks like a Pocahontas movie with a little bit of smerf’s mixed in. mainly a Pocahontas movie rip off lol
How is this fail?!?!? This is EPIC WIN!!!
It is indeed a fail… so is you cheese fan
!
This kicks ass
That was disappointing. I liked that movie.
The only people who seriously enjoyed this film are fanboys who wank to neytiri screenshots…
Dances With Wolves much?
And don’t forget: A movie is a hole. The universe, the plot, the actors, the FX, etc…
We already know the plot source and the actors……and for the universe landscapes…check VUE software.
ahaha!LOL
haha…never thought about the connection until you pointed it out..
Hahaha I realized that both stories were almost the same like the first time I see the trailer while i was waiting for 2012 and yes, this is the epic win of the new decade.
PS: Waiting for Kick-Ass
bet it works better with dances with wolves
ItS SeEeM oK!!!
I didn’t think it was that bad. Sure it repeats a story line, but come on what story now a day doesn’t??
Lmao I’m sure this has been said….. but the only fail here is that it took you so long to think of this…. people have been sayin this Pocahontas crap since before the movie came out
and the same thing can be done for nearly every movie out there…. In short You are as unoriginal as the story you are calling “Fail”
FAIL
-Chris
AHAHAHAHAHA LMAO!!!!!!!! I have the reason!! Avatar its like Pocahontas with marcians!!!!!
john smith returns to england….
Then Pocahontas leaves him for some other guy when she goes to england. Oh god I’m admitting to seeing the sequel. It basically ruined my dreams.
I actually found it to be much closer to Dances With Wolves than Pocahontas, only it ended the way that Dances With Wolves SHOULD have ended. Anyway, there’s no such thing as an ORIGINAL PLOT, it’s all been done before in one way or another. It’s how you TELL the story that makes it different and interesting, plus all of the LITTLE details that you change in the telling.
Up In the Air, 9, Lovely Bones, I’m sorry but there are PLENTY of ORIGINAL plots.
and IMO, even the 3D wasn’t that good unless you accept that 9ft tall beings with carbon-fiber bones still have no weight, and move their fingers and toes as if they were made out of liquid soap.
BTW, why does a Robot Suit need a robot knife? Doesn’t Quaritch have to say “THAT’S a knife!”, like Crocodile Dundee?
“Unobtanium”, spare me….FAIL fail FAIL
Because this person is the first to notice the same basic plot used over and over, lol. It was still a kick ass movie whether or not the plot was reused, it’s done all the time just with better graphics each time.
dreamwalking and fairy tales story
…and the failblog.org resolved their differences.
lol when i was watching avatar i was thinking ‘this reminds me of pocahontas’ especially cos of that tree
I honestly cant believe any of you think your so brilliant for seeing this relation.
“facepalm”
You forgot one other story to combine it with. The story of Tecumseh, how he rallies tribes from all over the nation to fight against the common enemy. Same deal, a man tempted by one who is not his race as well. Unfortunately Tecumseh did not win in his battle for his tribal lands in Ohio and Kentucky. It’s only plot fail if you don’t see the real message, quit worshipping machines and connect with Nature.
Just goes to show you: write a good plot and it can be retold throughout the ages.
Fail for the plot, but an incredibly epic win for catching it.
Ditto that.
agreed. lol.
And the Failblog.org resolve their diferences lol !
it’s strethcing a bit….. but it fits. I suppose its a typical story line. But Avatar was a great film. Let’s be constructive. There were no cool enormous and flyable terradactle’s nor 9 foot tall carbon fiber alien’s in Pocahontas.
I watched 5 minutes of the movie and totally had a Pocahontas meets Pokemon feeling!
it’s more like pocahontas meets final fantasy. I mean seriously, the monsters, the plants, the toruk is most likely a version of bahamut, flying rocks appear in final fantasy 12.
At the first 5 minutes of the film action, I was feeling like it was a like another star wars movie thing. needless to say, ideas seems like its just rotating at this point for movie directors. Just cut the guy some slack and let go to the postscripts.
The plot – totally recycled. Pocahontas meets Fern Gully. However, seeing it in 3-D made up for all of the tired plot points.
oh! i’m sick to read that plot…
camera…. action….!
Observation WIN. Definitely.
funny my thoughts exactly…
Definitely Observation win. Avatar was an epic win, despite the predictable plot. Nothing will ever change that.
too true, i guess.
my friend and i were talking about that the entire film. plus, there is an element of eragon and tarzan in it, too…
I was thinking the same exact thing after I saw this movie
Its not a coincedence that the two are alike, Avatar is an allegory(a parallel story) of when people came to America to look for gold.
Observation fail!
It’s obviously Dances with Space Wolves. Duh!
JESUS i had no i dea how close Pochahontis and Avatar were
Those asswipes ripped off of Disney! Or did they? *Ponders*
We-ell… I liked it. Plot notwithstanding, it was a beautiful movie with OK characters (if a little cliche) and good sci-fi elements.
And I LOVED Sherlock Holmes. No, it may not have been 100% Sir Conan Doyle, but it was a damn good movie in its own right.
I work at a movie theatre where the average expectancy is 300 people – not per show, but per day, and Avatar, without fail, sells out at least twice a weekend for a month now.
There’s a few layers of meaning in Avatar, and you have to peel them back to realize it’s complete garbage at its core.
At first, the human dialogue seems stupid and their motivations shallow. They’re after unobtanium? Really? And they have a science vessel, where all of their science takes place? But then, if you think about it, this was done on purpose. See, the point is actually that we, as human beings are destroying the earth for no good reason.
Then you think about that, and realize that that’s utter bullshit. We’re destroying the earth for lots of good reasons. We’re destroying it to build roads and run society, and make sick people less sick, and create progress, and continue along on our path towards a brighter future. Greed is just one of the many reasons the rain forest gets chopped down. Of course, none of this changes the fact that we are destroying our planet and we need to stop, but the truth is humans are more complicated than that.
So, sure, an environmentalist who likes to keep things easy might drive their oil powered car up the paved highway to the giant, multi-screen theater and wear their plastic 3D goggles through the movie and at the end say “Man, they are so right!” But if Cameron wanted to change minds he failed, because anyone with half a brain is going to say to themselves, “This isn’t about me. I don’t destroy the environment for some nameless rock. I’m simply trying to pave the world’s roads or keep the cars running, or build theaters, or make plastic for 3D goggles.”
Also, Holmes was amazing and, while changed slightly from the books, still very true to the Doyle character, who was never some passive intellectual, but an active adventurer who used his brain to solve problems.
Someone’s thought too much about this
walruss for best comment – PASS!
(I wrote about Avatar, on-camera acting, and bad movies lately.)
I like turtles.
James Cameron wrote an 80 page script for Avatar in 1994 planning it to be released in 1998 after Titanic, but he had to wait for technology to catch up. Pocohontas was a 1995 film.
Besides Avatar is epic win.
Its True tho, me and my mate was saying its just a rip of Poch’.
lol. just the Avatar has made few million $$$’s more lol.
Oh sure, only a few more… Makes you wonder where Disney went wrong. xD
Avatar is a beautiful piece of crap. Shine it up all you want and it’s still a piece of crap. A lot of time/money/effort was spent on the impressive visuals which were combined with predictable dialogue wrapped around tried and tested formulaic plot devices. Which means that this film will never be remembered as great but will make a big profit.
It will be remembered, sorry about telling you that.
Yup, it will definitely be remembered.
still beautiful, best effects ever, specially on 3d.
Well, Avatar might not be original (really similiar to Pochaontas or Lion King (think about it) and even a few more “Disney” arround) but it is indeed a great movie with a perfect way to imerse the spectators into the story and the world of Pandora, that is something to hail J.C. for his work!
By the way, where in Avatar does Nayriti comes to save Jake Sully?
The movie is a closeup of Pochaontas story but after the first atack of the “settlers” there is not very much in common…
Whatever you can say you will never be able to take the merit from James Cameron and time will tell that…
He did a great movie you like it or not!
He steals all of his screenplays–almost verbatim. Titanic was direct ripoff from a night to remember.
Oh man, I watched Pocahontas over my winter break, then saw Avatar just last week and I’m sooo glad to know I’m not crazy for thinking they were exactly the same! xD
By the way, despite everyone saying it sucked for that, I still liked it. Personally, I though it was great and it deserves the praise it is getting.
me too
ANY WAY LOVEEEEEEEE MORE AVATAR THAN POCAHONTAS
seen it twice!!! and can;t wait for the dvd.
agreed
and these days what movie is original, always the same plot. Please!!!
thats… skary
Well..
let’s not leave out the part where it copies Jarassic Park.. because I saw some dinosaurs there… and the matrix, because really, Jake’s hooked up to a machine living in a somewhat pretend world… and Michael Jackson’s ” Earth song” video, because the tree destruction scene looked pretty jacked… and the smurfs, because the Na’vi are blue.. and Final Fantasy, because those sky people and creepy animal battle scenes.. and hey! didn’t they use bow and arrows in LotR? Didn’t J.R.R. Tolkien also make up elvish? I hear the Na’vi language is made up… James Cameron, you fool!
And what about any romantic comedy, where boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back… ” The ugly truth”, ” She’s all that”, ” the wedding date”, ” 10 things I hate about you”… wow.. you’re right. This movie is Shit! James Cameron didn’t even invent 3D!!! He Copied the polar express or IMAX or someone else!! He even copied himself for using Sigourney Weaver!
Observation win, for observation fail, for avatar plot fail…. emmm
thumps up bro, nothing’s original nowdays, whats makes it original is how u paste the pieces together
Oh and Disney didn’t write Pocohantas, it’s a true story.
*cough* Taken from Roger Ebert *cough*
For being ‘Ferngully with Guns’ this movie was pretty good!
James Cameron admitted that the concept was not original but the visual detail that the movie offered was well done. I truly enjoyed how different yet detailed Pandora was.
no wonder the “Avatar” movie sucked-it was based off of “Pocahontas”
Yeah, before Avatar came out, my friend was telling me the whole plot and I said “POCAHONTAS!?” But I watched Avatar anyways and I loooooved it.
Hey, nobody noticed the resemblance to DUNE? Outworlder attains messiah status on planet being devastated by hostiles after valuable resources. Said messiah leads heretofore dangerous native creatures in successful defense against the hostiles. Both contain much environmental & anti-technology propagandizing.
P.S. … and messiah gets the alien girl.
Sorry, Den, I missed your reference to Dune.
lol i hope it doesn’t win an oscar for best picture, but gets all the technical awards cos those graphics were awesome, story = pocahontas
AVATAR 3D is amazing, stop hatting because all of you enjoed it when you watched it. Losers!
Shouldn’t Cameron pay a FAT FINE for violating Copyright issues to the Pocahontas writer?
He didn’t even bother changing the main character’s initials, it just went Jake Sully like John Smith.
SHAMELESS FAIL
Dude…. do you know how common a story like this is in movies…? it is SO hard to be original today, give him a break… jerk!
wow…. you all are absolutely ridiculous!!!!! seriously! stop bashing the movie! it was a great movie! anyone can find connections to other movies JUST LIKE THIS ONE!!!! it is really hard to day to make an original movie… yes the main basic story has been done…. besides i am sure there was a movie that came out before pocahontas that has THE SAME STORY!!!!!
P.S. Get a life all of you! stop bashing movies!!! F4GS!!!!
So because some overweight Disney fanboi sitting in his mom’s basement wearing his Mickey Mouse pajamas drinking chocolate milk from his Donald Duck sippy cup got his Goofy underoos in a bunch over Avatar being similar to Pocahontas is supposed to make the movie bad. Give me a break. Go watch the movie and judge it on it’s own merits.
you uh, seem to know a lot about Disney products….got some of your own? maybe even sick twisted fantasies with how many you named off there.
Considering the plot for Avatar was made 10 years before either Pochahantas or FernGully, you all fail for ignoring this. Grow up already and go watch it to see for yourself
True, but Pochahontas is based on a true story.. Indians vs. europeans.. No doubt that the plot for Avatar was inspired by the Indians vs. Europeans..
An exact copy like that, unreal yeah.. but definitely inspired by “the new world”
(Not the movie, the actual reality)
Avatar was a complete failure in every repect apart from maybe special effects, which were an acquired taste anyhow.
This movie, although good, is really just a cross betwen Ferngully and Dances With Wolves. Not even kidding. I vote that in the sequel they resurrect Andrew Jackson. He would just have to walk out, snap his fingers, and point, and all the Na’vi would be like, “Ohhh snap!” Haha. Trail of Tears in no time. THAT would be an epic win.
(And yes, I know it was a terrible thing, don’t get all offended, please.
)
Once Upon a Time In Mexico is Crap. I can’t stand that movie. The one thing that always gets me is the fake arm. What the hell is up with that?? El Mariachi is the only movie in that series I like.
But pretty much all of Depp’s other stuff I like, even Charlie in the Chocolate Factory. I haven’t seen Corpse Bride or Public Enemies, but I would have no reason not to like either of them off hand. They seem like decent enough movies.
Jhonny Depp rules. THE END
why are people still arguing about this?
And Avatar was awesome. I liked it a lot.
And… Pocahontas writer?? Pocahontas was based on a true story. And Avatar wasn’t a musical.
Pocahontas was based on a true story in sofar as names and places and that’s about it … much of that movie had nothing to do with the true story.
Three words: “The Ninth Gate.” Proof that Johnny Depp can’t save a bad movie.
“Blow”… Proof that he can. ;]]
Oh my good LORD.
._.
I don’t know what to say. Sure, I knew Avatar was like Pocahontas but GEEZ, I never really looked into all the little details. Seriously all that’s going through my mind now is “wtf”… look, even his initials are the same: J.S.
I feel so conflicted.
haha!
Watching the previews, I remember thinking “this movie is going to be JUST like Pocahontas.” Nevertheless I watched it with my boyfriend, and was corrected…its JUST like Pocahontas, only with nipples.
uhh, cept there aren’t any nipples.
I will say this and ontopic. James Caron wrote the story 15 years ago, but there was not the technology to do the film back then so he waited untill now. And he said that in 2009 and that will be 1994 if we count back. Pocahontas came to the theatres in december 1995. So maybe it is a coincidence that is has the same plot. just saying.
I laughed so hard when i read this, i completely didn’t see it until now. What i did see was the American Governments war on terror glorified tho which as a Canadian makes me sick. Opposing Government wanting mining rights to a place that ain’t theirs.
I love this. I saw the movie and the whole time I was like this is Pocahontis. Love it
I heard it was like an adult version of Fern Gully
ORLY? whodathunkit?
Special effects wise, Avatar was the bomb but it’s sad that people only look at how awesome it is because of the special effects. There’s more to a movie than that, an original plot would be nice.
You’ve missed the point. It was a beautifully crafted movie. The story is old. White man comes to ‘where ever’ to destroy the original life and mother earth, but is won over by what’s right and true love. Nothing to do with Pocahantos.
LOL! just like mad-libs!
Don’t you think that Pocahontas has a few pluses on Avatar for the musical aspect? Its a classic, “Colors of the Wind”, “Just around the Riverbend” anyone? Even so, everyone says that Avatar is a great movie in its own right, don’t you mean the application of technology was great. It probably could be transcribed to a “Dora the Explorer” episode, but everyone would be just as amused with the 3-D aspect. Whoopee, we are all easily distracted.
Yeah but in Pocahontas John Smith has to return to England….
Doesn’t anyone realize that this was the purpose of Avatar? It’s not a fail if the intentionally did this.
how the hell do you have so comments? xDDDDD
Jesus!
BUT, the same plot… maybe a hundred years starting now, Pocahontas will be replaced to AVATAR.
It’s definitely not observation win, as it involves only paying attention to the observations that confirm his hypothesis, and ignoring or distorting the ones that don’t. For instance, the endings are actually quite different — in Pocahontas, John has to return to England so they can save his life, and they _don’t_ end up together, unlike in Avatar. This is bad observation and bad science. Honestly? They are similar in many respects, as they tell the same sort of story and thus use some of the same tropes and plot elements. But Avatar isn’t the exact carbon-copy of Pocahontas this makes it out to be.
Also, I hate to say it, but the graphics really weren’t that impressive. Some of the high-end games today are pretty close to it, and what edges it does have are much less amazing when you consider that games have to be rendered in real-time on a single machine, while the movie was rendered in advance on a blade server. Where it really excels was the integration of CGI and live action — I have never seen it done quite so seamlessly. The one place I can remember where I could really see where one ended and the other began during their interaction was during the climactic battle, in which, if you look closely, it’s possible to tell when some of the Banshee/Ikran heads turn from CGI to animatronic models to interact with (eat) the humans.
Also, no, Pocahontas doesn’t have the edge over Avatar in music. Avatar had an amazing soundtrack — just because it isn’t packed with actual vocal songs doesn’t mean it’s not good.
thanks nezumi, I’ve not seen avatar yet and you have told me the ending, you are an epic fail.
“Avatar” does have an amazing soundtrack… because it has the same soundtrack as “Enemy at the Gates.” I guess James Horner couldn’t come up with anything new.
It’s just a joke no need to take it so seriously
Saw it, disliked it, thought it was similar.. Now I know why!
Lo de épico no lo diría, no llena las espectivas para ser un film épico, como lo fue TITANIC y no este bizarro…
I enjoyed the movie, for what it is. CGI fest + explosions + interesting soundtrack. Really, there are many potential historical allegories this could be linked to. (Britain in Infia, Belgium in the Congo, et cetra.)
hey theres another film about the same plot as avatar…..i saw it when i was a kid…..i remember theres a men who was in the forest and a company was trying to make a supermarket something like that with big machines but in the forest was already own by faires …….so the faires turn the man to a tiny size and they show them all…..(same as avatar)…..i want to know the name of the movie please…thank u very much for reading
Ferngully?
LIKE, SRSLY?!?! o3o Omg…I knew about the thing about the romantic thing and the thing about invading the place where the…Avatars or whatever live (I never watched the movie so bear with me) and blaaah and how Avatar was like Pocahontas.
But I never knew…the DETAILS that Avatar has that is exactly the same as Pocahontas. Dear god =3=
you can’t fap to the pocohantas hentai as good as too the avatar
Damn….there are definitely some things you are absolutely misconsidering in this thread:
1) This is a typical story about imperialism. Arrogant, technical superior folks go into unknown territory, most of them to find treasure. If there are indigenous folks in their way they get eliminated. This is the story of mankind in the last couple of hundred years! Add some cheesy romance with one person of each side and you got the perfect hollywood story. I bet there are hundreds of similar stories used in movies.
2) James Cameron is the director of the movie, not the story writer. How many directors create the stories of the movie on their own? Almost none. Directors receive stories and try to make something good out of them. Avatar succeeded there in my opinion. Pocahontas sucked.
And by the way: Did anyone call Peter Jackson a copycat for making Lord of the Rings? Or Danny Boyle for Trainspotting? This list of great movies with a taken story could be endless…
3) There are several revolutionary ideas realized in Avatar, the revolutionary animations are only the sugar on top. For example was the language of the aliens developed during 4 years and is completely usable with grammatical rules and everything. The idea with the huge neuronal net across the whole planet Pandorra and the interaction between folra and fauna is great. The little details that describe this culture are thought through and are amazing to watch.
4) Let’s consider this was a remake of Pocahontas (which is far exaggerated I think): If someone manages to make a crappy movie (Pocahontas is considered to be the worst Disney Masterworks ever) into something that feels so awesome when you watch it, I think that’s quite an accomplishment!
It’s a joke again why take it so seriously :S
Not takin’ it as seriously as you think.
We just had this discussion at lunch with some work collegues. One guy referred to this thread (sent me the link), saying this is the reason why this movie is a fail. I HAD TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT ^^.
Okay i must admit, I like discussions very much.
Btw: Okay, Cameron may have written the story……but that just proves he is even less of a silly copycat.
@chel: if no one took it a little seriously, then this discussion would even more boring and all about rofl, looooool and such repetitive statements as your “dude, don’t take it so seriously ….”. Why discussing anything anyways? ;P
It WAS written by James Cameron. And hasn’t anyone seen Dances with Wolves!?
Movies aren’t about the words that summarize the story, they’re about how the story is told. And Avatar has told the ‘oppressor messiah’ story better than anyone. Even Dances with Wolves.
I agree on points 3 and 4
I always hoped this movie would raise rainforest awareness.
omg just after I saw Avatar I actually joked with my friends of how much it’s like Pocahontas and Fern Gully!!!! WE WERE RIGHT!
Unobtainium is fom the tv show “The Amazing Extrodinary Friends” final episode. TRUE.
Complete utter FAIL! Firstly, Jake isn’t attacked by what’s his name. Secondly he isn’t sentanced to death, just bound. Third the ’settelers’ attack and drive of the ‘indains’ before they attack again and are brought to justice. 4th, nature isn’t connected through the ‘circle of life’ its more pyschail than that. 5th, the ubonatium isn’t Na’vi’s. Its just there.
So what if the plot was similar to effin pochahontas. it was still a great movie over all. No one seemes to be getting the damn message the movie was sending in the first place.
Hahaha! AWESOME dude…. that’s just so damn true!
Mona Lisa isnt an original idea for painting. Just a smiling girl.
Still it’s the most precious artifact in Louvre.
Suck on it!