I'm posting this simply because I saw the most offesnively irresponsible piece of journalism listed on Total Films website today. Check this out... they had the audacity to suggest that it was one of the 100 greatest films of all time. That it would make the top 5000 is offensive, so this I see as a travesty of justice, and thus have resolved to right a wrong, and explain why this is a terrible film.
This is not a rant by the way, but a perfectly reasoned argument, and as such it is split into consituent parts.
The first concerns the requirements for greatness, or at leats the conditions that I think reasonably should be met for a film to be make it onto any top 100 list. (Obviously for all you pedants out there, this does not includes lists that are thematically similiar to 'the top one hundred films that are like avatar' or any such shite.)
Anyway, it seems to me that greta films have great dialouge, great story telling, and great charcter development. Avatar had none of these. Point me to a scene stealing piece of dialogue, and i'll note that you were either high on talking about the wrong film. In short, this film, at a little over three hours, had a basic plot, a dialogue that was written on the back of a napkin, at a bar, at two, whilst on a special needs trip, and charcters so one dimensional that the seemed like the subject of some sort of philosophical debate. (there's a prize for the reference i'm making there. Big bang theory fans should get there first)
Anyway, the point is, avatar was liked because it was good at the things it sold itself on. Action, and Graphics. As an addedum, the 3D thing was shit. Really it added nothing. Look me in th eye and disagree with me, I dare you.
I wont deny that the setting, the visual realsim, and the coneptualisation for a new world were all awesome, and that the action was incredible, but in return I do expect everyone to acknowledge how obviously terrible the script was.
An example: "Don't shoot at that thing, bullets wont pierce the skin"
2 hours later "oh no, everything we try and fight with gets shot and dies"
the a further 10 minutes
"yay, the spirit tree has sent animals that can't get shot. What. A. Surprise"
See. Shockingly bad.
But this in itself does not make Avatar offensive. What is offensive is that shocking ignorance it betrays in reference to the heritage of cinema.
Check this.
If Cameron knew anything but at all about the heritage of his medium, he would know that early cinema, as in really early cinema, was termed 'the cinema of attractions'. The point of this was to showcase brand new technology demonstrate things taht audiences had never seen before. Whilst it had its upsides, in essence it was a cheap parlour trick, wowing audiences with new technology and demanding money for priviledge.
Sound familiar? Coming up with something brand new, launching a shock and awe campaign of advertising, basically in an effort to get rich. Yep, thought so.
Trouble was, this industry had no future. The lumiere brothers, widely considered the grandfathers of the industry, openly admited they saw no future beyond the showcaisng of their technology (at the time it was simply the capture of the moving image), whilst their greatest rival, who tried to intergrated plot and special effects, was destroyed comemrically by his much less daring rivals.
Point is, back then, cinema based soley on a party trick had no future, and the same is true today. Unless people like cameron up their game on a multitude of fronts, cinema will become, ulitamtley shit.
History teaches us this also. The spawn of early cinema was merely a series of terrible adaptations of literature, or formulaic romances, with an appeal to the masses but no intellectual depth whatsoever. It took basically till the 50's to change this, and even then, that was only thanks to a series of (admittedly douchey) French intellectuals being really snobby for a really long time.
The simple fact is... cinema isn't excellent by accident. It take sreal effort by all the people involved to make it good. And, and here's the rub, excellence DOES NOT mean success. just cause people loved it doens't make it good, and in fcat its success could be the most damning death toll of all, because people wiuth imitate it without questioning the implications.
Its offensive because Cameron basically reset the switch. In making the future of cinema, he actually went all the way back to the start, but didn't learn any of the lessons of history. Thew industry isn't based on technology, but on intellect, and the sooner he understands that, the better we'll all be.
Ps, it would help if everyone stopped sucking his dick so much.
Remember JS Mill? me niether, but he siad its better to be clever and unhappy than stupdi and happy, and i'm inclined to agree.
So cuk it up, and banish avatar to the basement bin.
FANKS
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