idk about betray humanity. second movie made it pretty clear that the humans weren't there for the good of humanity - it was to profit off (and destroy in the process) Pandora's natural resources for the benefit of a few rich billionaires

[–] CluckN@lemmy.world 60 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Would’ve been interesting if the whale blubber they were harvesting in the second movie cured cancer instead of being some luxury, “it makes you look young” juice.

[–] rockSlayer@lemmy.world 42 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

It makes it more accurate though for them to kill a multiton animal for an ounce of proteins

[–] Dagnet@lemmy.world 22 points 8 months ago

Just like killings rhino's for their horns, so they can make their pps hard

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 20 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Anything organic like would be more efficient to synthesize after it's discovery. If the writers said it can't be synthesized, it would just be the writers pushing a false dichotomy. Very few things can't be synthesized and the things that can't, are harvested responsibly, like horseshoe crab blood.

[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 8 months ago

The problem with sci-fi is that it comes with its own solutions. A responsible society would engineer a brainless whale it could grown in tanks back home.

The problem comes when the usual culprits of capitalism (e.g. top-down management, the unyielding greed of shareholders for quick profits, decisions made based on limited information and no ingenuity) stop us from invoking a working solution.

Competition between companies is supposed to fuel innovation and non-evil production, but mostly it promotes anti-competitive practices.

[–] Vlyn@lemmy.zip 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

But then it's not natural! If I'm a future space billionaire, of course I'd want the real stuff with animal suffering involved, duh.

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Normally, I'm against fraud, but if I could make a businesses of selling fake Rhino Horn Dick medicine to showoff millionaires, I would.

[–] CADmonkey@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Just fill some mason jars with some sort of powder (maybe plaster?) put a picture of a rhino on it and sell each one for $500.

Edit: Maybe small vials full of ground-up fingernail would be more "realistic"?

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

I was joking, but there's already counterfeit rhino horns being put out by conservationists.

[–] ButtDrugs@lemm.ee 39 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I've only seen the first one and I'm pretty sure they made that clear in the first one.

[–] XTornado@lemmy.ml 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Nah, they just wanted to help make the region stable like the U.S. did with [insert third world country with oil or equivalent resources].

[–] burgersc12@sh.itjust.works 17 points 8 months ago

"Wee need wahle brains!"

[–] JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world 16 points 8 months ago

Wow who would have ever seen that coming

[–] SuddenDownpour@sh.itjust.works 59 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Missing the last two points:

> Would do it again

> Did nothing wrong

[+] li10@lemmy.ml 49 points 8 months ago (4 children)

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[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 24 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

I was goong to say it was more a tech demo since they made the insta-CGI machine for it. But then he went and made a second one about abandoning your home, getting your new one in the same trouble, and whales.

[–] GluWu@lemm.ee 8 points 8 months ago

That's how I saw it, a tech demo for the cgi and the 3D TVs that everyone now has.

I saw the second one and literally don't remember anything about whales. So that's how much I paid attention.

[–] GraniteM@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I say that Avatar is the cinematic equivalent of having one of those monstrous huge old keyboards with eight hundred different preloaded sounds and instruments and pressing the DEMO button and listening to five minutes of every ridiculous sound effect known to God and Giorgio Moroder, and with about the same artistic merit.

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 20 points 8 months ago (3 children)

A lot of movies are shallow. This one just rubbed people the wrong way because it was pro environmental.

[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 24 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

It rubbed me the wrong way because it's still the mighty whitey fantasy. White dude comes in and is better at all the native stuff than the natives. It's just using blue alien sexy placeholders for the aboriginals.

[–] rwhitisissle@lemmy.world 12 points 8 months ago

Yes, that's the biggest and probably most valid criticism not tied to the film's writing or acting. It's pure white savior narrative. Same issue with Last of the Mohicans and a bunch of other movies.

[–] EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

My dad says it's one of the best movies he's ever seen, but specifically because we saw it in IMAX 3D and the graphics were outstanding. Beyond that, he agrees with me that it's just Fern Gully (but without Robin Williams, which instantly makes it worse), which is basically just Disney's Pocahontas.

[–] DadVolante@sh.itjust.works 2 points 8 months ago

I always called it "Dances with Fergully"

[–] deus@lemmy.world 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It's either that or people are salty these movies are so successful... But then again, I never see people complaining about how shallow the latest Transformers or Fast & Furious or Jurassic World movie is yet it's all I see whenever either Avatar movie is mentioned.

[–] GraniteM@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

I've got a friend who's a big fan of the OG Transformers and all the comics and deep lore, and I can guarantee you that he's not happy every time another terrible live action Transformers movie comes out and is in the top three biggest movies of the year.

[+] li10@lemmy.ml 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

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[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

How can people who didn't like the Avatar movies not simply drop it after a while. Their dislike isn't that it's shallow. If that was it, they'd have moved on. It's something else. Their hate has the same kind of vibe as people complaining about "wokeness" in other movies. Hell, I still hear people complaining about the "bad science" and "unrealistic villains" of Captain Planet, but praise 80's Transformers.

[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 8 months ago

My grandson loved the Transformers movies even though I can't remember a thing about the first one (the only one I've seen). Lindsay Ellis did an essay on why the first one is so forgetable (hint, its Michael Bay's direction). I also was way too creeped out by the decepticon woman (Alice from Revenge of the Fallen) which was a total Michael Bay creation showing a bit too much about Bay's issues with women.

Avatar has James Cameron's solid direction and scriptwriting. It has the kind of strong women that Cameron can seem to write that others cannot seem to get right. But Avatar gets into some creepy themes much the way True Lies did to which Cameron clearly has a blind spot.

[–] MindSkipperBro12@lemmy.world 10 points 8 months ago

Proof that graphics matter more than anything else😔

[–] pathos@kbin.social 5 points 8 months ago

@li10

@Clbull

I very much enjoy the first movie. I have watched it several times and still enjoy going back to it. I absolutely agree the plot is puddle-deep, as you said, and it makes no attempt at all to disguise its analogies ("unobtanium"), but it's mastery is not in the story itself but the way in which it is told. It's almost operatic in the amount of time it spends within each story beat. The second film failed to do a lot of the things I loved about the first one and was very forgettable.

[–] RIP_Cheems@lemmy.world 9 points 8 months ago

REJECT MODERNITY, EVOLVE

[–] HEXN3T@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 8 months ago

Da ba dee da ba di