Avatar and Inception - Let downs

Avatar:
Finally got round to watching this "fantastic blockbuster" and I want 3 hours of my life back please.

Visually, stunning. Everything else, utter utter waste of time. Story. Pants. Characters. Pants. I struggle to see why so many people love this film so much...and no, I won't say it is a mix of smurfs and pocahontis...more like pokemon and smurfs...gotta catch em all (them flying things anyway). Such a massive lack of imagination, lets have something like horses but...with 6 legs instead of 4...and other random pants creatures.

Avatar = Pants

Thinking about it now, even the action scenes were quite tame for such a film.

Inception:
Insipid.
Once they revealed the "totem" I guessed what the ending would be like but even before the totem I kinda had an idea of what the ending would be. The film tries to be fanciful and thought provoking but all I did was sit there and go "when will this end?". No grab, no go. Just dull. A really dull film. My friend likes this film and recommended it and I found it horrendously strenuous to watch it all. Perhaps I was hoping for something more, or something with more wow/pizazz but it was just a half-baked film, like 99% of Hollywood films. Actually, Inception is better than alot of Hollywood tripe that gets pushed out but it's still a bad film.

Glad it wasn't just me that felt that way on both counts. With Inception I mearly thought the film was ok the first time I saw it and was convinced to get it on blu ray and rewatch. The more I rewatched it the more I grew to hate it for the exact reasons given above. It's pants, dull, boring and unoriginal.

What movie's would you suggest watching then?

Me personally, didn't find Avatar that awesome but did enjoy the film overall.

Inception I really did this film, I thought it was quite good and enjoyed watching it, even if the ending was slightly obvious.

I loved Avatar, but then I loved Dune too - see any similarities ? .... Avatar seems to be a sort rework of the basic Dune story does it not ?

I only liked the visuals of Avatar, other then that. Nothing special.

Inception? Totally over-hyped, layers of pointless faff.

I loved Pocahontas^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Avatar, it was good to see the smurfs getting a new gig, with new female characters too. Though the way they "mind-raped" the creatures of the planet to be their servants I felt to be somewhat morally questionable and little better than the human miners. In Avatar 2 the miners come back nuke the planet from orbit and then take what they want. (Its a short)

For me Avatar = Princess Mononoke, but worse on everything but the visuals.

Inception was good fun IMO, although maybe not so much the second time around.

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Originally Posted by sleepyhead

Avatar:
Finally got round to watching this "fantastic blockbuster" and I want 3 hours of my life back please.

Visually, stunning. Everything else, utter utter waste of time. Story. Pants. Characters. Pants. I struggle to see why so many people love this film so much...and no, I won't say it is a mix of smurfs and pocahontis...more like pokemon and smurfs...gotta catch em all (them flying things anyway). Such a massive lack of imagination, lets have something like horses but...with 6 legs instead of 4...and other random pants creatures.

Avatar = Pants
.

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I can't comment on Inception, but YES!!! to what you said about Avatar. Me and wifey went to see it, in full 3D glory. What a total waste of time. Utter derivative mash-up drivel. Surely, a fundamental aspect to a film is your connection with the characters. Neither of us enjoyed the film, and felt nothing for the characters - what happened to them didn't matter.

As you say, visually, very impressive. And the 3D was nice in places (but largely unnecessary - personally I feel 3D is a white elephant, but thats another topic).

The film was absurdly long. The whole story could have been told, and more compellingly, in half the time.

Emperor's new clothes comes to mind.

I liked both films and would certainly watch again.

i certainly wouldnt say that they were bad, far from it.

:)

I disagree on both counts. It depends what you're looking for in a film I guess, and you need to remember the audience at which it's pitched at. Both are squarely aimed at the mainstream.

Movies aren't made for the sake of telling a story. Movies are made to make money. As such you need a story that will appeal to a wide section of the public. Make it too complicated, people won't bother watching it because they don't get it. Yes, perhaps Avatar was pitched a little on the low side in that regard, and it's a story that everyone's seen several times over. Likewise with the horses with 6 legs. For it to remain easy to relate to, there needs to be minor changes...

Inception was a breath of fresh air since it was a mainstream film that was actually looking to be a little bit different. Perhaps the story was a little predictable in places, and some action was there for action's sake but hey - can't have a blockbuster without something getting blown to bits can you? :D

If you're looking for unusual stories or films that are really going to push the boundaries then your general cinemas and BD releases probably aren't going to do it for you.

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Originally Posted by oolon

I loved Pocahontas^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Avatar, it was good to see the smurfs getting a new gig, with new female characters too. Though the way they "mind-raped" the creatures of the planet to be their servants I felt to be somewhat morally questionable and little better than the human miners. In Avatar 2 the miners come back nuke the planet from orbit and then take what they want. (Its a short)

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You know what? That's what I was thinking about Avatar...if they just wanted to mine the planet, just nuke the inhabitants, take what they want and leave. Not like the miners had morals in the first place anyway...

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Originally Posted by Lowe

I disagree on both counts. It depends what you're looking for in a film I guess, and you need to remember the audience at which it's pitched at. Both are squarely aimed at the mainstream.

Movies aren't made for the sake of telling a story. Movies are made to make money. As such you need a story that will appeal to a wide section of the public. Make it too complicated, people won't bother watching it because they don't get it. Yes, perhaps Avatar was pitched a little on the low side in that regard, and it's a story that everyone's seen several times over. Likewise with the horses with 6 legs. For it to remain easy to relate to, there needs to be minor changes...

Inception was a breath of fresh air since it was a mainstream film that was actually looking to be a little bit different. Perhaps the story was a little predictable in places, and some action was there for action's sake but hey - can't have a blockbuster without something getting blown to bits can you? :D

If you're looking for unusual stories or films that are really going to push the boundaries then your general cinemas and BD releases probably aren't going to do it for you.

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Yes, both films were mainstream and yes I do like watching mainstream stuff but there are good ones and bad ones. I will keep bashing Matrix as it was a one trick pony BUT it was a good mainstream movie even if I have my issues with it. I was never looking for anything unusual or different otherwise I wouldn't have bothered with either films but watched both films on account of being told "they were awesome" when infact they are mediocre at best.

There was no story to Avatar and nothing to justify the 3 hours worth of runtime. No amount of visual goodness will stop my brain switching off because the story has "stalled".

Lets change tact slightly here, incase people think I just love weird, abstract films. I watched "How to Train a Dragon" a kids film and enjoyed it for what it was, a well told kids film. Sure it was predictable, sure the characters didn't have a lot of depth but it's a kids flick and was good for what it was. I'd watch it again. Avatar is aimed at an older audience, but supposed to appeal to the masses too. What it ended up as, in my opinion, is a film that lacked a story, character development and was so wrapped up in it's own "look at the gorgeous CG" that everything, and I mean everything, became secondary or even, dare I say it, redundant. It ended up being just like FF: The Spirits Within - wrapped up in the visuals that the story fell by the wayside.

Inception: Sure, I know this was also a mainstream film but peel back the flashy layers and you end up with...well...nothing. The action scenes were nicely done but there was nothing to hold the film together. The film, conceptually, is great but the execution and the storyline was too dull. The whole end bit with the "triple kick" was just infuriating and repetitive; how many times do I want to see the van fall another 2 feet in slow motion for 5 minutes to show how time is different between the layers??!

Inception and Avatar were supposedly two decent mainstream films recommended to me and both fell short of being decent. I get more joy watching "Monsters VS Aliens" than I do from Inception and Avatar, and infact I'm pretty sure there is the same amount of character development in Monsters VS Aliens as there is in Inception, minimal.

If a film is to make money, then it has to be at least half decent, which neither of these films are. There are plenty of films out there that are purely cash-cows and are terrible (check out all the films made by the people who originally did Scary Movie) but Avatar and Inception were hyped to the hilt and became popular. It's good for the film makers if the film makes money but I for one don't want to see more half-hearted attempts at films. Avatar relied on "blinging" visuals and Inception relied on "unusual concept", and in that respect succeeded but at the cost of actually being a good film. It's like being given a Ferrari...to find out that underneath, it's a bog standard Honda Accord - functional but boring.

We'll have to agree to disagree then. The mainstream public enjoyed both, the awards, nominations and figures show that. Maybe just accept your standards are a lot higher than Joe Public :)

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Originally Posted by GheeTsar

For me Avatar = Princess Mononoke...

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For me Avatar = Ferngully, The Last Rainforest.
see How many of you enjoyed Avatar 3D??

Avatar was shallow but i liked inception.

Kind of a cross bewteen flatliners and the matrix. Might have been better with orcs and elves but quite difficult to direct with a very novel environment having to be explained. I suppose they did make most of it up as they went along though....

I liked avatar Yeah the story was a bit ropey but the film was a showcase for what technology can do these days just like toy story was all those years back. Avatar is one of those films that isn't brilliant but you can sit down on the sofa with the wife and kid with a nice big Hdtv and just go wow at the visual effects.

Inception on the other hand yeah maybe the story is predictable but jeez the only way it wouldn't have been predictable was if the smurfs had turned out to be running the show. There are so many sci-fi films out stories are gonna be similar at times.