Comments on: The genius of an oeuvre is measured by the breadth of its message – Avatar as not “just another war movie”

By: ptc

ptc — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:31:09 +0000

You’r truly right on this blog post.

By: Alden

Alden — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 21:39:52 +0000

The Hurt Locker was flat out boring. Avatar should have won Best Picture, period.

By: Anon

Anon — Sat, 01 May 2010 21:48:38 +0000

Oh please. Take your intellectual snobbery somewhere else.

By: Andrei

Andrei — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 08:24:31 +0000

“Sub-standard storyline and character development” this is the critique most associated with Avatar it is also the most shallow and besides the point thing that can be said about the movie. For a century movies have been judged by their “literary” qualities, story and character development, which is fair considering that so far technology has prohibited a movie from transmitting emotion and a message through it’s visual qualities. So far, that is to say until, Avatar. What is groundbreaking about avatar is that it manages to move you through it’s visuals. That it manages to show one something so beautiful and yet so familiar that it makes one cry when the brutality that is also familiar comes and destroys it. Criticizing Avatar for a “sub-standard storyline and character development” is like criticizing a Monet or Michelangelo’s David for “sub-standard storyline and character development”. That is were the genius of Avatar lies. That is probably why movie snobs such as yourself have seen more fit to reward a standard story like Hurt Locker then a visual masterpiece like Avatar, because the movie world is dominate by writers. In 10 years nobody will remember Hurt Locker but everybody will remember Avatar.

By: m.idrees

m.idrees — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 09:20:24 +0000

When you are endowed with a prosaic mind ill-equipped to handle irony, things might look that way. But at least in your case it is balanced by the remarkable skill to completely miss the point. Shame.

By: Anna

Anna — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 23:24:16 +0000

“Industrial/government backing”?
Avatar was a hollywood blockbuster desgined to entertain the masses with special effects and a sub-standard storyline and character development. It was a rip-off of many other films. In my opinion it was simplistic, racist, and badly written. The Hurt Locker did not have government/industry backing, and had way less hype associated with it. It offers little social commentary, and is more about a white guy coming to save some helpless nature worshipers and getting the girl than anything else. As an allegory to colonialism it did not go very deep and an parallels to real life were obvious, with little analytic value.

By: ann goodridge

ann goodridge — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:03:08 +0000

Obviously, I meant ‘Hurt Locker’; that comes from thinking in Italian ie. how they pronounce it…sorry. It was still pretty rubbishy, though.

By: ann goodridge

ann goodridge — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:37:11 +0000

Honestly, I saw ‘The Heart Locker’ quite by chance last night and am still totally bewildered as to why it was awarded Best Film. Cameron must be feeling so insulted having lost out to the usual run-of-the-mill American film on war. It does give insight into just how stressful it must be working in Iraq as a soldier and what they have to face on a daily basis but there was none of Cameron’s genius behind it; maybe…just a lot of industrial/government backing!

By: ann goodridge

ann goodridge — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:07:34 +0000

Exactly, I couldn’t agree more! I, too, was extremely dissapointed upon learning that ‘The Hurt Locker’ (just another war film) had been awarded the most Oscars. ‘Avatar’ was a truly magical film to watch in 3D, whilst offering political and environmental insight into the West’s attitude towards power over preservation. As you so correctly point out, maybe time will prove Cameron’s ‘human ecology’ approach to be recognised as a masterpiece of its era.