Avatar
Highly recommended. Very gripping. Worth every penny. It's been a long time since I sat through a movie this long (161 minutes + trailers + ads) without complaining.
* I found the plot predictable in many places
* bizarre parts in which ugly technology is pitted against beautiful mystical forces in a very explicit way: tanks vs flying dragons!
* at one point, I wished that all those epic battle scenes were reduced to a Cliff's Notes version of themselves
* the avatars looked fully native to me, not partly human. At first, I was a bit surprised that they weren't afraid to be recognized as "Sky People", but it makes sense that their foreign behavior would make them noticeably different to any intelligent species.
* did they have wireless coverage over that whole planet, with enough bandwidth to transmit senses and perceptions without a noticeable lag?
* the Avatar program lived a strange existence. Why was Grace charged with treason, if only Jake was seen damaging the tank?
* when Jake wakes up in the avatar, it was out-of-character for him to disobey orders to do the tests, and very odd for him to not be severely reprimanded.
* why didn't they simply ask the Na'vi where to get unobtanium? because it was their very source of life, floating mountains and general magic?
* the idea that they didn't want anything humans could offer seems hard to believe. Like, uh, science? (I guess it is possible that they were too "primitive" to appreciate science)
* the gravity and the atmosphere seem remarkably similar to Earth's
* the Na'vi music reminded me of South African choirs, Indian chants; and their values reminded me of Pocahontas.
* interesting philosophical questions about control/agency: the exoskeleton machine is just a homunculus. The avatar idea isn't so strange if you consider how people can see with their other senses and how easily people can acquire new senses if they are given the input. Of course, the neural control-feedback "dream machine" is still pretty awesome. "Avatar" seems to have a different metaphysics than the Matrix: the avatar's death presumably wouldn't cause the human's death. (What about "Strange Days"?)
P.S. I was disappointed at the number of rude people chatting, laughing in the cinema. Someone even answered a cell phone!
* I found the plot predictable in many places
* bizarre parts in which ugly technology is pitted against beautiful mystical forces in a very explicit way: tanks vs flying dragons!
* at one point, I wished that all those epic battle scenes were reduced to a Cliff's Notes version of themselves
* the avatars looked fully native to me, not partly human. At first, I was a bit surprised that they weren't afraid to be recognized as "Sky People", but it makes sense that their foreign behavior would make them noticeably different to any intelligent species.
* did they have wireless coverage over that whole planet, with enough bandwidth to transmit senses and perceptions without a noticeable lag?
* the Avatar program lived a strange existence. Why was Grace charged with treason, if only Jake was seen damaging the tank?
* when Jake wakes up in the avatar, it was out-of-character for him to disobey orders to do the tests, and very odd for him to not be severely reprimanded.
* why didn't they simply ask the Na'vi where to get unobtanium? because it was their very source of life, floating mountains and general magic?
* the idea that they didn't want anything humans could offer seems hard to believe. Like, uh, science? (I guess it is possible that they were too "primitive" to appreciate science)
* the gravity and the atmosphere seem remarkably similar to Earth's
* the Na'vi music reminded me of South African choirs, Indian chants; and their values reminded me of Pocahontas.
* interesting philosophical questions about control/agency: the exoskeleton machine is just a homunculus. The avatar idea isn't so strange if you consider how people can see with their other senses and how easily people can acquire new senses if they are given the input. Of course, the neural control-feedback "dream machine" is still pretty awesome. "Avatar" seems to have a different metaphysics than the Matrix: the avatar's death presumably wouldn't cause the human's death. (What about "Strange Days"?)
P.S. I was disappointed at the number of rude people chatting, laughing in the cinema. Someone even answered a cell phone!