Yavar Moradi

Believe me, what you REALLY want is Free Willy 2. Yavar

He just did Room 222!

At LAST! I admire what Brad was able to do with only a paperback tie-in cover, but now we have a truly excellent cover for A Girl Named Sooner, courtesy of “steffromuk” and the FSM custom cover thread! And here’s the cover he did for Anna and the King! Here’s hoping he can do a few more for the fantastic new Goldsmith at 20th Vol. V 2CD set (potentially five more covers, if suitable image elements can be found…it’s trickier with TV stuff of course). But if only two can be done, these two bookending scores are the longest on this new set (well over a half hour each)… Yavar

No love for The Mandalorian? Yavar

No hope of Intrada? Yavar

There were two other (great!) Doyle albums done by smaller film music specialty labels, but they were premieres rather than expansions: Quartet Records: https://www.soundtrackcollector.com/title/93886/Killing+Me+Softly MovieScore Media: https://www.soundtrackcollector.com/title/70540/Man+To+Man Yavar

Titanic is long and rewatchable. The Lord of the Rings is *really* long and rewatchable…. Yavar

When did I say I had a problem with simple stories? Simple stories can often be done GREAT! And simple stories can be quite original too! My issue with Avatar is that it didn’t do much of anything fresh or interesting. It didn’t engage me. I thought it was fine; it was competent. I’d certainly take it over a Star Wars prequel any day. James Cameron knows how to tell a story and is an excellent director technically. But this story (re)telling didn’t do anything that made me ever want to see it (or a sequel) again. It was tired and far too derivative, to me. There was just nothing much interesting about it! Interesting that you also bring up Gravity. My wife and I love Cuaron’s films generally. But the same thing happened with that when we saw it in theater: I thought it was surprisingly mediocre (and therefore disappointing, because my expectations/hopes were high), and my wife HATED it so much that she was angry at me for pushing her to go see it with me. Lol. I think these are actually the only two films I can say this about strangely enough, and we’ve probably seen over 100 films together in theater at this point… At least in some way we are on the same wavelength, because you admit both films have low rewatchability value. I just got there one watch sooner. Whatever you found less than engaging on a second watch for them? Well that’s probably what I found unengaging on my first watch. Fancy special effects just aren’t enough to engage me and paper over lame storytelling. 🤷🏻‍♂️ I respect Cameron as a filmmaker too. Avatar is literally the first thing of his which has produced this reaction in me. And for what it’s worth I not only like Aliens, both Terminators (especially the second), True Lies, Titanic, and his Dark Angel show, but I also think all of those have good rewatch value. Is Avatar the first James Cameron thing you’ve seen that you felt had poor rewatch value? Yavar

They aren't all action-comedies. It's understandable that you haven't actually seen all 40-odd hours since you're not an MCU fan, but there's actually quite a bit of variety in MCU content. The ironic thing is that IMO, some of the MCU films that are the *most* "action-comedy" are also the most earnest! I'm thinking Guardians of the Galaxy especially. That easily had the most comedic tone of any MCU film up to that point, and yet it also had a good amount of depth, some moments of true emotional power...at least for me. Somehow it simultaneously pulled off both comedy and earnestness quite well, and I'd say the sequel did the same. Another example is Ant-Man: some of the most hilarious comedy in the MCU, particularly with the two Michael Peña-narrated sequences. But also some earnest personal stakes at play, a lovely father/daughter relationship at the heart of the whole thing? Yeah, I'll take the earnestness of Ant-Man or Guardians of the Galaxy, two of the most comedic MCU films, over the puffed up earnestness of Avatar *any* day. But different strokes for different folks I guess! Well put. Yavar

I liked these little guys: And the floating mountains were kinda cool even if they were based on anime. Yup, exactly. Yeah but I won't be suckered into seeing the next one in theater. I think there are multiple other MCU movies which have stakes. Winter Soldier had the collapse of SHIELD, for example. Thor: Ragnarok had the destruction of Asgard. And often there are important *character* stakes in these films. Even smaller scale films like Ant-Man can have stakes. The Guardians of the Galaxy movies certainly did. What don't you get about the "Pocahontas in space" argument? The story beats and execution are almost identical; there are no interesting new elements that I could detect (unless you count Zoe Saldana acting her ass off?) I don't care much about how something is pitched (Star Trek ended up being quite a bit more than "Wagon Train in space"), but how it is executed. Despite their clear influences and inspirations, I can tell you many things about Star Wars/Indiana Jones/Alien which feel fresh. Can you tell me what's original and new and fresh-feeling about Avatar? Somehow John Carter felt a whole lot more fresh to me, despite being based on century-old source material which had since been copied by many other things from Superman to Star Wars to Dune. (I'm sure it helped that I went in with some knowledge/expectations about how it had birthed other sci-fi things, but even setting that aside there were many fresh-feeling elements, for me.) It somehow felt like MORE than just Pocahontas/Dances With Wolves on another planet. The Therns looked fairly human but yet felt somewhat alien and were an intriguing and mysterious threat. The Tharks were clearly influenced by some Earth cultures but also felt a hell of a lot more alien and unique than the Na'vi... who really were completely on-the-nose Native Americans in space in a simplistic 1:1 way. Yavar

I must confess that I’ve never seen it! Yavar

All I can say is that Star Wars and Indiana Jones and Alien (and even Aliens!) all feel quite fresh, despite their many influences. And to me... Avatar doesn't. It feels like a pale copy of earlier, better films given a sci-fi skin, ridiculous budget, and a lot of marketing hype. It certainly didn't help that the main character was entirely lacking in any charisma. But TRON: Legacy managed to overcome that somehow, and win me over with its world and a somewhat interesting story. Avatar didn't. I can't fathom how you consider Infinity War or Endgame "stakeless". Yes, Endgame has a fair amount of "remember this?" because it's a time-travel story. One of the reasons I do strongly prefer Infinity War. Yavar

My problem with Avatar is how UNoriginal it is. It's all stuff I've seen elsewhere before (and done much better there). I'm a huge sci-fi fan, but I liked this story much better as Dances With Wolves, The Last Samurai, hell even Disney's Pocahontas. And those are far from perfect films! Endgame on the other hand might be a franchise film, but strikes me as far more original a film than Avatar. You think it's all been done before? Also, I don't agree it's the best MCU movie; I found Infinity War to be much more powerful. And how many big budget fantasy/sci-fi/superhero films have the villain as the clear protagonist, like Thanos in this? Yeah, I'm sorry... the majority of superhero films are fairly unoriginal (even great ones, like Captain America: The Winter Soldier). But to me Infinity War in particular is fairly unique. I'm going to blow some minds here and reveal that, as bad/ridiculous/silly as it was at times, my wife and I were both much more engaged by the often-nonsensical Jupiter Ascending... because even though it made much less sense than Avatar, at least it felt legitimately imaginative rather than a tired and cliched retread. Now Cameron has often repackaged what came before (Titanic is a great example, with a lot of story beats cribbed from earlier films on the same subject). But somehow most of his earlier films felt (and still feel) fresh to me, despite their influences. I love Aliens, the first two Terminator films (especially the second), True Lies, and yes (despite some faults) Titanic. I also really like the sci-fi TV show he created, Dark Angel. But Avatar was just so... SO tired and predictable... not a single thing surprised me, excited me, delighted me, amused me, or even befuddled me. It was thoroughly mediocre and thoroughly boring. Yavar

Huh? Do you mean Batwoman, on the CW? Not only a different creative team, but a different CHARACTER! (Actually two different characters, I guess...) Have you seen these directors' work on Ms. Marvel? It's wonderful. I have a hard time believing their Batgirl film (with Michael Keaton as Batman no less) was shit. This asshole WB CEO is the one burying Batgirl (and oh yeah the new Bruce Timm animated Batman show too, by the way... to say nothing of vanishing the great animated series Infinity Train from existence...) Yavar

I don’t know how much if any of the score was recorded, but Natalie Holt shared that she’d composed about 90 minutes! Yavar

I agree with you 100% But I also think Disney's notorious box office bomb John Carter (OF MARS, dammit) is a better movie and more deserving of the "biggest box office of all time" crown than Avatar. Pretty similar storyline, and Cameron even said Avatar was heavily influenced by the Burroughs Mars novels. But Andrew Stanton's film beats his easily for me, in terms of characters/actors/story. It just had the worst marketing campaign of all time. The marketing really turned me off the movie, but I heard good things from a friend and so I went... and my wife and I both loved it. The flashbacks in this scene (obviously it loses something without the film context around it) had us both tearing up, and that's somewhat unusual for us: On the other hand, my wife still hasn't forgiven me for dragging her to Avatar after falling for all the marketing and hype. I thought it was just mediocre (Zoe Saldana was very good), but she absolutely despised it. Yavar

It does have something of a Johnny Lawrence aesthetic which is why it's perfect... that said, I don't think Johnny Lawrence would have a clue what Photoshop is, lol! He'd be like, "I keep taking pictures but I can't find a shop to turn them into photos any more!"

Absolutely is

Yeah it's a far cry from this one... wonder why:

Hey now, Abrams is pretty good at starting things...he just doesn't often stick the landing. And since DC stuff tends to go on for ever and ever without ending, maybe that doesn't matter too much. Yavar

Kinda off-topic for this thread, but since the Oliver Nelson jazz cover of Goldsmith's The Stripper was shared above... I recently ran across another cool jazz cover of an obscure early Jerry Goldsmith theme, and thought I'd share it here! Here's the original Goldsmith: FSM/SAE still has available the great CD album with all four Goldsmith scores for this series (it's feature film quality work, really): https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/cds/detail.cfm/CDID/429/Cain’s-Hundred/ To bring this back onto the thread topic, I just realized that I never shared the Goldsmith Odyssey Soundtrack Spotlight for Vol. IV. Audio restoration wizard Chris Malone joined us and Jeff Bond to talk about his amazing work on Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies... https://goldsmithodyssey.buzzsprout.com/159614/9378792-odyssey-soundtrack-spotlight-goldsmith-at-20th-vol-4-ace-eli-and-rodger-of-the-skies-1973-tora-tora-tora-1970 Really, it's a night-and-day improvement over the two decade old FSM edition of the score, which I was never able to enjoy. Now thanks to Chris Malone's efforts I actually LIKE Ace Eli. Yavar

Seriously, FUUUUUUUUCK this new WB exec. Yavar

Interestingly that’s the job Nicholas Meyer got handed when he took on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Yavar

I love both Indiana Jones films and all four Indiana Jones scores. Yavar