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Avatar I watched the Extended Collector's Edition cut (3 hours long) on blu-ray last night, in anticipation of schlepping out the movie theater to see the sequel this weekend. I had seen this film twice before (in IMAX 3D when it was first in theaters, and then a re-watch of the theatrical cut on the same blu ray some 5 or so years ago), but I honestly wouldn't have been able to recall any character names (outside of Jake Sully and Quarritch) or any plot details out of the basics, so it was a very good refresher. I actually quite enjoyed the whole movie on this viewing, and I'm sure things will stick with me better now. I have no clue which scenes that I saw in this cue were not in the theatrical cut, but honestly at no point did I feel like I was watching a pointless or filler scene, nor did anything stand out as being something you should cut just to save time. About the only story thread that seemed a bit off was the background about how Neytiri's sister was murdered when Grace's school was attacked, but that's only because it's only told through scenes with Grace; Jake and Neytiri never discuss it at all in their scenes. Why wouldn't Cameron have given Saldana a scene to show how it affected her? Weird. Speaking of Neytiri, I was actually quite impressed with Zoe Saldana's acting performance, she's great in this movie! The other hero human characters (Michelle Rodriguez, Joel David Moore, Dileep Rao) were enjoyable too, but I couldn't quite get into Sigourney Weaver's role as much for some reason. Stephen Lang and Giovanni Ribisi made really excellent villains, they impressed me too! The various Na'Vi were also nicely unique. I definitely didn't remember that Neytiri is practically naked the whole movie, showing of tons of sideboob throughout most of the picture until she finally covers up more for the finale (unless that was changed for this cut, I dunno) Despite the fact that the story is so basic and straight-forward, the world-building is so excellent the whole film is really engaging right from the start. I liked getting an insight into Jake's life on earth before he agrees to board the ship for Pandora, and the way the biosystem of Pandora worlds is slowly unveiled is really good too. I also liked how every different creature and location introduced throughout the first two acts gets returned to in the big finale, that was very well done. Horner's score was excellent in the movie, I loved it. It made me miss him all over again, as a few times I felt like what I was hearing wouldn't be done that way by another composer. My only issue with the music in the movie was that there was many instances where it was mixed too low, which took me out of the movie to notice it. I remember one time there was a big panoramic shot of floating mountains and stuff, and the music was trying to soar to enhance the majesty of what you're seeing, but Cameron mixed it low and had helicopter sounds more prominent in the mix instead, which is baffling. Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing the sequel now!

I have a friend that has connections to the Pandora theme park area in Florida, and he says it's consistently packed to a crazy level, and that people of all ages absolutely love it when they're there. Is that enough cultural impact? Perhaps no one has said "I see you" to you in your life, but no one has ever said "may the force be with you" to me either.

George Lucas opened a lot of pandora boxes. In a way, "I am your father" was the biggest pandora box ever opened.

I guess they decided it's getting too polluted or over-populated. Hopefully we get more on that in future films. It has been 13 years since the first films events (both real world for us and in film time too) It takes the ships around 6 years to travel between earth and pandora, so clearly when the Na'vi forced them off pandora, they got back to earth 6 years later and everything was discussed and debriefed, and they loaded up more forces and decided to return with a different plan. Not just to mine pandora for resources, but to relocate and set up a perminant colony of humans.

He's the leader of essentially the rebellion against the invading humans. He has the military skill and knowledge of how the humans operate, so he takes the lead in most confrontations. in reference to Cameron's conments; while I'm fine with an exploration of a more negative Na'vi side and positive human side, Cameron hasn't exactly just painted the Na'vi as all good and the humans as all evil, like some haters narrow-mindedly state. In fact both films have portrayed good and bad actions of Na'vi and humans. E.g The scientists studying the Na'vi are good and risked their lives to help them. Also Jake was literally one of the military and yet he risked his life to help them. So too did Trudy, who actually died to save the Na'vi. Even Selfridge, the man in charge of the entire operation to pillage Pandora's resources, was ultimately very clearly not happy with the military intervention, and even gave the scientists a chance to evacuate the Na'vi clan before Quarritch and his forces got there. And of course in The Way of Water, we are shown a frightening side of Neytiri, as she was very willing to kill Spider, an innocent human child, in order to save her own family and seek revenge for her own loss. Doesn't seem all that black and white to me.

George Lucas opened Pandora's box, when he brought back Darth Maul. Since then this reanimation of dead characters, Palpatine, Boba Fett, Ashoka or even reanimating killed characters within one and the same feature like the grand inquisitor and Reva in the Kenobi series, has in a way destroyed the franchise by adding a certain ridiculousness to it.

Basically, you just need two things to make normal people do bad things. Threaten their life foundation by shorting their basic resources and ideological indoctrination. So, in the next movie there could be something like a peaceful human colony on pandora and some of the Na'vi planning to take revenge for what the others had done. But also motives like jealousy or any kind of conflicting desires and needs could could turn allies into enemies. Maybe at defending themselves against the humans the Na'vi discovered how good they are at fighting and using that to get what they need, that a part of them wants to use that to conquere new areas, where they don't just get what falls from the trees. Of course first life situation must become difficult. That is the precondition. Could also be something like a human virus from earth that humans are immune against but the Na'vi are not. Tada!!! there is the conflict. How to live together? No humans, no problems. But humans have no other place to live. Something like a Princess Mononoke scenario. There3 are many options. But I am not the writer of this.

Apparently Cameron hinted at the 3rd film taking a different direction with the Na'vi. He said that he has portrayed them as good and the humans as bad, but he will explore the opposite in the next one, involvong another Na'vi clan nicknamed the Ash clan, who are more fire based. (Definitely getting that Earth, Fire, Water and Air thing going 😉) It will be interesting if they explore the human desperation to leave the dying earth and settle of Pandora, and they have to make some sort of truce with Jake.

Great movie and great score. Once I was immersed back into Pandora I didn’t care that the story had shades of the first film. Hope it makes whatever it needs to make so we get the next one. The score works gangbusters too. I don’t think any other composer could have continued in Horners footsteps. Brilliant on all levels. Wish the expanded album gave us a couple more cues…

I think it'd be cool if you ask him questions related not only to the score for the second movie, but also the score for the first movie: how was like working with James Horner on that project? What was their proccess in creating the musical soundscape of Pandora for that film?

https://deadline.com/2022/12/guns-avatar-the-way-of-water-cut-violence-james-cameron-1235207390/ The movie is still very violent. There's scenes of people torturing teenagers, brutalizing the Na'Vi and the Pandora animals, etc. If I had a child younger than 13 I would not let he/she watch alone.

Just saw it for the second time. After listening to the score many times and becoming familiar with all the thematic ideas, the film was so much more powerful emotionally. I found it difficult to hold back the tears in the emotional finale. I'm loving this score more all the time. As much as Horner's score, in fact. I connect so much more with the characters in the second film because of the family story, so that paired with the gorgeous themes Franglen wrote for The Sully Family, The Waterworld of Pandora, Payakan, and Kiri is a magical experience.

Seeing Earth would be really interesting. Maybe Eywa will help heal nature and restore Earth back to health by connecting all living things in a vast network. Or the dystopian version where Eywa terraforms the atmosphere to Pandora levels and all humans suffocate to death.

Just completed my first listen. I really rather like it. Action music isn't as bad as some make out... it's mostly generic but there are some short powerful moments. Everything celebrating Pandora is lovely. I really dig the theme in The Tulkun Return... very Horner-esque.

Awesome stuff. The background video…looks like the one I did years ago of the entire “War” sequence featuring the intended score (without sound effects or dialogue) that was always tricky to upload to YouTube because of copyright flags. I called it “War: The Battle for Pandora”. If so, great use of it as a guide/ sync!

No they don't. The idea is in each episode to wreck another reqion of the planet. So, in movie number five they have to deal with huge streams of refugies intruding the only remaining habitable region of Pandora resulting in a big civil world war about the remaining recources between the four big Navi tribes from movie 1-4 and the greedy humans. They could call that final episode "Battle of the Five Armies".

Probably the same next time, but it will take place at Pandora's arctic region with inuit-like Navi and a lot of snow animals and sleigh dog-like ants pulling sleighs.

The blue monkeys are getting to you. I swear some people describe the plot of “Avatar” like it’s “The Room.” It’s thin but come on I see the same people hating on “Avatar” loving “Top Gun: Maverick” when that movie is just as thin and copies the plot of another movie. Not every movie needs a crazy story. Of course a story is required or else it’s a documentary but the story doesn’t need to be anything special every time. It just needs to propel the characters from place to place logically at least at the bare minimum and from there you can do whatever. Some films decide to focus more on spectacle and I don’t see anything wrong with that. I would say Spielberg’s films are definitely some of the closest comparisons to “Avatar” you can get. Obviously a lot of his films have amazing stories but also a lot of his famous ones like “Jurassic Park” and “Indiana Jones” aren’t anything crazy or new plot wise but their spectacle and imagery and characters are what make the films (Also John Williams). “Jurassic Park” is pretty closely related to “Avatar” in my opinion. Also I don’t personally find Avatar’s plot to be as bad as everyone thinks it is so maybe that’s why I hold it to an higher level. Oh and plenty of Spielberg’s dialogue is cliched. No I think it’s how every tree, plant, bush flower and blade of grass rendered in every weather condition – rain, sun, mist has a name and a purpose in Pandora. They created a full ecosystem.

I look at this a bit differently. I don't think any narrative film that I can think of is ever truly about "world building", as such. If that were the case, we'd have National Geographic-esque pieces about Pandora, or about Tatooine, or about Rivendell, and we evidentally don't. Those places very much exist as backdrops for stories. That being said, when a story is told in a medium such as film, there's absolutely no rule saying a filmmaker shouldn't take his time with the storytelling to celebrate character, be it the character of the characters or of said backdrop. If films were all about moving the story forward in the most time-effective way possible, there'd be no art to it. That doesn't mean that the film - any film - is about its own backdrop.

Yeah, THIS is the reason for reshooting the ending, to include a Short Round cameo. It couldn't possibly be because of the nuclear heat radiating from the Pandora's Box that is/was the alleged finale of this film.

It was not! They've consistently averaged 32 titles/year over the past three years now: 31 titles in 2020: LLLCD 1503 Darkman LLLCD 1510 Teen Titans Go! Vs Teen Titans LLLCD 1514 Casper LLLCD 1515 The Swarm LLLCD 1523 Pandora LLLCD 1524 Hoffa LLLCD 1525 Young Justice - Outsiders LLLCD 1526 Two Mules For Sister Sara LLLCD 1528 Sonic The Hedgehog LLLCD 1529 Days of Thunder LLLCD 1530 Mystery Men LLLCD 1531 Escape To Danger LLLCD 1532 Sliver LLLCD 1533 Far and Away LLLCD 1534 Quinn Martin Vol. 3 LLLCD 1535 The Wretched LLLCD 1536 Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea LLLCD 1537 The Outpost LLLCD 1538 Forces of Nature LLLCD 1539 Munster, Go Home LLLCD 1542 Karate Kid Part II LLLCD 1543 Karate Kid Part III LLLCD 1544 Goldsmith at 20th Vol. 1 LLLCD 1545 Goldsmith at 20th Vol. 2 LLLCD 1546 The Boys: Season 1 LLLCD 1547 Friday The 13th Part VII LLLCD 1548 Graveyard Shift LLLCD 1549 The Boys: Season 2 LLLCD 1551 Tremors LLLCD 1555 Freaky LLLCD 1570 X-Files Volume 4 33 titles in 2021: LLLCD 1353RA A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Re-issue) LLLCD 1504 X-Men LLLCD 1527 Always LLLCD 1540 A Quiet Place Part II LLLCD 1541 Cobra Kai: Season 2 LLLCD 1550 Somewhere In Time LLLCD 1552 The Orville Season 2 LLLCD 1553 Cobra Kai: Season 3 LLLCD 1554 Banning LLLCD 1556 Hard Rain LLLCD 1557 Goldsmith at 20th Vol. 3 LLLCD 1558 Bumblebee LLLCD 1559 The Time Tunnel Vol. 1 LLLCD 1560 Glory LLLCD 1561 Friday The 13th Part VIII LLLCD 1562 The Diary of Anne Frank LLLCD 1563 Goldsmith at 20th Vol. 4 LLLCD 1564 Dragonslayer 40th LLLCD 1565 Cabo Blanco LLLCD 1566 Time Tunnel Vol. 2 LLLCD 1567 The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run LLLCD 1568 Waiting For The Barbarians LLLCD 1569 Stripes LLLCD 1571 Internal Affairs LLLCD 1573 Infinite LLLCD 1574 Snake Eyes LLLCD 1575 It's A Wonderful Life LLLCD 1576 Fiddler on the Roof LLLCD 1578 Escape From L.A. LLLCD 1580 The Next Karate Kid LLLCD 1581 Love Actually LLLCD 1582 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan LLLCD 1584 Friday The 13th: The Ultimate Cut 32 titles in 2022: LLLCD 1572 Field of Dreams LLLCD 1577 Scarface LLLCD 1579 Star Trek: The Motion Picture LLLCD 1583 Videodrome LLLCD 1585 Cobra Kai: Season 4 LLLCD 1586 Fire In The Sky LLLCD 1587 Braveheart (Re-issue) LLLCD 1588 Top Secret! LLLCD 1589 The Lost City LLLCD 1590 Weather Man LLLCD 1591 Star Trek Collection: The Final Frontier LLLCD 1592 Beavis and Butt-head Do America LLLCD 1593 Jurassic Park LLLCD 1594 E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (Re-issue) LLLCD 1595 Patriot Games (Re-issue) LLLCD 1596 Clear and Present Danger LLLCD 1597 Flesh & Bone LLLCD 1598 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 LLLCD 1599 Overwhelm The Sky LLLCD 1600 Goldsmith at 20th Vol. 5 LLLCD 1601 First Wives Club LLLCD 1602 Beavis and Butthead Do The Universe LLLCD 1603 Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Re-issue) LLLCD 1604 Quinn Martin Vol. 4 LLLCD 1605 Cobra Kai: Season 5 LLLCD 1609 The Ring LLLCD 1611 How the Grinch Stole Christmas LLLCD ???? Black Friday #1 LLLCD ???? Black Friday #2 LLLCD ???? Black Friday #3 LLLCD ???? Black Friday #4 LLLCD ???? Black Friday #5

Visually I felt particularly reminded to Luc Besson's Valerian. At last we get more insights into the story. Jake and his family comes to these water people, probably fleeing from the bad guys from the first movie, who are Avatars as well and spend there some time to learn their habbits, rules, culture and so on like Jake did in the first movie, learning to ride on alien seals instead of flying reptiles. Then the bad guys find them and the water people must decide if they support Jake and his family to fight against the bad guys or just hand them over to the enemies. That is actually worse than I thought. But maybe I am comletely wrong and it is much more interesting. Then in the third movie they probably flee into the mountains or the north pole of Pandora and do the whole same story over again.

New trailer, where Pandora looks suspiciously like Typhoon Lagoon at Disney World. Cameron apparently has said the film needs to hit 2 billion to break even. That presumably doesn’t include tie-in ticket sales to the water park.

But when you say 'technical marvel', that sounds rather reductive, as if it's all just surface value without any kind of effect. It obviously is a technical marvel, but what matters is how you make use of it. Form is content. So when you have visionaries like Cameron (or Scott, or Spielberg, or other directors that make full use of the audiovisual tools not only for storytelling, but for mood and other things) that makes use of these technical marvels to create engrossing, visceral experiences, that's a valid form of pleasure. For all their spectacle, none of the Marvel films have accomplished this. Cameron, on the other hand, has managed this herculean task with THE ABYSS, ALIENS, TITANIC and the first AVATAR, in particular, and I have great confidence he will do it again with this sequel. Everyone and their grandmother agree that the Pocahontas story of AVATAR is completely unoriginal, but that's not really the point of the film, the way I see it. It's just a mechanism by which to absorb you into the universe of Pandora.

I'm well aware of Franglen's work, but so far none of it has impressed me much. Like THE MAG 7, NOTRE DAME ON FIRE, the Pandora thingie. Not even Malicks' VOYAGE OF TIME, a film I otherwise found excellent. I would have expected a "student" of Horner's to be a tad more interesting. But hey -- the proof is in the pudding. Maybe AVATAR 2 is what finally does it for me. The soundtrack cover looks gorgeous, anyway.