Critic Review Thread (79% fresh - 7.1 average rating)

[Cvalda]

I never expected the professional critics to be so generous. I'm quite surprised.

Why? They give most incredibly hyped franchise blockbusters positive reviews.

[Blacklabel]

Yep. Avatar is at, roughly, 80% fresh on Rottentomatoes...

Avatar.

...

[ThisBethesdaSea]

We can laugh all we want at Avatar....but the film tapped into something that kept people coming back. I think the story of Avatar is like everyone said, done to death a million times before, nothing special, and there were HUGE plot holes (namely how did they cross breed human DNA with a N'avi and get a body without a soul?)...but what Avatar got right was the spiritual connection the N'avi had with their planet. It was incredible to watch those scenes apart from the actual plot of the film. The N'avi culture got me back into the theater 2 more times after I had initially seen it. Maybe that makes me stupid, naive, whatever, but it touched me. I'm so uncool.

[Cvalda]

I enjoyed Avatar for what it was. A big, well-made, pretty lookin' blockbuster with nice 3D. I saw it twice in the cinema (though I only saw it the second time because I arrived too late for the film I actually planned on seeing that day.)

That said, I don't feel the need to ever see it again, much less own it.

[Valaquen]

there were HUGE plot holes (namely how did they cross breed human DNA with a N'avi and get a body without a soul?)

What? A soul? The absence of a 'soul' in a piece of factory-grown meat is a plot hole? Who said there's a soul?

But yeah. Avatar's not for the hard sci-fi group. It was called Project 880 (8 year olds - 80 year olds) for a reason.

[Cvalda]

But yeah. Avatar's not for the hard sci-fi group. It was called Project 880 (8 year olds - 80 year olds) for a reason.

[ThisBethesdaSea]

I don't think you understand me. So, that creature that Jake Sully inhabited.....I presume it gestated and grew from a fetus stage? If so, how did they get that creature without it having a life force? It's like growing a human, the body grows, but it's dead?

[Valaquen]

It's like a vegetable until Jake's mind is 'imprinted' on its brain. Everything about it, biologically, works, but it has no consciousness or mind of its own.

[Blacklabel]

^that. but how they got the avatars to be that way without making it impossible for other consciousness to remote control the bodies? ...well that's just some nice bit of "jim cameron scifi magic"...

[ThisBethesdaSea]

Exactly. How did they engineer consciousness out of the body?

[Valaquen]

They were designed to be initially brain dead, pending the transfer of consciousness. I thought the film explained this :/

[Blacklabel]

Well. yeah. But that's precisely the bit that is absolutely impossible with the current understanding of how the brain works. you cant make something that is for all intents and purposes "brain dead"... and then expect a consciousness to be downloaded into that brain.... and getting everything to work just fine.... because.. the brain is... kaput. dead. it aint working.
and of course.. there are neuroscientists that believe that "consciousness" will never be able to be transferred or downloaded into anything... and then there is Daniel Dennett that believes that "consciousness".. just doesnt exist.

But of course... this is all just very very silly complicated nitpicking.

[ThisBethesdaSea]

I've seen the film 3 times. I don't remember seeing that part. And how do you design something to be brain dead? That's like engineering the spirit. To me, that's a HUGE plot hole.

[Blacklabel]

It's not a plot hole... neither does it matter at all to the story at hand.
Faster than light travel is also impossible with current understanding of physics and it's featured all over scifi. It doesnt matter. At all.

It's the story that matters.

I've seen the film 3 times. I don't remember seeing that part.

It's exactly in the beggining if i remember correctly.. when Sully is doing his diary about the Avatars.

[Valaquen]

you cant make something that is for all intents and purposes "brain dead"... and then expect a consciousness to be downloaded into that brain.... and getting everything to work just fine.... because.. the brain is... kaput. dead. it aint working.

No, my word choice may have been wrong. It's a vegetable, as I said earlier. It works (we see the body moving inside the stasis tube), but it has no mind of its own.
Fiction, man.

But of course... this is all just very very silly complicated nitpicking.

Word.

I've seen the film 3 times. I don't remember seeing that part. And how do you design something to be brain dead? That's like engineering the spirit. To me, that's a HUGE plot hole.

The scientists explain it in the film when they show it off to Sully. Cameron has explained it too - not that I think he ever needed to, it's not very hard to grasp. I don't know why you have trouble with it. I don't believe in the spirit, or the soul, so maybe that's that. Never heard this issue until today.

But anyway, back on topic.