Quote from: BlueMarsalis79 on Jan 28, 2024, 04:09:08 PMPerhaps if you only watch franchised stuff I could see that opinion.
To be fair, one could also see Aliens (Cameron's movie) as a franchised stuff.
I have seen people criticize Avatar because of simple Dance with Wolves plot and formulaic characters, while not holding other blockboster properties to the same degree.
I think Avatar gets criticized in ways that other big budget IPs are not, which reeks of double standards and hypocrisy.
But i think that if people took off the blindfold and nostalgia goggles, they would see that those criticisms that easily be used against Aliens and other Cameron movies, even though i love those movies.
The narrative of Aliens is pretty simple and the marines (as funny as Paxton is) are all pretty formulaic and cliche, but the execution of that movie is pretty solid.
Alien (1979) was an artistic piece that with another director and vision, could have easily ended up as some generic B-movie that would have been forgotten to time, while Aliens manages to capitalize on everything that an 80s action movie should strive to be, while still expanding on already existing piece.
At the same time, Aliens manages to be a movie that only Cameron can make, with all of its technological ambition and production scale, but it's very much an over the top action blockbuster from the 80s.
Avatar had wonderful special effects, but the story of that movie (as cliche or as predictable as it was), was made to serve the world and effects of Pandora.
You are not going to capture the audience' heart if you inject The Prestige or Inception type stories into the fantastical world of Pandora, and i don't even think they should, which clearly worked in cameron's favor for both movies.
Quote from: 426Buddy on Jan 28, 2024, 04:31:01 PMI liked both Avatar flicks but don't love them. I don't return to them really but both are decent sci fi actioners to kill some time.
When it comes to Cameron movies, Aliens is my number 1, but the Avatar and Titanic are what's next.
I liked the Termiantors movies, but never really loved them.
Depending on my mood, i don't know if i prefer the more family/character centered approach to Avatar 2: The Way of Water or the scifi take of a stranger on a stranger's land of the first Avatar movie.
I fell in love with Avatar the first time i saw it, and i think a big part of it was because of Jake Sully's introduction to Pandora through the Avatar body.
The entire process in which RDA worked and sent marines and scientits to alien jungles through costumized alien clone bodies was sick and that kind of got lost in the second movie.
The duality of Jake having two bodies and two sides to interact is something that i think the first movie did really well.
Also the Thanators, Banshees and Great Leonopteryx looked increidble, not to mention that the tech from RDA was pretty much Halo brought to life.
