Matt.GC
TS Member
I also watched Avatar 2 a few days ago and it confirmed pretty much all of my preconceptions, in particular that James Cameron's work has descended further and further into pretentiousness since Terminator 2.
I don't like the overuse of CGI in movies as I think they can ruin them. But then at the same time I consider both the Avatars to be pretty much animated movies anyway and there's not a person on the planet who can go in to watch either and say they didn't know what they were letting themselves in for. It looks mostly as you'd expect it to, but I do want to shout out the ramped up frame rate. I think that's an excellent choice for movies with so much CGI and it did suit it. It was a joy to watch move.
But so excited and proud of themselves at what they had created with Disney's millions, it seems like they didn't want to let anyone walk out the cinema without wanting to show off how clever they thought they were. May have worked the first time round if you liked the art direction then, less so now. At over 3 hours for such a simple plot, it felt like a slog to me. It seemed like every plot device had to then cue many minutes of pretty moving pictures. Yeah, I got the point 10 mins ago, can we move on from all this tech demo like/pretentious stuff and get on with it please? This happened over and over again. At least these bits provided an excellent opportunity to go to the toilet without missing anything should nature call.
As for the plot itself? Well other than a sprinkling of stuff and new characters that felt like they were just inserted to make the movie more interesting, it was pretty much a rehash of the first film. Think Home Alone 2, most Rocky sequels or Die Hard 2 here. It also employed loads of tired and well worn out plot devices that have been used to death in other movies, some of which shouldn't be spoiled I guess despite their predictability. But some examples that won't spoil anything as they happen early on in the movie:
Bad guy comes back from the dead for revenge.
We're back! But we've been keeping ourselves busy......
"Luke, I am your father!"
Go somewhere where you're different and struggle to find acceptance at first - struggle to fit in..... blah blah I think we all know how this always ends.
Kid gets told not to do something, go somewhere or touch the forbidden fruit, ignores parents and does it anyway, has to be saved and/or scolded as a result learning an important life lesson. Basically Simba and Nala defy Mofasa and go to the elephant grave yard anyway kind of stuff "Simba, you deliberately disobeyed me, you could have got yourself killed". This happens no less than 3 TIMES in 1 film!
On the plus side though, it does get better in the last hour when everything starts exploding and everyone starts punching each other in the face and shooting at one another. Not really a spoiler since this happened in the first movie and the formulaic penultimate battle was inevitable before the opening credits finished (which also contains many more predictable "shock horror, look what's happened" moments). Some great action actually and the odd tense moments. Surprisingly brutal for a 12a in places.
If you like the characters and like the first film then you'll love this. If you like pretty colours and CGI eye candy, same. There's some fun to be had at times but I found enjoyment was being sapped away with long drawn out "look what we made, have we made you feel emotionally connected to the characters yet?" scenes that were wasted on me and only served to draw out the running time. The plot is extremely formulaic and incredibly lazy for the most part although there are some decent stories to be told here and there. It's just so hard to treat the movie as seriously as it wants to treat itself.
I don't like the overuse of CGI in movies as I think they can ruin them. But then at the same time I consider both the Avatars to be pretty much animated movies anyway and there's not a person on the planet who can go in to watch either and say they didn't know what they were letting themselves in for. It looks mostly as you'd expect it to, but I do want to shout out the ramped up frame rate. I think that's an excellent choice for movies with so much CGI and it did suit it. It was a joy to watch move.
But so excited and proud of themselves at what they had created with Disney's millions, it seems like they didn't want to let anyone walk out the cinema without wanting to show off how clever they thought they were. May have worked the first time round if you liked the art direction then, less so now. At over 3 hours for such a simple plot, it felt like a slog to me. It seemed like every plot device had to then cue many minutes of pretty moving pictures. Yeah, I got the point 10 mins ago, can we move on from all this tech demo like/pretentious stuff and get on with it please? This happened over and over again. At least these bits provided an excellent opportunity to go to the toilet without missing anything should nature call.
As for the plot itself? Well other than a sprinkling of stuff and new characters that felt like they were just inserted to make the movie more interesting, it was pretty much a rehash of the first film. Think Home Alone 2, most Rocky sequels or Die Hard 2 here. It also employed loads of tired and well worn out plot devices that have been used to death in other movies, some of which shouldn't be spoiled I guess despite their predictability. But some examples that won't spoil anything as they happen early on in the movie:
Bad guy comes back from the dead for revenge.
We're back! But we've been keeping ourselves busy......
"Luke, I am your father!"
Go somewhere where you're different and struggle to find acceptance at first - struggle to fit in..... blah blah I think we all know how this always ends.
Kid gets told not to do something, go somewhere or touch the forbidden fruit, ignores parents and does it anyway, has to be saved and/or scolded as a result learning an important life lesson. Basically Simba and Nala defy Mofasa and go to the elephant grave yard anyway kind of stuff "Simba, you deliberately disobeyed me, you could have got yourself killed". This happens no less than 3 TIMES in 1 film!
On the plus side though, it does get better in the last hour when everything starts exploding and everyone starts punching each other in the face and shooting at one another. Not really a spoiler since this happened in the first movie and the formulaic penultimate battle was inevitable before the opening credits finished (which also contains many more predictable "shock horror, look what's happened" moments). Some great action actually and the odd tense moments. Surprisingly brutal for a 12a in places.
If you like the characters and like the first film then you'll love this. If you like pretty colours and CGI eye candy, same. There's some fun to be had at times but I found enjoyment was being sapped away with long drawn out "look what we made, have we made you feel emotionally connected to the characters yet?" scenes that were wasted on me and only served to draw out the running time. The plot is extremely formulaic and incredibly lazy for the most part although there are some decent stories to be told here and there. It's just so hard to treat the movie as seriously as it wants to treat itself.
