Posts by BenWilson
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And I know enough about the blurring between real & virtual - and disempowerment - to appreciate the power the film does have for many - and could have had, for more.
As the second highest grossing movie of all time, it's reached one hell of a lot of people. It would probably reach a lot more if it wasn't banned in China.
I'm curious why you loathe computer games.
But I do like really good computer action games, and I didn't much like Avatar.
Sure, but I said "if you don't like computer games". I didn't say "if you do like computer games then you'll love Avatar".
It sounds like not so many people actually liked the game version either. Heh...most games that are really movies are like that. Movies that started as games, OTOH....
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The sex scene didn't make the cut, so hard to say what it is, no?
Yes, we're allowed to use our imaginations.
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That said, my critical faculties didnt roll over & wave their paws in the air.
Neither did mine, I just didn't let them get in the way of having a good time at the movies.
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Not so. Here's what Saldana said about the deleted sex scene, which will be in the DVD extras presumably:
This would be in the commentaries that are always prefaced by a huge waiver saying that the opinions are not those of the actual organization?
I'm sure that there was sexual tension in the scene, in much the same way that The Last Samurai tried to put into the scene where Cruise is being dressed in his battle armor by the missus of the guy he killed. But it still wasn't an actual fuck. IMHO. A pash maybe...
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Actually I think you'll find that the imperative is that you should enjoy it and if you don't there's something wrong with you - read the comments to Calder's review. Pardon some of us for having differing opinions.
I think you'll find that cuts both ways.
But Avatar isn't a videogame, it's a film. If Cameron wanted to make a really kewl videogame, he should have made a damn videogame.
Ummmm it is possible to make a movie about a game, that uses movie techniques to address game themes. And vice versa.
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As for the hair connection thing, I thought it was blindingly obvious that it wasn't their sex organ, by the fact that they were sticking them into animals. It was a means of communication.
The 'bonding' scene is something people are determined to ick about (actually to quite an icky level I think). As I saw it, it was a betrothal, not a fuck. News Flash!: Even Humans Do This.
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tEhhhhh.... if it was supposed to be primarily a game-referencing film, that argument would be triffic.
What argument?
I think it was primarily meant to make money off an appreciative audience. That audience is mostly young, has been brought up with virtual reality as a fact rather than a fiction, sees immediately what the film is about, how intoxicating an avatar would be to have, how the boundaries between your real life and your virtual life would blur, how the dis-empowered would love it the most of all. How addictive it can be, how you can fall in love with it, what can be done with it. That mixed with the 'going native' story makes for a different level of connection, a different side of the same coin.
You are not meant to ponder these points. You're meant to directly experience them. If you can't or won't, fine. Don't. Be critical, it's really, really easy. That's why the critics are dominating the threads on it. No one else can explain it to them, it's not something to be explained.
Why would I like Avatar? Why would I like a really good computer action game? Same answer. If you don't like them, it's probably for the same reason you wouldn't like Avatar.
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Marijuana tends to be the intoxicant of choice for the athletic, in Vancouver anyway
It's how I prefer it, whilst doing something intense. Which means it's linked to exhilaration for me, so I've never got into the trap of using it to help me sleep.
I'm a little dubious, anecdata-ly, about this theory.
Yeah I'm throwing it out for discussion, it's not academic or anything. Perhaps more people do actually prefer to have it in moderation. It's really hard to know, because dosages are really, really inaccurate. I can only rate it personally, usually by some kind of judgment about my level of 'impairment'. But it's a different kind of impairment to alcohol. To be as physically impaired as alcohol for me takes a hell of a lot of dope. But I may well be mentally impaired a lot earlier. For instance, at those times, it's really easy to lose things, or get lost. Or lose the thread of a conversation, and make stupid stoner comments. So I tend to shut up, go nowhere, and put my stuff away carefully. Indeed, I usually put thought into it all beforehand, so that I don't have to trust my short term memory.
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Really? I thought the Really Big Fight At The End was brilliantly realised -- or, as our in-house action movie expert put it, "exhilarating". I'm really not sure what recent action spectacle you'd be unfavourably comparing it to.
Now you're asking the hard questions. But I suspect even having a Really Big Fight At The End is part of the criticism. It should have ended like "The Mission" with our hero bleeding out watching his new found home destroyed by brutal colonial bastards with sad, distant music. Perhaps his girlfriend enslaved, and the scientists all rounded up for some kind of public execution. Only then could the critics feel an emotional connection.
I found it exhilarating, not least for the enormous number of computer game references which may have simply gone right over the top of the head of the ardent moviegoers. The genre gap is almost like a language gap, and I can see that for a lot of people it just seemed like a flat rendering of a foreign poem.
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Any time I've smoked too much dope I feel deranged. People who don't stop could be that way a lot. But that's drug abuse, rather than use. The pot-a-holics. I know a couple of people like this. But their level of derangement was 1. Preexisting. 2. Possibly affected by the other recreational drugs they take. 3. A possible consequence of a gangster lifestyle, in which paranoia might actually be a sane choice.
It does seem that people who stop using come out of their derangement pretty quickly. Which makes me wonder about the age-old claim that dope affects your memory. I can say for certain that it affects my memory *when I'm high*. And the 'vacant' state for a day afterward is one where memory is not so much affected as something you don't really feel like doing (along with anything that involves concentration). But after a bit of time off, there doesn't really seem to be any difference.
That said, being on it for lengthy periods could be habit forming. If you smoke every day, I doubt that you're performing at your mental peak much of the time. Alcohol doesn't seem to be so bad in this respect if used in moderation (but if used heavily it's probably worse). Perhaps that is the issue - using pot in moderation is quite unlikely because the idea is to get really stoned, not to just get a very, very mild stoning. The spinout I get from a usual session is probably about as mentally impairing as having drunk about 8 cans of beer in an hour. Yes, it doesn't last as long as 8 cans worth of drunk would, the stoning wears off after an hour or two. At which point, the temptation is to blaze up again. Rinse and repeat all day, and you're taking way more than even a prolific alcoholic (at way less cost, incidentally - that session probably costs about $5, whereas 8 beers is probably double that if you are at home, and about 10 times as much if you are at a bar). Add in the tolerance effect if you're a constant user and you're probably having one hell of a lot of this drug.
A sensible alcohol drinker could have a bit every day. But if that were dope, in my case it would probably be about 1 or 2 puffs, enough to get what I'd call a very mild high. To smoke like that you can't really use roll-ups unless you want to be putting them out all the time. So you'd probably need a pipe. The whole thing is over in about 10 seconds. Whereas you can linger over your beer for half an hour. I don't know anyone who smokes dope like that, except for people who smoke the original joint. As in a joint concoction of dope and tobacco, mixed to whatever degree you like. I had one puff of one of those in Amsterdam by mistake (where they are very popular) and gave it back, no sorry mate that's not my bag. The guy seemed really surprised that I was turning down free weed. But having to smoke basically an entire cigarette of cancer to get a couple of puffs of nice green just didn't appeal to me.
I think that is the real difference with dope and alcohol. Because it is practically impossible to overdose yourself to death with it, that leads to the temptation to consider it's effects as mild. They are not, they are actually very strong. You can be stoned out of your nut all day long, and just end up feeling tired and listless for a few days, rather than the extremely punishing feelings you get from overdosing on alcohol. You can do it every day. And in that way you can spend years doing very little else, which is never without consequence. You get unfit. You eat too much. You don't do any useful work. You neglect other duties. Your thoughts aren't collected, your conversation becomes silly, your choices foolish, your friends trend towards a similar lifestyle (if they don't distance themselves from you).
But of course it is possible to use dope sensibly too. A little infrequently at times when you don't actually need to do work, and do need to relax, can be a nice thing to have. This, ironically, seems to be how the Dutch use it. There are still hardened stoners, but most people are just casual. I wonder if a big part of this is because they can talk to each other very openly about their use of it, so they can see how people they might model themselves after use it. In NZ there is still the stigma, the fear of speaking openly about it. I am quite nervous about posting this post, for instance, where I would not be the least bit nervous about talking about some drunken bender I'd had. I know some people will judge me because of it. I don't know who all the stoners around me are, because I certainly haven't just come out and told everyone all about my habits, and I presume others have the same conundrum.
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