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[Happy Ent]

Wonder what got cut.

Oh, that’s clear.

Here’s what should have happened.

Bad guys kill a big-ass tree.

This pisses off the forest.

So in the final confrontation, the bad guys are destroyed by a forest of living trees. Sweet Huorn revenge. An established trope, telegraphed in the movie from early on. I was really looking forward to it.

Instead, we get a completely illogical animalia ex machina. I guess what happened is that they pre-screened the movie to a target audience of primates, who had a difficult time identifying with the plant-based resolution. So they clumsily grafted a mammalian catharsis onto the movie, which makes no sense at all.

I expect that the director’s cut puts it right.

[niamh]

I dearly hope you're right.

[red snow]

Oh, that’s clear.

Here’s what should have happened.

Bad guys kill a big-ass tree.

This pisses off the forest.

So in the final confrontation, the bad guys are destroyed by a forest of living trees. Sweet Huorn revenge. An established trope, telegraphed in the movie from early on. I was really looking forward to it.

Instead, we get a completely illogical animalia ex machina. I guess what happened is that they pre-screened the movie to a target audience of primates, who had a difficult time identifying with the plant-based resolution. So they clumsily grafted a mammalian catharsis onto the movie, which makes no sense at all.

I expect that the director’s cut puts it right.

Or the planet, which is linked to animals via tentacles, maybe thought sending all the animals in to fight for it was more sensible than trees? That's how I took it. Although since you mentioned it, it does mean that all those animals had to tentacle link up with those glowing trees.

Hopefully there is a decent amount of rendered cut scenes that can be added (like with LOTR) as I think that's the best way to stop the DVD sales bombing.

[Happy Ent]

Or the planet, which is linked to animals via tentacles, maybe thought sending all the animals in to fight for it was more sensible than trees?

Well, the planet isn’t doing the thinking. The planet is just soil.

Maybe because if they’d sent in trees, it would have been a photosynthetic massacre. Possible. Or the trees decided that the animals are largely expendable due to their fast reproduction cycles, so there’s no reason to waste precious trees.

Maybe they’re holding back the righteous Huorn vengeance for Avatar 2: The bark is worse than the bite.

[Spring Bass]

Does the planetmind have some way of communicating with the animals other than the natural USB ports? It must have, unless the trees somehow jacked into every animal that overran the humans and told them "Destroy all humans". I can't remember it being mentioned, though.

[red snow]

Well, the planet isn’t doing the thinking. The planet is just soil.

Maybe because if they’d sent in trees, it would have been a photosynthetic massacre. Possible. Or the trees decided that the animals are largely expendable due to their fast reproduction cycles, so there’s no reason to waste precious trees.

Maybe they’re holding back the righteous Huorn vengeance for Avatar 2: The bark is worse than the bite.

Good point on the planet not being sentient, just the flora and fauna on it being linked. Love the title for the sequel; it could focus on the civil war within Pandora once the animals realise the plants are using them as cannon fodder :fencing:

Maybe the planet has "wireless" but only in case of emergencies? :)

[Starkess]

I wanted to go see it again in 3D IMAX yesterday, but I asked hubby if he thought we should buy our tickets beforehand and he said no...and of course it was sold out when we got there! Boo. But we saw Sherlock Holmes instead, which was jolly good fun, and we're gonna try to go to Avatar IMAX tomorrow (with tickets!).

I dunno if it can beat out Titanic, but it's a monster in its own right!

[Spring Bass]

I'll probably go and see if I can catch Avatar in the IMAX at the local theater for a matinee (it would be my second time seeing it - the first time, I saw it in 3D). Thank Cthulu for reserved seating, that you can purchase ahead of time online.

[Maithanet]

I don't think anyone has posted this. It's good for a laugh. I have never seen Pocahontas, but it certainly sounds like they are pretty much the same movie.

[niamh]

Oh yes they have :)

[baxus]

did anyone get what 'unobtanium' was used for?

what could it be that's so profitable...

p.s. i know it's irrelevant, but even south park told us what smurfberries were used for :D

(if you don't know what smurfberries have to do with avatar, see south park episode 'dances with smurfs')

[Ran]

It's described as a room-temperature superconductor.

[Angeleyes]

It's described as a room-temperature superconductor.

Bah. I had handwaved it way beyond being a mere superconductor... I saw it floating and figured it had some cool magnetic anti-grav applications. And then of course when the mountains were floating... They must just be centered over unobtainium as well right? Which is why there is such a massive 'Flux Field' in the region. And of course it is neccesary for the sort of space travel we see take place in the movie... Right? Rigghhtt?

As a scientist I also never had problems with the name unobtainium. Can't you all see a snarky physicist writing a paper in 20 years about what WOULD be possible IF we had some impossible commodity. Then define the properties of the commodity, but call it unobtainium. I can only see the media meme jumping all over that particular buzzword. :ack:

[Ran]

According to an Avatar wikia, unobtanium is apparently central to fulfilling Earth's energy needs, and makes interstellar exploration on a large scale possible, too.

[Fez]

I had sort of assumed that the small pedestal thing on the guy's desk was what was responsible for the unobtainium floating through some sort of containment field or something, and that anything placed over it would float- a sort of hi-tech display case; and that unobtainium did something else entirely, though what I have no idea. Did they actually say the mountains were floating due to it? I had thought that was also due to something else entirely; and if not, why is the Navi tree and its surrounding soil floating? Also if the mountains were floating because of it; why the hell didn't they just mine the mountains?

[Jon AS]

As a scientist I also never had problems with the name unobtainium. Can't you all see a snarky physicist writing a paper in 20 years about what WOULD be possible IF we had some impossible commodity. Then define the properties of the commodity, but call it unobtainium. I can only see the media meme jumping all over that particular buzzword. :ack:

The term Unobtainium has been around for a while. I first came across it in the unbelievably awful movie The Core, but it clearly predates that piece of shit.

[BLU-RAY]

Judging by the fact that they kept the "fight terror with terror" line, a chunk of the cut stuff must center around the Na'vi attack on the human base that's in the script treatment posted somewhere upthread.

Saw this again last night... movie itself is still bad, but I was a little more able to subsume the story and just enjoy the visuals, which were again fucking incredible. It being in IMAX might have helped on that front, but just some really pretty stuff.

[Jon AS]

Well I did my part to get this to all time number one and saw it again today. Liked better this time around and enjoyed the visuals a great deal more, probably because I wasn't busy patting myself on the back for being able to predict the plot.;)

The one sour note was that apparently, as for many others in this thread, the projectors weren't set up properly this time, and towards the last third of the movie (and a good while after) the strain on the eyes really became noticeable. That's something theatres will have to pay more attention to, otherwise 3d might not catch on after the novelty wears off.

[Ran]

Well. Maybe it has more legs than I figured. It's handily taken the 4th weekend record. I think it's just possible it'll take the 5th weekend, too, though that's dicier -- that's $30 million over the weekend, so it'd have to have less than a 33% drop to achieve that. Maybe, maybe not.

Now I'm hearing talk of it reaching $2 billion when all's said and done. I am highly dubious still, I still don't think it'll top Titanic, but we'll see how the overseas earnings go.

[Jon AS]

Oh, did I mention that the theatre was sold out? Rather impressive, particularly since most people in Germany will probably prefer the dubbed version over the original.