I like the comment re Iceland, suggesting there is nothing else to do. Until two years ago, Iceland…

The world mapped for per-capita cinema-going. We go less than the Australians and Iceland tops the rankings, beating even the USA with more than five visits a year per person.

The Top 10 most pirated movies of 2009 — Star Trek followed by Transformers and some…

Speaking of great adaptations which have little to…

You can also go away without leaving, which is escapism or imagination. In the novel, Paul Prior, who as a teacher becomes a sort of father figure to the intellectual outcast Celia, escaped into books as a teenager: Gee uses…

I found the 3D-ness a bit off for the first third of the movie. I couldn't follow fast movements on-screen very well and my eyes felt slightly uncomfortable.…

resistance is futile:)

I'm painting myself blue and taking up throat-singing as we speak.

But seriously, that's what I meant by it being an allegory for all human history. It's flexible and eclectic enough. The indigenous people looked and acted largely Native (North) American to me but if you're in…

yeah i hear what youre saying but nah you got it all wrong. is it so hard for you to accept what happens in, and the stories from, your own backyard without looking to validate it by comparison…

Maybe because it can feel like watching someone else play a computer game.

I spent the two hours of Final Fantasy looking in vain for the bloody ESC button.

7. Avatar (James Cameron)
Both Hollywood-archetypal and deeply, personally weird, James Cameron’s Gaia-loving space opera manages to be an allegory for…

I've tried to let Avatar sink in.

That,and now I really must exit.I gotta get outta here.For someone who didn't care to see it, it has now crept into conversations all over the place.Now I am considering going.For that I don't want to know any more .
As you were...

Aw, okay then. You make a good case. It's not appropriate for an eight year old boy, is it?

I'd take an eight year old. My five year old daughter wants to see it, which I think is a bit too young, but eight should be fine. I'd rate the…

Did you find anything in the films that didn't look just like you thought in your head that it would look when you were reading the books?

Pretty much everything didn't look how I imagined. In most cases it looked a hell of a lot better. It massively enriched my…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUvCPkp0H0U

Merry Xmas y'all

Hmmm. I'm thinking that in about five years' time someone is going to use this technology to create something wild.

you seen surrogates with bruce willis ?

same sort of concept but straight human, cos you have to imagine, if the humans in "Avatar" could bio engineer Nav'i they certainly…

It's not appropriate for an eight year old boy, is it?

I certainly won't be taking my 8 yr old no matter how much he begs.

One scene near the end appears to have been mistakenly filed under "you were really there and it happened" ...

I felt the same way about Battle for Milkquarious.

Confidential to G. Tiso of Wellington: I would not see Avatar based on the trailer. None of the pretty bits are in there. But I would see it based on it being an awesome film.

Aw, okay then. You make a good case. It's not appropriate for an eight year…

i'm a bit like that too. i was feeling what it was like to be sully and living in the future/past through someone else.

Hmmm. I'm thinking that in about five years' time someone is going to use this technology to create something wild.

"you were really there and it happened" ...

i'm a bit like that too. i was feeling what it was like to be sully and living in the future/past through someone else.

...and I started thinking about the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, WTF.

why that ?

One scene near the end appears…

It was generally a good film. The CGI bits were done so well that, like the 3D, it just felt like a normal part of the film and not a "Oooh! Lookie!!!!"

So that meant that the film actually had to be good on…

I know that, for example, Audrey Niffenegger's manuscript for __The Time Traveller's…

If you're going to alter fundamentals of the book when you write the screenplay, call it "inspired by The Vintner's Luck" or something, but don't pretend you're making a film of the book, because you're clearly not.

Webweaver: I'm a huge fan of James Ellroy, but I'm not really surprised…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI

Did you find anything in the films that didn't look just like you thought in your head that it would look when you were reading the books?

Pretty much all the locations except Hobbiton, Moria and Mordor. And The Dead were awfully done in the movie. The Elves remained pansies.…

Then I'd question why make the bloody film in the first place.

I think this comes down to the question of whether a director chooses to try and create a faithful rendition of the original book (which I think PJ did as well as he could for LOTR – and…

Andrew Lloyd Webber's Frodo!

didn't 'flight of the conchords' already write most of the tunes?

Frodo, don't wear the ring.
The magical bling bling.
One ring to rule them AAAALLLLLL!!!!

(The exclamation mark is part of the name of the work, not an expression of horror on my part, although the thought does horrify me.)

Regrettably.

You clearly haven't read Kyle's big list of 50 changes from the books to the movies which didn't work out.

Did you find anything in the films that didn't look just like you thought in your head that it would look when you were reading the books?

What's the point of adapting the Lord of the Rings if you draw everything exactly as Tolkien had described it?

You clearly haven't read Kyle's big list of 50 changes from the books to the movies which didn't work out.

I find this very interesting. What do you call "true" insightful realism? Is it something like" high modality"? A dimly remembered term for an interesting concept where South Park can be more realistic than Saving Private Ryan??

I meant realism in the transfer from the source to screen. What's the…

My gripe isn't that we make a lot of superhero movies or Tolkien adaptations, it's how pedestrian they are – it's a perverse fantasy realism which I hope will die soon.

I find this very interesting. What do you call "true" insightful realism? Is it something like" high modality"? A…

The first half where we were learning the Na've culture was definitely more enjoyable than the battly bits later on though I am a hippy and not mad on action films in general.

I thought that as Really Big Fights At The End go, it was outstanding — as my…

Now, there's something they didn't have in the Thirties: great television.

I don't know; they probably had some great television then.

We say Avatar 3D last night – it was stunningly gorgeous and very real feeling.…

Suckers.

Oh, and I probably saw seven or eight movies this year. I'm so average.

edit: Actually that's not right. I saw a few at…

Of course, many, many more movies on DVD, but none of which were as satisfying as…

I once read that the average New Zealander sees, on average, seven films a year. [Citation required]

The latest NZ figures I have are: Annual cinema trips per capita are 2007: 8.6 (calculated from 36.5m total visits) and 2008: 9.4 (39.9m).

Like all averages, such figures don't account for significant…

When has it ever been any different, seriously?

Never, never, ever, I'd say. I can imagine even in the stone age, there would have been adult and children stories. And the most popular and lasting stories are still the kidult ones, because adults had to relay them to children.

(Then again, I'm not sure why I assume that children's things have to be simple and brightly coloured and wrapped up with a storytelling bow at the end.)

Certainly not — my epic Big Gay Uncle win is turning on David's grand nephew to Hayao Miyazaki so such an extent…

I would be interested in how many films other folk get to in a year.

I once read that the average New Zealander sees, on average, seven films a year. [Citation required].

Whenever I tell this to people, their reaction it either "Is that all?!" or "Oh, I wish I…

Might need some examples of that.

WALL-E.

Still doesn't explain why the film for the actual kids are so much more intelligent, experimental, nuanced and complex.

Might need some examples of that. If they are, then I'd expect they are kidult films pitching at the adults who have to sit through the films, and then discuss them…

They are and they are not. Having sat through trailers for the Chipmunks: The Squequel twice, there still is garbage being made for the child audience.

Of course, including some of the supposedly ironic ones.

Still doesn't explain why the film for the actual kids are so much more intelligent, experimental, nuanced and complex.

They are and they are not. Having sat through trailers for the Chipmunks: The Squequel twice, there still is garbage being made for the child audience. I have tried sleeping through…

I liked Where the Wild Things Are, for example, because it is not a children's film, but an adult discourse about childhood. It is also rather sad, and without a pat resolution.

I just wanted to agree with this, because I just saw WTWTA on Saturday and came out of…

But, say X-Men, or LOTR, or the Star Wars prequels, aren't marketed for children. They are supposed to be for a general audience.

Yes, and a general audience includes children and teenagers. If you want to make a movie that appeals at those levels it has to be spectactular. Some…

ORLY? Does beg the question why Gone With The Wind is still the inflation-adjusted box office champ after seventy years.

Since you're talking top grossing, I'll take Gone is the Wind – and by a considerable margin – over each and every top grossing film of the noughties.

Yes adults will put up with a lot less spectacle. But I think that the contrary is the case, that rather than tastes infantilizing, I think children's movies have simply got a lot better.

I meant infantilising the taste of adults. Children's film have got better and better, and rarely…

You can no more judge a film on its trailer than you can judge a car from an ad for the car. You've got to test-drive it, at least.

Still beg to differ. In a film which is aggressively marketed for how it looks (see also: Where the Wild Things…

I reckon if you're miles from even a multiplex, it's quite alright to wait for DVD – one of my favourite things is curling up in bed with…

I would be interested in how many films other folk get to in a year.

OMG, probably 100, at least. And that's not counting all the shorts I saw in the Wellington heats for 48Hours.

I would encourage anyone who doesn't see films at the movies any more to find…

Surely it's okay to not like this film on spec? I saw the trailers and thought they were awful

What? No.

A trailer is an ad for the film. It is not a summary of the film. It is not art. It is a commercial designed to entice mainstream audiences…

it's hard not to see a direct relationship between the increase in spectacle and the infantilisation of taste.

ORLY? Does beg the question why Gone With The Wind is still the inflation-adjusted box office champ after seventy years. The Wizard of Oz not exactly a miracle of understatement either. But…

I'd enthusiastically agree, if other things were equal. But seeing as this was the decade of superhero movies and prequels (and prequels of superhero movies) it's hard not to see a direct relationship between the increase in spectacle and the infantilisation of taste.

Yes adults will put up with a…

48 — but three quarters of that was Film Society and festival shows

That is great. We have Film Society screening at the local Victoria cinema (tea and toasted sandwiches delivered to your seat).

I guess the next question I would ask of everyone: How many of the films you…

* slinks away in complete non-film-geek embarrassment *

I would be interested in how many films other folk get to in a year.

48 — but three quarters of that was Film Society and festival shows. But in the same year, I brought or hired almost sixty DVDs.

Other things being equal, I disagree. If the other aspects suffered because of the spectacle, then maybe. But something being spectacular isn't really a negative. I like spectacles, anyway.

I'd enthusiastically agree, if other things were equal. But seeing as this was the decade of superhero movies and prequels (and…

This year, 3 (all in Oamaru.)

Films watched on dvds? About 2 a week.

Maybe I am turning into one of those film bods I used to-not-greatly-admire.

Don't sweat it. You like what you like, and I'm sure what you do like is mostly good.

More spectacular doesn't mean better, however.

Other things being equal, I disagree. If the other aspects suffered because of…

I would be interested in how many films other folk get to in a year.

I'm sitting on four.

My son and I both have quite severe astigmatism. Are we going to get anything other than a nasty headache out of this?

My wife has the same, wears glasses. No more issues with it than I had, and the 3D certainly worked for her. If you see in 3D…

Nice to see Pirating and general Downloading is driving the industry to take the next step in "Value Added" media releases.

As I might have pointed out in one of the copyright threads, it's exactly what happened when people started watching films at home on their tellies – films at…

Okay, here's what I want to know. My son and I both have quite severe astigmatism. Are we going to get anything other than a nasty headache out of this?

There seems to be some prospect that the digital 3D will work for you, but I think you won't know…

I do hope you enjoy seeing it now that you've reviewed it ;-)

So do I, dear — and to be fair, I might just be having a severe allergic reaction to the hype-krieg and the film itself turns out to be utterly transcendental. I don't expect the damn thing…

And yet a bunch of people who aren't fools have actually been to see it and their responses range from impressed to rapturous.

I'm not saying it's a bad film, just that not everything works for everyone. I assume that you and the others who liked it weren't put off…

Surely it's okay to not like this film on spec? I saw the trailers and thought they were awful, surely that's the whole point of promoting a film. If you don't like the look of it and the look is what is being marketed, then avoid.

And yet a bunch…

I do hope you enjoy seeing it now that you've reviewed it ;-)

Woah!. Now that's gotta hurt more than Desk/Head.
Go Russ.

The desk has just taken out a non-molestation order against my head...

Uh, okay ... I was just saying it didn't suck. The narrative is fairly simple, but it makes sense and the script is well-written.

I do hope you enjoy seeing it now that you've reviewed it ;-)

1. Reviewers who complain about the story are really looking for something to whinge about. Yes, it is composed of familiar tropes, but it's a mass-market family movie.

The desk has just taken out a non-molestation order against my head... Pixar doesn't do "Shakespeare" either, but it has been eye-wateringly…

I did love the foliage but will remain a dissenting voice in the general chorus of enthusiasm. So, I will say no more about Avatar.

I didn't get sore eyes – and I wonder if, as Jack pointed out, it…

Firstly, the 3D side of it was brilliant .…

My eyes were sore after 2 hours 40 minutes — I think this is going to be an issue with this kind of cinema

Nitpick: it's an issue with the specific projection technology. 3D isn't necessarily the problem, it's more the way that the projection technology that your local cinema…

I wasn't sure of the netiquette, so seeing as I was explicitly disagreeing with Geoff's POV I thought I should do it in the same thread as him, even though there's already this thread for discussing the movie :)

That's a heck of a lot of money to spend on making a movie. But it's not as if the studios were going to give the money to Greenpeace or Oxfam or the Red Cross and decided to spend it on making Avatar…

*Because she is one of Life's best people…

back home in Big O now, where I can be fairly certain that that coincidence isnt going to happen any time soon-

My eyes were sore after 2 hours 40 minutes — I think this is going to be an issue with this kind of cinema.

yeah funnily enough, there was a gap in the movie where i actually thought they were going to stop it and have a good old intermission...…

Not all screenings are 3D (I think) – there are non-3D ones as well, although having said that, I didn't feel that the visual effects in…

And, while drooling, thought – "Waua, it'd 3D, and you have fragile sight. And, double waua, you have a 7 and a half hour drive ahead of you *after the film*?

My eyes were sore after 2 hours 40 minutes — I think this is going to be an issue…

And, while drooling, thought – "Waua, it'd 3D, and you have fragile sight. And, double waua, you have a 7 and a half hour…

I think one response to seeing this movie may be something akin to how people felt when they saw the first-ever "moving pictures". It really is that mind-blowingly astonishing – both in the detail of Cameron's imaginary world (and how lovely that so much of…

oh.my.god!

and

I came away really angry, tired and sore

I came away really angry, tired and sore after nearly three hours of banal bombardment

oh.my.god!

and

It really doesn't suck

The one time I tried sitting through the damn thing on DVD

Got stuck in some god-awful motel in Paihia some years back, and it rained the the whole 5 days. The place only had one DVD...Cameron's iceberg schlick, and it played on an endless loop, and our 8 year…

1. Reviewers who complain about the story are really looking for something to whinge about. Yes, it is composed of familiar tropes, but it's a mass-market family movie. It's well-written, and the Really Big Fight At the End is very good indeed.

2.…

Just got home from seeing in in 3D at the Reading Cinema in Welli.

I'm completely speechless.

That was some movie! STUNNING, PEOPLE – JUST STUNNING!

Amazingly he went to the studio when they were going from $100m to $200m and gave up his salary AND his profit share. On what turned out to be the highest grossing movie of all time!

To be a little pedantic, when you adjust the gross for inflation that honour…

Not to mention that it fucks up the franchise.

Can we send a Terminator back in time to kill McG?

Or, given that this is the season of goodwill, teach him how to make a film that has pace, plot, dialogue, etc. Y'know, all those things that music videos don't…

Won't hurt NZ's reputation to have its team cast as the unbeatable giant in the final.

...And yet going into the tournament that was anything but the case. The All Blacks 1994 season was remarkably similar to their 2009 season: back-to-back losses against France at home (the second match being…

I saw Invictus last weekend. Liked it a lot. Morgan Freeman does very well as Mandela.

There is an interesting discussion about this film on the NYT site. I am particularly interested in how they use rugby--as background, or mere punctuation to the plot? If more Americans get to know…

There was also the small technicality that while Titanic was massively over-budget, behind schedule, and looking like the mother of all fliops, nobody was going to hand his initial estimated budget of close to $400 million.

Amazingly he went to the studio when they were going from $100m to $200m…

Still hurts to remember the actual game though.

Like it was just yesterday. A twisting pain in my gut, which is ironically what most of the NZ team were feeling before the game, apparently.

It's jusy way too preachy and totally clunky.

Not to mention that it fucks up the franchise.

Don't know when it hits NZ, but it is well worth a few hours and a few bucks.

Won't hurt NZ's reputation to have its team cast as the unbeatable giant in the final.…

I've no expectations that the storytelling in going to be anything less than risible.

I'm going to keep an open mind, avoid the spoilers and any other mediation, suspend my disbelief and just enjoy it. It's like being a child again, without the long queue to get a ticket.

Just for Craig, I'll bring a small bag of cheese to put on my popcorn while I watch it.

Hey, I'm going to geek-jizz in my pants over the sheer spectacle of it all, but I've no expectations that the storytelling in going to be anything less than risible. And…

And the main addition to the "special edition" is a long sequence

Wait, that's the only version of Aliens that I've seen. There's a version without showing the family going out to the ship? You're messing with me!

I'm also going IMAX on Saturday. I missed out going last night because I got stuck in analysis paralysis deciding whether I wanted to do IMAX, or digital 3D, or Gold…

Avatar was written mid-90's while Titanic was in production, and when it was finally looked at late-90's he canned it because the technology couldn't create his vision of his own Star Wars.

There was also the small technicality that while Titanic was massively over-budget, behind schedule, and looking like the…

Not Arnie at his best either.

There's a scale of relatively that largely lives in the negatives. An actor ideally suited for playing a robot.

I'm expecting Pocahontas with action scenes

I'm expecting 'Dances with Aliens'.

True Lies is his one real dud

Well, I'd prefer Ah-nold over Celine Dion any day.

the terminator series runs forward the matrix backwards.

to put it simply. Neo sends back someone in time…

Abyss was 90% good with the other 10% cheese. I'd put it well above Titanic.

In my view, True Lies is his one real dud. The cheese is well over 50% and the attempts at comedy are laborious. Not Arnie at his best either.

But I will give you The Abyss, True Lies and Titanic.

Abyss was 90% good with the other 10% cheese. I'd put it well above Titanic.

I know you're on a hiding to nothing looking for much depth in a popcorn flick, but should we just grant that there's something rather obnoxious about the Coca-Colonialism in play here.

I'm expecting Pocahontas with action scenes. As they'll be James Cameron action scenes, I'm not complaining. But I…

The "enlightened" white men (and Ellen Ripley) swooping in to save the noble savages from the evil white men?

its more about the 'polynization' of the white man who in trying to eliminate native culture by infiltration, coercion and military domination comes to accept the inherent superiority of indigenous culture:)…

and as i said somewhere else here. its more of a polynesian movie with regards to the indigenousity theme than a native american one and could only have been made here or it wouldnt have been the movie it…

Terminator was smothered in corn-flecked cheese?

Who the hell knows — like Aliens, it didn't stand still long enough to tell. You can enjoy Titanic as full throttle disaster porn, but you've got writhe through a lot of plot that would have been ridiculously melodramatic back in 1912. The one…

James Cameron's inability to tell a story not smothered in corn-flecked cheese

Terminator was smothered in corn-flecked cheese?

But I will give you The Abyss, True Lies and Titanic.

We have iMax bookings

Hates you. That would have to be amazing viewing.

Major family excitement.