Avatar takes $242m globally in first weekend

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/94f9e866-ee99-11de-944c-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1

I can't wait to see this movie. I love Fantasy/sci-fi. My son went to see this in Perth last weekend at an IMAX cinema. Haven't heard how he liked it. Has any member seen this new movie?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/

Candy has been to see it and commented in Movies - discuss them here section

It looks dreadful.

For once I agree with you, Dara. :P Looks like a load of typical overhyped Hollywood hogwash. Even the ads I've seen on TV are cringeworthy and frankly, embarrassing to sit through.

The last high budget film I'd seen was also devoid of a decent plot (and the dialogue was even worse ::)). Sure, I'll concede that the special effects were very well done, but it simply wasn't enough to distract attention away from the film's glaring shortcomings. Give me memorable dialogue and well constructed characters anyday. ::)

That said, I have no interest in seeing Avatar. I'm sure that it's a technical achievement, but that's to be expected from a film with such an obscenely high budget. Give it another week, coupled with all of the rave reviews and the film will break even in no time.

OMG!!!! Guys this movie is AWESOME!!!!!!!  ;)

You guys... Dara and Silly, have NO TASTE! I bet neither of you like Fantasy/Sci-fi!
I will be paying attention to Candy and Taz' opinions of the movie ;)

If you haven't seen it Suzi that's a bit unfair to just knock our opinions :o
I actually do like fantasy and sci-fi. :P I grew up with sci-fi, that's my dads thing.
I just thought Avatar looked.. if you take out the special effects and everything, and just leave in place the plot, acting, script etc.. it looked pretty rubbish. Mainly the trailer was bugging me, it just made me think, here is a totally hyped up movie and the dialogue sounds like something a 12 year old would have come up with.

I was only having a friendly dig Dara. ;)  I know I have not seen it but since my taste in Movies are in keeping with Taz and Candy I reckon I will love it. If my son who hasn't commented yet as he works 12-18 hour days, liked/loved it then I know I will also.  
Candy, I have heard that the 3D experience in an IMAX can be very motion sickening.

I went and saw it last week and I thought it was great. The 3d effects were cool and maybe it was just me but the 3d effects seemed to be more evident in the first 40-60 minutes of the movie and then kinda dropped off and was only noticeable here and there throughout the rest of the film. The battle scenes at the end seemed to be more vibrant when viewing the screen without my glasses on and I noticed others in the theatre taking them off in some scenes aswell. If I went and saw it again I'd see a normal screening but thats just me and don't let this discourage you from seeing it 3d, some of the things were pretty cool and you'd probably enjoy as much as I did.

As for the movie itself I thought it was good. The acting was solid and although the script could have been better the dialogue was good enough to carry the story through. Seeing the native race on Pandora, the Naa'vi, and the world they live in was absolutely breathtaking. The Naa'vi culture appears to be a melting pot of primitive cultures from around the world and you get the sense that that was the idea James Cameron was trying to put across to the viewer as if to say that in a sense we were the the Naa'vi once but advancement in technology has grown us apart from mother nature.
I remember coming out of the cinema thinking that I've seen this movie before and I have, and this may sound wierd but if someone asked me to describe this film with the title of 3 other movies I'd say 'Apocolypto', 'Dances with Wolves' & 'The Last Samurai'.

This movie is not without its faults and for a 3 hour movie I would have expected abit more character development with more of the secondary characters. Unless James Cameron decides to bring them back and flesh them out abit more in a sequel, I felt that he could have done more in the way of trying to get the viewers invested on a characters well being a bit more. Sometimes I didn't care whether he or she died because I just hadn't known them well enough. Also the Battle scenes at the end while visually stunning were imho technically clumsy and could have been thought out abit more since they apparently had almost a decade to think this all through.

All in all I thought it was a great film and one you should really watch on the big screen to truly appreciate. As I said before its a story full of cliches that we've all seen before but the its done so well you just don't care.

Thanks for that great review CS!

I saw it today with my sister, my cousins and their friend. $20 each, and the big cinema was sold out hours in advance so we had to go to some Mandarin cinema next door. Anyway it wasn't as bad as I made out, it was quite good. There'd be no point seeing it not in 3D. That was the best bit I guess, although 3D does compromise the picture quality a bit. Storyline, predictable, acting quite good on the whole, graphics great. Not worth $20 though, and I agree with the above about character development. They killed my favourite character :( [the pilot girl].

Overall - 6/10 - "ok"

I saw the 2D on the Vmax screen and even the 2D was worth seeing.  I think I agree with Complicatedsimplicity and may also add tinges of Titanic (the lowly 2nd class Naa'vi and then he changes his mind when he becomes one).

And perhaps even a little Abyss

My son has given me his opinion on AVATAR and said it is very good and he enjoyed it immensely BUT when Independence Day first came out it was just as good as was LOTR Trilogy. I know I will enjoy it like he did because we have the same tastes in Movies. :)

I'm looking forward to hearing your review Suzi. I do think Complicated summed it up very well!!  ;)

Australia's Sam Worthington has certainly made a big splash with this one!!

maybe in a few weeks I will see it. My chauffeur doesn't want to see it. Not to her tastes ::) :-/

I will have to wait to see it by other means. ;)

from  ausdvd.com

firmly believe that one cannot judge a movie on first viewing. I like to review a movie after watching it a second time, after a week of my first viewing, preferably a month later. So may be I should not write this review an hour after seeing AVATAR. A second viewing shows me things that I might have missed the first time. I like to form my opinion after several days, but but BUT... the initial opinion never changes.

I can watch a movie any number of times, but the first impression is, my dear movie aficionados, ALWAYS the best impression. So here it is, the first impression. You know the feeling when watching a really great movie, that awesome realisation that you are watching a masterpiece, the fuzzy feeling in your heart that you will be waching this movie again and again with your kids and grandkids?

Well, I did NOT get that feeling after watching AVATAR.

What I did get was that James Cameron has given the children of today and tomorrow a good damn movie. Seriously. Colourful woods and blue aliens and helicopter fights and oh my, even flying dragon-birds. Classic children’s movie, I tell you. Unfortunately, the theatre was filled with adults, adults who looked uncomfortable during the beginning of the movie, bored in the middle, and quite relieved when it ended.

But let’s talk a bit about the story here. Humans discover a distant planet called Pandora which contains a valuable mineral. The planet is also inhabited by really tall and incredibly blue aliens (the N’avi) who resist the invasion. Grace (WEAVER), an environmental scientist, tries to stop the army into harming the aliens. Jake Sully (WORTHINGTON), a disabled veteran is given a body mask that makes him look exactly like the Na’vi. The humans introduce him and Grace into the world of Na’vi to know how they can be tricked into giving up their homeland. Will Jake and Grace succeed?

Technically, the movie is cool. If you are a diehard Cameron fan and if you like epic movie plots with gorgeous landscape, you will love it. I too am speechless at the world Cameron created in the movie (but good special effects doth not make a good movie!). If you watch this one with children (not teens, though, they will just snort and leave to watch TWILIGHT in the next hall), you will even shed a tear or two at the hardships faced by the aliens. The special effects is marvellous and sure to get an Oscar nod, the actors have done their jobs properly, and it is really good entertainment.

But was it worth all the hype? Not really. And did we expect more from Cameron. YES.

Given the 10-foot-tall aliens and the breathtaking world of Pandora, I can somewhat accept that Cameron was working on this movie for more than a decade (he must have spent most part of it at the 3g lab), but the plot left me puzzled. It was unoriginal and tired, especially to a scifi junkie like me. The epic good vs evil war theme and even the background music strongly resembled Narnia, and the chanting aliens and environmental theme kind of made it cheesy. And the dialogue at times was simply atrocious.

All that can be overlooked, except for one thing - where is the zing? My biggest gripe is that the movie itself is not telling us anything new. It is just another mindless scifi flick like a PLANET OF APES or THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL or WAR OF THE WORLDS. There is nothing wrong with mindless scifi flicks, by the way. I positively love them. I am actually the-love-them-and-leave-them type when it comes to mindless entertainment. You see it, roll your eyes, whoop at the war scenes, and forget about it. Heck, I got more goosebumps when I was watching TRANSFORMERS!!!

That’s what is unacceptable. After 12 years, is this the best Cameron can give us? Where is the rollercoaster thrill of his ALIENS, the haunting beauty of his TITANIC, The suave sexiness of TRUE LIES, the sheer magic of T2? Why is this so generic and why didn’t this movie have any visible trademark that it was directed by a master expert? Why did I not leave the theatre hall feeling privileged to have seen a Cameron movie (should I have watched it in 3D)? Why, why, WHY, dammit?

Now, if only it was advertised as a children’s movie...!!!

Hey Leuboo, would your view on the movie change had the director been a first timer and there was very little for movie goers to look back on and compare previous work to?

I ignored the hype leading into this and I'm not a big fan of James Cameron's movies so my expectations were probably lower then yours but judging on its own merit I think this is a great film for the family or a childrens flick however you see it. I think it stands up reasonably well against his other films.

I saw this movie yesterday, and I have to say thats its ok, but I doubt I would see it again, its not one of those movies that you must see again, IMHO, but thank god its much better than that-TITANIC-
which I didn't like at all  ::)

I actually enjoyed Titanic at the cinemas. I am going to see AVATAR before too long :D
It has smashed the $1 Billion mark in takings! :o :X

Avatar smashes through the $US1billion mark for takings in just three weeks

Colin Vickery From: Herald Sun January 05, 2010 12:00AM

AVATAR has smashed through the $US1billion mark for takings in just three weeks.

The science-fiction epic, starring Aussie Sam Worthington, is now the fourth-highest grossing movie of all time and could jump ahead of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King into second spot within the week.

If that happens, Cameron will have the two highest-grossing movies of all time worldwide. His Titanic, released in 1997, leads the pack with $US1.848 million.

In Australia, Avatar has taken more than $48 million, pushing it into fourth spot.

Titanic, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, is also Australia's top movie of all time.

Experts predict Avatar will keep doing spectacular business for at least the next month because there are no new blockbuster movies set to debut. That could give it a serious chance of beating Titanic.

Avatar is reportedly the most expensive film ever made, with a budget in excess of $US300 million.

"It's like a runaway freight train. It just keeps doing business," Fox distribution executive Bert Livingston has said.

The movie's performance is a huge boost for Worthington, who has another big budget film, Clash of the Titans, set to be released in April. His recent Terminator: Salvation grossed $US372 million worldwide.

Cameron said in December he planned two Avatar sequels.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/movies/avatar-smashes-through-the-us1billion-mark-for-takings-in-just-three-weeks/story-e6frf9h6-1225816045235

Quoted from SuziH

I actually enjoyed Titanic at the cinemas. I am going to see AVATAR before too long :D
It has smashed the $1 Billion mark in takings! :o :X

Avatar smashes through the $US1billion mark for takings in just three weeks

Colin Vickery From: Herald Sun January 05, 2010 12:00AM

AVATAR has smashed through the $US1billion mark for takings in just three weeks.

The science-fiction epic, starring Aussie Sam Worthington, is now the fourth-highest grossing movie of all time and could jump ahead of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King into second spot within the week.

If that happens, Cameron will have the two highest-grossing movies of all time worldwide. His Titanic, released in 1997, leads the pack with $US1.848 million.

In Australia, Avatar has taken more than $48 million, pushing it into fourth spot.

Titanic, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, is also Australia's top movie of all time.

Experts predict Avatar will keep doing spectacular business for at least the next month because there are no new blockbuster movies set to debut. That could give it a serious chance of beating Titanic.

Avatar is reportedly the most expensive film ever made, with a budget in excess of $US300 million.

"It's like a runaway freight train. It just keeps doing business," Fox distribution executive Bert Livingston has said.

The movie's performance is a huge boost for Worthington, who has another big budget film, Clash of the Titans, set to be released in April. His recent Terminator: Salvation grossed $US372 million worldwide.

Cameron said in December he planned two Avatar sequels.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/movies/avatar-smashes-through-the-us1billion-mark-for-takings-in-just-three-weeks/story-e6frf9h6-1225816045235

I saw Avatar just before the school holidays and have got to say that I liked it, thought that Sam Worthington did such a great job in his role as Jake and if there are sequwls on the way I'll be keeping my ears and eyes open

Bought the Avatar DVD today and watched it tonight.
Its just as good as I remember it  :D

It wasn't one of the 360,000 copies sold in the first 24 hours......cause I was two days late.
Lucky the shop had just received a new delivery....I hadn't got around to booking one.