James Cameron's AVATAR

[Todd Rivers]

To be honest seeing Michelle Rodriguez's rack in 3D was worth the price of admission in itself.

[bennymacca]

plot was too simplistic for mine.

kids will like the 3d even if they don't know what they are watching.

character development was lacking. i didn't really care if the heroes lived or died really

[rcon]

Can't be arsed copying the links, but I'm sure google can provide if we've anyone interested in fonts


13. On the face of it, Avatar isn't such a nice type
Luke Buckmaster writes:


James Cameron’s blockbustepic Avatar is now officially the highest grossing film ever released in Australia. Late last week the spectacular box office behemoth overtook the previous local record of $57.6 million, obtained by Titanic -- another Cameron movie -- 12 years ago. Globally Avatar has now gobbled up about $1.14 billion, which on a worldwide scale makes it the second highest grossing feature of all time. The first is -- you guessed it -- Titanic, with $1.84 billion.
Not bad Jim, not bad. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say he must be feeling pretty happy with himself.
I imagine Cameron spent the past few weeks eating food too delicious for mere mortals such as me to pronounce while intermittently checking his Blackberry for the latest box office stats.
But the most expensive feature film ever made has, like virtually every blockbuster, a vocal band of critics campaigning against it.
The particular critics I’m speaking of are not the ones (such as me) who might moan about Avatar’s thinly developed characters, cheesy story or the deficiencies of its narrative, blah blah blah. I was alerted to the existence of these critics at a barbecue on Saturday when an incensed friend of mine, a graphic designer, grabbed my arm and vented his outrage. He wasn’t miffed about the characters, the storyline or the narrative, blah blah blah. No. He was miffed about -- wait for it -- Cameron’s use of the papyrus font.
For those not in the know, it...
<insert LOOKS LIKE THIS>
and it’s available on just about every PC on the planet via Microsoft Word. It’s also used in Avatar for its title, closing credits and subtitles. My friend was incensed that Cameron couldn’t afford -- well, afford is the wrong word given the film cost about $400 million -- to design a new typeface. Didn’t see the need would probably be closer to the truth.
"If any movie shoulda shelled out some cash to develop a decent font, you’d think it would be the most expensive movie ever made," he said.
And, you know, he’s kinda got a point.
A quick search on the net revealed that plenty of other font aficionados feel the same way, to an alarmingly nitpickish degree.
"He (James Cameron) might as well have used Comic Sans," one blogger recently scoffed. "Seriously dude, you’re like, a bajillionare, you can afford a suite of fonts. Maybe he’s editing it in iMovie. I don’t know."
I found an open letter to Cameron written from, bizarrely, the perspective of the font itself. And then there’s the website papyruswatch.com, which monitors its apparently ubiquitous life. In addition to Avatar, recent papyrus sightings include The David Letterman Show and a new program from comedian Dave Chapelle.
I wonder if Cameron is aware of this storm-in-a-typeface-teacup and what his thoughts are on the subject. Like I pointed out to my friend, it could’ve been worse. He could have used Times New Roman.

Visit Luke's blog, Cinetology, for cinematic antics, reviews and more.

[krunchie]

thats so geeky it could almost have been written by the macdonald boys

[AceLosesKing]

thats so geeky it could almost have been written by the macdonald boys

BOOM!

[bennymacca]

youre just jealous at how awesome we are krunchie

[maccatak11]

thats so geeky it could almost have been written by the mcdonald boys

Fixed your post Mr Kroheohn

[trishan]

Anyone feeling suicidal?

Movie goers are experiencing feelings of depression and in some cases even suicidal tendencies after seeing "Avatar."

Fans are upset at not being able to visit Pandora, the make believe planet that is nirvana for the Na'vi, the blue native humanoids that habitat Pandora.

Forums on the internet have been swamped with posts by fans not being able to cope after seeing the movie and experiencing feelings of depression that they can't visit the magical world of Pandora.

Avatar fan site, 'Avatar Forums' contains a thread titled 'Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible', which in itself contains nearly 1,000 posts.

View Avatar trailers

Forum administrator Philippe Baghdassarian said: 'I wasn't depressed myself. In fact the movie made me happy.

'But I can understand why it made people depressed. The movie was so beautiful and it showed something we don't have here on Earth. I think people saw we could be living in a completely different world and that caused them to be depressed.'

Forum user 'okoi' writes: 'After I watched "Avatar" at the first time, I truly felt depressed as I "wake" up in this world again.

'So after a few days, I went to cinema and watched it again for the second time to relieve the depression and hopeless feeling. Now I listen to the soundtrack and share my views in this forum. It really helps.'

User Mike wrote on another fan site 'Naviblue' that he considered suicide after watching the film.
Mike wrote: 'Ever since I went to see "Avatar" I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na'vi made me want to be one of them. I can't stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it.'

'I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar
to Pandora.'

The incredible visual realism of the film has caused viewers to become particularly attached.

View Avatar images

Dr. Stephan Quentzel, psychiatrist and Medical Director from the Beth Israel Medical Centre in New York told CNN: 'Virtual life is not real life and it never will be, but this is the pinnacle of what we can build in a virtual presentation so far.

'It has taken the best of our technology to create this virtual world and real life will never be as utopian as it seems onscreen. It makes real life seem more imperfect.'

Others are saying it's just a movie and are using the forums to cope with the depression and connect with other like minded individuals.

However, perhaps they are just feeling upset about all the racist undertones, with "Avatar" being criticized that it allegedly contains racist themes – that of the white hero saving the primitive natives.

Since being praised critically since the film opened and taking over $1 billion in box office receipts, hundreds of blog posts, newspaper articles, tweets and YouTube videos have said things such as the film is "a fantasy about race told from the point of view of white people" and that it reinforces "the white Messiah fable."

James Cameron, the film's writer and director however, has said the real theme is about respecting each other's differences.