Last movie you've watched

[Level 20 Anklebiter]

Yet much of the film revolves on the subtext that technology is bad, m'kay?

You mean the technology that enabled a disabled guy to transfer himself to an able-bodied 10 foot tall basketball player and find love with his female equivalent?  Yeah, that was terrible.   

My friend and I had a talk afterward about what happened to any fat or near-sighted Na'vi, whether they ever got diseases, and how they were missing out on the internet.  But they seemed to be doing all right.   When you've got a USB goddess and a brain that plugs into dragons through your hair, I'm not sure you need Youtube. 

Yet Earth's environment was in the pot, and their over dependence on this new element was breaking them back home. That was the subtext that hung right in front of you, but you didn't seem to see. That's okay, most folks just rationalize that part away.

[Rillion]

Yet Earth's environment was in the pot, and their over dependence on this new element was breaking them back home. That was the subtext that hung right in front of you, but you didn't seem to see. That's okay, most folks just rationalize that part away.

Subtext?  I believe it was stated quite clearly in the movie that this was the case.  And I don't see anything wrong with hypothesizing that the population of Earth might someday run out of resources and need to find them somewhere else.  In fact, it's quite optimistic to think that by the time we've done so, we might have actually found a place where replacement resources could be found.  It's quite realistic, however, to think that if we did accomplish that, the people in charge would still be the kind of assholes you see in Avatar who have no regard for the property rights of people sitting on those resources. 

[yamnuska]

i liked the fact that the invaders got their assess kicked in avatar, it was the whole environmental thing, love the trees and such that did my head in. I can just see Al Gore cheering when he watches it, that alone is enough for me to hate it.

Speaking of other movies, watched The Gods Must Be Crazy and Airplane, they actually got away with lots of shit back then that would get people sued like crazy nowadays, shame.

[Sam Gunn (since nobody got Admiral Naismith)]

I watched the Truman Show.  Hadn't seen it in a long time but it was on TV and I thought it was good.

Equilibrium was excellent too.  Sure it was basically 1984 + Fahrenheit 451 in a technologically advanced future, but it rocked.  And Christian Bale did a great job in it too.

[Laetitia]

I watched the Truman Show.  Hadn't seen it in a long time but it was on TV and I thought it was good.

Saw this for the first time a few weeks ago. I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't go see it in the theatre, or on DVD out of a general sense of annoyance with Jim Carey. He's funny, but there's only so many times I can watch him play the same guy... different quirk. Turns out I liked it quite a bit. Felt the same way about The Majestic.

Watched District 9 with my boys last night. Little girl was away on sleepover, so it was a good time for a slightly more grown up movie. It was a very good movie.

[Level 20 Anklebiter]

Yet Earth's environment was in the pot, and their over dependence on this new element was breaking them back home. That was the subtext that hung right in front of you, but you didn't seem to see. That's okay, most folks just rationalize that part away.

Subtext?  I believe it was stated quite clearly in the movie that this was the case.  And I don't see anything wrong with hypothesizing that the population of Earth might someday run out of resources and need to find them somewhere else.  In fact, it's quite optimistic to think that by the time we've done so, we might have actually found a place where replacement resources could be found.  It's quite realistic, however, to think that if we did accomplish that, the people in charge would still be the kind of assholes you see in Avatar who have no regard for the property rights of people sitting on those resources. 

Which of course you're forgetting how the natives were looking so nice and all together holding hands (via some weird ass gaia goddess bullshit). Sorry, I don't buy the narrative. You can pretend it's good, but it's Ferngully bullshit. Property rights are fine, but trying to defend the noble savage image (à la Rousseau) is retarded.

[Rillion]

Which of course you're forgetting how the natives were looking so nice and all together holding hands (via some weird ass gaia goddess bullshit). Sorry, I don't buy the narrative. You can pretend it's good, but it's Ferngully bullshit. Property rights are fine, but trying to defend the noble savage image (à la Rousseau) is retarded.

I agree that the noble savage concept is bullshit, but I didn't find the Na'vi particularly noble.  They almost killed Sully before determining that he could be useful to them, as any native tribe might.  They just happened to be more noble than the people trying to slaughter them and take over their planet.   Living simply-- for whatever reason-- does not make it okay for people with power to come in and take your stuff.  That's a message that should resonate for any libertarian, environmentalist or not. 

And since their "weird ass gaia goddess" actually demonstrably exists and gives them all sorts of things, it seemed like holding hands and celebrating it was a perfectly rational thing for them to do. 

[Level 20 Anklebiter]

Meh, it's still retarded. And typical for leftists like Cameron who are hypocrites in trying to say that humans are bad m'kay and we should live like Sully as some sort of Dances with Wolves meets Ferngully shit. Sorry. I just don't buy into environmentalism, nothing personal.

[Rillion]

Meh, it's still retarded. And typical for leftists like Cameron who are hypocrites in trying to say that humans are bad m'kay and we should live like Sully as some sort of Dances with Wolves meets Ferngully shit. Sorry. I just don't buy into environmentalism, nothing personal.

Environmentalism has gotten a bad rap.  It doesn't mean opposing technology, "living off the land," or having the government tell you what to do with the land.  It just means wanting to take care  of the land, which isn't a bad thing.  You know, thinking "Maybe we shouldn't kill off the entire population of this species, because it might fuck up the ecosystem."  Maybe don't introduce cats to get rid of your mouse problem if it means you'll lose all of your birds as well, etc.  It's unfortunate that the word has become anathema for libertarians, because it just really means not fucking up the biological world around you beyond repair, which is eminently sensible. 

Would I like to be a Na'vi?  Yes.  But I sure as hell wouldn't want to live like a Native American circa 1862 or whatever.  Australian aborigine? No thanks.  African bushman?  Fuck no.   Not like any "savage" that has actually existed on Earth, ever.  That's why Avatar doesn't work as an analogy to any tribal population on Earth-- their lives are still nasty, brutish, and short compared to what the rest of us experience, regardless of what any of the movies portray. 

So I agree with you there.  I just didn't let it ruin the movie for me, because there was so much else to enjoy. 

[Level 20 Anklebiter]

Oddly, the film has inspired me to write a novel (once again, trying that bullshit trail of my life...) that more or less reflects the real world problem of imperialism and tribalism. Right now the project is titled The Colony, and it's scifi (obviously) based. Not much to the actual characters or main story line yet, but I might reveal some of it later in March when I get to writing down the particular details.

[Laetitia]

The Lightning Thief: Percy Jackson & The Olympians

Meh.

It was actually pretty decent, if I completely block the entire book series from my memories.

[Cognitive Dissident]

Everything's Gone Green

It was pretty clever, in an art film sort of way--definitely worth watching.

[TimeLady Victorious]

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths

It was first developed during the time of the DCAU, and if your wolfbeard is fight, you can pick out which elements were from the Timmaverse and not.

[KDus]

Hurt Locker,  unbelievable let down. I kept yelling at the screen, "Just leave!"

whip it,  another movie made just so someone could make a movie. Lame.

Day after tommorrow, again.   People have been living through winter in the northern states and Canada for hundreds of years, if not thousands, but suddenly they can't take the cold.

T3, again: a robot designed to kill shows emotion and desperation when trying to save the only 2 people worth saving. It's just a given that everyone else must die.

[Level 20 Anklebiter]

I just watched Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. It seemed like it was good for about 2/3s of the way, but the ending was a let down in terms of epic fighting. I guess Bay doesn't know how to pace a film in terms of action, then again Armageddon was shitting like that too.