So....remember that movie Avatar?

Well, there hasn't been much else to discuss since the Blu-Ray came out, beyond Cameron's (now abandoned due to the tsunami) plans to film part of the sequels in the marianas trench.

Right now, there's not much to speculate on in the world of Avatar because the universe beyond this one conflict hasn't been defined much (beyond the alternate opening scenes). There's basically not much left to discuss until either the sequel or Cameron's retro-novelization comes out.

(which we've been discussing, as news becomes available, in this existing thread)

Well, keep in mind that rerelease served two purposes: 1) Avatar's unexpectedly huge performance resulted in it's IMAX run being pulled earlier than theaters would have liked to make room for Alice in Wonderland, so people who hadn't yet seen in it IMAX had the opportunity to do so, and, 2) that rerelease's gross paid for all the new special effects work that had to be done in order to complete the additional scenes included in the extended cut for the blu-ray.

 

The core story was predictable, but I think the final product was a victim of it's scope.

Looking through the 16 min of extended edition scenes and the hour or so of deleted scenes, I think you start to see that a lot of the more unique subplots that might have helped make the film stand apart from it's similarities to other films were lost in the need to bring the story's runtime down to something reasonable for theaters in the 3 hour range.

And, I think, because of that need and the resulting trims, we were left with the more familiar elements at the core of the story, which may have skewed viewers' impressions of the overall originality of the film.

Granted, that's what the final product was to be judged, so that's a fair assessment to make.

Personally, I really hope we get a "final extended edition" one day that completes all (or, at least, most) of those deleted scenes and subplots (especially Trudy/Norm, the uploading of the data, Jake's talk with grace about why he wanted to complete the trails despite the dangers, Parker trying to pull back Lang and having him turn on him instead, and the what-the-other-Avatars/scientists-were-doing-during-the-battle sequence).

 

Hey, it's a business- you really think Fox was gonna spend money just because they had some extra laying around?

I honestly don't think many people expected or assumed Avatar to become something like Star Wars, let alone "wildly"- it's just not that type of movie.

I mean, I think everyone who saw acknowledges it's story was familiar and nothing groundbreaking- even those supposed fans of the film that had the "Pandora isn't real" depression that was reported on (and that was more about the environment/visuals depicted, not the general storyline).

So, I think your initial suggestion may be flawed in setting the bar for the film's expectations much higher than they actually were.

I mean, maybe there was an article or two suggesting that that I'm unaware of, but it seems like a stretch to think a film (even a well-crafted one) where even it's fans had reservations about it's story's originality would expand into a cultural phenom.

I don't think anyone is debating the latter. But is that such a bad thing? I mean, how many people would really rather watch Dances With Wolves instead of Avatar, ya know?

As for the former, I'd disagree- the effects created some unique environments in a way that generated a unique storytelling-through-ecology/biology facet to the plot.

It wasn't weak- the SE essentially had a budget of 1-2 million dollars, and it made back it's money ten fold domestically (three fold worldwide) on only just over 800 screens (by comparison, that's a little over how many screens The Adjustment Bureau is still playing on after 1.5 months of release). And theaters were probably pretty happy since a a healthy percentage probably went to them, at a time when there were no major IMAX films in circulation.

As I mentioned in the Avatar thread when the rerelease happened, I'm hoping what Cameron intended becomes a trend with new (and even old) films being rereleased to theaters even after a major video release.

I mean, I'm personally glad they did the rerelease because I really wanted to see the film in a full-sized IMAX theater, and had missed my chance the first time around (I saw it in an IMAX-D theater as well as a standard 3D theater, but circumstances plotted against me from seeing it in real IMAX since there are so few real IMAX theaters), but thankfully was finally able to make a trip up to Lincoln Square to catch it for the rerelease.

 

You could not possibly begin to understand how many times I have done that with THE SPIRIT. One of the best films I have ever seen. Worst film I have ever heard.