This is it ladies and gentleman. Here’s our very own Avatar spectacular review. So cue the bullhorn–Twice. You’ll get our review of the film, and the latest on the film’s reported links to depression, and record breaking box office tallies.
As a bonus, since you’re reading this review on Travelin’ Local, we’ve also got the true story of the film’s hush, hush, Hollywood premier. Folks, we’re not talking about the well-publicized red carpet premier that was held on Dec 20th. No, no, people. This screening went down secretly on Dec 18th, and James Cameron was present as part of a Q+A panel alongside Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington, and Producer John Landau. Think big money, and a privately sponsored event to push the new awards focused, L.A. Times spin-off publication, The Envelope. Are you ready for this? If you want all the dirt on the film, you’ve got it right here, so… read on, sexy reader, read on!
Avatar’s Secret ShowingImagine a packed house, comprised completely of industry types, and other assorted lucky bastards, inside the Mann’s Grauman’s Chinese Theater. The theater was filled to capacity, with additional film goers lining the walls and aisles of the theater. Fire hazards be damned, these people wanted seats. No audience on the planet had yet seen Avatar, and everyone present knew who was going to speak afterward. So, needless to say, polite smiles, and courtesy were cast aside. An anything goes sort of attitude took over. Dark pairs of 3-D glasses were slipped quickly onto faces, as people tried to stake their claims for a place at the screening. As if they were all part of some ridiculous club.
Has James Cameron found a way to bring the SEXY back to 3-D glasses also? Or was he just trying to cause a brawl inside a multiplex? SAG members and VIP guests flashed each other dirty looks, struggling to reach the few remaining seats inside the theater. Then, seconds before the curtain rose, the lights started to dim. The searching faces glanced up, the theater darkened, and then it all happened.
For well over two and a half hours the audience sat transfixed. At times the crowd cheered out loud by majority, some clapping in the middle of scenes, while others quietly wept during others. Sounds a little crazy right? Yeah, I thought so—a whole lot of crazy!
Well if you haven’t already heard, there’s a new
CNN article– that talks about the particular type of crazy Avatar has inspired. The film has apparently brought out some strong emotions in people, causing some filmgoers to suffer depression like symptoms. Word is, a number of those have considered suicide, looking for support in chat rooms and online forums. Maybe the 3-D glasses have enhanced things in a big way, or maybe it’s just the film. Sure, people already have their own issues, but it’s all worth pointing out. Make of that what you will, but when the credits rolled that night, the audience broke into uproarious applause.
Cameron’s EntourageThen Cameron and Co. walked out onto the stage, and suddenly the theater was standing room only. As the audience found their seats once again, a moderator went through a Q+A session with the group, and the audience remained transfixed for another half hour. For an experience that lasted nearly four hours–all told– the whole event seemed to fly by at breakneck speed. Rarely do you find an audience willing to sit for that long, let alone willingly. Towards the end of the Q+A, when the film’s Director was asked about his future projects he joked, “Well, first we’ve got to make some money on this one.”
Cameron’s Laughing all the way to the BankCameron’s hopes of making money on his new film have now become an absurd reality. Avatar has grossed nearly 1.7 billion dollars at the box office to date. That’s probably a monstrous weight off the man’s shoulders, considering the film cost a reported $300 million to produce, plus an extra $150 million for marketing and promotional costs. There are only three other films in all of cinema history that can touch those kinds of cost totals. In release for just under a month, Avatar has already come close to breaking the all time box office record set by Titanic at 1.8 billion dollars.
To Cameron, it may very well feel like he’s bringing the sexy back to blockbuster filmmaking. Blockbusters aren’t always welcomed as critical successes, but Avatar might be one of the few exceptions to the rule. The Director’s other little movie –you know the one about the boat- was the biggest exception to that particular rule, ever. Without peers at the box office (until maybe now), Titanic won Golden Globes for Best Picture, and Best Director. The film also swept the Oscars with eleven wins, including Best Picture and Best Director.
The new, crazy brand of SEXY is back in HollywoodFor a blockbuster film, stealing awards away from the rest of the critical frontrunners is fairly unique. Some might even call it audacious. Since James Cameron seems to have gotten his Mojo roaring back with
Avatar—whether
he ever lost it may be subjective, but I digr
ess
–we might even be talking about some new, crazy brand of SEXY.
Indeed—we are and it is, and now the word and film, Avatar, is part of our national lexicon. Go figure………………..
The scoop yet, James Cameron’s Avatar is now the highest grossing film of all time. The film’s new total of roughly $1.86 billion, has blown Cameron’s other little boat movie out of the water, and into the number two slot. Sure, it only seemed like a matter of time. But Cameron’s new flick managed to conquer all challengers in just 41 Days! Let’s say it again…41 days!That means it took Avatar less than a month and a half to beat the $1.843 billion racked up by Titanic (right along with the box office totals of every other film in the history of cinema).
Just think: Cameron could have fixed health care in the United States with the profits from either one of his last two flicks. Now if we can just get J.C. and Barack together for dinner at the White House, maybe we can finally fix this thing, once and for all, right? In all seriousness though, this is kind of crazy, isn’t it? Or maybe it’s just seriously crazy.
If you’ve got some thoughts on Avatar and it’s audacious box office totals we’d love to hear from you. We’d also like to know how far you think the film will actually fly into the box office stratosphere. Do you think Avatar can break $2 or even $3 billion dollars at the box office? To ignore the question, would be like trying to ignore the proverbial elephant in the room. In this case, the elephant is more like a blue, six hundred pound, gorilla, with a black question mark painted on his furry chest. He looks your way and grunts. You can see that he’s guarding all the Avatar cash. And all you’ve got to do to take the cash is guess how much the film will make all told. He grunts again, and sniffs at you. It’s almost as if he’s daring you to guess. Just don’t call him James or Cameron. He really doesn’t like those names.
Send us your comments!!! We want to hear your thoughts AND your guesses on the film’s final box office tallies!!!
I do believe that the film was very sexy and I just don’t mean in the way that the character Neytiri made me feel. Who at times made me question why I was so aroused at the thought of her, all 10 foot of her lanky blue-self coming towards me in some sort of 3-D sensuality that I could not take my eyes away from. No other film in Sci-Fi history has made more men rub one out like James Cameron’s “Avatar” creation – Neytiri, the blue native warrior princess with quite the bod and a** for days. It’s not just her, it’s the entire film that is stunningly beautiful, sleek and almost erotic by nature of it’s vividly colored planet and it’s never been seen before inhabitants. Maybe, I’m reading into it all a bit much and when it’s all said and done that in the long line of films that are chosen every so often by the masses to hail greatness upon, that “Avatar” will just be another of Cameron’s billion dollar successes. But, I have a feeling this epic based on spiritual power versus monetary evils will stand up and takes it’s place in the annels of groundbreaking Hollywood films, as it rightly should.
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Movieman Reply:
January 23rd, 2010 at 9:05 pm
I loved “Avatar” and even though it cost $500,000,000 to bring to life and it will surely turn out a monstrous profit as it approaches the $2 billion dollar mark, isn’t there a point where even though a studio is making money off of a high budget film – that spending that much money on entertainment is kind of disgusting, I mean come on people…!?!? Let a huge portion of “Avatar’s” profits rebuild Haiti…!!!
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I’m feeling all the sexy reader love, people! Thanks for chiming in with all the comments on the piece. You can always find me here, ready to chime back with a reply, sooner or later.
As for the Haiti, thing, you’d hope that Cameron and all the studios will donate in a big way to the relief fund. With the key word being ‘big,’ right?
As for Neytiri, she’s definitely a sexy lady. She’s also a kick-ass female character, all around. So that makes her a great addition to Cameron’s cinematic canon of strong, sexy, ass kicking ladies. Think Ripley in the Aliens series, and Sarah Connor in the Terminator films.
For all his detractors, Cameron probably doesn’t get enough credit for creating so many rockin’ female warrior types. They tend to inspire consistent interest for both men and women, and that’ no easy feat. Cameron also deserves credit for not letting those lovely ladies languish on the fringes of his films. He puts Ripley, Sarah Connor, and Neytiri at the very heart of the action. That’s actually something pretty unique, and I wouldn’t be surprised to hear future critics give Cameron, along with Tarantino their just due respectively, for doing so.
So, riddle me this readers: WHO WOULD WIN IN A SERIOUS SMACK DOWN BETWEEN RIPLEY, SARAH CONNOR, AND NEYTIRI?
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Hector Reply:
January 25th, 2010 at 12:42 am
@Doug McBride,
Truly a great review !!
couldn’t have put it any better . I would love to hear what you have to say about a few other films . I will check back in for any other reviews you might post .
well written !!!
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Doug McBride Reply:
January 25th, 2010 at 7:06 pm
Hah!!! Did this guy even read the review? He’s clearly crazy!
Just kidding Hector. Thanks for the love. Seriously.
OK, so enough of the sexy talk….
As for the smack down between Ripley, Sarah Connor, and Neytiri, I’m gonna answer my own question and see what you all think. I’m going with Sarah Connor. Truth be told I like Ripley the best, but Sarah Connor is a single mom, and you don’t want to tussle with a single mom. She always seemed to have shitloads of guns lying around too. So, I’m guessing she comes in guns blazing and the fight ends pretty quickly.
Any protests on my theory? Speak now, or forever hold your peace.
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David Reply:
January 26th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
@Doug McBride, Personally, I don’t find science fiction creatures attractive. For me, Ripley is to Amazon. But Sarah Connor is hot.
BTW, you’ve got a wicked sense of humor.
David, you just made my f____in’ night with that compliment.
No joke.
So what does that say about me?
You know what. Don’t answer that…
But I’m right there with you. Sarah Connor was and still remains kick ass hot. She was kind of punk, kind of gorgeous, and all kinds of fierce. All that, plus the fact that her 80′s hair do would flop around a little, every time she pumped her shotgun or fired it. If memory serves, she only needed one hand to pump and fire.
If that’s not kick ass sexy, I don’t know what is.
Thanks for the comment David! Come on back anytime, and together we’ll somehow convince everyone that I’m funny. You just might have to do most of the convincing though.
Speaking of which…readers… If you disagree, or feel that I’m a complete idiot, that’s cool too. Drop us a line.
As for Sarah Connor, Ripley and Neytiri, it looks like S.C. is getting the love so far. So who’s the sexiest, and who’s the toughest in your eyes? Who’d win in a serious smack down? Give us a shout? I’m saying…SAAARRRRAAAAAAAHH!!!!! OOOO…ARGH…ARGHH….ARGHHHH,,,,
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Avatar2010 Reply:
January 27th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
Uh, Neytiri is like 10 feet tall and has some spiritual mojo fist and bow and arrow action that Sarah and Ripley can’t even come close too. Also, she rides dragons and in a one on one duke it out brawl there’s no doubt in my mind that she’d leave blue imprints all over those two (Sarah and Ripley). I actually like Ripley’s character the best as well but I don’t believe she or Sarah has the chops to lay out Neytiri. Anybody disagree – bring it…!?!?
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Doug McBride Reply:
January 28th, 2010 at 12:46 am
You’re right about the fist fight thing. Neytiri would win, hands down. I won’t argue with that. But Sarah’s got the guns, and guns go bang-bang.
I guess if Sarah gets to keep her guns though, Neytiri should get to shoot her arrows from her flying dragon, and Ripley should get to fight in that big robot thing of hers. Fair is fair, right? Then you’d have one hell of a smack down too.
Sarah still gets my vote for sexiest of the bunch though. I wouldn’t count her and all those guns out too quickly in a fight either.
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Doug McBride Reply:
January 28th, 2010 at 12:49 am
Oops. Forgot to mention..,
Thanks for the comment Avatar2010. It’s very much appreciated.
Avatar2010 Reply:
January 28th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
Yeah, that’s a tough toss up to who’d win…hmmm. It looks like Ripley is the one with the most disadvantages. I would be interested to hear what some other folks thought out there? Come on people, what’s the word. I still go with Neytiri but I see how Sarah Connor is quite the bad-ass.
I’m glad Cameron got snubbed at the Oscars this past year. No matter how nice he appears to be or act, you just know he’s a ego-maniacal, doucher behind closed doors. Avatar 2 is going to be lame and all about money at this point.
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