Unpopular Entertainment Opinions • Page 108

well Cameron also made Titanic, which even though I also think is not good, still has memorable aspects of it in a way that Avatar does not. Like I don’t think it was super influential, but the ”King of the world” / nude painting / freezing to death scenes were all well ingrained in my head before I ever even watched it just by virtue of how much it stuck with everyone

 

Okay, but that’s my point. Even if the movies that ended up coming out were dumb to you or me, the massive level of success of Avatar “forced” production companies to start making more and more 3D movies or re-release more and more movies with 3D effects. Thousands and thousands of theaters being transitioned to accommodate 3D, 3D TV’s for the home, phones, video games, etc... it caused a massive explosion in 3D in practically everything.

I’m not saying 3D didn’t exist prior to it or that it wouldn’t have eventually blew up like it did, but looking at the release and critical and box office success that Avatar had and aligning it with the billions of dollars the entertainment industry made from 3D technology is just ignoring it and hand waving it away because you didn’t like it.

 

I think it’s kind of a running joke that at this point Cameron only makes movies to pay for his science hobbies

 

Now the lack of pop culture influence, I can see and mostly agree with.

 

Yeah that’s a really good point, I was trying to think of other singular movies/non franchises and didn’t even think of his other ones haha

 

Admittedly I’m probably being nit picky separating “pop culture influence” and “cultural impact” but I do think they’re two pretty different things.

 

Avatar was part of a trend of movies that were enormously successful but forgotten quite quickly. The Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland movie made a billion dollars (back when that was a much more rare accomplishment), and you don't really see it referenced at all. The live action Disney remakes in general have that power. People see these movies because it is the thing to do but they don't ultimately last because there is another shiny object a week away.

People make fun of the Star Wars prequels, and they are certainly bad, but they have more staying power than a lot of the more recent films.

 

I don’t disagree with most of this but one difference between Avatar and Alice in Wonderland, other than Avatar making over double what Alice in Wonderland made, was that Cameron and his team invented new technology that was used in 3D moviemaking afterwards. I think that’s a fairly substantial difference in most every other 3D movie made since.

 

It’s not a matter of me not liking what came about from it. It’s that in comparison to every other film that has grossed anywhere near what Avatar did, making 3D more popular in movies is nowhere near the same kind of impactful, memorable cultural touchstone

And I think you’re stretching it with all of the other tech stuff. It’s one thing to say that the tech developed for Avatar helped the wider 3D tech in general (undeniably true), but I consider that an entirely separate thing from saying that Avatar provided the basis for such things becoming *popular* (a lot of conjecture and assumptions). Like for example, you could very easily argue that a world without Avatar but with the same level of 3D tech development would be largely the same; that people embrace stuff like VR more now simply because the tech is at a point where it *is* more enjoyable lol

 

I guess we can agree to disagree. To me, when Cameron and his team/company invents technology and then showcases it in a movie that goes on to be a worldwide success by multiple metrics and then that technology is used for future billion dollar box office movies and theaters across the world have to transition to accommodate that type of technology, etc... I think that is impactful in a massive way.

Memorable? Eh, not in a “how good is the movie” kind of way but in it being a catalyst that caused such a huge amount of advancement, I’d say that’s pretty memorable.

 

That is a different arena from cultural impact. Most people aren't watching a movie and noticing it is the same camera from Avatar. This is especially true considering how the 3D fad died out.

 

Sure, I see what you mean and that’s why I made that post up above about how I’m separating pop culture influence and cultural impact in my head. To me, the fallout from its’ success is a cultural impact across multiple industries.

 

The fact that people know it as "the 3D blue alien movie" is basically admitting that everyone saw it and remembers it. Also, it has been parodied and referenced in other works of pop culture. It's not unique enough on a story/character level to last the way characters like Han Solo and Furiosa do, but the technology it forged ahead with is more than just the 3D. Cinema is a visual medium and Avatar, at the time, was a monumental visual achievement in 3D, yes, but CGI as well. Spielberg, the current Star Wars and Marvel movies, they all draw from Avatar. I don't think it's a good movie (I also don't really think it's a bad one, it's better than plenty of Marvel stuff), but I don't think you can deny it was an important one that did exactly what James Cameron wanted it to do, so I wouldn't call it a "miss", but that's nitpickey.

Also, Titanic is legitimately great.

 

This sums up what I was trying to say so much better than I did with a dozen posts, hahaha

 

Oh wow I guess I've only seen the directors cut. Didn't know there's a version without that

 

Remember when some motherfuckers on here told me that people would be talking about Aladdin during the best of 2019 conversations? That was wild.

 

Aladdin was a lot of fun once you realize they were winking to the audience most of the time with the humor. Plus, it’s a kids movie.

 

the fact that without that story arc, Sigourney Weaver still earned a Best Actress nomination for a performance of a character she already played is impressive, let alone a sci-fi horror movie

 

This is the first thing I thought about when the Godfather topic came up lol

"It insists upon itself."

 

yes Avatar doesn’t come close to how much a flash in the pan all of these live action Disney remakes have been. Lion King made 1.6 billion! Did kids even like it? It‘s all geared way more towards adults paying for the nostalgia

 

Don’t know if it’s an unpopular opinion. But “True Lies” low key sucks.

 

They remember it has 3D and nothing else, but weird aliens. It could have been any other movie, but with the same 3D technology. It's not the movie that's memorable, it's the things that were integrated with it. Which some people would argue are the same thing, I would not. Some games do the same things, they introduce a wonderful new mechanic or something, but the rest of it sucks and becomes forgettable, but the mechanic carries over.

Also, Titanic is a real bad time. 2/10.

 

Mafia/crime movies are for the most part mad boring to me in general. They're all like 3 hours long and never can hold my interest the whole time outside of Goodfellas which I do really like

I watched The Irishman last year with my dad who loves those kinds of movies and it was a fucking struggle to get to the end for me

 

Na that ain’t it

 

So many of the great American films are about the Mafia because they are usually using that setting as a backdrop to much larger themes and ideas. Greed, betrayal, narcissism, and how people are trapped by birth. They could just as easily be set in the world of farmers or coal miners, but the gangster conceit allows murder and prison to heighten drama. The great Mafia films are about the Mafia the same way the great Westerns are about cowboys and Native Americans or great science-fiction films are about space battles.