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Messages - Dr. Joe

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Movies and TV / Re: AVATAR
« on: January 20, 2010, 07:32:39 AM »
Being entertaining is the name of the game, so I don't get how you can say it isn't a "good" movie after your first sentence it's contradictory.

Rubbish.  Plenty of media can be entertaining in a kneejerk, reactive sort of way without actually being good.  One of the most entertaining experiences I've had at the movies in recent years was sitting in a packed theatre on the opening night of Snakes on a Plane, but that was still a TERRIBLE movie.

Avatar didn't do anything remotely noteworthy besides pushing visuals to levels greater (and more expensive) than ever.

Well, I guess the insane amount of money it's making is also noteworthy, but I believe you get my meaning.

I personally liked the story from Avatar, even if it was unoriginal.

It was indeed unoriginal, but that's not necessarily surprising.  Virtually everything is just re-packaging an existing story; the challenge is to do so in an interesting, innovative, engaging way.  This was Pocahontas in space, it didn't even really try to do anything interesting other than visuals, because the creators figured (correctly, unfortunately) that they didn't need to.

Saw it for the third time, though in 2D this time. I missed the 3D, actually, but it still hit every chord right on the button. People were behind me saying "Awesome!" or laughing at the precise moments I knew things were going to happen. To me, I think this is the success of the film.

I'd say that just means it was painfully predictable :(

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Movies and TV / Re: AVATAR
« on: January 18, 2010, 02:14:54 AM »
Avatar does not have an original story, and many of the characters have little depth. However, for me, it hit all the right emotional moments at the right times. The film was beautiful and had a fantastic atmosphere, but ultimately if it had not hit those emotional beats it would not have been satisfying to me. But it was.
I think you summed it up here.  In spite of the unoriginal story, the execution of it, combined with the incredible visuals, made AVATAR a great movie.

Eh...the visuals made it entertaining to watch in the moment.  I do not believe that that equates to "a good movie".

The more I've thought about Avatar, the unhappier I've been with it.  When it first ended, I thought "wow, that was great", but my opinion has since degraded a good bit.  The biggest problem, as a couple insightful friends pointed out, is the lessons that this movie is likely to teach the Hollywood decision makers, and the audiences of cinema.

1) A massive SFX budget can be used in place of any kind of originality or character development, and is easier to wave in front of prospective audiences with pre-release trailers.

2) Going forward, if the SFX of your 2010+ release aren't on par with those of Avatar, you're out-of-date.  If you can't afford that level of SFX, you can just fire some writers to make up the difference.

This is an issue that can also be seen in the video game industry.  In fact, it's considerably more pronounced over there.

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Table-Top Games / Re: Dominion. Anyone played it?
« on: January 18, 2010, 01:35:19 AM »
Bit of a necro-post, but...

Dominion is a fantastic game, I love it.  Introduced to it at New Year's Eve last year, and we played until 7am.  Really, aside from the tedious matter of sleeving all the cards, there's nothing not to love about this game.  The two expansions (Intrigue and Seaside) are wonderful additions as well.

If you like Dominion, I would also recommend Kingsburg.  More of a classic "board game" than a card-based tabletop like Dominion, but similarly enjoyable.

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Brandon Sanderson / Re: Mistborn: Allomancy or Feruchemy? [ SPOILER ]
« on: January 14, 2010, 06:47:56 PM »
Feruchemy

The best part of storing memory would be the ability to read your favorite books over and over again like it’s the first time. Elmandr and Reaves could watch Scrubs again.

That is ingenious!

One of the best parts of Brandon's magic systems in Mistborn is the fun and off-beat applications.

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