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[Occhidiangela]

Overall, I gave it a C. Unoriginal story, painfully predictable plot, mediocre acting, blatant robbery from numerous other movies (the mechs were from The Matrix, only with cockpit canopies), and it insulted my ancestor (Pocahontas, I kid you not). I even called it Pocahontas in Space on my Facebook notes. It's ONLY redeeming feature was the special effects, which I have to admit were mind-numbing. Oh, yeah, and the Zerglings were a nice touch.

-Loki

I also liked the attempt, not all that well done, to merge tilt rotor idea and an Apache attack helicopter. But then you go inside the cockpit, and you see an old style cyclic, not fly by wire.

Oops! Didn't do their research.:)

Occhi

[--Pete]

Hi,

Saw it. Cameron remade Pocahantas, with Space and Starcraft as moderating influences.

Fantastic special effects completely unmarred by plot, characterization, or originality.

Heinlein (IIRC) pointed out that if you take your material from one source, it's plagiarism. If you take it from many, it's scholarship. If so, that chamber melting pot was the most scholastic film I've ever seen. There was hardly a fantasy, science fiction, or movie cliché Cameron left out. Predictability? Ten minutes in and the whole outline of the film was clear.

To keep from getting bored, I tried to spot where various things were stolen researched from. Occhi has already named three.

Deathworld.
WoW, Night Elves, Big tree Darnassus.
Dragon riders of Pern.
Aliens, with Ripley and the company slime-ball. "Hey, Trudy, have you ever been mistaken you for a man." Much of the military hardware. The loader versus queen fight.
Stargate (the wormhole effect).
Star Wars, especially the walkers and the clone versus Gungan battle. And were there Ewoks in that forest?
Apocalypse Colonel "I love the smell of napalm in the morning." now. With maybe a touch of Slim Pickens riding the Strangelove bomb.

That's all Sue and I can think of right now, but feel free to play. :

Watched it all the way through. Almost, but not quite, want my time back. Cameron is about 90% on my ignore list. He consistently makes crap. Spectacular crap, but crap nonetheless.

--Pete

EDIT: Fixed the Aliens paraphrase.

[Hammerskjold]

Watched it all the way through. Almost, but not quite, want my time back. Cameron is about 90% on my ignore list. He consistently makes crap. Spectacular crap, but crap nonetheless.

--Pete

Slight disclaimer, I couldn't watch this all in 3D, because it gave me a severe eye strain and headache.

So I wound up watching it for free in a Walmart one day. It's the 2d version obviously, but that lack of technomarvelousity aside.

I had high hopes for this when it first came out. After watching it, I was kinda like, meh. It reminded me of one of those demo CD's hardcore audiophiles have lying around to show off the power of their stereo equipment. Except this is the visual effects \ 3d tech version.

As for Cameron, IMO his earlier works (Terminator, T2, Aliens, directors cut Abyss) still holds up relatively well.

This one though, kinda leaves me a bit cold.

[--Pete]

Hi,

Slight disclaimer, I couldn't watch this all in 3D, because it gave me a severe eye strain and headache.

So I wound up watching it for free in a Walmart one day. It's the 2d version obviously, but that lack of technomarvelousity aside.

I can't get out to see movies, so I watched it on my TV. No 3d there. However, more and better effects wouldn't address the issues I had with this movie.

I had high hopes for this when it first came out. After watching it, I was kinda like, meh. It reminded me of one of those demo CD's hardcore audiophiles have lying around to show off the power of their stereo equipment. Except this is the visual effects \ 3d tech version.

Yeah. It reminds me of This is Cinerama and Scent of Mystery. Nothing movies made to showcase a new technology. Since you and I didn't experience that new technology, we seem to have missed everything the film was trying to do.

As for Cameron, IMO his earlier works (Terminator, T2, Aliens, directors cut Abyss) still holds up relatively well.

I'll give him Terminator and True Lies, they were both good and original. But I see nothing else on this list that's particularly good.

--Pete