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With Avatar in 3D...James Cameron has brought back the excitment of going to the cinema and seeing a film on the big screen. I saw Avatar on opening night at 4am on Europe's largest IMAX screen in London (after my night shift i might add!) and the place was full to bursting! The anticipation of this movie was HUGE..and it did not let me down one bit. Its a shame we cannot re-create that 3D magic in our own homes (even with our top of the range flat screens and surround sound, not to mention talk of samsung producing the worlds first 3D TV!). I for one welcome the 3D revolution, when it is truly jawdropping as it was in Avatar it deserves to bring in the money as it has done. Congrats to James Cameron...the gauntlet has been thrown down to Mr Spielberg, Mr Jackson and friends...good luck!

Congrats, now I hope he makes Battle Angel next and then maybe he can have 3 movies making over a billion. I guess Ill never doubt "The King of the World" again.

@10 Well said even inflationary cost are respresentative of the factors involved. Minimum wage was $5.15 while now is $7.25 factor other cost like living expenses such as gas (from like .75 cents to $3), cost of milk, or whatever, while salary hasn't really changed much is just a testament of what Cameron has done. The fact is times change and it is impossible to compare movies to each other unless you can factor in every possibility. But, I believe he has single handly brought people back to the cinema.

Too bad the story sucks and people are wasting the time and money to get nothing more than a fancy cartoon version of Fern Gully meets Dances with Wolves. I fell asleep in the middle of this one. Congrats to James Cameron and all those involved, but seriously ... you didn't convince me ... or keep me awake.

@ 13 - THATS HILARIOUS! FERN GULLY MEETS DANCES WITH WOLVES?!? How original and funny that statement is, not to mention true!!!11! Thank god for people like you "LetterJ13" who keep coming up with comedy thats so fresh and new (unlike JC movies! BAZING!). You should write a movie about how all action movies are the exact same and name it something that represents it like a....disaster! You could call it "Disaster Movie". I bet you and your friends would love to see such a ridiculous movie like that! And maybe you could poke fun of Michael Jackson, Tiger Woods AND Brittany Spears! That would be so fresh and new! Seriously, good luck on your Disaster Movie "LetterJ13". And by "good luck" I mean "go fuck yourself". Parker.

This movie is rolling around here. The IMAX theater near here has been sold out every weekend since it first opened. I hadn't seen it in IMAX yet, tried Christmas weekend and it was sold out. Some friends and I were at the mall saturday, thought we'd see it and to our demise it was sold out through 1:30 Monday morning....Should really get tickets online...lol

Can someone explain, HOW THE HELL is avatar making this much money. I can't seem to understand how, why? It makes no sense to me at all. I'm not indicating this movie is terrible, but IT'S NOT SPECIAL. I mean, 5 years from now, the 3D aspect that Cameron created is most likely to be more advanced, which might make this version a gimmick, or unrealistic. The story does't hold up, as it has been done so many times. The character I find were unlikeable. I just don't fucking understand how James Cameron is able to make two mediocre movies that end up becoming the highest grossing film, domestically, and Internationally

Woah never thought this would happen ever. Especially after seeing the lackluster trailer I thought it would flop. But, I guess he is truely the King of the World. He made a great movie that I enjoyed quite a bit. Saw it in IMAX and 2D worth every penny. Hopefully this goes a long way to an awesome trilogy and a Battle Angel trilogy, and not The Dive.

#15 - You go boy!

Sorry to read so many people didn't like the story and state it with such strong words. I see several layers of meaning in Avatar, way beyond the obvious storyline. I believe it resonates with some deep mythological need to hear stories about good and evil. Now, this one coveres important issues such as indigenous rights, biodiversity crisis, natural resources extraction and, overall, about different worldviews of nature. This explains, I think, its huge success oversea. Strong, positive and inspiring feminine caracters make it a feminist movie as well... But now, I'm sure many of you out there will find fine words to disagree with all that.

Amazing movie! Great story! Groundbreaking effects! I recall when FS first started posting info and pics and a lot of people said it will fail, effects look horrible. I'm curious what all the haters are saying now? Still people are saying the story is weak. I don't get it!? Congrats Mr Cameron!!! Thanks for blowing my mind!

I agree with most people in that the story was lacking. BUT the eye candy! My God the glorious eye candy! Of course, this was my first 3D movie and my second time going to IMAX, so I don't think it could have failed for me. I do, however, wish the helicopter pilot was not in the film at all. -SPOILERS- Why was she so quick to help them? Why did she paint herself and her helicopter? Why did she fail as soon as she started? Really, I hated that character.

Now, what's gonna earn more money? Avatar 2 - which I'll gladly see! Congrats to J. Cameron!!

Oh shit! I think #28 just got burned in the 1st degree, anyone agree? #32 You Rock!!!

oh yeah, sorry... Avatar XV: America's Lost Military Bashfest

Fox will now reboot Avatar, and cash in even more than this!

#10 - at the end of the day, yes there is a number one film of all time (monetary wise) and yes, that is Gone with The Wind. The fact that "media has changed" is regardless. A films gross is based upon ticket sale revenue. #15 Its pretty ironic that you are implying its unoriginal to insult the lack of originality in Avatar. We've basically reached the point where Avatar is so cliche, its become cliche just to call it that. You see, I've seen this story at least 10 times, and of course I'm willing to see it more times, just as long as it adds something new, some aspect that differentiates itself from the films that have come before it, something that gives me a reason to stay interested. Mr. Cameron choose this attribute to be effects, and it looks damn good. That may please you, however making things look pretty doesn't cover up lack of new plot lines, dynamic characters, etc. So please, just because I have different tastes than you, doesn't mean you have to disrespect my opinion. Neill Blomkamp > James Cameron, yeah, I said it.

Alex, it's "its" not "it's". Fixed!

This means nothing...until AVATAR has shown me that it has won every Oscar AMPA trophy in existence.

#40, first off, thank you for providing a detailed explenation of why D9 would not qualify as an "original" story. Secondly, can you please tell me where in my post I "bitch[ed] about Avatar's story". You may have missed the point of my post which was to challange the assertion that there are no "original" stories.

To the one who calls him self common sense, although he has no right too... It is true that there is a lot of films these days that aren't original, and that is why I am mad at those films as well. But to say all aren't 100% is blatantly false. While original films such as Pulp Fiction, or the Wicker Man (not the remake) may obviously have inspirations, they are not rip offs of archetype stories that we've seen over and over. Inspiration is one thing, but when its predictable dribble drabble where I can tell exactly where things are going, that unoriginality. Basically there are plenty of films you can go into and have absolutely no idea where the plot or characters are going to end up, and Avatar isn't one of them, far from it really.

It failed in that it sucked ass.

Yeah! What he said...!

#45 @S. You're right I shouldn't have said that you were bitching about Avatar but I felt that your complaining was kind of implied because you were arguing against someone who was arguing on Avatar's behalf. Sorry. However, the section of my post directed towards you wasn't to focus on you "bitching" about Avatar anyways. I was just trying to prove to you that District 9 is far from original which you now seem to acknowledge anyways. Once again sorry I assumed you're position on Avatar. #41 @Paulo. I'm not sure where you were going with your comment. "It's" is the contraction for "It is", which is exactly what I meant by using it. You even used "it's" correctly at the beginning of your comment yourself. If you don't believe me look it up. I did after I read your comment just to find out whether or not I got it wrong. #44 @ Cody. First off, everything is overhyped today. Everything is overly commercialized and shoved down our throats by the media. Don't point your finger at one example of this and act like overhype is something we haven't seen before. You can't use this as an argument as to why something is bad because if you did than I guess you must hate everything that has a trailer. Second off, Avatar is a game changer. It was meant to change the way movies were made. No one said the story was going to be an outright game changer. By the way The Dark Knight was definitely revered as a game changer in the comic book movie genre. You can't tell me it wasn't. Finally, stop ruining movies for yourself by relating everything you see to politics. I consider myself a moderate and I don't let my views ruin movies or any form of escapism. You're right some shit is just too goddamn liberal. It makes me sick sometimes. But there are facts that we have to cope with as humans as well, and as much as they are associated with liberal ideology they are still facts. We are trashing the natural world, a world we need to survive. Taking advantage of native peoples for profit is unjust. Slaughtering natives is wrong.( I'm sure I'm gonna hear the "well this movie basically says the military is bad.". Please save it. The movie depicts a FICTIONAL army as evil for the actions they perform, not as evil because they simply are military personnel.) I personally don't feel anyone would disagree with any of these three statements. Maybe they would verbally just to prove a point, but on the inside I don't think they would. Sometimes people choose to disagree or agree with certain ideas based on their political association alone. This is a problem. It's the exact reason I hate politics. People need to start thinking for themselves and stop looking to their party for guidance.

I'm gonna be really happy when it wins the Oscar. The other nominees are sooooo forgettable. No one will give a shit about Up in the Air or The Hurt Locker a few years from now, not even the pretentious dorks on this site.

#20, I wouldn't worry about that $150 million. It's going to surpass it without question. Theaters, especially on the weekends, are still selling out showings for this film. SELLING OUT! I've maybe seen a couple sold out showings in my lifetime, and that's only during opening week for highly anticipated movies. I haven't seen anything like the frenzy for Avatar before. This is really something to behold in the history of cinema. And don't you for a second doubt that Avatar will make a second run at the theaters later on once the craziness subsides. Batman: Dark Knight and a few others made theatrical returns, Avatar will too.

O man, I forgot all about this movie. O yeah thats right. It's because it was overrated and forgettable. Figures...

Do any of you go out and make films, or do you just argue on here all day? If you are going to bash Avatar, why don't you present something you have done that is better?

Almost every person who has disliked Avatar is a pretentious movie snob. So you all be you, whine about how Avatar is a bad movie blah blah blah and I'll enjoy every minute of it. You watch your snobby high-brow indie flicks. Leave Avatar for the other 90% of the world. You pretiontious assholes are super annoying. Seriously.

3 James Cameron's Avatar will pass Titanic woody on Feb 21, 2009 4 I hope so! Though the problem is that Avatar isn't family friendly, it's futuristic sci-fi, whereas Titanic had every last family member seeing it multiple times. Alex Billington on Feb 21, 2009 There you go, one guy that knew the truth. So Alex, seems Avatar is family friendly indeed, and i came to realise that when my dad asked me about it...and he never asks me about movies. It's a huge hype around this movie, hype that comes from people you least expect. BTW, i got tickets to IMAX in London on the 10th Jan....for the 17th Feb at 14:20, on a wednesday....it was the first date that had 2 central-ish seats. So this will go on and on until late March. IT WILL PASS 2,5 billion $!!!

UNOBTANIUM!!!!!!

They should do a remake of Avatar that takes place in Afghanistan...I have a feeling the story wouldn't be as black and white....or blue and white...

Avatar sucks ass and so did Titanic. This guy is way overrated, period! And why can't I bitch about this one? It's just my opinion. Don't say crap about "can you do it better?". Hell yeah if I had $237 million bucks

am I the only one who thinks avatar is a shitty movie without any innovations except the technological aspect? don't answer, it's a rhetorical question. it has a stupid story, which obviously don't bother only the american viewers, fucked up character design and is fillid with cliches and, oh boy, THE ENDING!!!111 The way it turned out, sick! Did someone actually expect it? And again, do not a n s w e r.

I was wondering if the race to beat Titanic is what is driving more and more people to see it. Like now we’re going to hang in there for Avatar to break 2 billion – will more people go and see it when they hear it’s close to breaking a new record? It is an amazing salute to the power of science fiction and that someone’s imagination / thoughts can make something so amazing. To those joyless souls that keep harping on the story this and the story that. The story is not important; it’s how it’s told that makes all the difference. Imagine a horror story around a camp fire in the woods at night versus the same story being told in an office block during a lunch hour. I say not important because there are only so many ‘stories’ out there and everyone keep rehashing them anyway. This includes everything from Gone with the Wind to Star Wars to Pan’s Labyrinth. They all have similar themes / ideas – boy meets girl, revenge, quest, historical, etc. Then they all go on to tell those stories in a different way.

this movie was great eye candy, yes most stories have been told a million times and its all about HOW you tell it but this story was told in a most boring way! Sorry.. I LOVED the visuals but seeing this without 3D is the TRUE test of this movie and it bored the hell out of me without 3d!! IM NOT talking about story line or inventive etc, im talking about BORING! thats my opinion

In my humble opinion: Moon was a great film, Holmes was very good; certainly better than AVT. Book of Eli even had one hell of a twist at the end. But hey, I'm the guy who loved "Thank You For Smoking".

This is the second time "Common Sense" has backed out of an argument.....i'm still waiting for your response, man. Incase you missed my post - I guess it depends to the extent of arch type. The reason why people are complaining about Avatar being cliche isn't because it can vaguely be compared to the type of story with similar themes as films that came before it, but rather that by merely replacing characters names and locations, you have Pocahontas. The extent of Avatar's unoriginality leaves other movies in the dust. Its predictability is there. Where as, if you saw Back To The Future, you wouldn't be able to say "I Know Where This is Going" when you watch Donnie Darko. Themes and motifs are not the same thing as, an entire story repeated verbatim, which is what Avatar is.

I had an idea like this for a comic back in the late 80's.. and i decided not to do it as I thought it too hoaky.. " privileged intruder goes native and leads primitive revolt against oppressive machines, initially for vengeance then discovers native plight LATER..and in his exposure to this culture inadvertently changes their destiny and ways..blah blah.. When I first heard of the premise for avatar I thought he would have come across the same problems and would come to a good solution.. 3D was that solution! In 3-D: driven with a great visual artistry, and a great conceptual desire to immerse the viewer Non-3D: cgi flat story with great ambition

After watching Avatar for the second time I felt that there is something solid in it, even if maybe is just the 'art' and editing so perfectly done... Loved it.

86, no problem at all.

ORIGINAL!!!!!! ill give you fucking original. A man walks into a space station where all of a sudden a giant squid named kathulu flies in from no where and sucker smacks him which in turn makes him a giant quola bear that loves to fornicate with tosted almonds glued to his nipples. Thats for all those fuck asses who bitch about originality as though if a story is told more than once its bad. what do you think captivates people, a story that only has a mass of endless twist and turn that obviosly result in an ending you couldn't guess, well guess what originality in its own way in unoriginal. heres how the average original writer thinks.....WOW no one has done that before i think ill write that. So on and so forth until you realize that every aspect any story ever done is unoriginal because everyone who writes original stories fall under the catagory of writing the same shit just diffrently with pieces of other stories included. the human mind doesnt create anything one hundred percent original that doesnt already have worldy influences because we learn by our surrounding and our interaction with the world around us, so to say that any story is original is a lie. take any character and break it down all the way to its atomic composition and you will realize that every little part has some direct connection with the universe we live in. BITCHES!!!!! plus the reason any story is used over and over again is not because it's easy to redo but it's because thats what realy connects with people a story they can relate to, understan and even feel close to because the see the resemblence of the story in the world around the and even in their very own lives. So to say the story sucks because its unoriginal not just beacause you think it was a bad story but because it has been used before is just another way for you to look like a cock teasing ass faggot. if you want originality go fuck a chipper and then eat a peanut butter and dildo sandwich bitches!!!!

yea! Originality and plot are for whimps and whoosies! I want my mindless entertainment! I want my mtv!

rabble rousing he is! more star wars!

One More Thing, Avatar and Clash of the Titans man, Sam Worthington is starting to become one of my favorite actors

It's not that the story was unoriginal, its that it was flat and predictable. Movies like the Dark Knight and The Matrix had stories which had both been done before in several different ways, but the staries had layers, and the characters were made out of something thicker than cardboard. Avatar was not a bad movie. It was just far from a great movie. The reason im a little bitter towards it is because it is so overrated. yes, the music and the visuals werew some of the best ive experienced in the cinema, but heck, the harry potter movies have deeper characters than this. I would have liked to have been pulled more than one way in a movie that is this popular. Im not expecting to have my philosophies of life changed in a James Cameron film, but i am expected to have more feelings than just "These bad guy space marines are so mean, i hope these underdog aliens can beat em!!"

I was lucky to see Avatar at a pre-screening a few hours ago. It completely blew me and the whole room away and i dare to say it will do so to 80% of any audience anywhere. The remaining 20%, who always finds something to complain about, will whine about character development, dialog, story or the pop-corn. Well, let me tell you: they went to this movie with the wrong expectations. You have most likely met Cameron's previous work(s): Aliens, Terminator 1 & 2, The Abyss, Titanic (!), just to name a few. So WHAT should you expect from Avatar??? MORE of the same!!! More of revolutionary film-making, more of grandiose new ideas, more of never-before-seen special effects, more of 150 minutes without relapsing, more of the James Cameron genius... I am very happy that the trailers didn't give the full story away. Lots of emotions are waiting for the viewer, laughter and tears also. Cameron was very smart keeping the teasers as teasers, nothing more... as the full movie will take your breath away. You will practically not notice that you are watching a non-existing world, it is sooo real. Attention to detail is superb. You computer geeks will know what I am talking about. This move was not rushed in the making. No wonder it could not have been done before - not having the proper computing power. The wild life, the jungle, the animals, the Na'vi-s, or the dragon-like flying creatures are all so life-like, they almost pop-off the screen (and in 3D they actually do . The sound effects were so well done, that when I saw at the credits that Skywalker Sound was behind it, i could only think of "yessss... now THAT makes sense." Cameron is a visionaire - and again, he delivers, with full blast. A certain character says in the movie that Pandora (the planet where the story takes place) became his real world. My advice to you: let Pandora become YOUR real world for two and a half hours, let it make you completely forget about your life and problems, let it entertain you, move you, let it carry you away. Because THAT is what i expect as an exchange for my ticket. And a few hours ago i got tens of tickets worth of that.

Titanic will be the best movie ever! Avatar only has good efects but Titanic has everything and also was made based on a real history!!!