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AVATAR land coming to Disney's Animal Kingdom
- Thread starter DocMcHulk
- Start date
xdan0920
Think for yourselfer
It sure did make a lot of money. Anyone denying that, would, in fact, be delusional. I don't see anyone denying that though. What I see is a lot of people saying it has not stuck in the public consciousness in the way you would expect such a financially successful film to have stuck. I suppose that is a subjective matter though, so it is hard to prove one way or the other. Anecdotally I have not heard squat about Avatar since it finished it's theatrical run.
Save for delays in the sequels.....
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
It's what many top critics on Rotten Tomatoes have said- yes it did do so well and was so successful because of the tech and visuals, at the expense of having a good plot, script and characters. The visuals and technology are indeed what made this film so successful, and without those elements it would not have received even close to the amount of praise and money it got. The praise it DID get were predominantly focused on the tech and visuals. Many of the people who DID praise it even said flat out that the plot and characters were bland or even outright bad. And after getting over that initial wow factor, praise for the movie has died down dramatically and you don't hear people talking about it (or its looked back on as a forgettable story with some nice eye candy). On the other hand, whether you look soon after they were released or decades later, there's still people who are gaga over the likes of the original Star Wars movies, Alien/Aliens, the original two Terminator movies etc). Or in more recent times, Harry Potter (or the film versions of Lord of the Rings, though that plot and characters was already adored for many decades due to the original books).
Hell the main consensus caption on Rotten Tomatoes reads-
Numerous quotes from top critics, ones from (this first batch will exclude the "rotten" reviews and only focus on positive ones, to further emphasize that even many positive reviewers were far from impressed by anything other than the visuals and tech)-
It's rare that even the top critics were praising the plot or characters. Even when they didn't outright criticize those elements, they largely glanced over it in order to rave about how technologically amazing and pretty the movie was. That's not even including the top critics that WERE initially negative and weren't as easily suckered in by the expensive eye candy-
I didn't like Country Bear Jamboree attraction until I was immersed in the theatrical awesomeness of the movie. Also, repeated viewings of Song of the South by many fans is what drove the success of Splash Mountain. Finally, the success of Disney pop star Michael Jackson made Captain EO awesome in the 80's and the directorial debutante of that little 3D movie was able to make a little trilogy that we're all familiar - Disney's Star Wars not to mention Disney's Indiana Jones. Further, I think that even though Avatar lends itself to a visually stunning theme park land which based on the concept art will be a beautiful theme park land in this little ole thing called reality, it will clearly be a complete failure since it didn't have the massive cultural impact of say, Cars, which every adult I talk to has gone and on about (especially after the sequel) which is the main reason anyone goes to Radiator Springs out there in DCA.
EPCOT Robot
Member
You can cherry pick from RottenTomatoes all you want to further your biased bologna, but the film was a critical success on all accounts. You're living in an alternate reality where the top critics didn't love the film, but everyone else doesn't have to buy into your super obvious agenda.
Just who exactly are the top critics? And did they love the immersive narrative and stunning dialogue? Or were they more impressed by the special effects and CGI?
EPCOT Robot
Member
Can we come up with a catch-all term to describe these people? Needs to be something like "Truthers." I got it, "Beasters." XD
Or you could simply use "people that don't agree with me," but I suppose that doesn't have the same ring....
EPCOT Robot
Member
Don't worry, Beasters, some day Avatar won't be the most profitable movie of all time, and Beastly Kingdom will finally be made. Don't give up hope. Avatar's success is a conspiracy! Don't let the man keep those unicorns and dragons down!
xdan0920
Think for yourselfer
You seem....familiar?
Yeah, that one doesn't really ring either.....
A vengeful bull?
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
That's not cherry picking at all. You said in the other thread that it was only a couple of people on this forum who were critical of the plot. I just gave you quotes taken from 15 professional paid top movie critics, 10 of which still enjoyed the movie and gave it a positive review, who flat out said the plot and characters were either mediocre or outright bad, and stated outright that the reason they enjoyed the movie was because of its visuals and technology. The vast majority of reviews in the non-top critics section say much the same- they enjoyed the movie and it's gorgeous and technically impressive, but the plot is meh or bad.
There's no question many people enjoyed the movie and it was a massive financial success, but there is a clear reason why that is. And when they get past the hype of eye candy and expensive tech, most rational people actually admit exactly what they disliked about it just as much as liked (and with the time that has passed now, many people have come down from that high of eye candy and tech, people have cooled down about the movie a lot and are less inclined to get overly excited about it). The vast majority of objective people agree that the story and characters are just plain bad. Financial success is also hardly the core of what makes a movie good underneath either (Twilight anyone?).
Quite possible. I had wondered if it was our old pal CountryBearFan at first (whom I haven't seen lately), though his/her posts are distinctly lacking in the "WAAH LEAVE MEG CROFTON AND TDO ALONE" department. Either way, I'm starting to smell a banning if this keeps up.
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Suspirian
Well-Known Member
Just a random thought...about the eye candy thing. Are you saying the land will be mediocre because the movie is just eye candy, because a visually stunning land is exactly what I want for DAK. I have no problem with the film, I actually enjoyed it, but I can admit that the premise is slightly cliche, but it's not like every attraction in AVATARLAND will be evil humans vs navi. WDI tends to make completely different stories that just take place in the worlds of the film based attractions they make and don't usually just completely retell the story, save for a few exceptions (looking at you TLM and Finding Nemo on both coasts). Some of the best attractions are about a general experience and aren't heavily story driven like Soarin. I'm not saying I don't prefer story based attractions, just that a ride doesn't need to have a largely developed story to be a good attraction nor does the story of a film attraction have to completely rely on the plot points of the film. For all we know the attractions could have a very complex story or be more of a sensory experience and it could still be good. I just think we'll have to wait and see.
Captain Neo
Well-Known Member
I love when Rhode implied the entire land is one big attraction with everything being interactive. It's going to be mindblowing just moving your hand around plants and seeing them react with light and effects and stuff.
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
If you're talking to me- no I'm not saying that. The land has the potential to be great. I'm actually more positive about AVATAR Land than some other people here are (I see why people don't want it of course but I have warmed up to the concept at least, moreso after the concept art).
The movie was what I was talking about. It's relevant because the people at Disney who decided to make an Avatar land did so for financial reasons, not a creative one. They wanted a draw for Animal Kingdom that would make a ton of money due to a pre-existing IP driving attendance up. And there's a lot of issues with the choice they made when you consider how little people talk about Avatar anymore. What remains to be seen is how well the sequels will do. I assume Disney wants to coincide the new land with the release of one of the new movies, which can be tricky considering how unpredictable Cameron is with release dates...
And one does hope that the people at Disney realize what it was that people liked and disliked about the movie, focusing on the right things (the visual nature of the world) and leaving out things that didn't work (the story and characters). The land itself has enormous potential from a theming perspective IMHO. While i'd rather see something else if I was given the choice, I personally see the merits for a theme park experience if done right and think it could be cool. Again, IF they focus on the visuals of the environment and don't value engineer the hell out of it, then I'm willing to give this a chance. It's the overall execution that i'm worried about.
It's similar to my feelings on Disney's recent Oz movie- didn't care for the plot or some of the characters at all, but I would be interested in seeing some sort of well done theme park attraction of it.
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
It'll be cool, but you know people are going to abuse the hell out of anything interactive and things are going to get dirty and broken quickly (almost certain we're going to see things vandalized). Not looking forward to that happening...
Thanks for posting this. This post demonstrates exactly why Pandora is a perfect fit for AK! I could not give two flipping pancakes about the strength of a plot, script or characters -- not sure why this matters. We're talking about a theme park here, where the average attention span for guests is 20 seconds. Pandora is visually stunning & intriguing. I really can't wait to see Pandora come to fruition!