Doubting Avatar

[baymenxpac]

At the risk of drifting further off topic...

The ratings drop isn't anecdotal. It's factual. Here's a chart.

And really? You're going with the argument that the Lost finale was too smart for viewers? Lost fans were a pretty literate bunch. I think most viewers who hung in there followed it just fine. There are plenty of legit reasons to be disappointed in the Lost finale.

true and true. ratings did drop, but the fact that it was only relevant in '04 was the part i was referring to as anecdotal. and yes, lost viewers were very literate, but the most common thing i heard in critiques were "they were dead the whole time." admittedly, that's anecdotal just from the people i've talked to/complaints i've read, but as i'm sure you know, that wasn't the case.

haha i'm sure we could have a pretty darn good lost thread.

 

[ChrisM]

first off, yeah. plenty of people give it a passing thought. and i won't go ahead and debate the ending of the show with you.

There's really no need to debate the ending of the show with me because I actually liked it. I am a complete sucker for anything that ends with the "reunion in heaven" motif.

That said, I enjoyed the show. But in retrospect it really was largely a pile of poo that served up red herring and red herring in what now seems like an obvious ploy just to keep people watching by luring us into believing everything would eventually tie together. Instead, Lindelof just gave us the finger.

What cracks me up about LOST is that when it became obvious in the first season that there was something strange about the island I told mywife, half-jokingly, "I bet there's a hellmouth hidden away somewhere", never believing the writers would fall back on something so rote. Surprise, surprise...the big reveal of the island is: hellmouth. Lame.

admittedly, disney missed their opportunity. however, they did build a twilight zone attraction like...30 years after it went off the air. and that attraction has shown plenty of mainstream appeal. plus, uni keeps building stuff like transformers which, despite the fact that michael bay has taken to framing optimus prime with his explosions lately, is about a 25-30 year old property.

LOST is no Twilight Zone, that's for sure. The latter featured 275 episodes over three completely different runs of the series from 1959 to 2003...and a feature film directed by Steven Spielberg, John Landis, Joe Dante, and George Miller. It's an iconic franchise that's become deeply rooted into our collective psyche.

In comparison, LOST was an engaging fad.

 

[marni1971]

So how DID it end? We gave up long before.

 

[Lee]

So how DID it end? We gave up long before.

Dude! No spoilers!
Start watching immediately. There will be a quiz in about three months...

 

[drew81]

Maybe WDI could design a smoke monster for Living Character Initiative????

Marni-if you want to read up on LOST check out http://spoilerslost.blogspot.com/.

 

[Maerj]

**** spoiler alert*****



Its a cork!

 

[WDW1974]

Wait, really? LOST?

Does anyone even give a passing thought to this show any longer? It was a fun ride until we discovered Lindelof was just stringing us along the entire time. The only reason I'd even spend the time to re-watch it is to enumerate the thousand different plot strings he never resolved or explained. But I'd rather stare at the ceiling for 50 straight hours than do that.

And to crib the usual anti-Avatar arguments: "where are the books, spinoffs, and merchandising?" "How many LOST toys do you find in the toy aisle at Target?!"

Lost could have been utilized in the parks be it at the Studios ... or even as something stand alone like Discovery Island. Now, I don't think anyone is suggesting that. But it did run for six seasons (seven would have been better) and was a phenomenon at first before settling in as a top performer and critical darling.

I am a bit biased because I know many folks who were part of the show (yes, including the showrunners) and I think the show was one of the best of the last decade. I believe many noted critics agree with that. But I realize many people were diappointed with the ending. I was a bit myself (maybe two bits), but it was far from being as bad as some would have you believe. But I'd rather stare at the ceiling for 50 straight hours than debate Lost with someone who hated the ending and wanted every loose end explained.

 

[rudyjr13]

Lost could have been utilized in the parks be it at the Studios ... or even as something stand alone like Discovery Island. Now, I don't think anyone is suggesting that. But it did run for six seasons (seven would have been better) and was a phenomenon at first before settling in as a top performer and critical darling.

I am a bit biased because I know many folks who were part of the show (yes, including the showrunners) and I think the show was one of the best of the last decade. I believe many noted critics agree with that. But I realize many people were diappointed with the ending. I was a bit myself (maybe two bits), but it was far from being as bad as some would have you believe. But I'd rather stare at the ceiling for 50 straight hours than debate Lost with someone who hated the ending and wanted every loose end explained.

Disney insider AND lost insider? Who the heck are you??? I say that lovingly, I enjoy your take on all things Disney though I wonder if you forget what it is like to have a 3 year old if you ever did.

 

[ChrisM]

Lost could have been utilized in the parks be it at the Studios ... or even as something stand alone like Discovery Island. Now, I don't think anyone is suggesting that. But it did run for six seasons (seven would have been better) and was a phenomenon at first before settling in as a top performer and critical darling.

I am a bit biased because I know many folks who were part of the show (yes, including the showrunners) and I think the show was one of the best of the last decade. I believe many noted critics agree with that. But I realize many people were diappointed with the ending. I was a bit myself (maybe two bits), but it was far from being as bad as some would have you believe. But I'd rather stare at the ceiling for 50 straight hours than debate Lost with someone who hated the ending and wanted every loose end explained.

As I said in a follow up post, I really enjoyed the ending. And I don't regret having watched the series at all. It was a fun trip and a nice diversion, which is exactly what a television show should be. But none of that forgives how poorly written it was and, frankly,if you know Lindelof personally please tell him he's absolutely horrendous at laying out plot and all of his faults that were so obviously on display in LOST effectively ruined Prometheus as well. What a disaster.

I don't begrudge anyone sticking up for their pals, but you'll have to accept that carrying water for this series probably isn't worth the time and effort.

 

[Figment2005]

I'm new to the boards and my opinion may not matter to those who have been around for a while, but I will state it non-the-less. It seems that the general populous is expecting Disney to create an exact copy of what Avatar was, but to me it seems Disney is going to be more focused on Pandora as an environment instead. Just because Pandora came from Avatar doesn't mean the story line is going to be anywhere close. Hell, they wouldn't even need to have a general story for the area, just create an environment and experience that is as close to the movie environment as possible and leave any story to the attractions.

To me, if people would think of Disney recreating Pandora in Animal Kingdom instead of Avatar, the end result would be more pleasant. Avatar may have had a horrible story and characters you forgot about the minute you left the theater, but Pandora stuck with you with it's beauty and ambiance. As long as Disney transfers that aspect flawlessly the land will be a complete hit regardless of where the idea came from. That's just my 2 cents on the matter.

 

[Captain Chaos]

Lost could have been utilized in the parks be it at the Studios ... or even as something stand alone like Discovery Island. Now, I don't think anyone is suggesting that. But it did run for six seasons (seven would have been better) and was a phenomenon at first before settling in as a top performer and critical darling.

I am a bit biased because I know many folks who were part of the show (yes, including the showrunners) and I think the show was one of the best of the last decade. I believe many noted critics agree with that. But I realize many people were diappointed with the ending. I was a bit myself (maybe two bits), but it was far from being as bad as some would have you believe. But I'd rather stare at the ceiling for 50 straight hours than debate Lost with someone who hated the ending and wanted every loose end explained.

A bad Lost show is 1000 times better than this reality crap on TV today.

 

[ChrisM]

A bad Lost show is 1000 times better than this reality crap on TV today.

Truth.

Well, except for Average Joe. That was comedy gold.

 

[PirateFrank]

A bad Lost show is 1000 times better than this reality crap on TV today.

It appears I don't often agree with you.....but with this, you're spot on brother!

 

[lebeau]

So how DID it end? We gave up long before.

With a whimper. Followed by a lot of complaining and then silence.

 

[Maerj]

Lost could have been utilized in the parks be it at the Studios ... or even as something stand alone like Discovery Island. Now, I don't think anyone is suggesting that. But it did run for six seasons (seven would have been better) and was a phenomenon at first before settling in as a top performer and critical darling.

I am a bit biased because I know many folks who were part of the show (yes, including the showrunners) and I think the show was one of the best of the last decade. I believe many noted critics agree with that. But I realize many people were diappointed with the ending. I was a bit myself (maybe two bits), but it was far from being as bad as some would have you believe. But I'd rather stare at the ceiling for 50 straight hours than debate Lost with someone who hated the ending and wanted every loose end explained.

Emotionally the end was great. It was well-done and I *did* enjoy it, right up until the last second. BUT..... they advertised "All your questions will be answered!" Obviously, they weren't. We wanted to know what that island was and the cork answer doesn't cut it. There were too many things that were brought up in that show that went unanswered mainly because, I believe there were no answers. And that's too bad because, otherwise, it is truly one of the best shows evah!

I think that they could have thought it out a bit more and they could have given the audience a little more. The deleted scene was a good start, it shouldn't have been deleted in the first place!

 

[WDW1974]

Disney insider AND lost insider? Who the heck are you??? I say that lovingly, I enjoy your take on all things Disney though I wonder if you forget what it is like to have a 3 year old if you ever did.

Who am I? Who am I? ... I am just your friendly neighborhood Spirit ... who tends to live a life of adventure, in between the mind-numbing boredom that sometimes drives him to make fanbois cry here.

As to the three-year-old, no, I've never (thankfully ... although I am sure yours is an angel!) had one and I didn't visit WDW until I was older than that if you're suggesting I might be hard on the Mouse because I don't look at WDW like a child or the parent of one. ... I do love kids ... just not bad parents ... like the ones who had five of them sitting at the booth behind us at lunch today being loud and obnoxious. I do think my scary dirty looks did get them out of there a good 11 minutes quicker than they would have otherwise.

 

[WDW1974]

As I said in a follow up post, I really enjoyed the ending. And I don't regret having watched the series at all. It was a fun trip and a nice diversion, which is exactly what a television show should be. But none of that forgives how poorly written it was and, frankly,if you know Lindelof personally please tell him he's absolutely horrendous at laying out plot and all of his faults that were so obviously on display in LOST effectively ruined Prometheus as well. What a disaster.

I don't begrudge anyone sticking up for their pals, but you'll have to accept that carrying water for this series probably isn't worth the time and effort.

I think the show was one of the boldest shows on network TV in the past dozen years. In a sea of crime procedurals, it's budget, scope and writing were of a much higher level. The reason so many folks dropped off after the first few years was because they either wanted everyone rescued immediately or they simply couldn't keep up with it. You had to watch it ... and watch it completely, not the same way you watch Two and a Half Men.

I, obviously, don't agree with you on the writing. I thought the writing (with the exception of a handful of episodes) was generally of a very high caliber as was the acting, directing, producing and pretty much all else. I didn't particularly like the ending on the basis of what was left unanswered, but was very happy with it on an emotional level.

I have met and know Damon in a professional sense, but he isn't a friend. And I do not think all he did on Lost was MAGICal. I haven't seen Prometheus yet, but the word I have heard is that he was brought in late because the story was a mess ... I have no idea how much of what the final product is was due to him. Much like on Lost, nobody does it alone.

But if you're going to say the show was poorly written for six years, then I'm just going to say I strongly disagree and not simply because of friends who were a part of it. I say it because I flat out believe you're wrong. But I also don't intend to argue back and forth on Lost now two years after it wrapped up.

 

[WDW1974]

With a whimper. Followed by a lot of complaining and then silence.

Where's the freaking 'Dislike' button?

 

[FrankLapidus]

Right up to the fourth season I though it was easily the best thing on television, the season three finale was probably one of the best television episodes I've ever seen. But then the WGA strike happened and the fourth season got shortened so they had to rewrite that and consequently couldn't explain as much in the detail they had originally planned (I did think Michael coming back was pretty pointless). The fifth season was great (just when I thought it couldn't get any stranger they introduced time travel) but I hated that Faraday vanished midway through the season, came back and then got needlessly killed off the show when he was easily of it's most interesting characters. I enjoyed the sixth season, especially the Alpert-centric episode but for me the saving grace of the entire show was, after being knocked out by a flying metal door and seemingly drowning in a capsized submarine, Lapidus was found floating in the ocean and (after repairing his plane with duct-tape) proved to be the ultimate hero of the entire series by flying most of the survivors off the island.

 

[rudyjr13]

Who am I? Who am I? ... I am just your friendly neighborhood Spirit ... who tends to live a life of adventure, in between the mind-numbing boredom that sometimes drives him to make fanbois cry here.


As to the three-year-old, no, I've never (thankfully ... although I am sure yours is an angel!) had one and I didn't visit WDW until I was older than that if you're suggesting I might be hard on the Mouse because I don't look at WDW like a child or the parent of one. ... I do love kids ... just not bad parents ... like the ones who had five of them sitting at the booth behind us at lunch today being loud and obnoxious. I do think my scary dirty looks did get them out of there a good 11 minutes quicker than they would have otherwise.

Bad parenting is the worst. It's tough to rip on children play areas without having children. I agree that WDW can and should be doing more though as you suggest and I notice the slacking of magic.

Lost is my favorite TV show ever. All the criticism is BS. Ending was great and emotional. I followed it like Disney though, on forums guessing what was happening and I think one needed to devote that much to truly appreciate it. I give anything JJ does a chance. His new show Revolution is good (saw pilot through work). Not great yet but an interesting concept.