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[PhanttoM]

Like many, I also thought this was a great visual movie with a bad story to put it mildly.

This kind of movie is one where I on DVD/Blu-Ray fast-forward to certain scenes. (ie. never watching it from start to end in one long go)
It's right up the same alley as Transformers 2 and Star Trek 2009.

[Equiliari]

I was entertained, despite the "bad story" (I have quickly found out when people say this, they mean unoriginal story).
So good movie from me.

[Norfindel]

It was so predictable, that i already knew what was the main story after seeing a commercial with a few seconds duration.

District 9 is like a million times better.

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It's also difficult to accept that those guys were able to survive in that planet, considering they were WTF pwned at the end of the movie. The ocologic message of the movie is also spoiled, because they would had no chance without the grenades, that are technology. The human army was pathetic, also, they fought horribly bad.

Also, technology is natural, because we are nothing more than a species raised as a consequence of evolution. We kind of broke the mold, but a highly intelligent species with very versatile hands, bipedal movement, and weak as hell? What other evolutive path was there for us? If we wouldn't had developed tech, we would been cannon-fodder a long time ago. Other species also modify their environment to survive. Not to such extent, but they do.

This isn't in any way defending the guys that were to Pandora, of course, they were a greedy piece of shit, as sadly a lot of humans seem to be, or at least the ones with the "power".

[Kacaier]

Correction...
Wait, which did come first? Alien was 1979, or thereabouts, but I'm not sure how much WH40K borrowed from it, and when it came out. If someone could correct me here, I'd be much obliged, hein?

Warhammer 40k with Rogue Trader (first codex) came out in 1989. Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986) both came out before Warhammer 40k. And while you may not think ten years or three years are a long time, it really is, especially considering the slop put forth by Rogue Trader. People have a funny notion that because Warhammer 40k came out long ago before most things, everything came out polished and done. The models were so horrendous and you could not even believe the story they had. They had squats which were literally dwarves in space, though that shouldn't surprise you as they have or[k]s, elves, and Chaos in full form. Over half the Tyranid army was nothing but Zoats, which were these green centaur aliens. Gene stealers were not part of Tyranids being more of NPC monsters and mirrored the Xenomorphs immensely.

And c'mon, have you not ever played Space Hulk? Let's face it, Alien and Aliens were a huge influence. I'm easily perplexed on how much people consider Terran Marines to be Space Marines, but I'm even more astonished on how people try so hard to diminish what the Alien franchise gave to the Tyranids.

Anyhow, Alien was first pitched as "Jaws in SPACE!" and borrowed a lot of styling from Star Wars, which sorta pioneered the "Used Space" look.

Actually, the styling game from H. R. Giger. His art was organic architecture (alien hive) with a lot of mechanical elements incorporated. The alien itself was directly pulled from one of his artwork. Though of course, a lot of the art direction comes from the concept artists themselves, in which you'd have to ask them where their influence came from. We can't assume Star Wars, as I think I recall them working on Dune or something before that.

And as an addendum, Star Wars took a lot from Frank Herbert's Dune universe and Asimov's Foundation Trilogy. It's just a mega cycle, isn't it?

[Quirel]

I have. I own it, along with every other Timothy Zahn work ever written. Another reason I so dislike Avatar. Zahn's story actually dealt with some real psychological issues that can be dealt with in a human-to-alien-body transfer, along with all the manipulation that can come with it. Even though it is not my favorite story of his, it was lightyears better than Avatar's story.

It's on my buying list. He's one of my favorite authors.
And anyhow, you also own the Terminator Novel he put out last year? How was that?

And yes, room-temp superconductor was pretty obvious. Why they called it what they did was pure lack of...well, any sort of brains, really.

Unobtainium: An engineer's term for a material that's perfect for a job, but doesn't exist, is extremely rare, or is not available whatsoever. It originated as a term for Titanium in the 60's and 70's in the aerospace industry, because titanium was an ideal material for a lot of parts, but the main source was in the Soviet Union.

Come on, people. Just because the Core used a term doesn't mean it's crap.

I'm sorry, I'm supposed to believe that if a payload as big as the one they had was needed to blow up a giant ass tree, didn't make it to its destination, that some ground forces that don't even have flame throwers are supposed to finish off the tree? Yeah, I don't think so.

They.
Had.
Flamethrowers.
Remember that one scene? With the Direhorse running past in slow motion, after being set on fire? Yeah, the shout-out to the beginning of Terminator 2?

Flamethrowers. And there's nothing saying that the ground troops didn't have satchel charges as well. The massive blocks of mining explosives were for, as Quartich called it, a 'Schock and Awe" campaign.

And that "Giant-Ass Tree"? No bigger than a large willow. I believe you're thinking about Hometree, which was taken out with incendiaries and concussives.

It's also difficult to accept that those guys were able to survive in that planet, considering they were WTF pwned at the end of the movie.

They weren't WTF pwned until Eywa got into the action.
Prior to that, Eywa was... well, giving them a chance. They hadn't burned down too much of the forest, and I understand the Avatar Program played a factor in warding off her wrath for a while.

Anyhow, you got to remember that they were being jammed by a massive magnetic field. Out in the open, or closer to base, their FoF radar and guided missiles would have torn anything Eywa threw at them to shreds.

The ocologic message of the movie is also spoiled, because they would had no chance without the grenades, that are technology.

It wasn't a straight-up "Technology is bad!" story.
Look at it this way: "What are we doing with our technology?"
Are we using it for profit without learning about what we're destroying, as with the dozers? Or are we using it to discover more about the universe and potentially better ourselves, ala the Avatar Program?

The human army was pathetic, also, they fought horribly bad.

Really?
They were limited to what they could produce on Pandora, because shipping was so expensive. They were forced to fight in Na'Vi territory because if they sat still and waited, they would have gotten zerg-rushed and overwhelmed, remember? The ground troops were backup, the gunships were running interference, and destroying the Tree would have probably crushed all the resistance...

This isn't in any way defending the guys that were to Pandora, of course, they were a greedy piece of shit, as sadly a lot of humans seem to be, or at least the ones with the "power".

I'll say this in their defense:
They offered to trade with the Na'Vi, offered medicine, waited until it seemed possible that a diplomatic solution could be established, and only went in when it turned out that their diplomat had gone native and boned the wildlife.

And at least they used gas to flush the Na'Vi out of Hometree before demolition commenced.

I was entertained, despite the "bad story" (I have quickly found out when people say this, they mean unoriginal story).
So good movie from me.

Agreed.

Actually, the styling game from H. R. Giger. His art was organic architecture (alien hive) with a lot of mechanical elements incorporated.

Actually, I was referring to the dirty, cobbled look of the Nostromo's exterior. Ridley Scott actually pointed it out in the extras, and said that was inspired by Star Wars.

[DemolitionSquid]

District 9 deserved so much more recognition.

Even Moon was better. Sam Rockwell is such a fantastic actor.

[skidpics]

I didn't think much of it, so I missed the 3D version. After I purchased the DVD, I came to the conclusion it was more awesome than anticipated. Wished I would have seen the 3D...

Good story of faith, love and finding what one was destined to do.

[DemolitionSquid]

Good story of faith, love and finding what one was destined to do.

How did this suddenly become about Obama?

[Kacaier]

Actually, I was referring to the dirty, cobbled look of the Nostromo's exterior. Ridley Scott actually pointed it out in the extras, and said that was inspired by Star Wars.

"The design of the Nostromo is credited to illustrators Ron Cobb and Chris Foss. Ultimately Chris Foss' highly organic visions of the spacecraft were discarded in favor of Cobb's NASA-like utilitarian renderings. Ridley Scott made his own design contributions as well, adding most of the cathedralesque "refinery" portion, which dominates the craft on screen. Much of the ship's architecture, particularly its interiors and the colossal spires of its refinery structure, are inspired by the cavernous yet simultaneously claustrophobic sensibilities of haunted houses and castles from Gothic Horror films such as Nosferatu."

http://annex.wikia.com/wiki/Nostromo_%28spaceship%29

The most I could ever find to link Star Wars to Nostromo was an unsourced imdb trivia section, where it vaguely states that Scott was influenced by Star Wars and 2001: A Space Odyssey for its depiction of outer space. Though all that could mean is just space, it's interactions, or a whole myriad of things. I think my source has more merit.

[DemolitionSquid]

Ron Cobb worked on Star Wars. He designed the Ithorian race.