That’s quite a fan site, for a movie that barely exists. There were also plans for an animated version at some point, which may or may not still be happening…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Max_4:_Fury_Road#Sequel

‘Thunderdome’ is by far the best of the Mad Maxes, and I’m glad I saw it first. The first Mad Max in particular is an orgy of low-budget weirdness, though it has cult status. Seriously, start at the end of the trilogy and work backwards, if you intend to see all of them. (Just my opinion, before the flames fly… I know there are some who see Thunderdome as a kind of Jedi, or even worse, an Episode I…)

Mad Max 4? Wow… there’s a thought… [gulp]

http://madmax4movietrailer.blogspot.com/

Fook, is nothing sacred? Is this for real? 80

I hope it has Tina Turner in it, that’s all I can say :D Otherwise they’re on a hiding to nothing, for that’s an act that just can’t be followed.

Just for the record, I saw Avatar and loved it. I might write something up one day, but I haven’t had anything to say on it yet. It is clearly just a great adventure story. Though I am interested in the idea of the overly-machinated person longing to rejoin the natural order of things, and using those machines to do so. It’s kind of like the matrix, in that regard. Good stuff. :)

Will definitely need to see it again.

From IMDB:

The NORAD command center built for the movie was the most expensive set ever constructed up to that time, built at the cost of one million dollars. The producers were not allowed into the actual NORAD command center, so they had to imagine what it was like. In the DVD commentary, director John Badham notes that the actual NORAD command center isn’t nearly as elaborate as the one in the movie; he refers to the movie set as “NORAD’s wet dream of itself.”

hilarious.

I don’t mean that any of the actual events occurred… that would be my poetic licence getting away from me! It’s kinda hard to explain. Take the scene where Matthew Broderick takes his printout to the two computer geeks and they tell him to steer well clear. Those two guys are /absolutely/ spot on. So is Falken. They all play as if the’ve actually researched the real people. As for the WOPR in the basement and Joshua… these are all things that people in these environments actually /do/. Basically I saw the film and signed up then and there to be a professional Cold warrior, and nothing I’ve seen since has persuaded me that the events at NORAD are hogwash. There’s just too much /right/ about the movie…

You do know everything in it is true, right?

No, seriously? How true?

It’s been a LONG time since I’ve seen it. Perhaps a reviewing is in order…

Can’t watch that video at work (no speakers) but will check it out when I have a chance (I’m taking a flight to Cali tonight, seeing family for the long weekend). Glad to hear you’re not into the “global warming propaganda” aspect of it though. My take on global warming is something along these lines.

However it may or may not be being used, the idea that we are responsible for taking care of the earth, rather than taking things from it, can only be a good thing. Even if the global warming turns out to be entirely non-man-made, it’s still a good thing for us to think about.

There are many such examples, though many speak to a trend alread developing in society and appear, or actually are, prophetic.

When these things are prophetic, its because a writer or artist is letting the situation speak through their unique viewpoint. The way I look at it, the more a piece of art “rings true” for a lot of people, the more it was something the artist created by trying to look as deeply into a situation as possible without any specific intention, rather than something that they closely manipulated. It is up to us to keep our unique viewpoints and perspectives as clear and positive as possible, so that the feedback we give to reality is a good, true, and beautiful as we can make it.

Justin – BSG was indeed excellent, but personally I felt it lost its way a bit towards the end. [ducks for cover?]

lol.

‘No, let’s play … ‘

:D

Now THAT’s a movie that seriously influenced me at an appropriate age. You do know everything in it is true, right?

*

Justin – BSG was indeed excellent, but personally I felt it lost its way a bit towards the end. [ducks for cover?]

http://thcforum.ning.com/video/avatar-global-warming

Yeah, it would be good to see what you think of Avatar once you’ve seen it. Apologies if my post was a little preachy, sometimes a blog post ignites a response to a subject I’ve had smoldering for while, and lo and behold, a rant! :)

@speedbird,

It seems that Cameron fully intended to have the movie relay a message. Though I think he was conscious of not wanting to sound preachy. Have a look at the following video (I disagree now with the title in that thread that Avatar is really global warming propaganda):

Oops! Just went on a rant again! lol.

‘A strange game, Professor Falken. The only winning move is not to play’ :)

>> to say how it works would be to spoil it

I mean, to say how the plot of the film works would be to spoil the film :)

>> certain aspects of this genre

Avatar is definitely as deep within this genre as something like ‘Aliens’. But the best sci-fi has general appeal too.

I wouldn’t say I disagree with you on that, at least not at present. The poem I put in the comments says it pretty nicely: “So careful of the type she seems, So careless of the single life;” Really, if humanity is not separate from nature, than we ARE nature trying to work out some internal contradictions. When one species somehow manages to rise above the others as we have (however you want to look at it, humanity is a pretty unique animal) but it still has the competitive instincts of competition, what do you do? We have so much instinctual momentum built up that it’s simply going to take a while to overcome it. But the key is, WE’RE the ones that have do the hard work to overcome it. Nature isn’t going to do it for us, rather, it must overcome this AS us.

@Justin:

To understand perhaps wouldn’t require programming, certainly not controlling it.

Yeah, you’re right on that. I got a little sloppy in that part of the post. :)
I think the key is to stop seeing nature as an “other”. The programming part, the control, isn’t really a dominating control, its like riding a horse. A much more symbiotic relationship between “mind” and “nature”, brought about through humanity. It seems to have fallen to us to decide the relationship between “mind” and “nature”, either that of the parasite, or that of the symbiote.

And yes, once I do get around to seeing this, I’ll post a follow up. Seems irresponsible to skip that half of the equation. :)

@speedbird:
Good point on the reminder that this is, after all, sci-fi, and that there are certain aspects of this genre that are simply to be expected.

But to say how it works would be to spoil it.

First, yeah, “control” was ill-put (as I said to Justin) and I think that may be a key issue might be exactly that “saying how it works’ spoils it, but that humanity seems to be pretty intent on saying how everything works. So what to do? Who knows…

Cameron makes awesome kit for his guys, a marine’s wet dream. And here they are, using it to rape a world… it’s an absolute travesty.

It takes a strong person not to use weaponry in a way that’s not a travesty. It is in the nature of the weapon to create travesties.

Anyway, thanks everyone for the kind and thoughtful replies. More to come, once I’ve actually seen the damn thing. :)

>> ‘we can control it and program it’

Not a vibe I got at all. More ‘we /are/ it’. F-cking nature up f-cks us up. Seriously and literally, no spiritualist metaphors needed. In fact I think that’s quite an achievement, beginning to get beyond ‘well, it’s just, like, /bad/, man.’ But to say how it works would be to spoil it.

As for Sigourney… well, her character is indeed stuck between two worlds. And though she doesn’t play ‘eye candy’ she does always somehow manage to pull ‘heroic’ out of the bag. :)

A lot of commentators seem to have missed the point that this is a /science fiction/ movie of the old school. So any /criticism/ of the ‘resolution’ is a bit moot: the author outlines a difficult premise and then /tries/ to offer the best ‘happy ending’ he can conceive. Is it realistic? Well, if it makes you /think/, it’s done the right job.

Some thoughts in this vein:

1. All through the film most of the characters miss the point that the Earth technology is /actually/ really beautiful and sexy. I mean, come on, it /is/. Cameron makes awesome kit for his guys, a marine’s wet dream. And here they are, using it to rape a world… it’s an absolute travesty.

2. The whole exploration of virtual reality is fascinating and almost certainly ground-breaking, but I think it’s one of those things from which we can draw no conclusions. It’s just a superb examination of the subject, ‘pushing the envelope’ if you will. Good sci-fi doesn’t preach, just runs with an idea.

[more when you've seen it...]

The main problem is this idea that the film “… is the equating of nature with a programmable environment.” Or that “Maybe if we can learn to stop seeing nature as an enemy, to befriend it, and to understand that we can control it and program it, we’ll stop needing to destroy it so much.” To stop seeing nature as the enemy and to befriend (at least to understand our place in the ecosystem), yes, but the latter part doesn’t work for me. To understand perhaps wouldn’t require programming, certainly not controlling it. Both are pipe dreams I feel and an element of the massive hubris that has always shadowed humankind and coloured our endeavours. I’d say it’s almost certainly more important that the nature we understand is our own and then we can see how we are meant to fit into nature at large.

I have a dual nature. I am kind of a bleeding heart, but also am fascinated by power.

I really like winners. I give credit to people that win. If there is a war and one side wins, its easier to say that your side is more noble and pure and the other side was evil and that’s why they won.

But its not totally true.

There has been a long history, of the masculine principle, the hierarchical, rational, solar, war-like technological, you know, aspect, or whatever, of things coming to dominate… everything.

You can say its out balance and that the feminine, irrational, earth based, connection based, partnership based, Mythic side needs to be brought in more.

But that only can happen by people in control, consciously choosing it.

We all need to be more in control. Control is good. Mankind needed to rebel against nature, and when that happened the rebels took control of their own nature and when they did that they were easily able to take control of people that just follow nature.

So he’s right, there was no way the indeginous people could win, but that is becauase they needed to learn a lesson. And there are things that were learned from indigenous people.

Mankind is united and we are all developing, all learning. Everything is unfolding as it should

My expectations come from Titanic. I saw that, and didn’t like it all that much. Clearly there was something there that a lot of people liked, but I didn’t really get much out of it. The same thing with the Davinci Code. Somethings clearly there, but not something I can access.

There was not meant to be any kind of “and therefore I’m better than everyone” tacked onto the end of that line of thought.

So that was my expectation for Avatar, originally, and I was using this post to work out how my thoughts on it have changed. My intent was to talk about the way ideas fight and combine, the mating battle of the memes, which is something I really derive pleasure from in a good story. But that’s just my personal taste. Nothing elitist about expressing that, I think.

And don’t tell me anything else about the story, I still have to see it, dammit! :)