[Saquist]

Can we really say that for any film though?

[kevin]

Yes, because on some level there is some theme running through pretty much any film.

It may not be one (or ones, since films can obviously have more than one theme and sometimes people find things within them that not even the makers primarily intended) that everyone particularly responds to depending on what they seek from a film, but that's not the same as lacking one completely.

[Enterprise Captain]

Originally Posted by kevin

Yep, I see what you're saying. No problems there. I'm just saying on the romance front they are pretty even stevens for me.

Originally Posted by kevin

Of course - everyone takes different things away from any film and it's all good in the end.

I would only say that while it might be bold developments for the character in the film and his journey within the story......in and of themselves those elements are not things that viewers are completely unfamiliar with. There are variations in execution, obviously and different ways to depict said components but once you get under the skin it's still using familiar notions.

Cameron's a pretty traditional film-maker in terms of his storytelling and he knows what ticks the boxes with the audience and what triggers the reactions that he's seeking to emotionally elicit. He had his basic core themes for Avatar and he built the rest around that.

Now that I think about I guess both films were equally predictable and had equal portions of romance. They were both visually interesting but for different reasons. The amount of research that was done to achieve the accuracy of the sets in Titanic was stunning. In Avatar a completely fictional world was made that felt real because of the detail that went in to Pandora. I felt that Titanic though was a love story and didn't try to be anything more then that where as Avatar's tried to be a love story plus present a moral message. The moral message is a good one and there is nothing wrong with it but I have heard it and seen it many times before so I was thinking about all the times I have seen this before while I was watching the film and I guess that it was why I feel it was more predictable then Titanic. For a new generation though that hasn't really heard the story I guess it would be more interesting. This is just my personal feeling regarding these two films compared to each other. I don't think Titanic deserved the Oscar for Best Picture in 1998. I thought L.A. Confidential and Good Will Hunting were better films. I'm also glad that Avatar didn't win the Best Picture category for the same reason. The others films in the category were more deserving in my opinion. I still think Cameron's best work was T1 and T2.

[kevin]

Originally Posted by Enterprise Captain

Now that I think about I guess both films were equally predictable and had equal portions of romance. They were both visually interesting but for different reasons. The amount of research that was done to achieve the accuracy of the sets in Titanic was stunning. In Avatar a completely fictional world was made that felt real because of the detail that went in to Pandora. I felt that Titanic though was a love story and didn't try to be anything more then that where as Avatar's tried to be a love story plus present a moral message. The moral message is a good one and there is nothing wrong with it but I have heard it and seen it many times before so I was thinking about all the times I have seen this before while I was watching the film and I guess that it was why I feel it was more predictable then Titanic. For a new generation though that hasn't really heard the story I guess it would be more interesting. This is just my personal feeling regarding these two films compared to each other. I don't think Titanic deserved the Oscar for Best Picture in 1998. I thought L.A. Confidential and Good Will Hunting were better films. I'm also glad that Avatar didn't win the Best Picture category for the same reason. The others films in the category were more deserving in my opinion. I still think Cameron's best work was T1 and T2.

Absolutely, any moral in the tale isn't new in Avatar and that's why it gets some (admittedly few!) demerits. It's certainly a totally valid one, but it's one that in theory everyone is familiar with.

Of course, this can be said for most major themes anyway!

The moral message in the film seems to work differently for different people for a variety of reasons but then that's also not knew - it comes with the turf really.

[Saquist]

A moral lesson is always meant to be repeated so the error won't be repeated.