They call it the most subversive , leftist blockbuster made in the modern era. Are they out of their minds or are they righto? You can only find out via listening.

  • WoofWoof91 [comrade/them]
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    4 years ago

    You can only find out via listening.

    looks like it will forever remain a mystery
    shame

    • Goatfucker99 [fae/faer]
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      4 years ago

      Yea that shits fucked up man. In 40 years every movie online is gonna be a thinly-veiled hagiography of Jeff Bezos

      • evilgiraffemonkey [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        The blue people tail sex. They also mentioned some other movie being censored on amazon, forgot which one though. Some scene everyone makes fun of.

        • Caocao [he/him]
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          4 years ago

          The Wicker Man. It's actually insane that they took out the most iconic scene, the only reason anyone would watch that movie is to talk shit on it while wasted with friends.

          edit: the scene in question

          • evilgiraffemonkey [he/him]
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            4 years ago

            YES! Fuck that movie is a classic bad movie to watch with friends. What the fuck. That and the bear scene are the two iconic scenes of the movie. Godammit. Whelp, another bad precedent that is just gonna get worse!

        • anthm17 [he/him]
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          4 years ago

          Could this be what they mean?

          https://old.reddit.com/r/DisneyPlus/comments/g1iucd/avatar_isnt_censored_on_disney_its_just_the/

    • mikeyelvis92 [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      So I looked it up and from what I can tell the scene they’re talking about was a deleted scene that was added to the dvd/blu ray release but wasn’t actually in the original theatrical version, which is the version that’s on streaming services.

      After listening to the episode I wanna re watch it and now I have to decide whether I’m gonna watch the extended version on blu ray or watch the other version in 4K on Disney+.

      Edit: nvm it’s not even in 4K on Disney+

        • mikeyelvis92 [he/him]
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          4 years ago

          According to the Avatar wiki (https://james-camerons-avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Avatar_(film)) there was an extended re-release in theaters in August 2010 that first had the tendril scene, so if you saw it in theaters towards the end of its run you would have seen it. The original version didn’t have it though.

          • NotARobot [she/her]
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            4 years ago

            I saw it not long after it came out and I know for sure that that scene was in it. I've only ever seen the movie once, and I vividly remember that scene.

            • mikeyelvis92 [he/him]
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              4 years ago

              Here’s an article from January 2010: https://ew.com/article/2010/01/13/avatar-deleted-sex-scene/

              In the U.S. theatrical release, the pair only kiss a little (weak!) before the camera zooms out, and the next thing you know they’re on the ground, totally spent.

              It could just be a Mandela effect.

              • NotARobot [she/her]
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                4 years ago

                I fully acknowledge that it could be, and that as a human my perception and memory are flawed, but in my memory I am about as confident that the theater version I saw had that scene as I am about anything, and I'm not sure if anything short of time travel could truly convince me otherwise.

  • diego_maradona [none/use name, any]
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    4 years ago

    I think it sucks in the ways that we thought it did when it first came out. Simplistic plot, bad writing, bad dialogue. Characters lacking depth. But I think their point, is that with hindsight it's clear that it has to suck in certain ways to appeal the masses. Americans don't do well with sublety, it leaves too many remaining de-activated.

  • maccruiskeen [he/him]
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    4 years ago

    Setting aside Cameron's apparent political views, a movie that is anti- american imperialism made in the 50s would be mind-blowing. A movie like that in the 60s or 70s would be a little radical. But this movie came out in 2009, and honestly the message was even kind of watered down, so by then it really wasn't as much of a huge statement.

      • maccruiskeen [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        It's liberalism because u have to pretend to have a message but at the same time challenge absolutely nothing or nobody directly or explicitly ever. It's why environmentalist messages are so common, ur able to blame pollution but not actually have anything to offer in terms of solutions (other than 'stop littering')

        • Harukiller14 [they/them,comrade/them]
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          4 years ago

          Exactly. Praising Avatar is really a testament to how barren the 2000s were of political critique and how mind melted the general population was. The fact that the Chapos praise it while making fun of libs for the marvel movies or harry potter or whatever is hilarious lol

          • maccruiskeen [he/him]
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            4 years ago

            While I agree, I feel like most of the praise was directed at the special effects/3d or whatever. The fact that most people can't even remember the main character's name shows u how deficient the story telling was. I think mostly for a left wing audience, we've really grown desperate. We need more boots Riley type stuff

  • ProfessionalSlacker
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    4 years ago

    This is no different than Marvel fans insisting that Thor Ragnarok is anti-colonialism or that Winter Soldier is anti-fascist. This is the same banal, navel-gazing bullshit they are constantly chastising YouTube video essayists for.

      • ProfessionalSlacker
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        4 years ago

        It is, but in the same kind of recuperated way Avatar is. These movies arent about challenging systems they are about recuperating criticisms of those systems by portraying them as the fault of bad actors. Ragnarok dresses down the conquests of Asgard but Thor is ultimately still a king, just a better king. Iron Man confronts the MIC, even down to them propping up fake foreign threats to sell weapons, but Iron Man still owns a privatized armory working effectively for US interests. Avatar chastises American imperialism, but Jake Sully and Sigourney Weaver's characters are ultimately still colonizers, just more benevolent colonizers. I don't mind praising the relatively good politics of these movies, but it's really fucking rich coming from the Chapos when they detest Marvel movies and the "smoothness" of modern movies when Avatar is the apex of "smooth" mildly intriguing but unchallening and easily digestible popcorn fodder.

    • CEO_of_TrainGang [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      It was one of their most sincere episodes in a while. I can’t comment on if they made good points about the movie cause I was too young to remember much of it when I first saw it, but it sounded pretty convincing

      • Harukiller14 [they/them,comrade/them]
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        4 years ago

        Damn is this what it feels like to be old?

        Either way you're not missing much. It's a technically impressive movie but that really was the whole point of the movie. The story is lacking in a lot of places.

    • fed [none/use name]
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      4 years ago

      They were 100% serious about the message being the best anti capitalist/imperialist blockbuster. And tbh after listening I agree with them

    • LangdonAlger [any]
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      4 years ago

      sounded like the triple layered ironic seriousness to me

      • CatherineTheSoSo [any]
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        4 years ago

        I mean, it's a straight forward anticolonial plot. I don't see why you'd call it unintentional.

        Europe equals Earth. The native Americans are the Na’vi. It’s not meant to be subtle. —James Cameron on Avatar

  • TheDonkeyedKong [he/him]
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    4 years ago

    It took me half of the episode to realize they weren't being ironic. Felix's enthusiam conviced me to watch it again, revaluating movies like that is really fun.

  • Mablak [he/him]
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    4 years ago

    I gotta agree that looking back, the politics are based; maybe I overlooked that just because the movie was so damn popular at the time

    The American empire is imperialist scum that needs to be fought with violence, doesn't get much better than that

  • cresspacito [he/him]
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    4 years ago

    I mean it can be the most subversive leftist blockbuster and not be very good too. It was a fun film to watch. I think. I was 12, so I probably enjoyed it

  • GVAGUY3 [he/him]
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    4 years ago

    They do it to annoy people like on this thread

  • CyborgMarx [any, any]
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    4 years ago

    I would have accepted this take if they were instead talking about Avatar: The Last Airbender and not James Cameron's hack rehash of Dancing with Wolves