Avatar (2009)

Sign in with Plex to see what you can watch and keep a watchlist.

Wikidata Q24871, film, IMDb tt0499549, TMDB 19995: matched by corpus:resolve, told apart by episode credits James Cameron as director (The Future of ‘Star Wars,’ Marvel, Pixar, and Disney’s Movie Monopoly. Plus: Our Summer Movie Awards and Paul Downs Colaizzo on ‘Brittany Runs a Marathon’ | The Big Picture); 8 more episodes agree.

What a model would be handed about it, for corpus:ask.

Who talked about it

Blank Check with Griffin & David

Blank Check — Patreon

The Big Picture

The Rewatchables

Came from

What the speakers say it drew on. Each is a speaker's account: “the maker said so” when they report the maker's own words, “the host's read” when the read is theirs.

The Wizard of Oz: 2 lines the host's read ×2

  1. lineage (lineage): The Wizard of Oz ⇒ Avatar (the host's read). Avatar is described as a deep Wizard of Oz homage.
    “In case you were wondering, this is a deep wizard of a homage, among other things.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:42:25 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)

Titanic: 2 lines the host's read ×2

  1. verdict (verdict): Titanic ⇒ Avatar (the host's read). Titanic made Cameron so successful that Hollywood let him do anything.
    “needed to have this extraordinary amount of success over these decades to conceive an execute of something so crazy as Avatar.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:45:16 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Aliens: 1 line the host's read ×1

  1. craft (craft): Aliens ⇒ Avatar (the host's read). Making Aliens (a voiceless monster) is what let Cameron individualize the humans there and flip that in Avatar.
    “I wonder if he hadn't made aliens if he could have arrived at that.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:04:08 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Edgar Rice Burroughs: 1 line the maker said so ×1

  1. lineage (lineage): Edgar Rice Burroughs ⇒ Avatar (the maker said so: Cameron's 1994 80-page treatment). Cameron's Avatar treatment drew on childhood sci-fi reading, Burroughs and Haggard.
    “drawing inspiration from, quote, every single science fiction book that he had read in his childhood, and also Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. Rider Haggard.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:26:06 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)

John Carter of Mars: 1 line the host's read ×1

  1. lineage (lineage): John Carter of Mars ⇒ Avatar (the host's read). Avatar reads like a John Carter of Mars style story.
    “Yeah, it's very like John Carter of Mars or whatever.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:26:24 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

John Ford: 1 line the host's read ×1

  1. lineage (lineage): John Ford ⇒ Avatar (the host's read). Same line: Avatar draws on John Ford films and the history of movies.
    “lots of John Ford movies and you can see like the history of movies”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:53:51 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Led to

What the speakers say drew on it, marked the same way.

RoboCop: 1 line the host's read ×1

  1. lineage (lineage): Avatar ⇒ RoboCop (the host's read). The robot-waking sequence is beat for beat the first act of Avatar, down to testing the new body's powers.
    “It is crazy actually how much this sequence is like beat for beat, the Avatar, right?”
    Blank Check — Patreon · RoboCop (2014) · 0:38:34 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)

Connected to

Aliens: 5 lines craft ×3 lineage ×1 contrast ×1

  1. contrast (contrast): Avatar → Aliens. Avatar's humans are not meant to be charismatic like Aliens' Marines; the audience is supposed to side with the Navi.
    “When people go, why aren't the Marines in this as compelling as the Marines and aliens?”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:03:39 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Titanic: 3 lines career ×1 industry ×1 verdict ×1

  1. verdict (verdict): Avatar → Titanic. Titanic made Cameron so successful that Hollywood let him do anything.
    “needed to have this extraordinary amount of success over these decades to conceive an execute of something so crazy as Avatar.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:45:16 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: 2 lines unmapped ×1 industry ×1

  1. unmapped (blue people / underwater): Black Panther: Wakanda Forever → Avatar. Amanda could not stop thinking of Avatar because it is another Disney underwater saga with blue people.
    “I mean, it's an underwater saga from the Disney corporation.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Is Here! · 0:47:22 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)

Dune: 2 lines verdict ×1 contrast ×1

  1. verdict (verdict): Avatar → Dune. Avatar is compared to Dune as a movie that rewards giving yourself over to it.
    “Can I compare it to another more recent movie that I was reminded of when I watched yesterday was Dune.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:00:14 · unknown (0.50 sure it was them)

Jurassic Park: 2 lines craft ×2

  1. craft (craft): Avatar → Jurassic Park. Jurassic Park is the usual example of exposition done right; Cameron just gets Avatar's exposition done bluntly.
    “Jurassic Park is always site as an example of like, they figured out the right way to do it.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:40:14 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

The Hurt Locker: 2 lines contrast ×1 industry ×1

  1. contrast (contrast): Avatar → The Hurt Locker. Avatar lost Best Picture to ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker.
    “up against James Cameron's ex-partner, Catherine Bigelow, who at the during the same year, made the Hurt Locker”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:35:29 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)

The Wizard of Oz: 2 lines lineage ×2

  1. lineage (lineage): Avatar → The Wizard of Oz. Avatar is described as a deep Wizard of Oz homage.
    “In case you were wondering, this is a deep wizard of a homage, among other things.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:42:25 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)

Top Gun: Maverick: 2 lines verdict ×1 contrast ×1

  1. verdict (verdict): Avatar → Top Gun: Maverick. Avatar works like Top Gun: Maverick: cliched lines but an emotional rush that works in a crowd.
    “a movie I feel similarly about is Top Gun Maverick, which I also saw 3 times in theaters.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:56:57 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Babylon: 1 line unmapped ×1

  1. unmapped (film history): Babylon → Avatar. The closing montage names Avatar, The Matrix and Terminator 2 as stages in the evolution of how movies are made.
    “Like all of those movies that we saw all in their own way represent stages in the evolution of the way that movies are made.”
    The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:57:02 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

Buddy-cop films: 1 line theme ×1

  1. theme (theme): Avatar → Buddy-cop films. Neytiri, not Jake, kills Quaritch, unlike films where the white lead gets the kill.
    “This is a movie where Natiri is the one who ends up pumps him full of arrows.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:13:28 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Dances with Wolves: 1 line theme ×1

  1. theme (theme): Avatar → Dances with Wolves. Avatar belongs to the interloper-story family but is not like Dances with Wolves or The Last Samurai.
    “something like Dances with Wolves, Last Samurai, whichever one of these movies you want to throw out there. Interloper movies.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:55:09 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: 1 line contrast ×1

  1. contrast (contrast): Avatar → Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Avatar has no visible seams, unlike franchise movies such as Doctor Strange 2 that lop off swaths.
    “You were talking about Doctor Strange 2 and how there are huge swaths of that movie that you can just see, they just lopped off.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:49:58 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)

Edgar Rice Burroughs: 1 line lineage ×1

  1. lineage (lineage): Avatar → Edgar Rice Burroughs. Cameron's Avatar treatment drew on childhood sci-fi reading, Burroughs and Haggard.
    “drawing inspiration from, quote, every single science fiction book that he had read in his childhood, and also Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. Rider Haggard.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:26:06 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)

F1: 1 line craft ×1

  1. craft (craft): F1 → Avatar. Simmons reacts to F1's filmmaking the way he is supposed to react to Avatar's tech.
    “I feel the way, the way I'm supposed to feel about Avatar, I feel that way about F1.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘F1’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 0:03:50 · Chris Ryan (0.50 sure it was them)

Galaxy Quest: 1 line theme ×1

  1. theme (theme): Avatar → Galaxy Quest. The human-looking avatars are compared to Galaxy Quest's aliens who look like convention fans.
    “There is a version of this story”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:07:47 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Gollum: 1 line craft ×1

  1. craft (craft): Avatar → Gollum. Cameron's 1996 synthetic-actors claim sounded stupid until Gollum arrived.
    “And then, I mean, we're like a couple years away from Gollum at this point.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:26:54 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Hollywood studios: 1 line industry ×1

  1. industry (industry): Avatar → Hollywood studios. Hollywood took the wrong lesson from Avatar: IP, speed, and slapped-on 3D.
    “everything should be IP, make these things as fast as possible, and just previs the action, 3D, slap it on at the end”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:46:58 · David Sims (0.70 sure it was them)

Jake Gyllenhaal: 1 line what-if ×1

  1. what-if (what-if): Avatar → Jake Gyllenhaal. Other movie-star options for Jake Sully were considered after Damon said no.
    “is it a Gyllenhaal, do you get someone who's at that level, there were a couple people in the mix”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:20:27 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

John Carter of Mars: 1 line lineage ×1

  1. lineage (lineage): Avatar → John Carter of Mars. Avatar reads like a John Carter of Mars style story.
    “Yeah, it's very like John Carter of Mars or whatever.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:26:24 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

John Ford: 1 line lineage ×1

  1. lineage (lineage): Avatar → John Ford. Same line: Avatar draws on John Ford films and the history of movies.
    “lots of John Ford movies and you can see like the history of movies”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:53:51 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Lawrence of Arabia: 1 line verdict ×1

  1. verdict (verdict): Avatar → Lawrence of Arabia. Avatar is not as good as Lawrence of Arabia but is a similar must-see event.
    “Avatar is not as good as Lawrence of Arabia, but it is like Lawrence of Arabia.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:34:45 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

M. Night Shyamalan: 1 line verdict ×1

  1. verdict (verdict): Avatar → M. Night Shyamalan. Avatar is both achingly sincere and goofy, so some viewers tap out in the first ten minutes.
    “And Avatar is both so achingly sincere and so goofy”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:24:43 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Matt Damon: 1 line what-if ×1

  1. what-if (what-if): Avatar → Matt Damon. Damon was offered the lead role of Jake Sully, which Sam Worthington ended up playing.
    “Matt Damon famously was offered the role of Jake Sully, which Sam Worthington eventually portrayed.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:15:23 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)

Michelle Rodriguez: 1 line people ×1

  1. people (people): Avatar → Michelle Rodriguez. Rewatching, the whole Avatar cast is good, including Rodriguez and Joel David Moore.
    “When you rewatch it, you are like, everyone in this is good.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:14:29 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Ne Zha 2: 1 line industry ×1

  1. industry (Chinese box office): Avatar → Ne Zha 2. This franchise is among the wordless spectacle brands that played in China and pushed out mid-budget movies (target is the China-box-office counterexample).
    “And what played in China was Marvel, Jurassic World, the Fast and the Furious, Avatar, et cetera, et cetera.”
    The Big Picture · ‘A Minecraft Movie’ Is the Most Important Movie of the Year So Far. And These Flicks Are the Best … · 0:38:28 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)

RoboCop: 1 line lineage ×1

  1. lineage (lineage): RoboCop → Avatar. The robot-waking sequence is beat for beat the first act of Avatar, down to testing the new body's powers.
    “It is crazy actually how much this sequence is like beat for beat, the Avatar, right?”
    Blank Check — Patreon · RoboCop (2014) · 0:38:34 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)

Spider-Man: 1 line industry ×1

  1. industry (industry): Avatar → Spider-Man. A month after Avatar, Sony announced the Raimi Spider-Man 4 would not happen and the series would be recast.
    “They announced that they are recasting Toby Maguire and resetting Spider-Man, not doing Sam Raimi Spider-Man 4 a month after Avatar comes out.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:45:57 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)

Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope: 1 line contrast ×1

  1. contrast (contrast): Avatar → Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. Avatar is an efficient workmanlike story, not one with fascinating margin detail like Star Wars.
    “And it is because it is not a movie like Star Wars where you're so fascinated by all these little things happening at the margins, right?”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:48:04 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Stephen Lang: 1 line career ×1

  1. career (career): Stephen Lang → Avatar. Lang is the star of Avatar but unrecognizable in Tombstone.
    “he's... He's basically the star of Avatar.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Tombstone’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan · 0:43:12 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)

The Dark Knight: 1 line industry ×1

  1. industry (industry): The Dark Knight → Avatar. The Dark Knight was the first movie to come close to Titanic's domestic record.
    “Dark Knight came close, but it was, it had made $600 million domestic, and no other movie ever even got to 500 until the Dark Knight.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:17:25 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

The Despicable Me / Minions films: 1 line industry ×1

  1. industry (industry): Avatar → The Despicable Me / Minions films. The whole Minions franchise fits between Avatar and its sequel.
    “The entire Despicable Me Minions franchise exists in between Avatar and the Way of Water.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:45:20 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)

The Last of the Mohicans: 1 line contrast ×1

  1. contrast (contrast): Avatar → The Last of the Mohicans. Avatar's body-swap makes Jake literally become the people, unlike a Mohicans-style interloper.
    “imagine if there was a movie about, like, if, like, the last of the Mohicans was about Daniel Day-Lewis entering the constructed body of a Native American.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:55:56 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Wendell and Wild: 1 line craft ×1

  1. craft (exposition style): Wendell and Wild → Avatar. Big sci-fi blockbusters like Inception and Avatar earn their virtuoso final acts with an hour of clumsy exposition; Wendell & Wild operates the same way.
    “And they're things like Inception or Avatar, where you're like, you know what?”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Wendell & Wild · 1:52:28 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)

Wes Studi: 1 line people ×1

  1. people (people): Wes Studi → Avatar. Studi plays Neytiri's father and often serves as cultural consultant, but Saldana still feels the most precise.
    “West Duty often is brought onto these films not just to act, but to help be the sort of cultural consultant.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:12:31 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Zoe Saldana: 1 line career ×1

  1. career (career): Zoe Saldana → Avatar. Saldana is in Star Trek, Guardians and Avatar yet is not an outright movie star outside those franchises.
    “Gardens of the Galaxy and by Association Marvel and Avatar.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Guardians of the Galaxy · 0:45:01 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

Where it came up

What was said about it, by kind

career (3)

  1. career (career): Stephen Lang → Avatar. Lang is the star of Avatar but unrecognizable in Tombstone.
    “he's... He's basically the star of Avatar.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Tombstone’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan · 0:43:12 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  2. career (career): Avatar → Titanic. Avatar could only be made because Titanic gave Cameron the clout.
    “I'd never have gotten to make it if he hadn't made Titanic.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:09:04 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  3. career (career): Zoe Saldana → Avatar. Saldana is in Star Trek, Guardians and Avatar yet is not an outright movie star outside those franchises.
    “Gardens of the Galaxy and by Association Marvel and Avatar.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Guardians of the Galaxy · 0:45:01 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

contrast (7)

  1. contrast (contrast): Avatar → Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. Avatar is an efficient workmanlike story, not one with fascinating margin detail like Star Wars.
    “And it is because it is not a movie like Star Wars where you're so fascinated by all these little things happening at the margins, right?”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:48:04 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  2. contrast (contrast): Avatar → Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Avatar has no visible seams, unlike franchise movies such as Doctor Strange 2 that lop off swaths.
    “You were talking about Doctor Strange 2 and how there are huge swaths of that movie that you can just see, they just lopped off.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:49:58 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  3. contrast (contrast): Avatar → The Last of the Mohicans. Avatar's body-swap makes Jake literally become the people, unlike a Mohicans-style interloper.
    “imagine if there was a movie about, like, if, like, the last of the Mohicans was about Daniel Day-Lewis entering the constructed body of a Native American.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:55:56 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  4. contrast (contrast): Top Gun: Maverick → Avatar. Top Gun starts with a known franchise; Avatar has to set up everything and pay it off.
    “Avatar does have to one set everything up, which is a huge challenge.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:59:28 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  5. contrast (contrast): Dune → Avatar. Dune looks good on a TV and feels more tactile and realistic than Avatar's world.
    “Personally, I prefer the world of Dune over the world of Avatar because it feels like more tactile and realistic”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:01:05 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  6. contrast (contrast): Avatar → Aliens. Avatar's humans are not meant to be charismatic like Aliens' Marines; the audience is supposed to side with the Navi.
    “When people go, why aren't the Marines in this as compelling as the Marines and aliens?”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:03:39 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  7. contrast (contrast): Avatar → The Hurt Locker. Avatar lost Best Picture to ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker.
    “up against James Cameron's ex-partner, Catherine Bigelow, who at the during the same year, made the Hurt Locker”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:35:29 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)

craft (8)

  1. craft (exposition style): Wendell and Wild → Avatar. Big sci-fi blockbusters like Inception and Avatar earn their virtuoso final acts with an hour of clumsy exposition; Wendell & Wild operates the same way.
    “And they're things like Inception or Avatar, where you're like, you know what?”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Wendell & Wild · 1:52:28 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  2. craft (craft): F1 → Avatar. Simmons reacts to F1's filmmaking the way he is supposed to react to Avatar's tech.
    “I feel the way, the way I'm supposed to feel about Avatar, I feel that way about F1.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘F1’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 0:03:50 · Chris Ryan (0.50 sure it was them)
  3. craft (craft): Avatar → Aliens. Cameron gave Avatar a Hudson-type scene-stealer as a fifth lead, but this cast is less iconic.
    “Cameron has given us like a Hudson as the 5th lead of your movie”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:14:17 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  4. craft (craft): Avatar → Aliens. Avatar's side characters are fun but not as indelible as Aliens' Marines.
    “It's not like in aliens where you're like the 15th guy in aliens.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:14:43 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  5. craft (craft): Avatar → Gollum. Cameron's 1996 synthetic-actors claim sounded stupid until Gollum arrived.
    “And then, I mean, we're like a couple years away from Gollum at this point.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:26:54 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  6. craft (craft): Avatar → Jurassic Park. Both Avatar and Jurassic Park must front-load complicated sci-fi premises; Jurassic Park is the cited good example.
    “Jurassic Park has them watching a movie about how Jurassic Park works.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:40:03 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  7. craft (craft): Avatar → Jurassic Park. Jurassic Park is the usual example of exposition done right; Cameron just gets Avatar's exposition done bluntly.
    “Jurassic Park is always site as an example of like, they figured out the right way to do it.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:40:14 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  8. craft (craft): Avatar → Aliens. Making Aliens (a voiceless monster) is what let Cameron individualize the humans there and flip that in Avatar.
    “I wonder if he hadn't made aliens if he could have arrived at that.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:04:08 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

industry (8)

  1. industry (Chinese box office): Avatar → Ne Zha 2. This franchise is among the wordless spectacle brands that played in China and pushed out mid-budget movies (target is the China-box-office counterexample).
    “And what played in China was Marvel, Jurassic World, the Fast and the Furious, Avatar, et cetera, et cetera.”
    The Big Picture · ‘A Minecraft Movie’ Is the Most Important Movie of the Year So Far. And These Flicks Are the Best … · 0:38:28 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  2. industry (industry): Avatar → The Despicable Me / Minions films. The whole Minions franchise fits between Avatar and its sequel.
    “The entire Despicable Me Minions franchise exists in between Avatar and the Way of Water.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:45:20 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
  3. industry (industry): Avatar → Spider-Man. A month after Avatar, Sony announced the Raimi Spider-Man 4 would not happen and the series would be recast.
    “They announced that they are recasting Toby Maguire and resetting Spider-Man, not doing Sam Raimi Spider-Man 4 a month after Avatar comes out.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:45:57 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
  4. industry (industry): Avatar → Hollywood studios. Hollywood took the wrong lesson from Avatar: IP, speed, and slapped-on 3D.
    “everything should be IP, make these things as fast as possible, and just previs the action, 3D, slap it on at the end”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:46:58 · David Sims (0.70 sure it was them)
  5. industry (industry): Titanic → Avatar. Titanic held the box-office record until Avatar broke it twelve years later.
    “Titanic had the record domestically and worldwide at the box office until Avatar.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:17:04 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  6. industry (industry): The Dark Knight → Avatar. The Dark Knight was the first movie to come close to Titanic's domestic record.
    “Dark Knight came close, but it was, it had made $600 million domestic, and no other movie ever even got to 500 until the Dark Knight.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:17:25 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  7. industry (industry): The Hurt Locker → Avatar. Hurt Locker was the lowest-grossing Best Picture winner versus the highest-grossing film ever.
    “Hurt Locker, when it won, was the lowest grossing best picture winner ever.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:35:45 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  8. industry (industry): Avatar → Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Two billion-dollar-plus first films both getting sequels a month apart, both as possible Best Picture contenders.
    “You have 2 cultural phenomenon, $1000000000 1st movies”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:37:16 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

lineage (7)

  1. lineage (lineage): Avatar → Edgar Rice Burroughs. Cameron's Avatar treatment drew on childhood sci-fi reading, Burroughs and Haggard.
    “drawing inspiration from, quote, every single science fiction book that he had read in his childhood, and also Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. Rider Haggard.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:26:06 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  2. lineage (lineage): Avatar → John Carter of Mars. Avatar reads like a John Carter of Mars style story.
    “Yeah, it's very like John Carter of Mars or whatever.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:26:24 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  3. lineage (lineage): Avatar → The Wizard of Oz. Avatar is described as a deep Wizard of Oz homage.
    “In case you were wondering, this is a deep wizard of a homage, among other things.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:42:25 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  4. lineage (lineage): Avatar → Aliens. Cameron's 1995 pitch for Avatar was much closer to Aliens in tone.
    “It was much closer to aliens in tone.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:52:25 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  5. lineage (lineage): Avatar → The Wizard of Oz. Avatar is an original story but inspired by Oz and John Ford movies.
    “It's just like hugely inspired by not just the Wizard of Oz, but like lots of John Ford movies”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:53:51 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  6. lineage (lineage): Avatar → John Ford. Same line: Avatar draws on John Ford films and the history of movies.
    “lots of John Ford movies and you can see like the history of movies”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:53:51 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  7. lineage (lineage): RoboCop → Avatar. The robot-waking sequence is beat for beat the first act of Avatar, down to testing the new body's powers.
    “It is crazy actually how much this sequence is like beat for beat, the Avatar, right?”
    Blank Check — Patreon · RoboCop (2014) · 0:38:34 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)

people (2)

  1. people (people): Avatar → Michelle Rodriguez. Rewatching, the whole Avatar cast is good, including Rodriguez and Joel David Moore.
    “When you rewatch it, you are like, everyone in this is good.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:14:29 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  2. people (people): Wes Studi → Avatar. Studi plays Neytiri's father and often serves as cultural consultant, but Saldana still feels the most precise.
    “West Duty often is brought onto these films not just to act, but to help be the sort of cultural consultant.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:12:31 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

theme (3)

  1. theme (theme): Avatar → Dances with Wolves. Avatar belongs to the interloper-story family but is not like Dances with Wolves or The Last Samurai.
    “something like Dances with Wolves, Last Samurai, whichever one of these movies you want to throw out there. Interloper movies.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:55:09 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  2. theme (theme): Avatar → Galaxy Quest. The human-looking avatars are compared to Galaxy Quest's aliens who look like convention fans.
    “There is a version of this story”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:07:47 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  3. theme (theme): Avatar → Buddy-cop films. Neytiri, not Jake, kills Quaritch, unlike films where the white lead gets the kill.
    “This is a movie where Natiri is the one who ends up pumps him full of arrows.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:13:28 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

unmapped (2)

  1. unmapped (film history): Babylon → Avatar. The closing montage names Avatar, The Matrix and Terminator 2 as stages in the evolution of how movies are made.
    “Like all of those movies that we saw all in their own way represent stages in the evolution of the way that movies are made.”
    The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:57:02 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
  2. unmapped (blue people / underwater): Black Panther: Wakanda Forever → Avatar. Amanda could not stop thinking of Avatar because it is another Disney underwater saga with blue people.
    “I mean, it's an underwater saga from the Disney corporation.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Is Here! · 0:47:22 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)

verdict (5)

  1. verdict (verdict): Avatar → M. Night Shyamalan. Avatar is both achingly sincere and goofy, so some viewers tap out in the first ten minutes.
    “And Avatar is both so achingly sincere and so goofy”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:24:43 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  2. verdict (verdict): Avatar → Top Gun: Maverick. Avatar works like Top Gun: Maverick: cliched lines but an emotional rush that works in a crowd.
    “a movie I feel similarly about is Top Gun Maverick, which I also saw 3 times in theaters.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:56:57 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  3. verdict (verdict): Avatar → Dune. Avatar is compared to Dune as a movie that rewards giving yourself over to it.
    “Can I compare it to another more recent movie that I was reminded of when I watched yesterday was Dune.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:00:14 · unknown (0.50 sure it was them)
  4. verdict (verdict): Avatar → Lawrence of Arabia. Avatar is not as good as Lawrence of Arabia but is a similar must-see event.
    “Avatar is not as good as Lawrence of Arabia, but it is like Lawrence of Arabia.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:34:45 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  5. verdict (verdict): Avatar → Titanic. Titanic made Cameron so successful that Hollywood let him do anything.
    “needed to have this extraordinary amount of success over these decades to conceive an execute of something so crazy as Avatar.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:45:16 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

what-if (2)

  1. what-if (what-if): Avatar → Matt Damon. Damon was offered the lead role of Jake Sully, which Sam Worthington ended up playing.
    “Matt Damon famously was offered the role of Jake Sully, which Sam Worthington eventually portrayed.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:15:23 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  2. what-if (what-if): Avatar → Jake Gyllenhaal. Other movie-star options for Jake Sully were considered after Damon said no.
    “is it a Gyllenhaal, do you get someone who's at that level, there were a couple people in the mix”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:20:27 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Fun items about it

  1. fun, about Avatar: Van says he goes into Avatar and falls into wonderment, saying 'ooh' at the Na'vi and unobtanium, before getting into the mech-suit fight with Jake Sully.
    “So I go into Avatar and I just fall into wonderment.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Is Here! · 0:48:43 · Van Lathan (0.85 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about Avatar: Re-release in China helped it pass Endgame again.
    “that gave it like another $150000000 worldwide that bumped it above endgame again.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:09:24 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about Avatar: On a jury in 2010, everybody said seeing Avatar felt like being there.
    “It was like I was there.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:13:42 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about Avatar: The extended cut includes 20 minutes of dystopian Earth with a drunk Jake, which Cameron once tried cutting from the opening.
    “It's the worst footage in the movie”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:34:37 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  5. fun, about Avatar: Cameron asked editors for a cut that opens on Jake waking up in the pod.
    “And apparently at some point went to his editors and went, just give me a cut where it opens on him waking up in the pot.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:34:46 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  6. fun, about Avatar: On unobtanium: you can't obtain it.
    “Because you can't obtain it.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:36:19 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  7. fun, about Avatar: Griffin and David saw the Cirque du Soleil Avatar show and got upgraded to courtside.
    “We bought nosebleed tickets and we showed up and they went, do you want courtside tickets instead?”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:47:39 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  8. fun, about Avatar: How To with John Wilson featured Avatar superfans.
    “There is an extraordinary episode of How to with John Wilson.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:48:37 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  9. fun, about Avatar: An Avatar MMO launched and already shut down.
    “I found out they launched an MMO in the last 2 years that has already shut down.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:48:59 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  10. fun, about Avatar: Cameron's 1995 pitch was R-rated and edgier before he broadened it for every country and age.
    “It was R-rated.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 0:52:28 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  11. fun, about Avatar: At 4DX, the seats rumbled.
    “Yeah, our seats were rumbling.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:03:07 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  12. fun, about Avatar: Rewatchers can't answer where Jake's human body goes or when he sleeps; the morning timeline makes no sense.
    “You know, the day starts early and I'm like, it's probably like 11 AM.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:06:08 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  13. fun, about Avatar: A speaker's franchise-averse 24-year-old sister, who skips every saga, lit up at the Way of Water trailer and wants to rewatch the first one.
    “And then she went, God, I got to rewatch the 1st Avatar.”
    The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate with Blank Check’s Griffin Newman and David Sims · 1:32:32 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Who the speakers said made it

As said on the shows, not checked against the real credits.