All Blogs by Tim Rathbone

I think that I regret not using Danny's site more and it has certainly been a long time since I have even visited it... sorry Dan!

So... to set things straight I have left a review in the films section and decided to share with you all an experience I had recently.

I am amongst a great many people who enjoy sci-fi and sci-fi films in particular, I am not ashamed to admit this and I think it is a genre that is extremely versatile, with potential to excite, educate and give pause for thought. With this in mind and the fact that it tackles some themes and ideas I have had for stories of my own I am very much looking forward to James Cameron's Avatar. Despite my best efforts to resist, when I discovered that there was a trailer online for Avatar I sought it out and proceeded to watch it five times in a row I was that enamoured with it. This is not usual behaviour for me but due to the significance this film is purported to have in cinema history and the parallels it has with my own [art]work I couldn't help but be blown away.

As a follow on from this I wanted to find out if anywhere on the web would tell me what certificate the film was going to be awarded as this would allow me to gauge how adult it was going to be. I.e. I wanted to find out if it was going to have all the violence, blood, sex and realism it could potentially have or if it was going to be hollowed out by the desire to reach as many eyes as possible and be given an infuriating 12a.

My searching meant that I ended up on a type of website I would never usually entertain but end up there I did and came across a thread with an unsual title "Hitler is not a fan of Cameron's Avatar". My reaction to this was "What...?" and so I dutifully investigated to satisfy my curiosity. I really shouldn't have been so curious as what I read/found made me furious.

The article posted by someone who's web moniker is Nix was this:

"Is there anyone who WASN’T disappointed by the first trailer for Cameron’s “Avatar”? After all the hype, all the Comic Con reports, all the media falling to their knees after seeing the footage months earlier… Man, I expected more.


The trailer’s here in case you’re one of the 20 people in the world who still hasn’t seen it.

I have to admit, maybe it was my fault for expecting too much, but it’s not like the filmmakers, studio, and everyone involved in the damn thing didn’t go out of the way to promise me the moon, right? Instead, what we got was a less-than-pioneering-looking movie filled with obviously CG characters and surroundings.

Good to know I wasn’t the only one disappointed. Here’s Hitler’s take on the matter:"

Below he had posted a You Tube video of an excert from a film about Hitler called Downfall where the subtitles had been replaced by another web geek/idiot. (if you wanna see why this also enraged me follow this URL: http://www.scificool.com/hitler-is-not-a-fan-of-camerons-avatar).

I was so angry that despite myself I was moved to such an extent that I posted a reply/rant and this is what I wrote:

"For crying out loud, what more do you want? You saw an online trailer at monitor resolution without the aid of 3D technology, of course its not genna blow your socks off the same way it would in a 3D-equipped cinema screen. Whats more the characters are obviously going to stand out as being CG because nothing like that exists in reality and especially when they have bright blue skin. As for the surroundings, I didn't see CG I saw a rainforest. When I watched the trailer I allowed for the above short-comings and was able to see the potential implicit. Yes you were expecting too much... Hollywood ALWAYS hypes things up and at the end of the day it is only a movie, not a miracle. I didn't think the Hitler thing was funny, I thought it was pathetic, the person who did that has way too much time on his hands and is taking things far too seriously. A better use of their time would have been to watch the movie they were ripping off, (Downfall - damn good film). So Nix, I can't believe how gob-smackingly naive both you and this person are. I have to say I am not someone who ordinarily spends time on sites like this or ranting about sci-fi geekery. I have read in movie mags about sci-fi nerds going bananas over the most unimportant things about big sci-fi and fantasy releases and always shaken my head with despair. And I was right to do so! I wish I had never inadvertantly ended up on this site as I have seen this foolishness first hand and been moved to do my own ranting. I feel bad about my own hypocracy but I felt a need to set this record straight. Don't get me wrong, you're probably a nice guy in real life, but jeez, wake up and smell the roses!"

I knew that posting this would not make the blindest bit of difference and if Nix ever read what I put he probably thought I was an arrogant bastard with no clue what I was talking about. In fact, thinking that sites like that must be moderated by similar people I thought that they would not even bother to put my words up on display and ban me just to reinforce their insular and delusional world. To my surprise I was notified that, yes, my comments HAD been posted. I have to say, it was cathartic to do and despite not having won any victories I felt cleansed.

So there you go... blog posted... and I hope you will join me in feeling that the geek tendancy to obssess needs to be quelled and that the need for perspective and a grip on reality needs to be addressed. I have a vivid imagination and a wealth of ideas about alternative fantasy worlds of my own devising, as Danny will concur, but I am fully aware that they are just that... fantasies, NOT reality... why can't people like Nix and his mate who sabotaged Downfall realise this?... Damn it!

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