Who is still here from the beginning?

[TxonTirea]

Still ticking.

 

[V-eran]

Same. Had to re-register since my original time on the forum back in the day, but have consistently lurked and now back on again. ✊

 

[iron_jones]

The fact that this forum still exists and has regular posters says a lot both about the film and about us! We're the best.

 

[Wanderling]

Forgive me for bumping an old thread, but I'm here from way back when, too. A lot of life has happened in the interim, and I've always been (more than) a bit of a lurker, but the forum has sent me a birthday greeting every year and I've never forgotten this place. It's so cool to see familiar names!

 

[Ja'k Dawsiin]

i am still here

RIP Avatar-Forums

 

[ahoragi]

Idling but still here. About to go see Fire and Ash in two hours!

 

[auroraglacialis]

Hey I am also back - I would not say "still here" because basically I dropped off for 10 years. For some reason the second movie did not drag me in like the first one at all. I watched it, liked it, watched it again in the home cinema later on and then moved on. Now the third did pull me back in so I came back here and thankfully my old account could be restored. I was lucky with the third movie - first saw the original version in a local cinema and I felt a bit like it would be almost the same as in 2022, so I loved the movie but not as much as in 2009. I then decided spontaneously to see if I can find an IMAX for a rewatch because I thought the screen size and suboptimal 3d in the local cinema may have ruined some of it and this was lucky. I accidentially managed to get one of the best seats in the very first showing in the opening session of the new and only IMAX in the state because it was a single seat and apparently no one else wanted to go there alone. And I must say - seeing this in IMAX 3D really was worth it and this really dragged me in again. I even got what back then was called "PADS" again. I remembered a few things from back then. I even found again that old painting I did before the first movie that amped up me feelings for the world so much. I do not use AI much but was curious to see how that one would look as a cinematic image and even I know AI is not really great, it still did amaze me what it did there. So now I am back to rewatching the movie and spending an hour each day reading and thinking about that world. Also pondering what happened in the meantime. I got my PhD in an environmental science related topic, work in research and reaching now an age that lets me even more identify with Grace in the first movie, sadly including the frustration she has after seeing for decades how things go in the other way despite what the research says. At least I am not at the point that marine biologist Ian is in the second movie, drinking...

 

[Crystal_619]

I was here in the beginning of the old Avatar forums. I honestly hadn't even thought about this group much until I watched Avatar 3 a few days ago and got an email from this group this morning. I loved the first movie and was a die hard fan waiting for the 2nd. However, when it came out it really didn't do much for me. I actually lost some interest in it. The 180 of Jake Sully's character was a turn off for me. I understand that having children changes you and you tend to take less risks, but just flat out running away and hiding and bringing the danger of who you are to another village did not seem very responsible.
After watching 3, I did enjoy it. I am definitely rooting for Kiri and Spider and would like to see how their relationship progresses. I even liked the Quaritch Avatar in this one and curious to see what happens with his character.

 

[Sopyu ftu äo]

I was here in the beginning of the old Avatar forums. I honestly hadn't even thought about this group much until I watched Avatar 3 a few days ago and got an email from this group this morning. I loved the first movie and was a die hard fan waiting for the 2nd. However, when it came out it really didn't do much for me. I actually lost some interest in it. The 180 of Jake Sully's character was a turn off for me. I understand that having children changes you and you tend to take less risks, but just flat out running away and hiding and bringing the danger of who you are to another village did not seem very responsible.
After watching 3, I did enjoy it. I am definitely rooting for Kiri and Spider and would like to see how their relationship progresses. I even liked the Quaritch Avatar in this one and curious to see what happens with his character.

I found TWOW hard to love at first as well, and I've heard a lot of deep fans of Avatar 09 say similar things, while feeling much more positive about Fire and Ash, seeing it more as the "true sequel" to the original movie. I'd include myself in that camp - though since TWOW come out, I have warmed toward it, and feel it definitely benefits from repeated watches after a bit of a break. I rewatched it just before going to see Fire and Ash, and picked up on quite a few subtle details and story shading that I'd overlooked when I saw it on the big screen.

I feel running to the Metkayina was honestly a bit of a lazy way to try and introduce a new biome, and I still think it was a poor way to do it - though it has been utilised very well in fire and Ash as a point of tension between Neytiri and Jake - and I do so feel for her in Fire and Ash... so damn much.

 

[auroraglacialis]

I was here in the beginning of the old Avatar forums. I honestly hadn't even thought about this group much until I watched Avatar 3 a few days ago and got an email from this group this morning. I loved the first movie and was a die hard fan waiting for the 2nd. However, when it came out it really didn't do much for me. I actually lost some interest in it. The 180 of Jake Sully's character was a turn off for me. I understand that having children changes you and you tend to take less risks, but just flat out running away and hiding and bringing the danger of who you are to another village did not seem very responsible.
After watching 3, I did enjoy it. I am definitely rooting for Kiri and Spider and would like to see how their relationship progresses. I even liked the Quaritch Avatar in this one and curious to see what happens with his character.

Yeah I was hoping for more clans and different biomes for the second movie and getting more insight in their ways of life. We got some of that and this I liked a lot with the water scenes, diving, tulkun,... I just wished we had seen more of their life. We can kind of guess they fish for food and they weave their homes but we did not see as much about their life and balance as with the Omatikaya. But I guess since Jake already learned that in the first and the kids learned that growing up, there is no character to lead that exploration. The way it was started with Jake getting away was weird. Not only did it feel odd that Jake moving out from the Omatikaya would prevent the RDA from going there, he was after all not the only one doing the raids and attacks, but also it felt like he lost the will to stand up against the RDA just because they brought back Quartich. But it was a story plot to go to the reef, just a very obvious one. I thought it was a bit much focussed on the familiy of Jake - also in the third movie. Especially as I imagined the clans to be more like "it takes a town to raise a child" kind of situation where the borders around each familiy are not that big.
I hope for the next movies to get done before I retire, While I do not really like the character display of Spider as the goofball, I think his story is overall a good one especially in part 3 now where in my opinion he (and Kiri) is being set up to bring a lasting solution to the whole conflict in respect of a potential to restore Earth. I hope Quartich does not go to a full cheesy redemption arc though. He did not really budge a lot yet and in fact his ways mirror those of Jakes but not by grace and respect but by dominance and control. He did not get his Ikran in a ritual after showing he is worth it but just went there and took it. Among other parallel but actually mirrored experiences including getting his Avatar body. I would grant him a Darth Vader Moment though - like in the very end for the sake of his child giving up on the hate and doing one last good thing before going forever.