I have not seen Avatar (the James Cameron movie, not Avatar: The Last Airbender, which I have seen and which is awesome), not because of any intentional aversion but because it just doesn't interest me. "Dances With Wolves with Smurfs," as the jokes go. And for the longest time I don't feel I've missed out on anything, which, as occurred to me last night, is probably because there doesn't seem to be major pop culture influence from the movie.
Am I wrong about that? Am I wrong that even though Avatar is the largest-grossing movie (due mostly, I suspect, to the inflated 3D prices) there hasn't been a single catchphrase or image that has become ingrained in the larger pop culture?
Here's a brief comparison:
Jaws was the first movie to hit $100 million. There's the famous musical cue and "you're going to need a bigger boat" (sometimes misquoted as "we're going to need a bigger boat").
Star Wars... fuck it, I don't even know where to begin with that. Has there been any other movie with as many quotes and images and characters that have been endlessly referenced/ripped off as Star Wars?
E.T. had "ET phone home" and the shot of ET and Elliot in the bike in front of the moon. And I guess "Ouch" and "I'll be right here" count as well.
Jurassic Park had the shot of the water in the glass rippling as the T-Rex approached, and I think it's fair to say the entire fascination with raptors comes from the film. Not often an entire species moves up to the A-list because of one film.
Titanic had the fucking Celine Dion song (I didn't say all pop culture influence was good), "I'm the king of the world," and the shot of DiCaprio and Winslet at the bow of the ship. (The bow's the front, right?)
And Avatar had... what? In all honesty, I don't know of anything. Maybe it's because I haven't seen the film, but I doubt that if I watched it I would suddenly understand some one-liner or image I've seen here or there since the movie came out and had no frame of reference for.
Which makes me even less interested in seeing Avatar. I mean, right now I'm watching the Nicholas Cage remake of The Wicker Man (the original was fantastic, by the way) because even in all it's Narmish ridiculousness it's had some impact on culture. People talked about it. People quoted it.
Did anybody quote Avatar?
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
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