miller you make a good point, however, this movie rocks.
Written By Drac on 2005-03-05 / 06:01:32
Wow this is a wonderful movie. I love the idea of losing yourself in another world which you can create yourself. It sounds scary, but when compared to the dreary, everyday life of work and study, the world of Avalon does sound good. When I watched the movie, I wondered why I was watching it in the first place. Is not TV another way to find yourself in a different reality? Or even computer games? Or what about books, such as those by Tolkein, Le Guin or Arthur C. Clark? Are they not also a way to find yourself in a different place, one which is happier, more stimulating and more interesting than the dreary world could ever be? In a way, we all are like Ash.
Written By chinchilla on 2004-12-15 / 00:21:49
estaba buena la pelicula recien la vi, yes for yu
Written By Growl on 2004-11-25 / 06:43:56
It´s all a matter of perception
Written By Growl on 2004-11-25 / 06:42:17
Avalon was right up there with some of the greatest mind trip mystery movies of all time. Though I may not be right, I saw it as Avalon being the part of the game which never ended. The Arthurian myth of immortality.. The bishop was the means, the guide for those who wished to seek that immortality.
Murphy told her not to follow, to stay in her world, because it´s where she belonged. He wanted her to live in a world where she could end the game at any time, because in Avalon, the game never would; the game would become reality.
The nine sisters were the programmers for Avalon who gave Ash the chance to come with them, and live within the game, in their new reality, for all eternity. It was, by all means, still a game, the rules hightened, the goals differed.. but as Murphy said, "Why can´t this really be MY reality."
Written By mr.pink on 2004-11-15 / 01:23:47
this movie is a great example of how intrincate yet subtile one can make a movie. the goal that the anime director -legend of making a real life anime was acomplished. The filmic value relies on it´s seemingly slow pase , with a lot of dead end shots , that somehow manage to describe more than one would think. i´m not talking about symbolisms , i´m talking about giving the audience the feeling of the era , of that time and space ( if there is one).
the managing of the sofistic idea developed by great thinkers like Calicles , protogoras and locke is a succes.
but people , if you are expecting somethink bold and easy to watch to , like matrix or vanilla sky , yoou are going to be disappointed.
in the japanese film making tradition , the constant attention of the audience is required to appreciate a film, and this one is no diferent.
a great movie, classy , honest and deep.
Written By Anonymous on 2004-11-03 / 17:08:20
Written By gordo on 2004-10-16 / 08:38:38
But IS the world "sepia-toned still scenes emphasising how dreary the world and city is"? When the Bishop opens the library book, the pages are blank. And when she takes off the helmet the second time, the coloting is different. And the dog doesn´t just disappear, you can hear it, and it now becomes part of the poster advertizing the game.
There is a mystery here--where is the "real world" or is there a real world at all? Maybe EVERY scene is just a different level of the game. The combat missions being just the way to keep score and gain points within the role playing game which simulates the "real world".
Of course it´s slow paced, it´s a mystery. It is necessary to include the clues. If you wanted action/adventure go watch something with Stalone or Shwartzenegger or some other illiterate action hero.
I find this movie fascinating and even gripping.
Written By Mr Miller on 2004-06-18 / 07:23:52
I got my hands on this DVD after catching the first five minutes of the movie being projected on a warehouse wall with a backdrop of thumping industrial techno. The opening scenes were rather impressive - an illegal, potentially lethal video game in which people get online, strap on military hardware and set about killing each other. Although I´m not a fan of online gaming (I´m crap at first person shooters), I thought it looked and sounded like a cool premise. So I went home and found a copy.
The first five minutes, again, were fantastic. A moderately fast-paced battle scene with awesome tech and lots of things blowing up. Fun. But then ´reality´ struck.
I´ve long been annoyed by the sort of pseudo-symbolism that Japanese movie makers seem to like drowning their creations in. Usually it´s pretentious and annoying, but it does serve to cover up the incredibly shallow plots of most Japanese animes and movies. For instance, want to have giant robots that exist for no real reason fighting monsters that continuously show up for no real reason in a post-apocalyptic world that has no reason to exist? Add a faux-Biblical subtext and you have Evangelion (which I thought was otherwise very cool).
Avalon is different. Instead of taking a shallow, unworkable pretext and slaps in a half carried-through set of (cool and ominous sounding) mythical symbolisms from another culture to add some depth, Avalon takes a monumentally workable and interesting idea and adds a crappy mythological overtone to completely deprive the movie of depth.
So many things could have been covered - why the world was so miserable, why the game killed some people and under what conditions, how laws banning the game were supposedly enforced, how the clans interacted in the game, and even how the unbelievably cool idea of preserving Dungeons and Dragons style character classes in a modern warfare game would work. These are all completely ignored in favour 90-something minutes of sepia-toned still scenes emphasising how dreary the world and city is, and cryptic but ultimately pointless references to some aspects of Arthurian legend.
The protagonists are wooden, stereotypical and unlikeable. Character development is nil. The battle scenes are few and far between, and the first one is the only good one. For the most part, even the most powerful machines lack weight and aren´t particularly threatening, and even if they were, it is hard to bring yourself to care about what happens to any of the characters anyway. To top it off, the soundtrack (or lack thereof) is minimalist to the point of non-existence.
The movie ends, leaving a bad taste in your mouth. That bad taste is the taste of having had an hour and a half of your life taken away from you by a horribly pretentious Japanese gentleman. My girlfriend was put to sleep by the slow pace and dreary setting of this movie, and even after I returned the DVD to the store the next day she didn´t trust me to chose another movie for weeks.
Avalon is truly awful. While some people seem to like it for some sort of artistic value, I found it to be pretentious and ultimately devoid of value. It takes some great ideas and ignores them entirely. Any movie which wanted to subsequently explore those ideas which Avalon discarded would be decried as a rip off and probably sued. That´s probably the worst thing about Avalon. Do not watch it.
Written By Mr Miller on 2004-06-18 / 07:22:12
I got my hands on this DVD after catching the first five minutes of the movie being projected on a warehouse wall with a backdrop of thumping industrial techno. The opening scenes were rather impressive - an illegal, potentially lethal video game in which people get online, strap on military hardware and set about killing each other. Although I´m not a fan of online gaming (I´m crap at first person shooters), I thought it looked and sounded like a cool premise. So I went home and found a copy.
The first five minutes, again, were fantastic. A moderately fast-paced battle scene with awesome tech and lots of things blowing up. Fun. But then ´reality´ struck.
I´ve long been annoyed by the sort of pseudo-symbolism that Japanese movie makers seem to like drowning their creations in. Usually it´s pretentious and annoying, but it does serve to cover up the incredibly shallow plots of most Japanese animes and movies. For instance, want to have giant robots that exist for no real reason fighting monsters that continuously show up for no real reason in a post-apocalyptic world that has no reason to exist? Add a faux-Biblical subtext and you have Evangelion (which I thought was otherwise very cool).
Avalon is different. Instead of taking a shallow, unworkable pretext and slaps in a half carried-through set of (cool and ominous sounding) mythical symbolisms from another culture to add some depth, Avalon takes a monumentally workable and interesting idea and adds a crappy mythological overtone to completely deprive the movie of depth.
So many things could have been covered - why the world was so miserable, why the game killed some people and under what conditions, how laws banning the game were supposedly enforced, how the clans interacted in the game, and even how the unbelievably cool idea of preserving Dungeons and Dragons style character classes in a modern warfare game would work. These are all completely ignored in favour 90-something minutes of sepia-toned still scenes emphasising how dreary the world and city is, and cryptic but ultimately pointless references to some aspects of Arthurian legend.
The protagonists are wooden, stereotypical and unlikeable. Character development is nil. The battle scenes are few and far between, and the first one is the only good one. For the most part, even the most powerful machines lack weight and aren´t particularly threatening, and even if they were, it is hard to bring yourself to care about what happens to any of the characters anyway. To top it off, the soundtrack (or lack thereof) is minimalist to the point of non-existence.
The movie ends, leaving a bad taste in your mouth. That bad taste is the taste of having had an hour and a half of your life taken away from you by a horribly pretentious Japanese gentleman. My girlfriend was put to sleep by the slow pace and dreary setting of this movie, and even after I returned the DVD to the store the next day she didn´t trust me to chose another movie for weeks.
Avalon is truly awful. While some people seem to like it for some sort of artistic value, I found it to be pretentious and ultimately devoid of value. It takes some great ideas and ignores them entirely. Any movie which wanted to subsequently explore those ideas which Avalon discarded would be decried as a rip off and probably sued. That´s probably the worst thing about Avalon. Do not watch it.
Written By leibniz on 2004-06-07 / 03:14:39
The movie made me realize as the gaming industry is growing immensely, and the games becoming impressive, that we are losing ourselves to that world, and losing focus of the world around us and the creativity of the arts.
Written By action junky on 2004-06-04 / 00:34:28
"If you are an action junky that is into the Matrix"
i am offended by that coment i am a acction junky and i think the matrix sucks espectly whith its boring kung foo fights thay could have sprung for a little wire foo or gunfights but no thay had to use lame kung foo fistfights punch, blook, punch, blook, punch, blook, punch, blook, if you want acction see equlibrem and if you want an meataphisacal mind trip sea avalon "Avalon has accomplished in 1 film what Matrix failed in 3" that is to true
Written By Mr. P on 2004-05-31 / 08:00:10
Anonymous SUCKS! Don´t waste our time with your empty thoughts.
Avalon has accomplished in 1 film what Matrix failed in 3.
Written By gee on 2004-05-29 / 10:54:46
a wonderfull movie with few special effects. It is a kind of a film noir. Enjoyed it very much.
Relaxing
Written By blueant 12 on 2004-05-24 / 07:22:49
Probably the first movie that gave me the same rush as a William Gibson novel. I wouldn´t bother comparing it to the Matrix which I felt relied too much on special effects. Avalon would have worked even without the impressive effects. Obviously, some will be turned off by it´s creepiness. But they wouldn´t like"Eraserhead" either. Highest rating
Written By Anonymous on 2004-05-12 / 15:05:22
This movie sucks. Dont waste your time on it.
Written By Elbow Grease on 2004-04-08 / 03:13:43
This movie offer a lot, I personally dislike the obvious comparison to the matrix. only the basic "computer simulation" is the same, this movie is much different. Matrix is one of my favorite movies, but Avalon is just as great. Avalon is paced much slower than american films, and some might get bored. Also to note is its minimalistic attitude towards dialouge and action, the first 10 minutes have one line in it. The movie certainly does not answer all the questions it brings up. What is the meaning of angel statues with and without their heads? The color world can´t be the real world because murphy dissappears when he dies, but that world is much more lifelike than the real world, notice the comparisons of train/subway rides. Its almost like the matrix but backwards.... Ash should remain in Class Real because it is more real than real life.
Written By kemosabe on 2004-03-02 / 16:51:30
S´wonderful.
Written By Silver on 2004-01-25 / 08:03:43
They have not released it in the U.S. !!! DAMN YOU MIRAMAX!!!!!
They were afraid that this movie would weaken The Matrix or wouldn´t be able to compete...
"Avalon" is a masterpiece.
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Japan
Written By oli on 2006-03-13 / 14:01:50
matrix says hi - puberty likes it ....
Written By Crush3r on 2005-04-17 / 21:32:43
miller you make a good point, however, this movie rocks.
Written By Drac on 2005-03-05 / 06:01:32
Wow this is a wonderful movie. I love the idea of losing yourself in another world which you can create yourself. It sounds scary, but when compared to the dreary, everyday life of work and study, the world of Avalon does sound good. When I watched the movie, I wondered why I was watching it in the first place. Is not TV another way to find yourself in a different reality? Or even computer games? Or what about books, such as those by Tolkein, Le Guin or Arthur C. Clark? Are they not also a way to find yourself in a different place, one which is happier, more stimulating and more interesting than the dreary world could ever be? In a way, we all are like Ash.
Written By chinchilla on 2004-12-15 / 00:21:49
estaba buena la pelicula recien la vi, yes for yu
Written By Growl on 2004-11-25 / 06:43:56
It´s all a matter of perception
Written By Growl on 2004-11-25 / 06:42:17
Avalon was right up there with some of the greatest mind trip mystery movies of all time. Though I may not be right, I saw it as Avalon being the part of the game which never ended. The Arthurian myth of immortality.. The bishop was the means, the guide for those who wished to seek that immortality.
Murphy told her not to follow, to stay in her world, because it´s where she belonged. He wanted her to live in a world where she could end the game at any time, because in Avalon, the game never would; the game would become reality.
The nine sisters were the programmers for Avalon who gave Ash the chance to come with them, and live within the game, in their new reality, for all eternity. It was, by all means, still a game, the rules hightened, the goals differed.. but as Murphy said, "Why can´t this really be MY reality."
Written By mr.pink on 2004-11-15 / 01:23:47
this movie is a great example of how intrincate yet subtile one can make a movie. the goal that the anime director -legend of making a real life anime was acomplished. The filmic value relies on it´s seemingly slow pase , with a lot of dead end shots , that somehow manage to describe more than one would think. i´m not talking about symbolisms , i´m talking about giving the audience the feeling of the era , of that time and space ( if there is one).
the managing of the sofistic idea developed by great thinkers like Calicles , protogoras and locke is a succes.
but people , if you are expecting somethink bold and easy to watch to , like matrix or vanilla sky , yoou are going to be disappointed.
in the japanese film making tradition , the constant attention of the audience is required to appreciate a film, and this one is no diferent.
a great movie, classy , honest and deep.
Written By Anonymous on 2004-11-03 / 17:08:20
Written By gordo on 2004-10-16 / 08:38:38
But IS the world "sepia-toned still scenes emphasising how dreary the world and city is"? When the Bishop opens the library book, the pages are blank. And when she takes off the helmet the second time, the coloting is different. And the dog doesn´t just disappear, you can hear it, and it now becomes part of the poster advertizing the game.
There is a mystery here--where is the "real world" or is there a real world at all? Maybe EVERY scene is just a different level of the game. The combat missions being just the way to keep score and gain points within the role playing game which simulates the "real world".
Of course it´s slow paced, it´s a mystery. It is necessary to include the clues. If you wanted action/adventure go watch something with Stalone or Shwartzenegger or some other illiterate action hero.
I find this movie fascinating and even gripping.
Written By Mr Miller on 2004-06-18 / 07:23:52
I got my hands on this DVD after catching the first five minutes of the movie being projected on a warehouse wall with a backdrop of thumping industrial techno. The opening scenes were rather impressive - an illegal, potentially lethal video game in which people get online, strap on military hardware and set about killing each other. Although I´m not a fan of online gaming (I´m crap at first person shooters), I thought it looked and sounded like a cool premise. So I went home and found a copy.
The first five minutes, again, were fantastic. A moderately fast-paced battle scene with awesome tech and lots of things blowing up. Fun. But then ´reality´ struck.
I´ve long been annoyed by the sort of pseudo-symbolism that Japanese movie makers seem to like drowning their creations in. Usually it´s pretentious and annoying, but it does serve to cover up the incredibly shallow plots of most Japanese animes and movies. For instance, want to have giant robots that exist for no real reason fighting monsters that continuously show up for no real reason in a post-apocalyptic world that has no reason to exist? Add a faux-Biblical subtext and you have Evangelion (which I thought was otherwise very cool).
Avalon is different. Instead of taking a shallow, unworkable pretext and slaps in a half carried-through set of (cool and ominous sounding) mythical symbolisms from another culture to add some depth, Avalon takes a monumentally workable and interesting idea and adds a crappy mythological overtone to completely deprive the movie of depth.
So many things could have been covered - why the world was so miserable, why the game killed some people and under what conditions, how laws banning the game were supposedly enforced, how the clans interacted in the game, and even how the unbelievably cool idea of preserving Dungeons and Dragons style character classes in a modern warfare game would work. These are all completely ignored in favour 90-something minutes of sepia-toned still scenes emphasising how dreary the world and city is, and cryptic but ultimately pointless references to some aspects of Arthurian legend.
The protagonists are wooden, stereotypical and unlikeable. Character development is nil. The battle scenes are few and far between, and the first one is the only good one. For the most part, even the most powerful machines lack weight and aren´t particularly threatening, and even if they were, it is hard to bring yourself to care about what happens to any of the characters anyway. To top it off, the soundtrack (or lack thereof) is minimalist to the point of non-existence.
The movie ends, leaving a bad taste in your mouth. That bad taste is the taste of having had an hour and a half of your life taken away from you by a horribly pretentious Japanese gentleman. My girlfriend was put to sleep by the slow pace and dreary setting of this movie, and even after I returned the DVD to the store the next day she didn´t trust me to chose another movie for weeks.
Avalon is truly awful. While some people seem to like it for some sort of artistic value, I found it to be pretentious and ultimately devoid of value. It takes some great ideas and ignores them entirely. Any movie which wanted to subsequently explore those ideas which Avalon discarded would be decried as a rip off and probably sued. That´s probably the worst thing about Avalon. Do not watch it.
Written By Mr Miller on 2004-06-18 / 07:22:12
I got my hands on this DVD after catching the first five minutes of the movie being projected on a warehouse wall with a backdrop of thumping industrial techno. The opening scenes were rather impressive - an illegal, potentially lethal video game in which people get online, strap on military hardware and set about killing each other. Although I´m not a fan of online gaming (I´m crap at first person shooters), I thought it looked and sounded like a cool premise. So I went home and found a copy.
The first five minutes, again, were fantastic. A moderately fast-paced battle scene with awesome tech and lots of things blowing up. Fun. But then ´reality´ struck.
I´ve long been annoyed by the sort of pseudo-symbolism that Japanese movie makers seem to like drowning their creations in. Usually it´s pretentious and annoying, but it does serve to cover up the incredibly shallow plots of most Japanese animes and movies. For instance, want to have giant robots that exist for no real reason fighting monsters that continuously show up for no real reason in a post-apocalyptic world that has no reason to exist? Add a faux-Biblical subtext and you have Evangelion (which I thought was otherwise very cool).
Avalon is different. Instead of taking a shallow, unworkable pretext and slaps in a half carried-through set of (cool and ominous sounding) mythical symbolisms from another culture to add some depth, Avalon takes a monumentally workable and interesting idea and adds a crappy mythological overtone to completely deprive the movie of depth.
So many things could have been covered - why the world was so miserable, why the game killed some people and under what conditions, how laws banning the game were supposedly enforced, how the clans interacted in the game, and even how the unbelievably cool idea of preserving Dungeons and Dragons style character classes in a modern warfare game would work. These are all completely ignored in favour 90-something minutes of sepia-toned still scenes emphasising how dreary the world and city is, and cryptic but ultimately pointless references to some aspects of Arthurian legend.
The protagonists are wooden, stereotypical and unlikeable. Character development is nil. The battle scenes are few and far between, and the first one is the only good one. For the most part, even the most powerful machines lack weight and aren´t particularly threatening, and even if they were, it is hard to bring yourself to care about what happens to any of the characters anyway. To top it off, the soundtrack (or lack thereof) is minimalist to the point of non-existence.
The movie ends, leaving a bad taste in your mouth. That bad taste is the taste of having had an hour and a half of your life taken away from you by a horribly pretentious Japanese gentleman. My girlfriend was put to sleep by the slow pace and dreary setting of this movie, and even after I returned the DVD to the store the next day she didn´t trust me to chose another movie for weeks.
Avalon is truly awful. While some people seem to like it for some sort of artistic value, I found it to be pretentious and ultimately devoid of value. It takes some great ideas and ignores them entirely. Any movie which wanted to subsequently explore those ideas which Avalon discarded would be decried as a rip off and probably sued. That´s probably the worst thing about Avalon. Do not watch it.
Written By leibniz on 2004-06-07 / 03:14:39
The movie made me realize as the gaming industry is growing immensely, and the games becoming impressive, that we are losing ourselves to that world, and losing focus of the world around us and the creativity of the arts.
Written By action junky on 2004-06-04 / 00:34:28
"If you are an action junky that is into the Matrix"
if you want acction see equlibrem and if you want an meataphisacal mind trip sea avalon "Avalon has accomplished in 1 film what Matrix failed in 3" that is to true
i am offended by that coment i am a acction junky and i think the matrix sucks espectly whith its boring kung foo fights thay could have sprung for a little wire foo or gunfights but no thay had to use lame kung foo fistfights punch, blook, punch, blook, punch, blook, punch, blook,
Written By Mr. P on 2004-05-31 / 08:00:10
Anonymous SUCKS!
Don´t waste our time with your empty thoughts.
Avalon has accomplished in 1 film what Matrix failed in 3.
Written By gee on 2004-05-29 / 10:54:46
a wonderfull movie with few special effects. It is a kind of a film noir. Enjoyed it very much.
Relaxing
Written By blueant 12 on 2004-05-24 / 07:22:49
Probably the first movie that gave me the same rush as a William Gibson novel. I wouldn´t bother comparing it to the Matrix which I felt relied too much on special effects. Avalon would have worked even without the impressive effects. Obviously, some will be turned off by it´s creepiness. But they wouldn´t like"Eraserhead" either. Highest rating
Written By Anonymous on 2004-05-12 / 15:05:22
This movie sucks. Dont waste your time on it.
Written By Elbow Grease on 2004-04-08 / 03:13:43
This movie offer a lot, I personally dislike the obvious comparison to the matrix. only the basic "computer simulation" is the same, this movie is much different. Matrix is one of my favorite movies, but Avalon is just as great. Avalon is paced much slower than american films, and some might get bored. Also to note is its minimalistic attitude towards dialouge and action, the first 10 minutes have one line in it. The movie certainly does not answer all the questions it brings up. What is the meaning of angel statues with and without their heads? The color world can´t be the real world because murphy dissappears when he dies, but that world is much more lifelike than the real world, notice the comparisons of train/subway rides. Its almost like the matrix but backwards.... Ash should remain in Class Real because it is more real than real life.
Written By kemosabe on 2004-03-02 / 16:51:30
S´wonderful.
Written By Silver on 2004-01-25 / 08:03:43
They have not released it in the U.S. !!! DAMN YOU MIRAMAX!!!!!
They were afraid that this movie would weaken The Matrix or wouldn´t be able to compete...
"Avalon" is a masterpiece.
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