Did watching Avatar depress you or cause "suicidal" thoughts?

[dud]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/11/avatar.movie.blues/index.html


"Audiences experience 'Avatar' blues"

"James Cameron's completely immersive spectacle "Avatar" may have been a little too real for some fans who say they have experienced depression and suicidal thoughts after seeing the film because they long to enjoy the beauty of the alien world Pandora.

On the fan forum site "Avatar Forums," a topic thread entitled "Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible," has received more than 1,000 posts from people experiencing depression and fans trying to help them cope. The topic became so popular last month that forum administrator Philippe Baghdassarian had to create a second thread so people could continue to post their confused feelings about the movie."



I've never seen the movie but I wonder if the answer for these people is to "get a life"?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Wow, that is hilarious. Sure, it would be cool to have a forest like that, but we all know that even if we did, it would be destroyed and farmed like crazy anyway. Also the concept of the tree of the spirit or w/e it's called is bad. Its a single point of failure for the entire ecosystem.

I think what we have is good enough, Pandora is, a fictional planet and lets leave it at that.

Actually that tree could be reproduced easily enough. I'm pretty sure all it was is LED light tubes hanging off the branches. Add static and your hair will stick to it like in the movie. lol

 

[rockyct]

I wonder if that site contains a lot of theflyingpig style satire posts.

Anyway, I guess it's sad that people can experience symptoms of depression after watching the movie. However, people can get depressed watching a lot of other movies. Avatar is just really popular.

 

[trmiv]

Uh, no. I did have a pretty cool dream the night I watched it that I was on that planet though.

 

[TheVrolok]

I definitely walked out a little bummed, wishing I could run around in a sweet rainforest where the plants light up and shit while I walk around .. but that lasted all of 30-40 seconds. I mean, hell yeah, it'd be sweet to live in a lot of fictional places out there.. but people honestly depressed/suicidal? Damn.

 

[destrekor]

It's rather intriguing thinking of a planet where the entire surface is made up of one living being. Like, all the trees and whatnot are interconnected, so it's not hard to imagine that them "talking" to the glowing tree, is like us talking to another animal (except in this case, the conversation is understood). The trees are like natural arms and everything has one nervous system connecting to stuff.

It's rather wild to imagine, so it would be amazing to see something like that in real life.
I've been more depressed from movies though, other dream worlds have made me long for them far more than Avatar did. Well, never felt "depressed", just an exaggerated feeling of "why the fuck can't I experience that?!"

 

[calvinbiss]

These people must have never read a book or seen a movie. I mean come on... i remember reading the Hobbit and wishing I could go there as a child (and there are plenty of other examples) but that is kind of the point of books/movies. To escape the real world and have dreams like these. What is wrong with society?!

 

[Riverhound777]

My friend probably had thoughts like that. She saw the movie 3 times and cried through the last half. And she was really distraught that no one else she saw the movie with felt the same way about it that she did. But she's a bit out there to begin with.

 

[destrekor]

I definitely walked out a little bummed, wishing I could run around in a sweet rainforest where the plants light up and shit while I walk around .. but that lasted all of 30-40 seconds. I mean, hell yeah, it'd be sweet to live in a lot of fictional places out there.. but people honestly depressed/suicidal? Damn.

and hell, damn movie made me hate humans and corporations more than it made me want to visit the planet. And then I was like... why do I hate America? I don't want to, I want to love America. :biggrin:

 

[mesthead21]

Mike posted. "I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora and the everything is the same as in 'Avatar.' "

Wow people are really messed up in the head

 

[TheVrolok]

Wow people are really messed up in the head

Maybe it would be better if some of these people just.. vanished from the gene pool.

 

[Delita]

and hell, damn movie made me hate humans and corporations more than it made me want to visit the planet. And then I was like... why do I hate America? I don't want to, I want to love America. :biggrin:

I don't think the movie makes any reference to the country that the humans are from. IIRC the movie takes place in 2157 or something.

 

[Fritzo]

Who wrote that article...the marketers of the movie?

 

[destrekor]

I don't think the movie makes any reference to the country that the humans are from. IIRC the movie takes place in 2157 or something.

I know it doesn't.
But being that it represents corporations, and thus capitalism, it can be said to have an anti-capitalism viewpoint. And thus, anti-America.

That was the basis for a few brief jokes after me and my friends saw the movie.

 

[ivan2]

they can move to africa

 

[mav451]

LMAO, this is hilarious.

 

[DesiPower]

Why would someone be depressed by watching beauty just coz you cant have it... i mean like its wanting to get castrated after watching p0rn...

 

[skace]

These people should discover video games.

 

[CRXican]

losers

 

[SirStev0]

Who wrote that article...the marketers of the movie?

this.

 

[mav451]

These people should discover video games.

Haha if they can't handle a movie, god knows what'll happen once they reach the ending to a game.

 

[SandEagle]

I definitely walked out a little bummed, wishing I could run around in a sweet rainforest where the plants light up and shit while I walk around .. but that lasted all of 30-40 seconds. I mean, hell yeah, it'd be sweet to live in a lot of fictional places out there.. but people honestly depressed/suicidal? Damn.

i felt like this when i played FFX. that crystal forest was amazing.

 

[Fox5]

Lol, Avatar was so just Ferngully all over again.

And I can't believe the justification for the strip mining the planet and killing its inhabitants was "unobtanium", which presumably was some kind of soul rock. Humans are there for a mcguffin, and then one deus ex machina after another leads to the exciting finale.

 

[Rockinacoustic]

No, Avatar made me want to ride around on my pterodactyl with an AK.

 

[SlitheryDee]

I was mildly sad that the ride was over. Great effects + 3D really allows you to suspend your disbelief and sort of put yourself in the world being depicted. It must have been a pretty engrossing experience since I felt a little surprised to have to get up and rejoin the real world at the end.