AVATAR
AVATAR
USA 10th December 200920th Century Fox „Avatar” is an American science – fiction movie, written and directed by James Cameron. The movie’s budget officially came to around 237 million dollars. The movie was shot from April 16 to December 1, 2007.
Director
James Cameron was born on August 16, 1954 in Kapuskasing, a small town in Canada. He is a recognized film director. After the gigantic success of the Titanic. Cameron started producing documentaries, mainly on the subject of underwater. He has produced nine such films. He claims that this experience prepared him for the production of the Avatar. The film was made 12 years after the premiere of Titanic, it is a fantastic scientific production shot in three-dimensional technique. Cameron was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Director category, and also won a Golden Globe in this category. James Cameron plans to shoot more parts of Avatar.
Script
An early version of the Avatar script was created in 1995, but it was then decided that its implementation was impossible. It wasn't until 2005 that Cameron found the right tools to implement the project. Opinions on "Avatar" are strongly divided. According to fans - it is a wonderful and timeless science-fiction fairy tale, to which we willingly and often come back. Less enthusiastic viewers accuse the film of an excessively archetypal script.
Main female roles
Neytiri was born Neytiri Dis'kahan Mo'at'itey, which means the daughter of Mo'at and Eytukana. She grew up listening to songs like every young Na'vi of her age. She learned English at Dr. Augustine's school. Unfortunately, after the deterioration of the relationship between Na'vi and humans, the school has closed and its English is not very fluent, and the Na'vi accent is clearly audible. While hunting in the forest, Neytiri noticed the avatar.
Mo'at
Mo'at - Omaticaya spirit guide - Tsahìk, wife of the clan chief and mother of Neytiri. Its task is to interpret the will of the goddess Eywa. She ordered her daughter Neytiri to introduce Jake to the folk customs. It was also she who freed the Avatars Grace and Jake Sully from their bonds during the storming of the House Tree, giving them another chance to prove their loyalty.
Grace Augustine
Grace Augustine was a xenobotanist. She was the author of the book about plants of Pandora. She was giving young Na'vi English lessons at her school, near the human expedition base. Grace was fatally shot by Quaritch, when Jake brought her human form to Neytiri and Mo'at at the Tree of Souls, in the hope that they could transfer her consciousness into her avatar form, she was rendered too weak by her wounds and the transfer failed.
Main male roles
Wes Studi is a Cherokee American actor and film producer who has won critical acclaim and awards, particularly for his portrayal of Native Amercans in film. He has appeared in Academy Award-winning films, such as Dances with Wolves and The Last of the Mohicans, and in the Academy Award-nominated films Geronimo: An American Legend and The New World. In 2020, he received an Academy Honorary Award, becoming the first Native American and the second North American Indigenous person to be honored by the Academy (the first was Buffy Sainte-Marie). In Avatar, Studi plays an idealized character that comported itself with a dignity becoming of a tribal leader that represents the values and strength of the Na’vi—the tribe that resists the human invaders who threaten to destroy his community’s way of life.
�The time travel aspect
Definitely Cameron's movie and the time travel aspect is not easy to understand. However, he made an amazing impression on the audience !For many years, Cameron worked on the history of the twenty-second century on a planet called Pandora, which humanity is trying to colonize in order to exploit a precious substance called unobtanium. They are in conflict with a tribe of blue-skinned three-meter indigenous Pandora people called the Na'vi. When the main character of the film, Jake Sully, a disabled marine, arrives on the planet, a program called "Avatar", which sees an opportunity for a diplomatic solution to the conflict, is well advanced. Jake joins the research team of Dr. Grace Augustine, whose members transfer their consciousness into bodies grown from the intersection of human and Pandora avatar genes, possessing the looks and capabilities of native Na'vi. By coincidence, it is Jake who manages to establish the best contact with the blue-skinned, and the bond that will be established in this way will soon bring unexpected results.Cameron can be accused of treating the theme of the destroyed Earth quite scarcely, not delving into the details of the process of transferring the human mind to an avatar, and omitting a deeper psychological outline of the character in the frenzy of working on computer effects.
�Story
The story's hero is Jake Sully, a former Marine confined to a wheelchair. Bitter and disillusioned, he's still a warrior at heart. All Jake ever wanted was something worth fighting for, and he finds it in the place he least expected: on a distant world. Jake has been recruited to join an expedition to the moon Pandora, which corporate interests are strip-mining for a mineral worth $20 billion per kilogram on Earth. To facilitate their work, the humans use a link system that projects a person's consciousness into a hybrid of humans and Pandora's indigenous humanoids, the Na'vi. This human-Na'vi hybrid – a fully living, breathing body that resembles the Na'vi but possesses the individual human's thoughts, feelings and personality – is known as an "avatar." In his new avatar form, Jake can once again walk. His mission is to interact with and infiltrate the Na'vi with the hope of enlisting their help – or at least their acquiescence – in mining the ore. A beautiful Na'vi female, Neytiri, saves Jake's life, albeit reluctantly, because even in his avatar body, Jake represents to her the human encroachment on the Na'vi's unspoiled world. As Jake's relationship with Neytiri deepens, along with his respect for the Na'vi, he faces the ultimate test as he leads an epic conflict that will decide nothing less than the fate of an entire world.
Technique in Avatar
The production uses modern 3D cameras, imitating the way in which human eyes see space, changing the distance between lenses with different viewing angles. Weta Digital, the main creator of the film's special effects, was creating movie sequences of 800 fully generated characters moving in artificial environments. The processing power required to process the footage from the Avatar movie was greater than any order received by Weta to date, so she turned to NVIDIA for help.
Together, they developed a new pre-computation engine, called PantaRay, to
incorporate high-performance computing into Weta's production. The helicopter shot showing hundreds of creatures flying over the water with a large forested mountain in the background was calculated with PantaRay in just a day and a half.
About 60% of the film is CGI ( Computer Generated Imagery ) effects. The Na'vi appearing in the film were created by a computer that processed the actors' movements using motion capture technology , and then generated appropriate characters.
Avatars
The body of the Avatar is created in vitro on Earth. It develops during a six-year journey to Pandora. The connection with the genetic material of the "operator" allows him to form a mental connection with the Avatar. Avatars are very courageous and helpful. They are also extremely ambitious and brave. They got the ability to get out of difficult situations.
Avatars have small eyes, eyebrows, a braid located lower, and the characteristic five-finger limbs of humans. The facial features of the Avatar and its operator coincide.
Avatars
People use Avatars because of the toxic atmosphere, which prevents them from functioning properly without exopaks. Avatars are mainly intended as a means of communication with local people.
Their mission is to close the cultural gap and improve relations with the Na'vi - an indigenous race that inhabits Pandora.
Avatars therefore play an important role as mediators in communicating cultural information and insisting that each side behave in a peaceful manner.
Avatars - walking in a dream/ demons in a wrong body
THINGS YOU MiGHT NOT HAVE KNOWN ABOUT AVATAR:
1. James Cameron originally attempted to get this film made in 1999 as his immediate follow-up to Titanic (1997). However, at the time, the special effects he wanted for the movie ran the proposed budget up to $400 million. No studio would fund the film, and it was subsequently shelved for almost ten years.
2. Even though the year the movie takes place is never stated, scenes of Jake Sully recording his video log show that the year is 2154.
3. In order to promote the film, it was planned to use the 3D technology used in Avatar at Michael Jacksons concerts.
4. The word avatar is Sanskrit for the word incarnation. In Hindu religion it refers to the human incarnation of God.
5. In the final battle, when Lyle Wainfleet, wearing an AMP suit, is knocked over and crushed by a hammerhead titanoder, we can hear the famous William Scream.
6. Navi are left-handed and avatars are right-handed.
SOUNDTRACK
1. „You don’t dream in cryo…”
2. Jake enters his avatar world
3. Pure spirits of the forest
4. The bioluminescence of the night
5. Becoming one of „The People” Becoming one with Neytiri
6. Climbing up „Iknimaya – The Path to Heaven”
7. Jake’s first flight
8. Scorched earth
9. Quaritch
10. The destruction of Hometree
11. Shutting down Grace’s lab
12. Gathering all the Na’vi clans for battle
13. War
14. „I See You”
Scenography and costume
The costumes were designed by Mayes C. Rubeo and Deborah L. Scott. Although most of them were created by computer, real costumes were sewn, which made it possible to precisely recreate the texture of the materials or the way they are arranged on the body.
The action of the film takes place on the fictional Pandora. Before computer effects specialists could create the rainforest, the base and all the rest had to be designed. The works lasted two years; World-class specialists were employed to create every hero, animal, plant, costume, weapon or vehicle. Thanks to their imagination, a breed with a rich culture was created, but also people of the future with advanced technology
Budget, Revenue & Interest
Avatar was released in 3457 cinemas in the USA (of which 2032 in 3D mode). In total, 90% of the total pre-sale film ticket sales were for 3D screenings. All over the world "Avatar" was shown on 14,604 screens (3,671 were shown in 3D) in 106 countries. By 2019 it was the most profitable production, without taking inflation into account. It is also the first film to exceed $2 billion in profit. As of December 7, 2010, ticket sales amounted to USD 2 781 505 847. According to the statistics on the Box Office Mojo website, after taking inflation into account, the film ranks 14th in terms of revenue in the USA. The estimated budget of the film was about $237 million and at the time of its release it was the fourth most expensive film in the history of the cinema (together with marketing costs, the total cost of introducing it to cinemas is estimated at $460 million. It turned out to be a box office hit - already in the first 17 days of screening it earned over a billion dollars worldwide!
Citations
Jake: “But I've already chosen. But this woman must also choose me.”
Neytiri: “She already has.”
Because of its significance to the love story in the film, this abridged version is one of the more popular Avatar movie quotes. In this scene, Jake and Neytiri finally admit their feelings for one another.
⦁ Jake: “I was a warrior who dreamed he could bring peace. Sooner or later though, you always have to wake up.”
This line is part of Jake’s reflection on his experience in Pandora. It holds a deeper meaning though; he is repeating a line he first said at the beginning of the film where he said he eventually had to wake up from his dreams of flying that he used to have when he first lost the ability to walk.
Will there be Avatar 2?
We have good news. Yes, the new Avatar is coming soon to the cinemas. The premiere will take place on 25th December 2020.
Summary and recommendation
I highly recommend watching this movie, especially if you're into science-fiction. It can really broaden your horizons and allow you to look at the present and future world from a different perspective. It's not only a movie about time travel - it has a lot of other important themes.
This is the end