Belinda Duhl
THEA 1023, Fall Semester 2016
Due: Saturday, December 10, 2016
Avatar
Avatar, a 2009 American epic science fiction film was directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. The film’s main stars are Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Giovanni Ribisi, Michelle Rodriquez, and Sigourney Weaver.
The story formula or plot is the specific actions and events that filmmakers select, and the order in which they arrange those events and actions to effectively convey on-screen the movie’s narrative to a viewer. Avatar takes place in a futuristic mid-22nd century, a paraplegic marine, Jake Sully (Worthington), reports for duty, a mission meant for his now deceased brother, on the lush habitable moon in the Alpha Centauri star system, named Pandora. A greedy corporate figurehead Parker Selfridge (Ribisi) has figured out that Pandora is home to a minable ore, unobtanium an expensive superconductor. Selfridge’s intentions are to drive the native humanoid tribe called the "Na 'vi" out of their homes in order to mine the precious material scattered throughout their rich woodland. Jake gathers information for Colonel Quaritch (Lang), the cooperating military unit, and Selfridge in exchange for a surgery to help him walk again. Jake does this by attempting to infiltrate the native tribe people with the use of an experimental "avatar" identity, a device that makes him sound and look like one of their own. While Jake begins to bond with the native tribe, he
Avatar required 10 years to complete and was a visually stunning. A film with visionary technology, graphics, and film techniques. Director James Cameron developed and pioneered many of these techniques while creating this film, and propelled motion capture technology and film to a new level. The characters were well written and the actors chosen fit their roles very well. One of the characters in this epic film was Mo’at the spiritual leader of the Omaticaya clan. (Khare, 2009)
The 2009 futuristic movie, Avatar, portrays a fictional planet called Pandora that is in danger of being destroyed by earth. In 2154, humans seek to harvest Pandora’s plentiful reserves and resources. The movie itself presents conflicting worldviews to the viewer. I would argue Avatar lays out a clear New Age or Pantheistic worldview, alongside Christian truths. The producers have created from there, strong arguments about evils in our current society, and pushed possible solutions or reactions. How should we as Christians and apologists respond to these “truths?”
It goes without saying that The Hero's Journey is an intriguing path for a story to follow. The Hero's Journey is a narrative pattern created by Joseph Campbell. James Cameron’s Avatar is a story about Jake Sully. Jake's brother was killed and because the two share the same DNA, Jake must take his place as an Avatar. Throughout this movie, friendships are formed, enemies are made and many lives are lost. In this essay, the path of The Hero's Journey will be looked at. Specifically, the Ordinary World, Meeting the Mentor, Tests, Allies and Enemies and the Ordeal. Avatar perfectly captures The Hero's Journey throughout the movie. From the Ordinary World to the Returning with the
In the year 2009, James Cameron wrote and directed one of the most remarkable films I have ever seen ‘Avatar’. This science-fiction saga has a story line that is engaging and captivating for its audience. Avatar took place on a moon called Pandora. Humans discovered very valuable natural resources on Pandora and did whatever it took to obtain what they needed from Pandora. The people of Pandora are Na’vi’s, a 10 foot tall, blue-skinned humanoid alien group that lived in the rainforest or Pandora. The Humans found a way to interact with the Na’vi’s by artificial yet organic avatars that were controlled with a human mind and conscience. Jake Sully, a paraplegic marine who was given the task to manipulate the Na’vi’s into leaving their home. Sully entered
The movie Avatar is about how the human race invades a planet called Pandora to mine a certain kind of resource and fights with the Na’vi, the race of creatures that live on Pandora. The main character Jake Sulley decides to take his brothers
In just a matter of three months, half of the Virginia company was dead. One of the most notable deaths of the English men was their initial captain, whose exact identity remains a mystery. Following this death rose Captain John Smith. The most distinguishable trait about John Smith was his diplomatic charm in the face of grave danger from the Indians. John Smith would learn to act and talk like the Powhatans, in an attempt to gain their trust. Even more so, the chief of the native tribe was persuaded by his daughter, Pocahontas, to relinquish aggression towards the forthcoming ‘white men’. For the years to come, Pocahontas would act as a bridge between the foreigners and natives, allowing the English to breathe a sigh of relief in a storm of turbulence. Legend has it that a heteroromantic relationship blossomed between Pocahontas and Smith, but these are mere rumors. In James Cameron’s Avatar, characters can be found sharing the same roles as those in Jamestown. Rather than James Smith, Cameron presents Jake Sully, a marine whose consciousness embodies a Na’vi, and begins to walk amongst Pandora’s clans. According to Colonel Miles Quaritch, a military leader in the film, “If you’ll look like them and talk like them then they’ll start trusting us.” This philosophy was the exact mindset of John Smith when he set out for diplomacy amongst the natives. Likewise, there was an Avatar version of Pocahontas present, and she was to be found as Neytiri, daughter of the Na’vi chief. Correspondingly, Neytiri trains Sully to become one with her people, and slowly throughout the film the Na’vi’s learn to trust and respect Jake. Of course, what is a tale without a spark of romance? Unlike the rumors circulating amongst John Smith and Pocahontas, the bond between Neytiri and Jake Smith was indeed confirmed, and the two rendered as a pair beyond
Avatar uses a variety of film genres and styles. One of the styles is the Cowboys versus Indians theme. It is clear that Avatar is a product of post-colonialism: it shows the Na'vi as the relatively harmless yet environmentally respectful and spiritually in tuned indigenous population, while the humans are a corporate military whose only goal is mine the resources of Pandora. The film presents an anti-military narrative. The soldiers are portrayed as cruel, violent, and brainless brutes, with only mercenary intentions. They are the stereotype of the ultimate warrior. They perpetuate the “might is right” myth. All of them are males, except for a female helicopter pilot, who ultimately defects to the
Using highly advanced technology to replicate and to creating false bodies which humans use to walk amongst the natives known as the Na’vi living in the planet Pandora hence the name ‘Avatar’. The story focuses on an ex U.S. soldier name Jake Sully who is wheel-chair bound, was called upon as a last resort to replace his late brother whom had trained for 3 years in a project which was invested with so much money that the researchers could not bear to make it go to waste. Thus, sharing the same DNA, Jake was then given the privilege to be part of the project as he was tasked to retrieve back an extremely valuable mineral known as “Unobtainium” (Cameron & Landau, 2009) and at the same
The 2009 film Avatar directed by James Cameron is a stunning visual masterpiece that required state of the art animation technology. Avatar was officially budgeted at $237 million and became the highest grossing film of all time bringing in more than two billion at the box office. The film used a new form of stereoscopic filmmaking that was touted as a breakthrough in cinematic technology. Avatar was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won three, for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects. Avatar can be analyzed from various new historicist perspectives and effectively makes provocative statements about social issues such as race relations, imperialism, environmentalism, and the tactics of the military industrial complex.
Avatar is a blockbuster film from 2009 and one of my most favorite Sci-fi films of all time. The film was directed by James Cameron, who is known for directing films like Titanic (1997), Aliens (1986), and the Terminator (1984), all of which helped shape the film industry into what it is today. Although at the time, there was a recession and people were trying to save money, this movie became the highest grossing film in at the time. The movie provided stunning 3D technology unlike any other movie and this was one of the reasons that made people want to go watch the film. From visual effects to the camera angles, James Cameron directed this movie to make the audience feel like they are in the movie. Although the film looked amazing, there were messages and themes inside the film that made it such a success. The film provoked discussions about various messages and themes embedded inside the film, such as terrorism, Imperialism, religious connections, and connections to current world. Such messages can be clearly seen throughout the plot of the movie.
To explore on Pandora, whose atmosphere is very poisonous to people, scientists invented Avatars, who look like the Na’vi and are operated by genetically matched humans. By lying in the machine box, people can operate avatars as if they were living outside like other Na’vi. Jake Sully, a paraplegic veteran, is chosen as part of Avatar program to replace his deceased identical twin brother who worked for the program. Colonel Quaritch promises Jake that he helps them to collect information about the Na’vi and a giant tree called Hometree, the company will
Avatar: The Last Airbender is an animated show that is set in a magical world. The world is divided into four elemental powers. The elemental powers are earthbending, airbending, firebending, and waterbending. The world is made up of humans and animals. The show is fun to watch and it was made by nickelodeon. There are a lot of people in the story to the cartoon was hard to make because the architecture of the world is very complicated.
Being a science fiction fan during his childhood, he worked his way in producing several highly acclaimed science fiction movies such as Avatar, Aliens, and the Terminator. Born on August 16, 1954, in Ontario Canada and later moved to California to finish his college at California State University. In order to pursue his dreams in cinematography, he worked as a truck driver and would work on screenplays. Then his career began from an art director in Battle beyond the Stars (1980) to directing various films. Now, he is an Oscar-winning director whose films Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009) remains the top grossing films of all time. He has won various awards from different sides of the world, Norway, France, and the United Kingdom. Mise-en-scenes were well incorporated in each of James Cameron’s movies especially for science fiction movies that used elegantly crafted visuals.
Avatar is the story of Jake Sully, a paraplegic marine that is sent to the world Pandora to take the place of his dead-brother's job as a Na’vi avatar pilot. The humans on Pandora use these
The film Avatar (italics on titles - plus remove the bold writing on your paragraphs and remove all the planning above when you submit the final) directed by James Cameron is the story of Jake Sully; the man who is asked to take the place of his twin brothers place at Pandora for a scientific experiment. At the start he was very hesitant toward taking his brothers (apostrophe) place, there were times when he felt like not continuing with the program. Along the way he faced a series on tests, allies and enemies. The end result is what he was starting to want near the end of the movie.(the more formal term is film)