Did You Know I have an Avatar?

Ohe kame anyga,

 

  My Avatar!!

 

Avatar Movie Review

 

When The James Camron’s Avatar premiered, the crowd never seemed to wane.  I went to see the movie in regular 3D about two weeks after the premier and again in IMAX 3D about a month later.   Both times were like crushing people as if we were sardines into an ever shrinking stadium theater.  Everyone was scrambling to obtain the best seats (in the middle) by arriving about an hour early and preordering tickets a couple days before.  This was unlike any other craze I have seen.  I have waited three hours to see the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 movie when I was younger, but that’s to the extent of the craziness for movies in the area where I live.

 

Avatar for many reasons was unlike any other cinema production.  It was not another alien movie, or action movie, or romance movie, or fantasy movie, or theatrical explosion of cinema graphics and effects.  Avatar was all of that and more.  I bought the DVD last week, not the Blue Ray, and was assuming disappointment because the theatrical effects would not be as forthcoming as it was in the theater.  I was right in feeling that normal viewing of the movie would not be as engaging and stimulating.  But the story still won my creativity award and enjoyed the movie overall.  The regular 3D movie was detailed and had very subtle 3D effects in the forest of Pandora.  The graphics did give an impression of engaging yourself into the movie, but nothing was too extreme.  However, if you were lucky enough to see the movie in IMAX 3D the whole experience changes to a more dramatic, throwing yourself into the fantasy, a dream, and never waking up….until the credits were rolling.  The characters were digital, clear, and the best projection of 3D realization.  The vivid, ecstatically creative complexity of the scenery and character interaction was astounding because it was so close to being realistic, but pure imaginary. 

 

More About Pandora

 

The Moon

The discovery of Pandora is real.  Pandora is located in the nearest solar system in southern hemisphere of Earth about 4.4 light years away.  Pandora is a moon that orbits a huge gas planet that resembles Saturn.  The star in this solar system is Alpha Centauri A.  In this movie, the moon has large vast jungles, wetlands, and grasslands.  The magnetic fields and unobtanium makes the world like no other with the mountains floating in the air.   

 

The Wildlife

The biodiversity of Pandora is vast and unlike Earth. The bioluminescence, the glow from the plants and characters at night, is impeccable.  The whole world is beautiful and exotic with creatures that are so different but identifiable.  There are animals reminiscent of dinosaurs, horses, panthers, lizards, and hyenas.  They share different areaa of the world like the wetlands, water, forest, mountains, and grasslands of Pandora.  The underlying story of the signal transductions between the fauna and flora as form of communication is already present on earth in variety of bacteria, but not as vital as Pandora.  Also the Na’vi have the ability to communicate by using neural connections with animals and plants. 

 

The People

The Na’vi are humanlike natives on Pandora.  They are 9’ to 10’ feel tall.  The Na’vi are very strong and slender which enables them to maneuver the Jungle with ease.  They have a tail, big yellow eyes, and skin that is blue striped and bioluminescent to camouflage themselves with the environment.  On Pandora, there are a number of tribes that have a different connection to the world.  They remind me of Native American culture.  In each clan, they have a male leader and his wife as the spiritual leader or physic. The main clan in the movie, Omaticaya, are more in tune with jungle and there home is the Home Tree.  Their deity Eywa has a spiritual connection with all living things on Pandora and communication is through the Tree of Souls.  This is where they pray and worship.  The Na’vi has a very compassionate relationship with they world the live in.  

 

The Aliens

We humans are the aliens to Pandora, the sky walkers.  The only reason for us to come to Pandora is to mine unobtanium which isa very rare, valuable element on Earth.  The problem is that the largest deposit is under Home Tree.  Of course, our nature is to take whatever we want and doesn’t matter how we get it.  It’s another Manifest Destiny journey.  They claim to try to bargain with the natives in exchange for them moving away from their home.  We tried to give them education, medication, and anything to make the tribal culture one step closer to civilization, but Na’vi wants to be left alone.

 

The compound houses the research, military, and administrative sectors of the operation.  The research team have the technology of combining the DNA of the natives and humans to develop an Avatar which the human can control using his neural connection to the avatar.  The tank is similar to the mammalian womb.  The tank was used previously for cloning animals and human body parts. They use these Avatars to be able to withstand the harsh Pandora environment, study the ecosystem, and communicate with the natives.  The military are Marines that use brawn force to protect the compound and to force the natives away from Home Tree.  The military operation uses a lot of high tech gear and vehicles to fend off the animals, natives, and protect the ultimate task of mining the element.  The reason to mine this element other than for it is worth, which is I believe it is 20 million dollars a kilogram, hasn’t yet been disclosed.  The OPS center is where all the daily operations are monitored.  This is the central place for communication throughout the whole project.  There are also satellite areas where research and refuge from the environment are located throughout the world.

 

Comments

[Randy]

Yeah, I've meet those people as well. They are a weird bunch.

[Court]

Thanks for the comment Randy. When I was starting to write this review, a coworker at work posted a discussion to take a poll on what was the greatest movie of all time and I chosen Avatar. She came up to me and said I could argue with your choice. I really wanted this argument to take place so I could write a summary, but I had to leave because my carpool was ready to leave for the day. That would have been a great discussion. I only know a few people that didn’t like it and I just wonder why.

[Randy]

A well written review! I agree with you that Avatar is not just "another" film. It's an experience that I am so glad I got to enjoy. Can't wait until the sequel!