Avatar (2009 film)

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Avatar

Theatrical release poster
Directed by James Cameron
Produced by James Cameron
Jon Landau
Written by James Cameron
Starring Sam Worthington
Zoë Saldaña
Stephen Lang
Michelle Rodriguez
Giovanni Ribisi
Sigourney Weaver
Music by James Horner
Cinematography Mauro Fiore
Editing by James Cameron
John Refoua
Stephen E. Rivkin
Studio Lightstorm Entertainment
Dune Entertainment
Ingenious Film Partners
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date(s) December 10, 2009 (2009-12-10)
(London)
December 17, 2009 (2009-12-17)
(United Kingdom)
December 18, 2009 (2009-12-18)
(United States)
Running time 161 minutes[1]
Country United States
United Kingdom
Language English
Budget $237,000,000[2]
Gross revenue $381,630,006[3]

Avatar is a 2009 science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron, and starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang. It was produced and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The film begins in the year 2154 and focuses on Pandora, an inhabited Earth-sized moon of Polyphemus, one of the three fictional gas giants orbiting Alpha Centauri A. Humans are engaged in mining Pandora's reserves of a precious mineral, while the na'vi, the sapient race of humanoids indigenous to the moon, resist the colonists' expansion, which threatens the continued existence of the na'vi and the destruction of the Pandoran ecosystem. The film's title refers to the remotely controlled, genetically engineered human-na'vi bodies used by the film's human characters to interact with the natives.[4]

Avatar had been in development since 1994 by Cameron, who wrote a 114-page scriptment for the film.[5] Filming was supposed to take place after the completion of Titanic, and the film would have been released in 1999, but according to Cameron, "technology needed to catch up" with his vision of the film.[6][7] In early 2006, Cameron developed the script, the language, and the culture of Pandora.[8] He has stated that if Avatar is successful, two sequels to the film are planned.[9]

The film was released in traditional 2-D and 3-D formats (specifically RealD), along with an IMAX 3D release in selected theaters. Avatar is officially budgeted at $237 million;[2] other estimates put the cost at $280 – $310 million to produce and an estimated $150 million for marketing.[10][11][12] The film is being touted as a breakthrough in terms of filmmaking technology, for its development of 3D viewing and stereoscopic filmmaking with cameras that were specially designed for the film's production.[13] Opening to critical acclaim, it grossed an estimated $27 million on its opening day and an estimated $77,025,481 domestically its opening weekend.[14] Worldwide, the film grossed an estimated $232,180,000 its opening weekend,[15] the ninth-largest opening-weekend gross of all time, and the largest for a non-franchise, non-sequel and original film.[3] It is also considered to be a front-runner for awards and nominations at the 82nd Academy Awards.[16]

Contents

Plot

In 2154, the RDA corporation is mining unobtanium on Pandora, the lush, Earthlike moon of the gas giant planet Polyphemus. Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi), the administrator, employs former marines as mercenaries.

The indigenous are the na'vi, a paleolithic species of sapient humanoids. Standing several feet taller than a human, with tails, and bioluminescent blue skin, they live in harmony with nature and worship a mother goddess called Eywa. Since humans cannot breathe Pandora's atmosphere, scientists have created human-na'vi hybrid bodies called avatars, so they may easily interact with the na'vi.

Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a parapalegic former marine, arrives on Pandora to replace his brother in the avatar program. However, Jake is not a trained scientific researcher, much to the disappointment of Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) and the rest of the science team. Despite their misgivings, the research team lets him into the program.

While Jake is escorting Augustine and biologist Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore) in their avatar forms, the group is attacked by a large predator. Jake becomes separated from the others and tries to survive Pandora's dangerous wildlife, before he is rescued by Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña), a female na'vi. Jake is taken back to Hometree, which Neytiri's clan, the Omaticaya, inhabit and they decide to teach Jake their ways. Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the leader of the mercenaries, hears about Jake's relationship with the Omaticaya and orders him to gain the trust of the na'vi to get them to abandon Hometree, which covers a large unobtanium deposit. Jake is given three months by Quaritch to complete this mission and is promised new legs in return.

During these three months, Jake becomes very close with the Omaticaya and begins to prefer his life as an avatar to that of his paralyzed human form. This attachment to Pandora gradually erodes Jake's loyalty toward his mission and Quaritch. After Jake's initiation into the tribe and his choosing of Neytiri as his mate, Jake begins to side with the na'vi's cause of protecting Pandora. This change in attitude was witnessed by Quaritch when Jake protected Neytiri from a bulldozer by disabling it. This action results in Jake being forcibly detached from his avatar for questioning. After heated discussion between Selfridge and Augustine, Quaritch reveals a vlog where Jake says the na'vi will never leave Hometree, which convinces Selfridge to order the destruction of Hometree.

Jake is given one hour by Selfridge to get the na'vi to leave Hometree before Quaritch's forces arrive. When he reveals his mission to the na'vi, Neytiri accuses him of betraying them, which results in Jake and Augustine's temporary imprisonment. Jake's hour runs out, and Quaritch's army arrives, destroying Hometree and killing Eytucan (Wes Studi), Neytiri's father and clan chief. After again being forcibly detached from their avatars, Jake and his companions are detained. Trudy Chacon (Michelle Rodriguez), a pilot who is disgusted by the destruction of Hometree, breaks them out but Augustine is wounded by Quaritch during their escape. With Augustine in a critical state, Jake sees no other option than to turn to the Omaticaya for help. Jake remembers that Neytiri told him that only five na'vi had ever tamed the Toruk, an immense and powerful flying beast. He tames it, and successfully earns back the na'vi's respect. He pleads with Mo'at (C. C. H. Pounder), the na'vi shaman, to heal Augustine, who is now dying. They attempt to transplant her soul into her avatar at the Tree of Souls without success.

In light of Augustine's death, with the assistance of Neytiri and Tsu'Tey(Laz Alonso) (the new leader of the Omaticaya), Jake vows defiance against the humans and assembles thousands of na'vi from other tribes. Quaritch, seeing the na'vi's strength, orders a preemptive strike to destroy the Tree of Souls; its destruction would leave the na'vi too demoralized to continue resisting the humans.

The na'vi fight fiercely but human technology outweighs na'vi bravery; they suffer heavy casualties, including Tsu'Tey, Trudy, and Norm's avatar. When all hope seems lost, the Pandoran wildlife suddenly launch a mass attack, overwhelming the humans. Neytiri interprets this as Eywa answering Jake's prayer.

Quaritch orders the bombing of the Tree of Souls but Jake destroys the bomber first. Quaritch escapes in a AMP (Amplified Mobility Platform) suit. He finds the avatar interface field pod and attacks it to kill Jake. He damages it, exposing Jake to Pandora's atmosphere. Neytiri kills Quaritch and saves Jake, seeing his human form for the first time. They reaffirm their love for each other.

The humans are expelled from Pandora, while Jake and his friends remain. Jake is seen wearing the insignia of the Omaticaya clan leader suggesting that he has become the new leader after the death of Tsu'Tey. The film ends with Jake's soul being transplanted into his na'vi avatar.

Cast and characters

Humans

  • Sam Worthington as Corporal Jake Sully, a disabled Marine who becomes part of the Avatar Program. Cameron cast the Australian actor after searching the world for promising young actors, preferring relative unknowns to keep the budget down. Worthington auditioned twice early in development,[5] and he has signed on for possible sequels.[17] Cameron felt that because Worthington had not done a major film, he was "game for anything", giving the character "a quality that is really real. He has that quality of being a guy you'd want to have a beer with, and he ultimately becomes a leader who transforms the world".[18]
  • Sigourney Weaver as Dr. Grace Augustine, a botanist and head of the Avatar Program. She mentors Jake Sully, and was an advocate of peaceful relations with the na'vi, setting up a school to teach them English.[19] Weaver dyed her hair red for the part.[20] The character was named "Shipley" at one point, a reference to the character she played in the Alien series of films.[21] Augustine reminded Weaver of Cameron, being "very driven and very idealistic".[22]
  • Michelle Rodriguez as Trudy Chacon, a Marine fighter pilot assigned to support the Avatar Program. Cameron had wanted to work with Rodriguez since seeing her in Girlfight.[23]
  • Giovanni Ribisi as Parker Selfridge, the passive-aggressive corporate administrator for the mining operation and one of the film's primary antagonists.[24]
  • Joel David Moore as Norm Spellman, a biologist who studies plant and nature life as part of the Avatar Program. He arrives on Pandora at the same time as Jake Sully, and assumes control of an avatar.
  • Stephen Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch, head of SecFor, the mining operation's security detail, and another main antagonists. Lang had unsuccessfully auditioned for a role in Cameron's Aliens (1986); the director remembered Lang and cast him in Avatar.[23] Michael Biehn, who was in Aliens, read the script and watched some of the 3D footage with Cameron,[25] but was ultimately not cast in the role.
  • Dileep Rao as Dr. Max Patel, a scientist who works in the Avatar Program.[26]
  • Matt Gerald as SecFor Corporal Lyle Wainfleet.[27]

Na'vi

  • Zoë Saldaña as Neytiri, princess of the Omaticaya, the na'vi clan central to the story, who is attracted to Jake because of his bravery.[28] The character, like all the na'vi, was created using performance capture, and is entirely computer generated.[29] Saldaña has also signed on for potential sequels.[17]
  • C. C. H. Pounder as Mo'at, the Omaticaya's spiritual leader, Neytiri's mother, and consort to clan leader Eytucan.[30]
  • Laz Alonso as Tsu'Tey, heir to the chieftainship of the tribe, and Neytiri's betrothed, although she chooses Jake over him, much to the jealousy of Tsu'Tey.
  • Wes Studi as Eytucan, the leader of the Omaticaya, the husband of Mo'at and Neytiri's father.
  • Peter Mensah as Akwey, leader of a plains clan of na'vi.

Production

Development

In 1994, director James Cameron wrote a 114-page scriptment for Avatar.[5] Cameron said his inspiration was "every single science fiction book I read as a kid", and that he was particularly striving to update the style of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter series. In August 1996, Cameron announced that after completing Titanic, he would film Avatar, which would make use of "synthetic", or computer-generated, actors.[6] The project would cost $100 million and involve at least six actors in leading roles "who appear to be real but do not exist in the physical world".[31] Visual effects house Digital Domain, with whom Cameron has a partnership, joined the project, which was supposed to begin production in the summer of 1997 for a 1999 release.[7]

In June 2005, Cameron was announced to be working on a project tentatively titled "Project 880", concurrently with another project, Battle Angel.[32] By December, Cameron said that he planned to film Battle Angel first for a summer 2007 release, and to film Project 880 for a 2009 release.[33] In February 2006, Cameron said he had switched goals for the two film projects – Project 880 was now scheduled for 2007 and Battle Angel for 2009. He indicated that the release of Project 880 would possibly be delayed until 2008.[34] Later that February, Cameron revealed that Project 880 was "a retooled version of Avatar", a film that he had tried to make years earlier,[35] citing the technological advances in the creation of the computer-generated characters Gollum, King Kong and Davy Jones.[5] Cameron had chosen Avatar over Battle Angel after completing a five-day camera test in the previous year.[36]

Search Wikinews Wikinews has related news: James Cameron to use Weta Digital for next film

Cameron's early scriptment for Avatar had circulated on the Internet for years. When the project was re-announced, copies were subsequently removed from websites.[37] From January to April 2006, Cameron worked on the script. Working with Dr. Paul Frommer, linguist and Director of the Center for Management Communication at USC, he developed a na'vi language and culture, the indigenous race on Pandora.[5] The language has a vocabulary of about 1000 words, with some 30 having been invented by Cameron. The tongue's phonemes include ejective consonants (such as the "kx" in "skxawng") that are found in the Amharic language of Ethiopia, and the initial "ng" that Cameron may have taken from New Zealand Māori.[8]

In June 2006, Cameron said that if Avatar was successful, he hoped to make two sequels to the film.[9] In a 2009 interview, he stated that the story arc he developed is large enough to cover two more films.[38]

In July, Cameron announced that he would film Avatar for a summer 2008 release and planned to begin principal photography with an established cast by February 2007.[39] The following August, the visual effects studio Weta Digital signed on to help Cameron produce Avatar.[40] Stan Winston, who had collaborated with Cameron in the past, joined Avatar to help with the film's designs.[41] In September 2006, Cameron was announced to be using his own Reality Camera System to film in 3-D. The system would use two high-definition cameras in a single camera body to create depth perception.[42]

In December 2006, Cameron described Avatar as "a futuristic tale set on a planet 200 years hence [...] an old-fashioned jungle adventure with an environmental conscience [that] aspires to a mythic level of storytelling".[43] The January 2007 press release described the film: "Avatar is also an emotional journey of redemption and revolution. It is the story of a wounded former Marine, thrust unwillingly into an effort to settle and exploit an exotic planet rich in biodiversity, who eventually crosses over to lead the indigenous race in a battle for survival," and "We're creating an entire world, a complete ecosystem of phantasmagorical plants and creatures, and a native people with a rich culture and language."[17]

Estimates put the cost of the film at about $280 million – $310 million to produce and an estimated $150 million for marketing, noting that about $30 million in tax credits will lessen the financial impact on the studio and its financiers.[10][11][12] However, a studio spokesperson, speaking with film website The Wrap, said that the budget "is $237 million, with $150 million for promotion, end of story".[2]

Themes and inspirations

"I have an absolute reverence for men who have a sense of duty, courage, but I’m also a child of the ’60s. There’s a part of me who wants to put a daisy in the end of the gun barrel. I believe in peace through superior firepower, but on the other hand I abhor the abuse of power and creeping imperialism disguised as patriotism. Some of these things you can’t raise without being called unpatriotic, but I think it’s very patriotic to question a system that needs to be corralled, or it becomes Rome."
—James Cameron on the film's theme [44]

Avatar is centered around the themes of imperialism and biodiversity.[45] Cameron has said that Avatar shares themes with At Play in the Fields of the Lord, and The Emerald Forest, which feature clashes between cultures and civilizations, and acknowledged the film's connection with Dances With Wolves, where a battered soldier finds himself drawn to the tribal culture he was initially fighting against.[46]

In a 2007 interview with Time magazine, Cameron addressed the meaning of the film's title, answering the question "What is an avatar, anyway?" Cameron stated, "It's an incarnation of one of the Hindu Gods taking a flesh form." He said that "[i]n this film what that means is that the human technology in the future is capable of injecting a human's intelligence into a remotely located body, a biological body". Cameron stated, "It's not an avatar in the sense of just existing as ones and zeroes in cyberspace. It's actually a physical body."[4]

At Comic Con 2009, Cameron told attendees that he wanted to make "something that has this spoonful of sugar of all the action and the adventure and all that". He wanted this to thrill him "as a fan" but also have a conscience "that maybe in the enjoying of it makes you think a little bit about the way you interact with nature and your fellow man".[47] He added that "the na'vi represent something that is our higher selves, or our aspirational selves, what we would like to think we are" and that even though there are good humans within the film, the humans "represent what we know to be the parts of ourselves that are trashing our world and maybe condemning ourselves to a grim future".[47]

The film also contains implicit criticism of America's conduct in the War on Terror and the impersonal nature of mechanized warfare in general, as acknowledged by Cameron.[48] Although Cameron had said this was not the main point of Avatar, he did add that Americans had a "moral responsibility" to understand the impact of their country's recent military campaigns and those killed during them.[48] In reference to the use of the term "shock and awe" in the film, Cameron stated, "We know what it feels like to launch the missiles. We don't know what it feels like for them to land on our home soil, not in America. I think there's a moral responsibility to understand that."[48] Cameron additionally noted how mechanized warfare, allows one "the ability to do warfare at a distance, at a remove, which seems to make it morally easier to deal with, but its not".[48]

Filming and effects

In December 2006, Cameron explained that the delay in producing the film since the 1990s had been to wait until the technology necessary to create his project was advanced enough. The director planned to create photo-realistic computer-generated characters by using motion-capture animation technology, on which he had been doing work for the past 14 months. Unlike previous motion-capture systems, where the digital environment is added after the actors' motions have been captured, Cameron's new virtual camera allows him to observe directly on a monitor how the actors' virtual counterparts interact with the movie's digital world in real time and adjust and direct the scenes just as if shooting live action; "It’s like a big, powerful game engine. If I want to fly through space, or change my perspective, I can. I can turn the whole scene into a living miniature and go through it on a 50 to 1 scale."[49] Cameron planned to continue developing the special effects for Avatar, which he hoped would be released in summer 2009. He also gave fellow directors Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson a chance to test the new technology.[43] Spielberg and George Lucas were also able to visit the set to watch Cameron direct with the equipment.[50]

Avatar was filmed with newly developed stereoscopic cameras that simulate human sight. In this scene, Jake Sully flies into battle to save his newly adopted tribe.

Other technological innovations include "The Volume", a motion-capture stage six times larger than any previously used, and an improved method of capturing facial expressions, enabling full performance capture. To achieve the latter, actors wore individually made skull caps with a tiny camera attached, located in front of the actors' faces, which collects information about their facial expressions and eyes, which is then transmitted to the computers. According to Cameron, the method allows the filmmakers to transfer about 95% of the actors' performances to their digital counterparts. Besides a real-time virtual world, the team also experimented with a way of allowing the computer-generated characters to interact with real actors on a real, live-action set while shooting live action.[51]

"It's this form of pure creation where if you want to move a tree or a mountain or the sky or change the time of day, you have complete control over the elements."
—James Cameron on virtual filmmaking [52]

In January 2007, Fox announced that the studio's Avatar would be filmed in 3D at 24 frames per second despite Cameron's strong opinion that a 3D film requires higher frame rate to make strobing less noticeable.[53] Cameron described the film as a hybrid with a full live-action shoot in combination with computer-generated characters and live environments. "Ideally at the end of the day the audience has no idea which they’re looking at," Cameron said. The director indicated that he had already worked four months on nonprincipal scenes for the film. Principal photography began in April 2007,[54] and was done around parts of Los Angeles as well as New Zealand. The live action was shot with a modified version of the proprietary digital 3D Fusion Camera System, developed by Cameron and Vince Pace.[55] According to Cameron, the film will be composed of 60% computer-generated elements and 40% live action, as well as traditional miniatures.[56] Motion-capture photography would last 31 days at the Hughes Aircraft stage in Playa Vista, Los Angeles, California.[36][57] In October, Cameron was scheduled to shoot live-action in New Zealand[23] for another 31 days.[5]

To create the human mining colony on Pandora, production designers visited the Noble Clyde Boudreaux drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico during June 2007. They photographed, measured and filmed every aspect of the rig, which will be replicated on-screen with photorealistic CGI.[58] More than a thousand people worked on the production.[57] James Cameron sent the cast of Avatar off to the jungle for bonding boot-camp exercises before he started shooting the film.[59]

Music and soundtrack

Main article: Avatar: Music from the Motion Picture

Composer James Horner scored the film, his third collaboration with Cameron after Aliens and Titanic.[60] Horner recorded parts of the score with a small chorus singing in the alien language na'vi in March 2008.[61] He has also worked with Wanda Bryant, an ethnomusicologist, to create a music culture for the alien race.[62] The first scoring sessions were planned to take place in Spring 2009.[63] British singer Leona Lewis was chosen to sing the theme song for the film, called "I See You". An accompanying music video, directed by Jake Nava, premiered December 15, 2009 on MySpace.[64]

Marketing

Cameron at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con promoting the film

Cameron, producer Jon Landau, Zoë Saldaña, Stephen Lang, and Sigourney Weaver appeared at a panel, moderated by Tom Rothman, at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con on July 23. 25 minutes of footage was screened[65] in Dolby 3D.[66] Weaver and Cameron appeared at additional panels to promote the film, speaking on the 23rd[67] and 24th[68] respectively. James Cameron announced at the Comic-Con Avatar Panel that August 21 will be 'Avatar Day'. On this day the trailer for the film was released in all theatrical formats. The official game trailer and toy line of the film were also unveiled on this day.[69]

The 129-second trailer was released online on August 20, 2009.[70] The new 210-second trailer was premiered in theatres with Amelia, Astro Boy, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant and Saw VI on October 23, 2009, and then premiered online on Yahoo! on October 29, 2009, to positive reviews.[71][72] On November 6, 2009 a third trailer was released in front of Disney's A Christmas Carol, which is almost identical to the 210 second version but including new scenes from the film. An extended version in IMAX 3D received overwhelming positive reviews.[70] The Hollywood Reporter said that audience expectations were coloured by "the [same] establishment skepticism that preceded Titanic" and suggested the showing reflected the desire for original storytelling.[73][74] The teaser-trailer has reached the reputation of among the most viewed ones in the history of film marketing, reaching the 1st place of all trailers viewed on Apple.com with 4 million views.[75] On October 30, to celebrate the opening of the first 3D cinema in Vietnam, Fox allowed Megastar Cinema to screen exclusive 16 minutes of Avatar to a number of press.

The three-and-a-half minute trailer of the film premiered live on November 1, 2009 during a Dallas Cowboys football game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas on the Diamond Vision screen, the world's largest video display, and to TV audiences viewing the game on Fox. It is said to be largest live motion picture trailer viewing in history.[76][77]

The film is heavily promoted in an episode of the Fox Network series Bones in the episode "The Gamer In The Grease" (Season 5, Episode 9). Avatar star Joel David Moore has a recurring role on the program, and is seen in the episode anxiously awaiting the release of the film.[78]

Books

Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora, a 224-page book in the form of a field guide to the film's fictional setting of the planet of Pandora, was released by Harper Entertainment on November 24, 2009.[79] It is presented as a compilation of data collected by the humans about Pandora and the life on it, written by Maria Wilhelm and Dirk Mathison. HarperFestival also released Wilhelm's 48-page James Cameron's Avatar: The Reusable Scrapbook for children.[80] The Art of Avatar: James Cameron's Epic Adventure was released on November 30, 2009 by Abrams Books.[81] The book features detailed production artwork from the film, including production sketches, illustrations by Lisa Fitzpatrick, and film stills. Producer John Landau wrote the foreword, Cameron wrote the epilogue, and director Peter Jackson wrote the preface.

Video games

Main article: James Cameron's Avatar: The Game

Cameron chose Ubisoft Montreal to create an Avatar game for the film in 2007. The filmmakers and game developers collaborated heavily, and Cameron decided to include some of Ubisoft's vehicle and creature designs into the film.[82] James Cameron's Avatar: The Game was released on December 1, 2009,[83] for most home video game consoles (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS), Microsoft Windows and December 8 for PSP. All versions are rated T by the ESRB.

Action figures

Mattel Toys announced in December 2009, that they are creating Avatar action figures.[84][85] Each action figure will be made with a 3D web tag, called an i-TAG, that consumers can scan using a web cam, revealing unique on-screen content that is special to each specific action figure.[84] A series of toys representing six different characters from the film are also being distributed in McDonald's Happy Meals in the USA and Canada.[86]

Release

Avatar premiered in London on December 10, 2009, and was released theatrically worldwide from December 16 – 18.[87] The film was originally set for release on May 22, 2009 during filming,[88] but was pushed back to allow more post-production time, and to also give more time for theatres worldwide to install 3-D projectors.[89] Cameron stated that the film's aspect ratio would be 1.78:1 for 3-D screenings and that a 2.39:1 image would be extracted for 2-D screenings.[90] However, the 1.78:1 aspect ratio is actually exclusive to IMAX 3D screenings while all other projection methods (including digital 3-D) use the 2.39:1 extract.[91] The first photo of the film was released on 14 August 2009,[92] and Empire magazine released exclusive images from the film in its October issue.[93]. The non IMAX 3D version was released using RealD Cinema technology.

IMAX Corporation and Twentieth Century Fox announced that James Cameron's Avatar would open in 178 IMAX theatres in the US on December 18, 2009, simultaneously with the motion picture's premiere in conventional theatres. The IMAX 3D release also opened in 83 IMAX theatres internationally starting on December 16, for a total of 261 theatres, making this the widest IMAX release to date.[94] The previous IMAX theatres record was 231, when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opened up in 161 IMAX theatres in the US, and about 70 international.[95] Avatar was released in a total of 3457 theatres in the US, of which 2032 theatres are running it in 3D. 90% of all advance ticket sales for Avatar were for 3D screenings.[96]

Box office

Avatar earned $3,537,000 from domestic (United States and Canada) midnight screenings, partly due to the fact that it was limited to 2,200 3D screens.[97] The film earned $27 million on its opening day, and $77,025,481 over its opening weekend domestically, making it the second largest December opening ever, behind I Am Legend,[3][14] and the 25th largest national US weekend opening,[3] despite a blizzard which blanketed the East Coast of the United States and reportedly hurt its opening weekend.[10][14][15] Avatar's worldwide gross was an estimated $232,180,000 after three days,[3][15] the ninth largest opening-weekend gross of all time, and the largest for a non-franchise, non-sequel and original film (adjusted for inflation, it would rank second after The Da Vinci Code regarding a non-franchise, non-sequel opening).[3] The film has come to gross $125,943,053 domestically and $255,686,953 internationally, with a worldwide total of $381,630,006.[3]

Before its release, various film critics and fan communities predicted the film would be a significant disappointment at the box office, much like had been thought of Cameron's previous film Titanic (though it later became the highest-grossing film of all time, unadjusted for inflation).[98][99] This criticism ranged from Avatar's film budget, to its concept and use of 3-D "blue cat people".[98] Slate magazine's Daniel Engber complimented the 3-D effects, but also criticized their character aspect for reminding him of certain CGI characters from the Star Wars prequel films and for having the "uncanny valley" effect.[100]

"I think if everybody was embracing the film before the fact, the film could never live up to that expectation. Having that doubt, having it be controversial right now, having people arguing about it, I think is absolutely the healthy place. Have them go with some sense of wanting to find the answer. When they sit down in that movie theatre and the lights go down."
—James Cameron on Avatar's criticism[101]

Box office analysts' opinions differed from much of the Internet criticism about the film. Traditional analysts estimated that the film would be a box office success.[98][102] "The holy grail of 3-D has finally arrived," said Jeff Bock, box-office analyst for Exhibitor Relations. "This is why all these 3-D venues were built: for Avatar. This is the one. The behemoth."[102] The "cautionary estimate" was that Avatar would bring in around $60 million in its opening weekend. Bock felt that the number would fall between $80 million and 100 million, or more than that.[102] Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere quoted a box-office seer who believed Avatar would make about $70 million on its opening weekend.[103] Additionally, analysts believed the film's three-dimensionality would help its box office performance, given that recent 3-D films had been successful.[98]

Cameron said he felt the pressure of the predictions, but that pressure is good for film-makers. "It makes us think about our audiences and what the audience wants," he stated. "We owe them a good time. We owe them a piece of good entertainment."[101] Cameron did not want to preach to the audience, but rather "bring them in" and make sure they have a good time.[101]

Regarding sentiment that Avatar would need repeat business to be a true success, Cameron agreed that sharing is a part of successful films. "When people have an experience that's very powerful in the movie theatre, they want to go share it. They want to grab their friend and bring them, so that they can enjoy it," he said. "They want to be the person to bring them the news that this is something worth having in their life. That's how Titanic worked."[101]

Critical reception

The film received generally positive reviews from film critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 84% of 225 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.4 out of 10. The site's general consensus is that "It might be more impressive on a technical level than as a piece of storytelling, but Avatar reaffirms James Cameron's singular gift for imaginative, absorbing filmmaking."[104] Among the site's notable critics, 94% gave the film a positive write-up, based on a sample of 34.[105] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from film critics, the film is considered to have "universal acclaim", with a rating score of 83 based on 34 reviews.[106]

Film critic Roger Ebert called the film "extraordinary" and gave it four stars out of four.[99] "Watching Avatar, I felt sort of the same as when I saw Star Wars in 1977. That was another movie I walked into with uncertain expectations," he said. "Avatar is not simply a sensational entertainment, although it is that. It's a technical breakthrough."[99] A. O. Scott, in the December 20th episode of At The Movies, also compared viewing the film to the first time he viewed Star Wars. He said of the film's storyline that "the script is a little bit ... obvious, but in a way, that kind of earnest, corniness is part of what made it work; is part of what made the story just be so absorbent".[107] Todd McCarthy of Variety additionally praised the film, stating, "The King of the World sets his sights on creating another world entirely in Avatar, and it's very much a place worth visiting."[108] Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review. "The screen is alive with more action and the soundtrack pops with more robust music than any dozen sci-fi shoot-'em-ups you care to mention," he stated.[109]

Limited disapproval of the film has been focused not on the technical production, but on some alleged underlying political themes. For instance, Armond White of the New York Press disliked what he perceived to be the film's critique of American militarism and industrialism,[110] while The Christian Post lamented that "the American military was pure evil while the Pandoran tribespeople were nature-loving, eco-harmonious, wise Braveheart smurf warriors".[111] Similar sentiments were voiced on Michelle Malkin's conservative themed Hot Air blog, which decried the film as "ardently left", "pro-indigenous native", "anti-corporate", "anti-imperialist", "anti-U.S. Iraq War effort", "anti-U.S.-in-Afghanistan", "anti-Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld" and politically "pure Che Guevara".[112]

In terms of plot, it has been called "the same movie" as Dances with Wolves.[113] In reference to various themes in the plot, parallels have been drawn between the premise of Avatar and that of Poul Anderson's 1957 short story "Call Me Joe", where a paralyzed man uses his mind to remotely control an alien body.[114] Other reviews have compared it to the films FernGully: The Last Rainforest[115] and Pocahontas.[116] Cameron himself acknowledged that the film is thematically similar to classic going-native films such as Dances with Wolves and At Play in the Fields of the Lord.[46]

Awards and nominations

The New York Film Critics Online have honored the film with its Best Picture award.[117] The film also received nine nominations for the Critics' Choice Awards of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, including those for Best Picture and Best Director.[118] St. Louis Film Critics have nominated the film for two of its annual awards — Best Visual Effects and Most Original, Innovative or Creative Film,[119] and the film won both awards.[120] The film was a runner-up for the best Production Design award of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association annual awards.[121] The film also picked up four nominations for the 67th Golden Globe Awards including Best Motion Picture — Drama, Best Director, Best Film Score and Best Film Song.[122] The Austin Film Critics Association and the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association have placed the film on their top ten films of the year lists,[123][124] while Chicago Film Critics Association has nominated the film for its annual Best Cinematography and Best Original Score awards.[125] The Las Vegas Film Critics Society has awarded the film with Best Art Direction award,[126] while Florida Film Critics Circle honored the film with Best Cinematography award.[127] London Film Critics' Circle has nominated the film for its Film of the Year and Director of the Year annual awards.[128] Phoenix Film Critics Society has honored the film with Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Production Design and "Best Visual Effect awards and also included it on its top-ten films of the year list.[129]

The film is considered to be a front-runner for Best Picture at the 82nd Academy Awards due to its strong box-office and critical reception, and reportedly successful screening held for Academy members.[16]

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External links

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James Cameron
1980s
Piranha II: The Spawning (1981) · The Terminator (1984) · Aliens (1986) · The Abyss (1989)
1990s
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) · True Lies (1994) · Titanic (1997)
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Avatar (2009)
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Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) · Point Break (1991) · Strange Days (1995) · Dark Angel (2000–02) · Solaris (2002) · Exodus Decoded (2006) · The Lost Tomb of Jesus (2007)
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