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Avatar (2009 film)

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Avatar
On the upper half of poster are the faces of a man and a blue cat-like alien with yellow eyes, with a giant planet on the background and the text "From the director of Terminator 2 and Titanic" atop the image. Below, is a four-winged animal flying across a landscape with floating islands during sunset, with the title "James Cameron's Avatar", film credits and the release date at the bottom.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJames Cameron
Written byJames Cameron
Produced byJames Cameron
Jon Landau
StarringSam Worthington
Zoe Saldana
Stephen Lang
Michelle Rodriguez
Giovanni Ribisi
Joel David Moore
C. C. H. Pounder
Wes Studi
Laz Alonso
Sigourney Weaver
CinematographyMauro Fiore
Edited byJames Cameron
John Refoua
Stephen E. Rivkin
Music byJames Horner
Production
companies
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release dates
December 10, 2009 (2009-12-10)
(London premiere)
December 18, 2009
(United States)
Running time
162 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$237,000,000[2]
Box office$1,439,375,063[3][4]

Avatar is a 2009 American science fiction epic film written and directed by James Cameron and starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez and Stephen Lang. The film is set in the year 2154 on Pandora, a moon in the Alpha Centauri star system.[5] Humans are engaged in mining Pandora's reserves of a precious mineral, while the Na'vi—a race of indigenous humanoids—resist the colonists' expansion, which threatens the continued existence of the Na'vi and the Pandoran ecosystem. The film's title refers to the genetically engineered bodies used by the film's characters to interact with the Na'vi.[6]

Avatar had been in development since 1994 by Cameron, who wrote an 80-page scriptment for the film.[7] 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.[8][9] While Cameron developed the script, as well as the culture of the Na'vi in early 2006, work on the language had already started in summer 2005 with the help of Paul Frommer, Ph.d.[10][11] Cameron said sequels would be possible if Avatar was successful,[12] and in response to the film's success, confirmed that there will be another two.[13]

The film was released in traditional 2-D, as well as 3-D, RealD 3D, Dolby 3D, and IMAX 3D formats. Avatar is officially budgeted at $237 million;[2] other estimates put the cost at $280–310 million to produce and $150 million for marketing.[14][15][16] 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.[17]

Avatar premiered in London, UK on December 10, 2009, and was released on December 18, 2009 in the US and Canada to critical acclaim and commercial success. It grossed $27 million on its opening day domestically (in the United States and Canada)[18] and $77 million domestically[19] on its opening weekend. It opened two days earlier internationally and grossed $232 million worldwide in its first five days of international release.[20] Within three weeks of its release, with a worldwide gross of over $1 billion, Avatar became the second highest-grossing film of all time worldwide, exceeded only by Cameron's previous film, Titanic.[21]

Plot

In 2154, the RDA corporation is mining Pandora, a lush, Earth-like moon of the planet Polyphemus,[22] in the Alpha Centauri star system.[5] Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) heads the mining operation, employing marines for security. The corporation intends to exploit Pandora's reserves of a valuable mineral called unobtanium. Pandora is inhabited by the Na'vi, a blue-skinned species of sapient humanoids with feline characteristics.[23] Physically much stronger and taller than humans, the Na'vi live in harmony with Nature, worshiping a mother goddess called Eywa.

Pandora's atmosphere is toxic to humans, necessitating the use of breathing masks. Attempting to improve relations with the natives and learn about Pandora's biology, scientists grow Na'vi bodies modified with human DNA, called avatars, that are controlled by genetically-matched, mentally-linked human operators.[24] Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic former marine, replaces his murdered identical twin brother, a scientist trained to be an avatar operator. Doctor Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), the head of the Avatar Program, considers Sully an inadequate replacement for his brother and relegates him to a bodyguard role.

In their avatar forms, Jake escorts Augustine and biologist Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore) into the jungle on a mission to reestablish relations with the Na'vi and end the threat of violence. A predator attacks the group and Jake becomes separated and lost. Forced to survive the night in Pandora's dangerous jungles, he is rescued by Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), a female Na'vi. Neytiri brings Jake to Hometree, which is inhabited by her clan, the Omaticaya. Mo'at (C. C. H. Pounder), a shaman and Neytiri's mother, shows interest in the warrior "Dream-walker", and instructs her daughter to teach Jake their ways. Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), leader of the security forces, enlists Jake to bring him intelligence about the natives that could help RDA negotiate to recover the unobtanium. He promises Jake that he will help him obtain the expensive treatment to restore function to his legs.

At first, Jake delivers key strategic information to Quaritch. Over three months, however, Jake grows close to Neytiri and the Omaticaya and develops strong attachments to Pandora, eroding his loyalty to RDA's agenda. He is initiated as a member of the Omaticaya, and he and Neytiri choose each other as mates. Jake reveals his change of loyalty when he disables a bulldozer as it destroys the tribe's "Tree of Voices". Quaritch disconnects Jake from his avatar and presents Selfridge and Augustine with a video diary in which Jake admits that the Omaticaya will never abandon Hometree. Selfridge is convinced that negotiations will fail and orders Hometree's destruction.

Augustine argues that the destruction of Hometree could affect the bio-botanical neural network that all Pandoran organisms are connected to, and Selfridge gives Jake and Augustine one hour to convince the Na'vi to leave Hometree. When Jake reveals his original mission to the Omaticaya, Neytiri accuses him of betraying them. Jake and Augustine's avatars are taken captive. Quaritch's forces destroy Hometree, killing Eytucan (Wes Studi), Neytiri's father and clan chief, and many others. Jake and Augustine are disconnected from their avatars and detained for treason along with Norm. Trudy Chacón (Michelle Rodriguez), a security force pilot who is disgusted by the violence, breaks them out. During their escape, Quaritch shoots Augustine. Hoping that the Omaticaya can help Augustine, Jake tames a Toruk, a powerful flying beast that only five Na'vi have tamed, to regain their trust. Jake finds the Omaticaya at the sacred Tree of Souls and pleads with Mo'at to heal Augustine. The clan attempts to transplant her "soul" into her avatar, but they are too late and she dies.

With the assistance of Neytiri and Tsu'Tey (Laz Alonso), the new leader of the Omaticaya, Jake assembles thousands of Na'vi from other clans. Jake prays to Eywa to intercede on behalf of the Na'vi in the coming battle. Quaritch, noting the mobilization of Na'vi clans, convinces Selfridge to authorize a preemptive strike on the Tree of Souls. Because it is a center of Na'vi religion and culture, its destruction would leave the Na'vi too demoralized to resist further human encroachment.

As the corporation's security forces attack, the Na'vi retaliate with a strategic advantage but crude weapons. The Na'vi suffer heavy casualties, among them Tsu'Tey and Trudy. Suddenly, the Pandoran wildlife joins the attack on the corporation's forces, overwhelming them. Neytiri interprets this as Eywa answering Jake's prayer. Jake destroys the main bomber before it can reach the Tree of Souls. Quaritch finds the avatar interface pod where Jake's human body is located and attacks it, exposing Jake to Pandora's atmosphere. Neytiri kills Quaritch and saves Jake. With the attack repelled, Neytiri and Jake reaffirm their love as she sees his human body for the first time.

Selfridge and the remaining corporation personnel are expelled from Pandora, while Jake, Norm, and the scientists studying Pandora are allowed to remain. Jake is seen wearing the insignia of the Omaticaya leader. The clan perform the ritual to permanently transfer Jake from his human body into his Na'vi avatar with the aid of the Tree of Souls.The film ends with Jake awakening to start his new life.

Cast and characters

Main article: Fictional universe in Avatar

Humans

  • Sam Worthington as Corporal Jake Sully, the film's protagonist, is a disabled Marine who becomes part of the Avatar Program. His background as a marine helps the Na'vi warriors relate to him. Cameron cast the Australian actor after searching the world for promising young actors, preferring relative unknowns to keep the budget down. Worthington, who was living in his car at the time,[25] auditioned twice early in development,[7] and he has signed on for possible sequels.[26] 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".[27]
  • 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.[28] Weaver dyed her hair red for the part.[29] The character was named "Shipley" at one point, a reference to the character she played in Aliens which was directed by Cameron.[30] Weaver said that Augustine reminded her of Cameron, being "very driven and very idealistic".[31]
  • Michelle Rodriguez as Trudy Chacón, a Marine combat pilot assigned to support the Avatar Program. Cameron had wanted to work with Rodriguez since seeing her in Girlfight.[32]
  • Giovanni Ribisi as Parker Selfridge, the corporate administrator for the RDA mining operation and one of the film's primary antagonists.[33]
  • Joel David Moore as Norm Spellman, an anthropologist[34] who studies plant and nature life as part of the Avatar Program. He arrives on Pandora at the same time as Jake Sully and operates an avatar. Although he is expected to lead the diplomatic contact with the Na'vi, it turns out that Jake has the personality more calculated to win the natives' respect.
  • Stephen Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch, the merciless head of the mining operation's security detail, who serves as the film's primary antagonist. Lang had unsuccessfully auditioned for a role in Cameron's Aliens (1986), but the director remembered Lang and sought him for Avatar.[32] Michael Biehn, who was in Aliens, read the script and watched some of the 3D footage with Cameron,[35] but was ultimately not cast in the role.
  • Dileep Rao as Dr. Max Patel, a scientist who works in the Avatar Program.[36]
  • Matt Gerald as Corporal Lyle Wainfleet, a marine working under Colonel Quaritch.[37]

Na'vi

  • Zoe Saldana as Neytiri, princess of the Omaticaya, the Na'vi clan central to the story, who is attracted to Jake because of his bravery.[38] The character, like all the Na'vi, was created using performance capture, and is entirely computer generated.[39] Saldana has also signed on for potential sequels.[26]
  • C. C. H. Pounder as Mo'at, the Omaticaya's spiritual leader, Neytiri's mother, and consort to clan leader Eytucan.[40]
  • Laz Alonso as Tsu'tey, heir to the chieftainship of the tribe, and Neytiri's betrothed, prior to the events of the film.
  • Wes Studi as Eytucan, the Omaticaya's clan leader, 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 80-page scriptment for Avatar[7] and he reportedly wrote it in just two weeks.[41][42] 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.[8] 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".[43] 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.[9] However, Cameron felt that the technology had not caught up with the story and vision that he intended to tell. He decided to concentrate on making documentaries and refining the technology for the next few years.

In June 2005, Cameron was announced to be working on a project tentatively titled Project 880, concurrently with another project, Battle Angel.[44] By December, Cameron said that he planned to film Battle Angel first for a mid 2007 release, and to film Project 880 for a 2009 release.[45] 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.[46] Later that February, Cameron revealed that Project 880 was "a retooled version of Avatar", a film that he had tried to make years earlier,[47] citing the technological advances in the creation of the computer-generated characters Gollum, King Kong and Davy Jones.[7] Cameron had chosen Avatar over Battle Angel after completing a five-day camera test in the previous year.[48]

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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.[49] From January to April 2006, Cameron worked on the script. He developed a culture for the Na'vi, including their language, which was created by Dr. Paul Frommer, a linguist and Director of the Center for Management Communication at USC.[7] 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.[11]

Jodie S. Holt, professor of plant physiology at UC Riverside, met with Sigourney Weaver and set designers to talk about the way botanists would study and sample plants, but also about the way to explain the communication between plants and the Na'vi.[50]

Wikinews has related news:

In July 2006, Cameron announced that he would film Avatar for a mid 2008 release and planned to begin principal photography with an established cast by February 2007.[51] The following August, the visual effects studio Weta Digital signed on to help Cameron produce Avatar.[52] Stan Winston, who had collaborated with Cameron in the past, joined Avatar to help with the film's designs.[53] 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.[54]

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".[55] 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."[26]

Estimates put the cost of the film at about $280–310 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.[14][15][16] 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]

Cameron stated that if Avatar was successful, he hoped to make two sequels to the film.[12] In a 2009 interview, he stated that the story arc he developed is large enough to cover two more films.[56] Cameron also mentioned that the sequel's story arc would begin after the events of the first film and that it would continue to follow the characters Jake and Neytiri.[57]

Themes and inspirations

A blue humanoid alien wearing battle paint, holding a futuristic weapon.
Avatar has vivid scenes of combat, but is also a film about peace.[58] In this scene, Jake Sully flies into battle to save his newly adopted tribe.

Avatar is primarily an action-adventure journey of self-discovery, in the context of imperialism and biodiversity.[59] Cameron has said that Avatar shares themes with the films 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 culture he was initially fighting against.[60]

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. In 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".[6]

The look of the Na'vi, the characters native to the world depicted in the film, was inspired by a dream that Cameron's mother had long before he wrote Avatar. She dreamt about a 12-foot-tall blue woman and he thought "that's kind of a cool image". So in 1976 or 1977, he put into his first screenplay a planet with a native population that was 12 feet tall and blue, and "gorgeous", which later became the basis for the Na'vi in Avatar.[59] Also, Cameron said that he just liked the color blue and its conceptual connection to the Hindu deities. [61]

For the love story between characters Jake and Neytiri, Cameron applied a star-crossed love theme, and acknowledged its similarity to the pairing of Jack and Rose from his film Titanic. Both couples come from radically different cultures that are contemptuous of their relationship and are forced to choose sides between the competing communities. "They both fall in love with each other, but they need to fight side-by-side," said Cameron, "and so there's that kind of requirement to let the other person go in order to do what you need to do, which is kind of interesting."[62] Though Cameron felt Jake and Neytiri do not fall in love right away, Worthington and Saldana, the characters' portrayers, disagreed. Cameron said Worthington and Saldana "had a great chemistry" during filming.[62]

A grey mountain in the middle of a forest.
Pandora's floating "Hallelujah Mountains" were inspired by the Chinese Huang Shan mountains.[63]

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".[64] 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".[64]

Cameron has acknowledged that Avatar implicitly criticizes America's War in Iraq and the impersonal nature of mechanized warfare in general.[65] 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." In a later interview, however, Cameron said, "The film is definitely not anti-American."[66] A scene in the film portrays the violent destruction of the towering Na'vi Hometree, which collapses in flames after a missile attack, coating the landscape with ash and floating embers. When asked about the scene's visual resemblance to the events of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, Cameron said he had been "surprised at how much it did look like September 11".[65]

Filming and effects

"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[67]

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."[68] To create the world of Pandora as seen in the film, it required over a petabyte of digital storage.[69]

Cameron planned to continue developing the special effects for Avatar, which he hoped would be released in mid-2009. He also gave fellow directors Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson a chance to test the new technology.[55] Spielberg and George Lucas were also able to visit the set to watch Cameron direct with the equipment.[70]

The left image shows the blue cat-like alien Neyitiri shouting. The right image shows the actress who portrays her, Zoe Saldana, with motion-capture dots across her face and a small camera in front of her eyes.
Cameron pioneered a specially designed camera built into a 6-inch boom that allowed the facial expressions of the actors to be captured and digitally recorded for the animators to use later.[71]

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 fitted with a tiny camera positioned in front of the actors' faces; the information collected about their facial expressions and eyes is then transmitted to 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.[72]

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.[73] 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,[74] 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.[75] According to Cameron, the film is composed of 60% computer-generated elements and 40% live action, as well as traditional miniatures.[76] Motion-capture photography would last 31 days at the Hughes Aircraft stage in Playa Vista, Los Angeles, California.[48][77] In October, Cameron was scheduled to shoot live-action in New Zealand[32] for another 31 days.[7]

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 was replicated on-screen with photorealistic CGI.[78] More than a thousand people worked on the production.[77] Cameron sent the cast of Avatar off to the jungle for bonding boot-camp exercises before he started shooting the film.[79]

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.[80] Horner recorded parts of the score with a small chorus singing in the alien language Na'vi in March 2008.[81] He has also worked with Wanda Bryant, an ethnomusicologist, to create a music culture for the alien race.[82] The first scoring sessions were planned to take place in Spring 2009.[83] 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.[84]

Marketing

A man in a blue jacket, with a gray shirt underneath, in front of a microphone. The eye logo for the San Diego Comic-Con is seen in the background.
Cameron at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con promoting the film.

Cameron, producer Jon Landau, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, and Sigourney Weaver appeared at a panel, moderated by Tom Rothman, at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con on July 23. Twenty-five minutes of footage was screened[85] in Dolby 3D.[86] Weaver and Cameron appeared at additional panels to promote the film, speaking on the 23rd[87] and 24th[88] 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.[89]

The 129 second trailer was released online on August 20, 2009.[90] The new 210-second trailer was premiered in theatres with on October 23, 2009, then soon after premiered online on Yahoo! on October 29, 2009, to positive reviews.[91][92] An extended version in IMAX 3D received overwhelmingly positive reviews.[90] 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.[93][94] The teaser has been among the most viewed trailers in the history of film marketing, reaching the 1st place of all trailers viewed on Apple.com with 4 million views.[95] 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.[96]

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 the largest live motion picture trailer viewing in history.[97][98]

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.[99] A week prior to American release, Zoe Saldana promoted the film on Adult Swim when she was interviewed by an animated Space Ghost.

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.[100] 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.[101] The Art of Avatar: James Cameron's Epic Adventure was released on November 30, 2009 by Abrams Books.[102] 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.

In a 2009 interview, Cameron said that he planned to write a novel version of Avatar some time after the film released.[103]

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.[104] James Cameron's Avatar: The Game was released on December 1, 2009,[105] for most home video game consoles (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, iPhone), Microsoft Windows and December 8 for PSP.

Action figures

Mattel Toys announced in December 2009 that it would be introducing a line of Avatar action figures.[106][107] 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.[106] A series of toys representing six different characters from the film are also being distributed in McDonald's Happy Meals in the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Venezuela and mainland China.[108]

Release

Avatar premiered in London on December 10, 2009, and was released theatrically worldwide from December 16–18.[109] The film was originally set for release on May 22, 2009 during filming,[110] but was pushed back to allow more post-production time, and to also give more time for theatres worldwide to install 3-D projectors.[111] 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.[112] The first photo of the film was released on August 14, 2009,[113] and Empire magazine released exclusive images from the film in its October issue.[114]

Internationally, Avatar opened between December 16 and 18, on a total of 14,604 screens in 106 territories, of which 3,671 are running it in 3D (56% of the first weekend gross).[115][116]

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.[117] 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.[118] Avatar was released in a total of 3,457 theatres in the US, of which 2,032 theatres are running it in 3D. In total 90% of all advance ticket sales for Avatar were for 3D screenings.[119]

Box office

Avatar earned $3,537,000 from midnight screenings domestically, i.e. in the United States and Canada, partly due to the fact that it was limited to 2,200 3D screens.[120] The film earned $27 million on its opening day, and $77 million over its opening weekend domestically, making it the second largest December opening ever, behind I Am Legend,[3][19] and the 25th largest national United States weekend opening,[3] despite a blizzard which blanketed the East Coast of the United States and reportedly hurt its opening weekend.[14][19][20] International markets generating opening weekend tallies of at least $10 million were Russia ($20.8 million), France ($20.3 million), the UK ($14.1 million), Germany ($13.2 million), Australia ($11.9 million), South Korea ($11.4 million) and Spain ($10.9 million).[115] Avatar's worldwide gross was an estimated $232,180,000 after five days,[3][20] the ninth largest opening-weekend gross of all time, and the largest for a non-franchise, non-sequel and original film.[3] The film's revenues decreased by a mere 1.8% in its second weekend in domestic markets, earning $75,617,183 to remain in first place at the box office.[121] The film broke The Dark Knight 's record for the biggest second weekend of all time.[122] The film experienced another small decrease in revenue in its third weekend, dropping 9.4% to $68,490,688 domestically, once again remaining #1 at the box office.[123] This breaks Spider-Man 's long standing record of $45,036,912 as the highest grossing third weekend of all time.[124] Avatar continued its record breaking streak, leading the box office domestically for a fourth consecutive frame, with an all time fourth weekend high of $50,306,217 (smashing the previous fourth weekend record of $28,716,310 held by Titanic).[125] On the 19th day of the film's international release, it crossed the $1 billion mark worldwide making it the fastest film ever to do so.[126] After only 28 days of domestic release, Avatar has grossed $450 million, and $974 million in other territories after 30 days of international release, with a worldwide total of $1.424 billion.[3][4] This now makes the film the second-highest grossing of all time worldwide;[21] it is the 50th-highest grossing film of all-time worldwide when adjusted for inflation.[127] It is also currently the fourth highest-grossing film of all time domestically (unadjusted for inflation).[128]

Internationally, Avatar has made $974,182,673 to date, accounting for 68.4% of its total worldwide gross.[129] It has already become the highest-grossing film of all time in Australia, Russia, Spain and Vietnam.[126] Upon its release in China, the film set records there for the highest opening week and single day grosses of all time.[126] Additionally, Avatar has surpassed Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen as the highest-grossing film released in 2009 in the United States,[130] and became the first film to gross over $100 million worldwide in specialized IMAX viewings.[131]

Performance analysis

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).[132] This criticism ranged from Avatar's film budget, to its concept and use of 3-D "blue cat people".[132] 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.[133]

"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[134]

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.[135][132] "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."[135] 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.[135] Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere quoted a box-office seer who believed Avatar would make about $70 million on its opening weekend.[136] Additionally, analysts believed the film's three-dimensionality would help its box office performance, given that recent 3-D films had been successful.[132]

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."[134] Cameron did not want to preach to the audience, but rather "bring them in" and make sure they have a good time.[134] Though he felt Avatar would appeal to everyone and that the film could not afford to have a target demographic,[134] he especially wanted hard-core science-fiction fans to see it. "If I can just get 'em in the damn theater, the film will act on them in the way it's supposed to, in terms of taking them on an amazing journey and giving them this rich emotional experience," stated Cameron.[137]

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."[134]

Since the film's release and unusually strong box office performance, it has been debated as the one film capable of surpassing Titanic's worldwide gross, and its seemingly surreal strength has perplexed box office analysts.[138][139][140][141] "Most films are considered to be healthy if they manage anything less than a 50% drop from their first weekend to their second. Dipping just 11% from the first to the third is unheard of," relayed Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office analysis for Hollywood.com. "This is just unprecedented," he said. "I had to do a double take. I thought it was a miscalculation."[138] Though other films in recent years have been cited as contenders for surpassing Titanic, most recently The Dark Knight,[141] Avatar is considered the first film with a genuine chance at doing so, and its numbers being aided by higher ticket prices for 3D screenings[139] has failed to explain its thorough success to box office analysts. "What's also impressive is that Avatar made it through the holiday season in first place three consecutive weekends with a number of other highly competitive titles standing in its way," stated Dergarabedian. "Everyone stayed out of the way for Dark Knight. But nobody got out of the way for Avatar."[138]

Dergarabedian and other analysts predicted that second place for the all-time box office gross would be guaranteed for the film, but first place is not as certain. "...[I]t's a big, $800 million leap from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King to Titanic," Dergarabedian said. "Today's films flame out much faster than they did when Titanic was released."[138] Brandon Gray, president of Box Office Mojo, stated, "It certainly has a chance to [beat Titanic]. But it's too early to say because it's only played during the holidays." He said, "While Avatar may beat Titanic's revenue record, it will be tough, and the film is unlikely to surpass Titanic in attendance. Ticket prices were about $3 cheaper in the late 1990s."[138] In December, Cameron had stated, "I don't think it's realistic to try to topple Titanic off its perch. Some pretty good movies have come out in the last few years. Titanic just struck some kind of chord."[142]

Though analysts have been unable to pinpoint Avatar's success to one primary factor, explanations for the film's success have been given. Analysts state that January is historically "the dumping ground for the year's weakest films" and that this has also applied to 2010.[143] Cameron himself said he decided to open the film in December so that it would not have much, if any, competition from there into January.[134] Titanic capitalized on the same January predictability, and earned most of its gross in 1998.[143] Additionally, Avatar established itself as a "must-see" event. Gray said, "...At this point, people who are going to see Avatar are going to see Avatar and would even if the slate was strong."[143] Marketing the film as a "novelty factor" also helped. Fox positioned the film as a cinematic event, that if you want to see this film, you must see it in the theatres. "It's really hard to sell the idea that you can have the same experience at home," stated David Mumpower, an analyst at BoxOfficeProphets.com.[143] The "Oscar buzz" surrounding the film and international viewings also helped. "Two-thirds of Titanic's haul was earned overseas, and Avatar is tracking similarly... Avatar opened in 106 markets globally and was No. 1 in all of them" and the markets "such as Russia, where Titanic saw modest receipts in 1997 and 1998, are white-hot today" with "more screens and moviegoers" than before.[143] Films in 3-D accumulated $1.3 billion in 2009, according to Variety, "a threefold increase over 2008 and more than 10 percent of the total 2009 box-office gross". The increased ticket price—an average of $2 to $3 per ticket in most markets— has helped the film.[143] Likewise, Entertainment Weekly attributed the film's success to 3-D glasses, but also to its "astronomic word-of-mouth". Not only do some theaters charge up to $18.50 for IMAX tickets, but "the buzz" created by the new technology is the possible cause for sold-out screenings.[144]

Analysts state that the various explanations cannot take away from Avatar's box office performance. "What makes Avatar remarkable is that it has no basis in previously established material. The movie might be derivative of many movies in its story and themes," said Gray, "but it had no direct antecedent like the other top-grossing films: Titanic (historical events), the Star Wars movies (an established film franchise), or The Lord of the Rings (literature). It was a tougher sell, which makes its achievement more impressive."[143]

Critical reception

The film received generally positive reviews from film critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 82% of 246 professional critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.4 out of 10.[145] Among Rotten Tomatoes's Top Critics, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio programs,[146] the film holds an overall approval rating of 94%, based on a sample of 35 reviews.[147] 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."[145] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from film critics, the film has a rating score of 84 based on 35 reviews.[148]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called the film "extraordinary" and gave it four stars out of four. "Watching Avatar, I felt sort of the same as when I saw Star Wars in 1977," he said. Like Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings, the film "employs a new generation of special effects".[149] A. O. Scott of At The Movies also compared viewing the film to the first time he viewed Star Wars. He said "the script is a little bit ... obvious" but that "is part of what made it work".[150] Todd McCarthy of Variety praised the film. "The King of the World sets his sights on creating another world entirely in Avatar, and it's very much a place worth visiting."[151] 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.[152] Rolling Stone film critic Peter Travers praised the film, giving it 3.5 out of 4 stars and in his print review wrote, "It extends the possibilities of what movies can do. Cameron's talent may just be as big as his dreams."[153] Richard Corliss of TIME Magazine stated, "Embrace the movie — surely the most vivid and convincing creation of a fantasy world ever seen in the history of moving pictures."[154] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times felt the film has "powerful" visual accomplishments but "flat dialogue" and "obvious characterization".[155] James Berardinelli, film critic for ReelViews, praised the film and its story, giving it 4 out of 4 stars he wrote, "In 3D, it's immersive - but the traditional film elements - story, character, editing, theme, emotional resonance, etc. - are presented with sufficient expertise to make even the 2D version an engrossing 2 1/2-hour experience."[156]

Armond White of the New York Press wrote that Cameron used villainous American characters to misrepresent facets of militarism, capitalism, and imperialism.[157][158] Bolivia's first indigenous president, Evo Morales, praised Avatar for its "profound show of resistance to capitalism and the struggle for the defence of nature".[159] Russell D. Moore in The Christian Post concluded that propaganda exists in the film and stated, "If you can get a theater full of people in Kentucky to stand and applaud the defeat of their country in war, then you've got some amazing special effects."[160] Adam Cohen of The New York Times was more positive, calling the film's anti-imperialist message "a 22nd-century version of the American colonists vs. the British, India vs. the Raj, or Latin America vs. United Fruit".[161] Ross Douthat of The New York Times opined that the film is "Cameron’s long apologia for pantheism" which "has been Hollywood's religion of choice for a generation now".[162] Annalee Newitz of io9 concluded that Avatar is another film that has the recurring "fantasy about race" where "some white guy" becomes the "most awesome" member of a non-white culture.[163]

In terms of similar plot, film critic Ty Burr of the Boston Globe called it "the same movie" as Dances with Wolves.[164] Parallels to the concept and use of an avatar were in Poul Anderson's 1957 short story Call Me Joe, where a paralyzed man uses his mind to remotely control an alien body.[165][166] Other reviews have compared it to the films FernGully: The Last Rainforest[167] and Pocahontas.[168] NPR's Morning Edition has compared the film to a montage of tropes, with one friend of an editor stating that Avatar was made by mixing a bunch of film scripts in a blender.[169] In a similar vein, columnist David Brooks describes the story as "oft-repeated". In this trope, he stated, "a manly young adventurer ... goes into the wilderness in search of thrills and profit" but finds the native people of the wilderness "noble and spiritual and pure. And so ... emerges as their Messiah, leading them on a righteous crusade against his own rotten civilization".[170] Cameron acknowledged that the film is thematically similar to such classic "going-native" films as Dances with Wolves and At Play in the Fields of the Lord.[60] The various interpretations of the film led Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune to label it the "season's Rorschach blot".[171]

The movie blog /Film accumulated a list of quotes about Avatar from fourteen writers and directors in Hollywood. From Steven Spielberg, "The most evocative and amazing science-fiction movie since Star Wars." Frank Marshall wrote, "Avatar is audacious and awe inspiring. It's truly extraordinary". Richard Kelly called the film "amazing". John August termed it a "master class". Michael Moore recommended, "Go see Avatar, a brilliant movie [for] our times." The only negative reaction in the list was from Duncan Jones, "It's not in my top three Jim Cameron films. ... at what point in the film did you have any doubt what was going to happen next?"[172]

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards and honors received by Avatar

The New York Film Critics Online have honored the film with its Best Picture award.[173] 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.[174] St. Louis Film Critics have nominated the film for two of its annual awards—Best Visual Effects and Most Original, Innovative or Creative Film,[175] and the film won both awards.[176] The film was a runner-up for the best Production Design award of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association annual awards.[177] 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.[178]

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,[179][180] while Chicago Film Critics Association has nominated the film for its annual Best Cinematography and Best Original Score awards.[181] The Las Vegas Film Critics Society has awarded the film with Best Art Direction award,[182] and the Florida Film Critics Circle honored the film with Best Cinematography award.[183] London Film Critics' Circle has nominated the film for its Film of the Year and Director of the Year annual awards.[184] 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.[185] The Online Film Critics Society has nominated the film for Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Editing awards.[186] The film was also nominated by the Producers Guild of America for its Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures.[187] James Cameron has been named as one of the 2009 Nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film awarded by the Directors Guild of America.[188]

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.[189]

Future

James Cameron recently stated that there are storylines set in place that could lead to future Avatar installments.[190] He said that he had more than one film planned from the start, and even kept scenes in Avatar that led to the sequel. "The CG [computer graphic] plants and trees and creatures and the musculo-skeletal rigging of the main characters - that all takes an enormous amount of time to create. It'd be a waste not to use it again."

Sam Worthington has signed on to reprise his role as Jake Sully in future sequels.[190] As for other cast members returning, actor Stephen Lang, who played Colonel Miles Quaritch, the main antagonist of Avatar, thinks he could make a return: "You think those two arrows in my chest are going to stop me from coming back?" Lang told Entertainment Weekly, "Nothing's over so long as they've got my DNA."[190]

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  190. ^ a b c [1]}

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