Movies

Avatar is an exclusive movie fueled by imagination and fantasy, executed perfectly by a team of talented artists, designers, scientists and technologists. The director of the movie James Cameron states that Avatars design is to mix the familiar and the alien in a unique way.  The film is set in 2154. The title Avatar is a subconscious reference to Hindu mythology. One life ends where another begins. At the end of the film one character moves from the world of science fiction to that of fantasy. It is Camerons original story of genetically altered life forms. Avatar is a story about the battle between fantasy and science fiction. Fantasy triumphs at the end.

Science makes its absolute presence in the movie and is obvious through the Valkyrie shuttle and the Samson utilitarian vehicle designed impressively. The biological vision of Cameron is reflected in each and every frame of the movie and especially through the flora and fauna in the moon. Avatar amplifies the fact of how mechanical warfare is destructive in nature.

The bio-lab where the incubator tubes are present are given due attention and this tells us about the professionalism of the movie makers.

Pandora, a distant moon of the Alpha Centauri has been imagined creatively and shown spectacularly evoking splendid memories in audience. The audience have a real feel of the star system that is 4.4 billion light years away from earth. Virtualization of Pandora is the greatest effort of James Camerons 3D team.

Pandora is spectacular with thick forest, myth, spirituality surrounding the aliens Navi. The Navis connection to their living environment is religious.

The computer generated imagery could not perfectly represent human expressions for long in the film industry.  Avatar is a movie first of its kind to bridge the gap between computer generated imagery and human expressions. This is a giant leap in technology and the credit goes to Cameron for developing an image based facial performance. This has given the characters, especially the Navis (the aliens) a chance to convey their expressions thereby giving an artistic touch to the characters.
When many movies are struggling to convince the audience with CGI, Cameron had made it a successful venture. Unless told, it is very difficult to differentiate CG-generated imagery from photo-realistic one in Avatar.  In other words, the animation renderings in Avatar have been transformed into photo-real images. This makes the audience believe that the animated images are actors in makeup.  The academy award winner Richard Taylor and his team are behind this success. The creation of Navis is fascinating for the audience to watch every movement of them in a surreal atmosphere. The characters in Pandora can move, behave and convey emotions through facial expressions in a way no other characters in any other movie have achieved so far. All these characters in Avatar are CG created characters and so the groundbreaking technical achievement deserves great praise.

Clarity and precision have taken shape in Avatar depicting a new evolution in technical development. The advanced SD fusion camera successfully merged live action scenes and CG scenes.  Avatar is the first movie in which a unique way of mixing 3D and CG technology has been handled. This invention of virtual camera and simulation camera allowed Cameron to direct virtual sceneries on Pandora the same way he would a live action scene.

One has to understand the fact that science and technology alone cannot represent heartrending scenes in a movie. Having experienced this, Cameron has rightly imbued life into the movie by appointing renowned artists like Rob Stromberg, Wayne Barlowe, Ryan Church, etc. for preparing the script and commentary. The script and language play a vital role in giving an artistic touch to the movie. The language spoken by Naavi humanoid tribe is the result of many years of research by linguists to make it more realistic. The character names, the names of animals, the sound, grammar and syntax also make the Navi tribe more realistic. Ultimately, it is the artist behind technology that makes the images in the movie so remarkable.

Avatar is a movie so creative that it transcends cultural barriers and captures a unique place in the minds of audience. It is a world we have never seen before. It is a first step on the new world. The movie will be remembered for its special effects. The characters in the movie are passionate enough to move the audience. Both the hero and the heroine running in the forest, the perfect ambience, the secret tree, signs from Eywah, the spirited animals, eye catching mountains, the indigenous peoples deep connection to the forest, the network of energy borrowed, etc are difficult to describe to in words. One has to experience the effect in the theater.

The mysterious and awe inspiring scenes shot in bioluminescent forests and fluorescent foliate are truly magical in the hands of Cameron. In fact, precision is the watchword he would have had in mind while making the movie. Right from introducing Tyrannosaurus like behemoth to dragon-horse-eagle hybrid, Cameroon had vividly researched along with his teammates for years before making the movie.

The rich scenes in the movie include an auspicious sign from the Navi deity Eywah to indicate Jake must become one among them. This scene is shot in a reverend backdrop and surreal atmosphere. The artistic flavor is distinguishable in such scenes. Without James Horner for his score of music, the totality of these scenes could not be possible. The British singer Leona Lewis is also worth mentioning for her song I See You. Jake connects spiritually with the environment of Pandora and his love for Neytiri is quiet convincing. The heros opposing human interest turns the story to give more impetus. Cameron knows the art of story telling and he clearly satisfied the audience.

Altogether, Avatar is a combination of technology, art, science fiction, adventure and creativity in an unseen world of marvel.

When we talk of precision in Avatar, it could be possible only through mammoth research to set the standard of Pandora  the floating mountains, the usage of hair to communicate with animals like Banshees. The importance of hair for Navis is well explained - the delicate and sensitive tendrils are used to communicate with different plants and animals. The imagination of a dire horse with six legs is also acceptable. The Home tree that is more than 1066 feet in diameter is simply ecstatic. This is larger than any tree on the Earth. The wildlife all of a sudden joins the Navi in the attack against the human forces. This is the answer for the prayer by the hero to Eywah.

The audience wants to enjoy the stories in the best visual experience possible. The screenwriters understood the 3D and created the story with depth. 3D technology is more like a new spice to be wisely used in film industry and it affects each and every step of moviemaking. Technology is behind the success of Avatar. Avatar was shot using a high definition three dimensional camera that was developed for six years by Cameroon. The special effects expert Vince Pace also added to the success of the movie.

Cameron postponed the release of the movie since the technology he was aiming to achieve his vision not available then. This clearly shows that the movie Avatar could not have been possible had it not been for the invention of new technologies.

The movie cost about 300 million. The film became a box office hit surpassing Titanic in revenue collection. The movie won three academy awards  best cinematography, best visual effects and best art direction in the year 2009-10.