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Here, you can find pictures, movie trivia, and everything there is to know about Pandora and all of it's inhabitants.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Why we LOVE Avatar



An eloquent young man, Preston Mitchell, the author of the article below, takes a position in defense of James Cameron's world of Pandora. A wonderful must-read for Avatar lover's who might find themselves, and the object of their desires, challenged. Enjoy....
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I’m gonna use some words to chime in on why I love Avatar so much. Sure, the strong minority who thinks it’s overrated really despises the legacy it’ll still have in 10 or 20 years but us Avatar lovers keep loving this movie because it’s a great experience for us. Sure, the story isn’t original but what is anymore? What is Toy Story but a series of buddy movies told with toys? What are superhero classics like Iron Man all but simple origin stories told with a title-specific superhero each time? What is Love Actually but a whole bunch of romantic comic subplots jumbled together in one film?
I love Avatar just as much as I love these aforementioned modern classics.
First off, the criticisms involving Pocahontas and Dances With Wolves are poorly cast. Pocahontas is mainly a love story where people from two different tribes meet and fall in love. Dances with Wolves is mainly a story about a soldier being exiled to a Civil War post where he finds an Indian tribe and befriends them. While Avatar shares elements with both of those stories, people tend to overlook that James Cameron took the inspirations from Lean’s cinematic masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia, works like John Carter of Mars, and Apocalypse Now. If you wanna debate me, look this up. He’s stated these in numerous interviews, and he even went back to his own well - borrowing from his own masterpieces Aliens and the Terminator films. Moreover, Dances with Wolves is every bit as derivative - borrowing from some of the same influences this does. What does that tell you?
Whether or not you’re tired of seeing this story is fine, just don’t knock the fans for finding this predictable story told well. This brings me to the experience of Avatar - which is what keeps us fans coming back to it again and again.
Cameron didn’t spend $300 billion trying to copy other people’s work solely for commerical success. He wanted to take his audience on an adventure throughout another world, and make a universal allegory for spirituality, militarism, and finding a world that’s radically different from where you came… but you belonged to all along. He made a film about Jake Sully’s journey and moral and physical challenges he faced exploring Pandora while finally finding himself assimilating to it. Avatar works for us because this is a story that anyone can identify with. And when you’re playing towards the masses with a science fiction film delivering a world as rich as Pandora - your core story needs to be simple for the audience. It’s a decades-old axiom that works for every blockbuster. Inception worked because at its core - it’s a heist thriller - despite the jibberjab going on about its original universe throwing off and confusing mainstream viewers at points. Avatar is no less entertaining and cerebral.
People continue to love this film despite its haters because everything around that unoriginal story is wholly original. The planet of Pandora is one so multi-faceted and clearly detailed that it speaks volumes to the work ethic Cameron put into making his true passion project. The very fact that Pandora orbits two moons and has substantially less gravity than Earth gives the planet a rich bioluminenscence that was utilized well by Cameron’s non-gimmicky 3D - which was more about exploring Pandora than exploiting its jumpier aspects for a cheap buck.
Plus, it’s a rare mainstream science fiction film that dared to get as close to science fact as possible; which I’ve verified with a lot of other science buffs in my high school (both teachers and straight-A students). Pandora’s biology is in part from the lack of an Earthly atmosphere - therefore much of its indigenous life is large monsters on the bottom of the surface and its tetrapod species - the Na’vi - are more closely related to these animals than their human counterparts. Above all else, the unobtainium that drives the plot all along is what keeps Pandora floating in space beside the moons. As you can see, the Avatar universe is one that looked and felt like one a decade in the making.
Most importantly, that story was a thrilling and entertaining one. Despite some of his dialogue coming off as corny, the incredible Stephen Lang delivered as Colonel Quaritch - easily one of my favorite villains in a sci-fi film. He’s nothing but a nasty, scheming militarist who believes in his duty at all costs - and I absolutely love every minute that guy chews up the scenery. In addition, the protagonists in the film gave solid performances as well, including the actors they chose for the Na’vi. We fell in love with Zoe Saldana earlier that year in Star Trek, but we all went goo-goo retarded for her here because they finally nailed the emotive eyes of the Na’vi - something that Robert Zemeckis could never quite achieve despite his experimentations with performance capture.
James Cameron made a thrilling adventure film that took its audience on a ride. People kept coming back to it again and again to relive this emotional yet gut-busting experience. It’s not some Dances with Wolves facismile or some racial nudging flick about while guilt - it’s the story of one man who finds his life reinvigorated by the planet he came to betray. And once we come to realize that this story is being told as a truly epic one - we’ve come to accept its epicness; not just in scope, but in pure heart and emotion.
Lastly, if you walked into this film or watched this film on home video waiting to be impressed… you watched it for all the wrong reasons. Great science fiction is about giving us riveting stories via something we’ve never seen before. I honestly don’t believe that Avatar being spoken of along with the likes of 2001, Aliens, The Thing, and The Matrix is a real stretch. All five of these films are life-changing science fiction that managed to be entertaining while offering us a whole new experience from a man whose explored places, environments, and oceans we only dreamed of trekking through as children.
That man is James Cameron. And I’ve loved every movie he’s done - including Avatar. I have no problem with you not liking Avatar, just make sure you check your own faves before you begin deriding on everyone elses. Thank you.


Original Post courtesy of Preston Mitchell, who runs a film critique blog as good as anything spewed by Roger or Ebert.

Check out his blog at: http://presdaddy.tumblr.com/post/6113733517/mad-love-for-avatar

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Protect Uncontacted Tribes of the Rainforest




http://www.uncontactedtribes.org/

The pictures were taken by the Brazilian government's Indian Affairs Department and released by the NGO Survival International as part of an effort to protect the tribe. They say that the tribe's survival is in serious jeopardy due to an influx of illegal loggers that may have pushed them across the border from neighboring Peru.

The photos show large vegetable gardens where the tribe grow fruit and vegetables; manioc, maize, sweet potato, pumpkin, peanuts, papaya, and bananas can all be identified. They also plant cotton which is spun and woven for skirts. The men have cotton waist bands and some have small head dresses. The men carry bows and arrows for hunting.

Survival's Director Stephen Corry said 'The illegal loggers will destroy this tribe. It's vital that the Peruvian government stop them before time runs out. The people in these photos are self-evidently healthy and thriving. What they need from us is their territory protected, so that they can make their own choices about their future.'




Learn more about the uncontacted tribes of Brazil

Learn more about the uncontacted tribes of Peru

more after the jump!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

James Cameron & Cirque de Soleil



Cirque du Soleil, James Cameron (Titanic, Avatar), and Andrew Adamson (Shrek, The Chronicles of Narnia), in association with Reel FX Entertainment, announced today a partnership designed to develop and produce immersive theatrical 3D projects inspired by the unique creative universe of Cirque du Soleil.

Initiated by Cirque du Soleil, the new 3D motion picture experiences will combine the creative visions of Cameron and Adamson to capture and expand the live production experience to an art form beyond the imagination. The partnership brings together the best creative minds in 3D technology, creative storytelling and live performance.

The first project to stem from this partnership is currently in production. This first film includes original visuals and a story written by the project's director, Andrew Adamson. James Cameron will Executive Produce, and bring his unique 3D expertise to the project. Reel FX Entertainment, led by Ed Jones and Cary Granat, is the production partner along with Cirque du Soleil Images. Both Jones and Granat have worked previously with Cameron and Adamson. Aron Warner, Adamson's partner at Strange Weather Films, will also produce and is playing a key role in the project. Warner has also worked previously with Cameron.

The yet-to-be-named film is based on a very simple creative premise:

There are worlds beyond dreams, illusion and imagination, where human beings are capable of anything. Where love rules, and everything your heart yearns for is beautifully, incredibly real.

"Shooting with the Cirque du Soleil team has been one of the most enjoyable experiences of my professional life. For years I've been a fan, both of their celebration of human physical performance and for their wild imagination in the designs of characters, costumes, music and unparalleled theatrical staging. They've built a global brand, and it's a unique opportunity for me, and my 3D partner Vince Pace, to bring the Cirque du Soleil experience to a world wide audience through the magic of 3D cinema. The images we've been shooting are stunning, and I know Andrew Adamson will weave them into a transporting, dreamlike narrative which will mesmerize audiences of all ages, around the world," said James Cameron.

Andrew Adamson commented, "Cirque du Soleil has always inspired me with their window into the balance between beauty and danger; art and technology; gravity and unbelievable physical ability. Bringing that to the screen in 3D is a perfect synergy between an art form and a medium - a chance to offer the audience an entirely new experience - and the opportunity to do that with people at the top of their game, like Jim and Cirque du Soleil, is an incredible privilege."

"Unique and challenging creative endeavors are what we strive for at Cirque du Soleil. Working with James Cameron, who changed the 3D creative reality with Avatar, is a gift. Creating a new time of 3D offer is exciting and inspiring," notes Guy Laliberté, Founder, Cirque du Soleil.

"Ed and I have had the privilege to work with both Jim and Andrew in the past, and each time we have pushed the boundaries of storytelling. To be able to work with them along with the creative geniuses of Cirque du Soleil gives us the chance to push those creative boundaries even further," said Cary Granat, Principal, Reel FX Entertainment.

Article Courtesy of ComingSoon:
Personally, I think it would much more fun, interesting, beautiful and captivating if they made a Cirque de Soleil themed after Avatar and the Na'vi. It wouldn't have to have the same story as Avatar, but it would be amazing to see acrobats doing all of those beautiful stunts as Na'vi! Don't you think?








Tuesday, January 4, 2011

From Pandora to Earth!


The message of James Cameron’s Avatar is unapologetically green. “All life on Earth is connected,” the director told in his interview.... "that we have taken from nature without giving back, and the time to pay the piper is coming.” But Cameron took from nature, too. If the lush, alien jungles of Avatar feel eerily familiar, that’s because the director rooted them close to home. His muse for Avatar’s fictional moon, Pandora, and its wildly fantastical creatures, plants and landscapes was the planet Earth.

In May of 2005, before the film was greenlit by 20th Century Fox, a four-man team of designers began secretly creating Pandora in Cameron’s home in Malibu, Calif. The director gave them National Geographic photos, botany books and nature documentaries for reference. Says Neville Page, a concept artist and creature designer behind much of Pandora’s spectacle: “The best we could do was try to capture what nature has done so perfectly and expand on it.”

MORE after the jump!

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

"I See You" beautiful piano acoustic

This performance is truly amazing. I, myself, play piano, and find myself yearning to play this. Maybe, when I have time, I'll buy the sheet music. Oh happy day!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Awesome Avatar Trivia

 
  • The word "Na'vi" in Hebrew means "prophet". A Na'vi is a visionary or someone who communicates directly with god. Its pleural "Nevi'im" refers to the prophetic books of the bible including Judges, Kings, and Isaiah.
  • "Avatar" is Sanskrit for "incarnation". It is used extensively in Hindu scriptures to refer to human incarnations of God.
  • According to James Cameron, the Na'vi are blue to create a conceptual parallel with traditional Hindu depictions of God (e.g., in the forms of Vishnu, Shiva, Rama, Krishna, etc.), but also because "I just like the color blue."
  • Ey'wa, the deity of the Na'vi people, is a mixed-up pronunciation of "Yahweh", the God of the Hebrews.
  • Sam Worthington said in an interview that it was easier for him to master the Na'vi language than the American accent.
  • Matt Damon and Jake Gyllenhaal were the studio's first choice to play Jake Sully, but James Cameron decided to cast an unknown Sam Worthington in the lead role.
More After the Jump!