James Cameron's AVATAR ~ <strong>Simple Things in Mind</strong>

It’s been awhile since I last updated my blog coz I just got so busy at work. Too many workloads to finish and December is indeed a busy month since it’s the holiday season. Luckily, I find time to update my blog today. So, I’ll start it with “AVATAR” ^_^

Our tickets...yey! ^_^

I and my boyfriend, together with four of his officemates, watch this movie --- “avatar” at SM Moa iMAX last Monday (December 21, 2002). And OMG, all tickets for earlier movie time are SOLD OUT,
the only time left that still have vacant seats is 11:45pm. We arrived their around past 8pm (8:19 to be exact I think). So, since we’re already there, we decided to just grab the 11:45 time slot (eventhough it’s kinda late already). While, waiting for our time, we roam inside the mall, played at Time Zone and ate at Chowking.

30 minutes before our scheduled movie time, we all decided to go back to the iMAX area and just sit at the couch there to wait for our turn. We had some picture taking there and some “kwentuhan”, as well.

Then, when our time had finally come, we all went inside the movie house excitedly. And when the movie already started, whoala! We were all amazed! It’s really “awesome” and indeed one hell of a visual spectacle. Since it’s 3D, the feeling is like “whoah! It’s like were all there (in Pandora) and we can touch everything and that we’re really part of the movie, (part of Jake’s group (specifically) --- one of the Na’vi fighting for survival).” ^_^ It just seems so real! The graphics are all great! It’s indeed so mind blowing, excellent to look at and so inviting to become lost in. All the action scenes are so imaginative. It’s like walking on one’s imagination and/or watching someone’s playing a great online game. ^_^

SOME FACTS ABOUT AVATAR:

Avatar is a 3D sci-fi movie written and directed by James Cameron which was released last 17th of December. It is a PG-13 movie due to its epic battle sequence and warfare. It’s produced by 20th Century Fox, starring Sam Worthington (as Jake Sully), Zöe Saldana (as Neytiri), Sigourney Weaver (as Dr. Grace Augustine), Giovanni Ribisi (as Parker Selfridge) and Stephen Lang (as Military Colonel Miles Quaritch). It’s more than 10-year in the making with 114-page scriptment for the film. It supposed to take place after James Cameron’s hit-movie “Titanic”, but according to him “technology needed to catch up” with his vision of the movie. It is officially budgeted at $237 million. It is being touted as a breakthrough in terms of filmmaking technology due to its 3D viewing and stereoscopic filmmaking with cameras that were specifically designed for the film’s production. It earned $27 million on its opening day and $77,025,481 over its opening weekend domestically, making it the 2nd largest December opening ever, behind “I am Legend” starring Will Smith.

SYNOPSIS:

The story takes place in the year 2154 where Earth is having some major energy crisis. The answer lie to a substance called “Unobtanium” which can only be found in large quantities on a planet called “Pandora”. But the thing is, its indigenous inhabitants called “Na’vi”, a 10-feet tall blue cat-like species, don’t want any strangers forcibly taking anything from their planet. So, in order to get the Unobtanium, they must uproot the Na’vi people, and their holy sites and way of life must be decimated. But all attempts at diplomacy have failed and the Marines are just one step away from being sent in with guns and bulldozers in order to remove them forcibly from the place. The Pandora’s atmosphere is toxic to humans. So, as a last resort; “avatars” are introduced to the dangerous planet in anticipation to build some mutual agreement with those inhabitants. These “avatars” are Na’vi look alike which is a cross-breed of the Pandora natives (Na’vi) DNA and the DNA of the person who will be controlling them remotely.

Jake Sully (played by Sam Worthington) is a former marine who has lost his ability to use both of his legs due to some unspecified spinal accident. He has been given a chance to ship to the distant planet “Pandora” and replace his late twin brother in some unusual scientific experiment. He supposed to be working on an Avatar Program under the supervision of Dr. Grace Augustine (which played by Sigourney Weaver), a scientist who’s studying Pandora and its species. They and a number of researchers will have their mind linked with the avatars.

Like the others who control their “avatars”, Jake Sully is primarily meant to observe and conduct diplomatic missions with the Na’vi tribe. But being the only military man having an avatar of his own, he’s quickly enlists by a Marine Colonel named Miles Quaritch (which played by Stephen Lang) and a corporate-appointed leader named Parker Selfridge (played by Giovanni Ribisi) to provide tactical intelligence to infiltrate the Na’vi, gain their trust and convince them to move away before the military men do some more drastic missions just to get the treasure hidden underneath the home of the Na’vi people. At first, it was just fine to Jake, since the Marine Colonel made a deal with him that he can have his own real legs back if he will just do what is asked of him.

Jake does integrate himself among the Na’vi people quite well. The more he’s with those people, the more he starts to respect them and their ecological devotion. His planet mission to remove those species to their hometree (the central nervous system of the planet Pandora and also the largest single source of unobtanium) suddenly starts to seem wrong and he became torn between two worlds.

Because he later on, fell in love with Neytiri (played be Zöe Saldana), the girl-warrior and daughter of the leader of the Na’vi tribe. Due to his love for Neytiri and her people, Jake together with Dr. Augustine and some others, decides to stop the military forces from pushing the Na’vi people away from their place. His love for the warrior girl pushes him to stand on the right side of the battle.

The plot of the movie is kinda political in a way, though. Because the idea of humans (especially the group of Colonel Quaritch) barging in Na’vi land to forcibly take their energy source, is somewhat similar to the world’s interest to the Middle East oil. Hmn… :))