Sunday, January 3, 2010

AVATAR : The Most Expensive Film In This Decade..

Avatar is a 2009 American science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron, and starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang. The epic is set in the year 2154 on Pandora, a fictional Earth-like moon in a distant planetary system. Humans are engaged in mining Pandora's reserves of a precious mineral, while the Na'vi—the sapient and sentient race of humanoids indigenous to the moon—resist the colonists' expansion, which threatens the continued existence of the Na'vi and 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.
Avatar had been in development since 1994 by Cameron, who wrote an 80-page scriptment for the film.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.In early 2006, Cameron developed the script, the language, and the culture of Pandora. He has stated that if Avatar is successful, two sequels to the film are planned.
The film was released in traditional 2-D and 3-D, as well as IMAX 3D formats. Avatar is officially budgeted at $237 million; other estimates put the cost at $280–310 million to produce and an estimated $150 million for marketing. 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. Opening to critical acclaim and commercial success, it grossed an estimated $27 million on its opening day and made $77,025,481 in the United States and Canada on its opening weekend. Worldwide, Avatar grossed an estimated $232,180,000 on its opening weekend, the ninth-largest opening-weekend gross of all time, and the largest for a non-franchise, non-sequel and original film. After 17 days, it became the fastest film to reach $1 billion in box office receipts, making the film the fourth highest-grossing of all time, unadjusted for inflation, and the fifth to gross more than $1 billion worldwide.





PLOTS :

In 2154, the RDA corporation is mining Pandora, a lush, Earth-like moon of the planet Polyphemus.Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) is the head of the mining operation, and it employs a small army of former marines for security. The corporation aims to exploit Pandora's reserves of a valuable mineral called unobtanium, which is worth $20 million per kilogram back on Earth.
Pandora is inhabited by the Na’vi, a neolithic species of sapient humanoids with feline characteristics. Physically stronger and taller than humans, the Na'vi have sparkling blue skin and live in harmony with Nature, worshiping a mother goddess called Eywa.
Humans cannot breathe Pandora’s atmosphere for long without passing out and dying. In order to move about Pandora, human scientists have created human-Na’vi hybrids called avatars, which are controlled by genetically matched human operators. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic former marine, is recruited and sent to Pandora as a last-minute replacement for his identical twin brother, who was a scientist trained to be an avatar operator but killed in a random mugging before he could go. Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), the head of the Avatar Program, considers Sully an inadequate replacement for his brother, and initially relegates him to only a bodyguard role.
While Jake escorts Augustine and biologist Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore) on an exploratory mission in their avatar forms, the group is attacked by a large predator, and Jake becomes separated and lost. Attempting to survive the night in Pandora’s dangerous jungles, he is rescued by Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), a female Na'vi. Neytiri brings Jake back to Hometree, which is inhabited by Neytiri’s clan, the Omaticaya. After encountering initial hostility from the clan, Mo'at (C. C. H. Pounder), the Na'vi shaman and Neytiri's mother, shows interest in this first meeting with a warrior "Dream-walker" (the term they call the Avatars), and she instructs her daughter to teach him their ways.
Meanwhile, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), leader of the security forces for RDA has his own plans for Sully. Quaritch promises Jake his "real legs" back in exchange for intelligence about the natives and what it will take to make them abandon Hometree, which rests above a large deposit of unobtanium.
Over the course of three months, Jake grows close to Neytiri and the Omaticaya and begins to prefer the life he lives through the avatar. Jake's attachment gradually erodes his loyalty toward RDA's agenda. He is initiated into the Omaticaya through a number of tests, and (having passed those tests) he and Neytiri choose each other as mates. Jake's change of loyalty is revealed when he disables a bulldozer's cameras as it destroys the tribe's sacred Tree of Voices. Col. Quaritch disconnects Jake from his avatar and presents Selfridge and Dr. Augustine with a vlog in which Jake admits that his mission is fruitless; the humans have nothing the Omaticaya desire, and the latter will never abandon Hometree. Selfridge is convinced that negotiations will fail and orders Hometree's destruction.
Dr. Augustine argues that the destruction of Hometree could affect the vast bio-botanical neural network that all Pandoran organisms are connected to, and Selfridge gives Jake one hour to convince the Na’vi to leave Hometree. When he reveals his mission to the Omaticaya, Neytiri accuses him of betraying them, which results in Jake and Augustine's imprisonment. Jake’s time runs out and 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, and breaks them out. During their escape, Augustine is wounded by Quaritch's gunfire aimed at their fleeing ship. With Augustine dying, Jake turns to the Omaticaya for help. To regain their trust, he tames the Toruk, an immensely powerful flying beast that only five Na'vi have ever tamed. Jake flies to the Omaticaya, who have gathered at the sacred Tree of Souls, and pleads with Mo'at to heal Augustine. They attempt to transplant her "soul" into her avatar, but her injuries are too severe 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, aware of the threat posed to the human mining colony by the rapid mobilization of Na'vi clans, convinces Selfridge of the need for a preemptive strike on the Tree of Souls. Because it is a center of Na'vi religion and culture, he believes that its destruction would leave the Na'vi too demoralized to resist human territorial encroachment in the region.
As the humans attack, the Na'vi fight back but suffer heavy casualties, among them Tsu'Tey and Trudy. When the Na'vi are on the verge of defeat, the Pandoran wildlife suddenly attacks the humans, overwhelming them. Neytiri interprets this as Eywa answering Jake's prayer. During the assault, Jake destroys the main bomber before it can reach the Tree of Souls. However, Quaritch escapes in an AMP (Amplified Mobility Platform) suit, 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, seeing his human form. With the attack repelled, Jake and Neytiri reaffirm their love, repeating the phrase "I See you", a culturally significant phrase for the Na'vi.
The humans are expelled from Pandora, while Jake and his closest co-workers remain. Jake is seen wearing the insignia of the Omaticaya leader. The film ends with Jake's consciousness being transplanted into his Na'vi avatar.

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