Sentiment analysis for avatar
Source: Twitter Sentiment
Poll: How many Oscars will 'Avatar' win? (OMG, all nine?)
"Avatar" probably won't be nominated for best screenplay. James Cameron didn't reap a script bid for "Titanic" even though it sailed off into Oscar history as biggest champ, tying "Ben-Hur's" record (11). Also, don't expect "Avatar" to make the list for best makeup. Sure, the "blue monkeys" (Na'vi) are nifty and such fantastical creatures usually score makeup recognition for their films, but their look is the result of digital effects, not wizardry by makeup artists. Ditto costumes, so don't expect "Avatar" to pop up in that Oscar category.
Check out this post to read our detailed analysis of the competition that "Avatar" faces in all remaining nine Oscar races, then cast your vote here.
Source: The Envelope
TyRuben Ellingson designs the vehicles of 'Avatar'
Ellingson was one of the first of a handful of designers hired for “Avatar” and the only hired solely to create vehicles. Other artists were later brought in to work under him.
Ellingson first met Cameron in the early 1990s while working at Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light & Magic, a post-production visual effects company that worked on Cameron’s “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and “Jurassic Park.”
In 2002, Cameron brought Ellingson in to do some conceptual drawings for a science fiction film that has been put on hold.
He began work on “Avatar” in earnest in 2005 and was full-time on the job for about two years starting in 2006 at Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment production company.
“Jim’s approach to making films is sort of like a battle. He created a pretty tight infrastructure of people around him, and I was the lead vehicle guy,” Ellingson said. Ellingson worked one-on-one with Cameron to conceptualize the vehicles and was the point person in designing them, with the exception of two — the Morning Star and the Valkyrie, which were Cameron’s designs.
“Once they’re on the planet’s surface, all the machinery that’s used by the military — the ground vehicles, the flying vehicles, the AMP suit and all the mining equipment — I was the lead designer on,” Ellingson said.
>>> Read more @ sctimes
'Avatar' Stays Atop Box Office
>>> Read more @ The Wall Street Journal
Christmas Box Office: Avatar Beats Sherlock and Alvin
Gold bless us, everyone!
Hollywood gave audiences what they wanted, and moviegoers returned the favor by giving the film industry its favorite present: a record-breaking frame at the box office. According to early studio estimates, North Americans spent some $263 million at theaters this Christmas weekend, obliterating the $254 million mark set in July 2008, when The Dark Knight and Mamma Mia! both opened. And what did the multiplex crowds want on the first days of Christmas? Sing along: foreplay from Meryl, three sassy rodents, two blue Pandorans and a sleuth with a killer right hook.
>>> Read more @ Time
Avatar – a movie with a green message (Movie Review)
I do not want to talk of the spectacular technology (CGI – Computer Generated Imagery) employed in this film because that is what people are mostly talking about. In fact when we went to buy the tickets we found that people were desperate to see this film in 3D. When the tickets were not available for 3D they were turning back. “What’s the use of seeing it without 3D?” they asked each other. We didn’t see it in 3D because no tickets for the 3D version were available. We saw it on a normal screen and well, it was fine. True, the jungle scenes, the spectacular animation of the aliens, the animals, and the action scenes would have made it very exciting to watch on 3D…but the movie is more than that.
>>> Read more @ NitaWriter Wordpress
Cutting edge tech and the making of Avatar
If a movie makes me cry and "feel" for the characters, I usually like it. On that count, Avatar, especially the second half, scored. But it cost me a thousand bucks for an outing for three. Made me wonder if a pirated version would make more sense. Especially because Hall #7 at DT Star Cinemas, DLF Promenade, Vasant Kunj, doesn't have 3D screens.
If a movie makes me cry and "feel" for the characters, I usually like it. On that count, Avatar, especially the second half, scored. But it cost me a thousand bucks for an outing for three. Made me wonder if a pirated version would make more sense. Especially because Hall #7 at DT Star Cinemas, DLF Promenade, Vasant Kunj, doesn't have 3D screens.
Avatar was made in three dimensions. Its images are supposed to have the height, depth and richness of things in the real world. Most of us won't see it that way, because there aren't enough halls with 3D projectors. Even in 2D though, the story's OK. My wife isn't keen on movies with military bravado, she dozed off for a bit just before the interval. But on the whole, she liked it.
I'm not sure if the story's as gripping as say Cameron's earlier Terminator, or Spielberg's Jurassic Park. Those I can see ten times over, maybe because of the sheer surprise or menace they had. This one's nice but ...
There are a few loose ends, like how do the Na'vi speak English. How does Jake's scientist friend make everyone accept her avatar without fuss while Jake has to prove himself to the tribe.
If Unobtanium is magnetic (it's shown levitating on a dish in the control centre), why didn't the humans just mine the floating mountains on Pandora, instead of making the tribals move their home.
But that's nitpicking. You'll probably like Avatar the first time. They visuals are lovely, the characters beautiful. So real, you start believing in them. Forgetting that every frame, in every second, of a three hour movie, was created artificially by super-computers.
I'm not sure if the story's as gripping as say Cameron's earlier Terminator, or Spielberg's Jurassic Park. Those I can see ten times over, maybe because of the sheer surprise or menace they had. This one's nice but ...
There are a few loose ends, like how do the Na'vi speak English. How does Jake's scientist friend make everyone accept her avatar without fuss while Jake has to prove himself to the tribe.
If Unobtanium is magnetic (it's shown levitating on a dish in the control centre), why didn't the humans just mine the floating mountains on Pandora, instead of making the tribals move their home.
But that's nitpicking. You'll probably like Avatar the first time. They visuals are lovely, the characters beautiful. So real, you start believing in them. Forgetting that every frame, in every second, of a three hour movie, was created artificially by super-computers.
James Cameron Visits Beijing amid Avatar Fever
Director James Cameron waves to photogaphers at a promo event for his new film "Avatar" in Beijing, December 23, 2009. The new 3D project from the "Titanic" director will hit Chinese cinemas on January 4, 2010. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com]
>>> Read more @ CRI ENGLISH
Car giant reveals 'Avatar' technology in workshop
Ford claims that it is the only automaker to use "motion-capture" technology, which captures real-life human movements and transforms them into digital models, to test design concepts. Director James Cameron used the principle extensively in Avatar to bring movement to the film's computer-generated characters. The Human Occupant Package Simulator (HOPS), uses up to 50 motion sensors to track the movement on a real person as they interact with a test vehicle, for example getting into or out of the car. Once the data is stored, technicians can evaluate the movements, change the dimensions of the car or alter the size of its occupants to test designs with precision.
"Before HOPS, the only way to evaluate a given design was to have people get into a vehicle and tell us how they liked it," said Nanxin Wang, Ford technical leader. "Now we can couple this subjective appraisal with objective measurements of their arms, legs and head movements, along with muscular efforts to quantify movement mathematically."
>>> Read more @ The Independent
Avatar And The Blue Oval: Motion-Capture Tech Improves Car Design
While the basic technology has been around for years now, constant improvements in analyzing and virtualizing the motion capture data help to improve the accuracy of the model and therefore the end result--whether that's a movie like Avatar or a more intuitive and convenient car interior. Ford says it's the only carmaker to use the technology for these purposes.
>>> Read more @ Motor Authority
Source: Los Angeles Times
How much real science is in ‘Avatar’?
Film set in the Alpha Centauri solar system, which exists in real life
Film set in the Alpha Centauri solar system, which exists in real life
The science fiction blockbuster "Avatar" is set on a mysterious alien moon with out-of-this-world technologies. Its star director, James Cameron, has not only directed other science fiction epics like "Aliens, The Abyss" and the first two "Terminator" films, but was apparently the president of his high school science club, a physics major in college and has an engineer brother who has designed underwater robots.
So how much science is there in "Avatar"?
Pandora
The movie is set on the fictional Pandora, one of the many moons of a fictional Saturn-sized gas giant, Polyphemus, which is located in the real Alpha Centauri system, which at nearly 4.4 light-years away is the closest star system to Earth.
While astronomers have yet to discover moons beyond our solar system, they expect to. And the Alpha Centauri system could be a place worth looking. The larger of the two real, sunlike stars that make up this alien system, Alpha Centauri A, is the fictional Pandora's sun. In reality, scientists might soon be able to detect habitable moons with the James Webb Space Telescope and also study their atmospheres for key life-related gases such as oxygen, and water vapor.
>>> Read more @ MSNBC
So how much science is there in "Avatar"?
Pandora
The movie is set on the fictional Pandora, one of the many moons of a fictional Saturn-sized gas giant, Polyphemus, which is located in the real Alpha Centauri system, which at nearly 4.4 light-years away is the closest star system to Earth.
While astronomers have yet to discover moons beyond our solar system, they expect to. And the Alpha Centauri system could be a place worth looking. The larger of the two real, sunlike stars that make up this alien system, Alpha Centauri A, is the fictional Pandora's sun. In reality, scientists might soon be able to detect habitable moons with the James Webb Space Telescope and also study their atmospheres for key life-related gases such as oxygen, and water vapor.
>>> Read more @ MSNBC
10 Things Parents Should Know About James Cameron’s Avatar
This movie is making an impact at the box office and all over the internet. The advances in film-making technology are impressive, and the question as to whether Mr. Cameron could follow up Titanic with another truly significant film seems to have been answered. But what about the children?! Is this a movie to take your kids to over the holiday break? Let’s see if we can give you some facts and opinions to help make an informed decision.
Will I like it?
Are you capable of liking things that are beautiful? Do you say a silent (or even audible) “boo-yah” when awesome future-tech does cool things? Have you been patiently waiting for a movie that shows you that, from here on out, pretty much anything is possible in film-making where it comes to presenting fantastical ideas in a completely realistic way on-screen? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then yeah, you might appreciate Avatar.
Will my kids like it?
Since they’re even more likely than you to yell “booyah” out loud at cool tech and awesome combat scenes, then oh yeah, they’ll like it. Plus dozens of amazing alien species - indeed, a fully-realized alien world that looks familiar, but also wondrously different. And there’s not too much of that mushy stuff, or too much talkie-talkie.
What about the grown-up stuff, like language and nudity?
It’s a PG13 movie. It has a bit of swearing (military characters talking like military characters), and the native Na’vi dress like people tend to dress in tropical climates with low nudity taboos. Really, it comes down to how you think your kids can handle this kind of thing. After about 5 minutes of seeing the Na’vi, you accept them as people, and how they dress is perfectly normal for who they are. Actual sexuality in the movie is almost nil (one 30-second, pretty tame love scene). Most Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter of Mars covers were more titillating than the nudity in Avatar. I’d say age 8/9 on up will be old enough to see it (though you know your kids better than I do).
And the violence?
I’m not going to lie to you, Marge: this movie has a lot of violence. And it rocks! Let me suggest an analogy: he Na’vi’s world, Pandora (a lush tropical moon orbiting a Jupiter-like gas giant) is to the Amazon jungle as, say, Bane is to Robin. There is no Club Med on Pandora. The food chain is, if not top-heavy, at least in constant and quite active flux. So you get animal-on-native violence, native-on-native violence, human mercenary-on-animal violence, human mercenary on Na’vi violence, and so on. There’s a lot of fighting in this movie. Though the gore/splatter quotient is pretty low, and the Na’vi (at least) have a very spiritual, respectful attitude towards killing animals.
I hear it’s just “Dances With Aliens,” is this true?
Well, yeah. It’s a story we’ve seen before. More “advanced” culture comes into conflict with a lesser, supposedly weaker culture. One of the agressors goes to live with the other side, comes to understand them, may even fall in love with a native, and then aids them in their conflict. But seeing Avatar isn’t about being overwhelmed by an original plot (how many of those are there anymore, really?). Like going to see a newly produced version of a Shakespeare play, you’re going to see Avatar for the setting, the interpretation of the story, the characters and performances and most certainly for the visuals.
Alright, everyone’s talking about the special effects. Can it really be that good?
Yes. Yes it can. Remember how everyone was blown away by the Massive (name of the CGI software) combat sequences in Lord of the Rings? And how amazing Gollum was? Back then, everyone was talking about the Academy needing to tweak it’s categories so the combination of actor and effects team could be co-rewarded for bringing a performance-captured character to life. Avatar is the next iteration of that “OMG” moment. Half the characters in this movie are performance-captured creatures as good or better realized than Gollum. The world looks totally real. The animals are fantastic, and yet completely realistic. The military tech kicks ass, in that perfect James Cameron/Aliens way that we love. Heck, you could say he’s established a “Cameronverse” with movies like Aliens and Avatar, because the tech is so similar, the movies could exist in the same reality. And the Aliens aliens could easily find life a challenge on Pandora.
How about the 3D? Am I going to get poked in the eye over and over again?
You really, really should see this movie in 3D. James Cameron has shown us how the modern 3D technology should be used in movie making. There are no “poked in the eye” moments. The 3D just adds a depth and texture to the movie that makes it feel all the more real.
When should I take a bathroom break?
That’s hard to say. Everything is so beautiful that you don’t want to miss a minute. On the other hand, the movie is 2.5 hours long, and I totally understand needing to run out after downing that uber-gulp slushee. Because the plot isn’t so twisty-turny, you could probably duck out most anytime and pick up again pretty quickly when you get back. Just try not to leave more than once, lest you miss too many wicked awesome visuals.
Do I need to sit through the credits? Any Easter eggs?
Nothing after the credits, which are just one long string of names of the effects teams that worked on this movie. Let’s make sure to praise Peter Jackson’s Weta for their part in this movie. What was learned on the Lord of the Rings trilogy was certainly brought to bear on Avatar.
But where’s Ang? Wasn’t M. Night Shyamalan making this?
It’s one of those confusing things. This Avatar started as a story idea and title by Mr. Cameron 15 years ago, and only just came to fruition. Avatar: The Last Airbender was a very popular animated series, but is much more recent, and is indeed currently in production under the talented vision of Mr. Shyamalan. They are two difference projects, and should not be confused.
Source: Wired
AVATAR's Indian connection!
SAM WORTHINGTON WITH DILEEP RAO IN AVATAR
As James Cameron's AVATAR breaks box office records in India, here's an interesting piece of news - one of the actors in the film has Indian roots.L.A. born actor Dileep Rao who plays Dr Max Patel in AVATAR is the son of an engineer-father and physicist-mother who hail originally from Karnataka
Rao plays a conscientious scientist who lends a helping hand to Jack Sully, the film's protagonist, in the fight to protect the Navy community and its resources in the planet Pandora from the greedy humans.
AVATAR is Rao's debut on the silver screen and he will next be seen in films directed by Sam Raimi of SPIDER-MAN and Christopher Nolan of THE DARK KNIGHT and MEMENTO.
>>> Read more @ Glamsham
'Avatar' is part of important discussion about raceIf you thought James Cameron's "Avatar" was just a 3-D fantasy flick about nice cat people vs. mechanized mad men, think again. There's a fourth dimension, a shadowy back story about race that has the sci-fi blogosphere engaged in its own war of the worlds.
Annalee Newitz, writing last week on her science blog io9, criticized "Avatar" for depicting yet another white man as a hero in the liberation struggles of oppressed people of color.
As happens in movies such as "District 9," "Dances With Wolves" and "The Last Samurai," Newitz wrote, "a white guy manages to get himself accepted into a closed society of people of color and eventually becomes its most awesome member."
I came away from "Avatar" with a similar feeling, although not nearly as strong as I had after watching, say, "Mississippi Burning," which portrayed the FBI as heroes of the civil rights movement.
And yet, I'd recommend seeing "Avatar," not only for the sensational special effects but also to participate in an important discussion about race.
>>> Read more @ Washington Post
Everybody’s talking about Avatar!
There were times during the epic journey to bring Avatar to the screen when James Cameron simply had to rely on his natural instincts.
As well as being a consummate filmmaker he is, after all, an explorer at heart – it’s what he dreamed of doing growing up in Canada and has mounted no less than six major underwater expeditions
in the 12 years since he made the Oscar winning Titanic, his last film.
The desire to seek new challenges and overcome obstacles drove Cameron to make Avatar and, along with his team, pioneer the use of ground breaking new technology – to keep pushing forward, when others, perhaps, might have given up in despair.
But Avatar would prove to be his biggest challenge. And for a while, he admits, it simply wasn’t possible to create the world – specifically the far away planet he calls Pandora he wanted to see on the screen.
“With Avatar, despite wanting to push the technology, when we really evaluated it, we felt like we were too many steps away,” he recalls of that original idea back in 1995.
>>> Read more @ Manila Bulletin
Avatar merchandise turns toys high-tech, enters new realms
In partnerships with Ubisoft, Mattel, JEM, HarperCollins, and Abrams Books, Fox Licensing takes the movie experience from the big screen into other realms. In addition to video game, Avatar: The Game (for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP and PC), the film is marketing a series of products.
Mattel Inc. has created a line of high-tech toys with "augmented reality" for the Avatar action figures, creatures and vehicles that include a "3D web tag." Scan the iTAG on a computer's webcam to reveal content onscreen about the product, such as biographical background and additional images, such as a Pandora plant growing on the screen. The "deluxe" collection features animated 3D models that "come alive" on screen. Place two iTAGs from the "Battle Pack" onto the webcam together to watch images interact as the Viperwolfs and Leonopteryx take on the RDA warriors (www.avataritag.com).
>>> Read more @ The Independent
Avatar's Pandora possible within years?
The concept of life on the moon may currently be limited to sci-fi blockbusters such as James Cameron's Avatar, but a leading astronomer has suggested it could become a reality in just a few years.
Cameron's 3D film centres on a race of blue-skinned giants which inhabit Pandora, an Earth-like moon orbiting a gas planet similar to Jupiter that cannot support life.
While Avatar has received much hype for its pioneering special effects, US astronomer and Harvard research associate Lisa Kaltenegger is excited about the film for a different reason.
"All of the gas giant planets in our solar system have rocky and icy moons," explains Dr Kaltenegger, who believes there is every chance a real-life version of Pandora will soon be found.
Dr Kaltenegger, who is based at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, claims it is possible that alien Jupiters (gas planets that have not yet been discovered) will also have moons, some of which may be Earth-sized and able to hold onto an atmosphere.
>>> Read more @ SideWaysNews
Avatar Is Like The iPhone Of Movies
I’ve seen Avatar twice now, which is saying something when you’re talking about a nearly three hour movie that was released 36 hours ago. But we lined up on Thursday night for the first midnight showing. And then I saw it again yesterday at the TechCrunch screening in San Francisco.
What do I think? I think I’m going to go see it again this weekend at an IMAX theater. Because the movie is awesome in 3D, but I want to see it in 3D on a 50 ft by 70 ft screen. Movies will never be the same after Avatar. Like the iPhone in the mobile world, this movie disrupts an entire industry.
I didn’t know much about the movie until I read an article about it in Wired (more here) on a flight to Europe last week. A movie James Cameron has been working on since 1994, but he had to wait until technology caught up with his dream, and he invented a new kind of camera along the way.
The amazing thing about Avatar isn’t the story – it’s simply a passable tale that’s part Pocahontas, part Dances With Wolves. But it’s a story played by ten foot tall blue people with tails who fly around on miniature dragons and generally kick ass. And suddenly the special effects in every movie you’ve ever seen seem trite in comparison. Jurassic Park type special effects, which seemed so awesome in the 90s, are now laughably dated.
>>> Read more @ Techcrunch
ADOBE & AVATAR
A video featuring Jon Landau, Producer of "Avatar", describing how Adobe software was used throughout the production of the film.
Source: Adobe TV
'Avatar' earns Rs 22 crore at weekend in India
Touted to be the highest ever weekend collection for any Hollywood film in India
so far, it has beaten the opening collections of international blockbusters like "2012", "Titanic" and "Spider-Man 3".
"'Avatar' has had an amazing opening and the audience reactions are fantastic with a very large proportion of them wanting to see it again. Our theatrical partners are delighted to see queues building up outside multiplexes for advance bookings. The movie is being appreciated across all age groups," Vijay Singh, CEO, Fox Star Studios India, said in a statement.
>>> Read more @ The Economic Times
Avatar merchandising bonanza?
The Hollywood studio behind Avatar is banking on the film to drive its biggest US product licensing push in years, starting with toy figures and expanding to items from home decor to party goods.
The News Corp.-owned 20th Century Fox is making that gamble even though consumers know virtually nothing about the blue, cat-like characters in Avatar who will be at the heart of the merchandising effort.
Fox has used its Avatar licensing deals, including one with Mattel Inc. for toys, as a way to recoup on what is one of the most expensive films in history, costing at least $237 million to produce, analysts said.
>>> Read more @ Business World online
NASA hunts for Avatar's moon Pandora
From Star Wars' forest moon of Endor to Pandora, the alien moon in Avatar, habitable moons have become a staple of science fiction.
And now Smithsonian astronomer Lisa Kaltenegger reckons the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) should be able to identify any that might be lurking out there, by studying their atmospheres and detecting key gases like carbon dioxide, oxygen, and water vapor.
"If Pandora existed, we potentially could detect it and study its atmosphere in the next decade," said Lisa Kaltenegger of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA).
For obvious reasons, most exoplanets discovered so far are gas giants, which can't serve as homes for life as we know it. But the rocky moons which orbit them are a different matter.
"Alien moons orbiting gas giant planets may be more likely to be habitable than tidally locked Earth-sized planets or super-Earths," said Kaltenegger. "We should certainly keep them in mind as we work toward the ultimate goal of finding alien life."
>>> Read more @ TGDAILY
The Indian hand in Avatar
Mumbai based vfx house Prime Focus has contributed a number of shots to stereoscopic 3D film. The movie, which stars Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington and Sigourney Weaver, features numerous stereographic and 'Holotable' displays, animated graphics, immersive environments and other visual effects created by Prime Focus.
A team of 90 artists which worked on making Avatar a visual spectacle was spread across Prime Focus' Los Angeles, Vancouver and Winnipeg facilities, with President & Senior Visual Effects Supervisor Chris Bond and Visual Effects Producer Chris Del Conte driving the project out of the LA office. The bulk of Prime Focus' work was done for the film's Bio lab and Ops Center, the bustling hub for military operations and one of the key environments in the film.
"Our experience working with stereoscopic 3D material, both on the movie Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D and through our proprietary View-D technology, more than prepared us for Avatar," said Bond.
>>> Read more @ Bollywood Hungama
Avatar: Good News for 3D TV and Blu-ray?
There's little doubt that James Cameron's much-hyped Avatar will be a hit during its theater run, but what impact will avatar movie the sci-fi epic have on 3D entertainment in the home?
"Avatar," which cost north of $300 million to make, uses state-of-the-art 3D filmmaking techniques to create a visually stunning alien world. The spectacle, rather than the story, is the selling point here, and you can bet that Hollywood will churn out similar fare to capitalize on the 3D craze.
3D at Home?
But will the 3D trend extend to home entertainment, too? In recent months, the consumer electronics industry has been working behind the scenes to build the framework for 3D in the home. The Blu-Ray Disc Association this week announced specifications for creating full 1080p 3D Blu-Ray content. The first 3D-enabled Blu-ray players will likely debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
Meanwhile, major TV manufacturers are hoping 3D TV becomes the next big thing. Sony, for instance, predicts that 3D sets will compose 30 to 50 percent of all the TVs it sells in its 2012 fiscal year.
Avatar's Impact on 3D Blu-ray
Blu-ray's movers and shakers are optimistic that "Avatar" will whet consumers' appetites for home 3D.
"While I have not seen the movie yet myself, I have read enough rave reviews to believe that it could transform a lot of skeptics into 3D believers," writes Pioneer executive Andy Parsons, Chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association, in an e-mail interview with PC World.
"We have always said that Blu-ray, as was DVD before it, is a content-driven business. With many of the studios now putting enormous resources and creative energy into 3D for the theater, it's only a matter of time before consumers will be striving to achieve a similar experience in their own homes," Parsons adds.
>>> Read more @ PCWORLD
Avatar tops US box office
Sci-fi epic Avatar has topped the North American box office, taking $73m (£45.3m) on its opening weekend.
James Cameron's much-hyped 3D film also took an estimated $232.2m (£144.1m) worldwide - the ninth biggest opening to date, 20th Century Fox said.
Disney's The Princess and the Frog slipped to second, with $12.2m (£7.6m).
Drama The Blind Side dropped to three while the Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker romantic comedy Did You Hear About the Morgans? came in at four.
The top five was rounded off by The Twilight Saga: New Moon.
Avatar - set in the 22nd Century on a distant planet, Pandora, inhabited by a humanoid race - reportedly cost up to $400m (£248.2m) to make and market.
>>> Read more @ BBC News
Indian firm behind visual effects in Avatar
A significant part of James Cameron’s mega epic Avatar, with a budget of over $230 million (nearly Rs 1,100 crore) — the most expensive Hollywood movie ever made — has been brought to life by an Indian visual effects (VFX) company — Prime Focus.
The company earned $4 million (over Rs 18 crore) from a deal to create 200 shots of the 1,600-odd shots in Avatar. Fox Star Studios is believe to have spent $180 million (over Rs 840 crore) on special effects.
Prime Focus is increasingly becoming a hot favorite among Hollywood filmmakers and, as a result, has worked on some box-office blockbusters like New Moon and GI Joe. Almost 80 per cent of New Moon’s special effects were done by Prime Focus.
“It takes at least six months for one Hollywood project. Therefore, we sign three-four movies in a year,” said Namit Malhotra, founder and global CEO, Prime Focus.
>>> Read more @ Business Standard
Coffee talk about AvatarI just got back from seeing Avatar, the latest film from James Cameron. I won't call this a review - just a smattering of thoughts - but I'd love to hear what others thought. Let's keep it spoiler free though. Overall, I thought it was a good film, a strong film, but not quite great. It tried real hard, but in the end, the story was lacking enough for me to keep it from being great.
Technologically, the film is perfect. Seriously - this film has set the bar for special effects, and probably will be the film by which others are judged. The Na'vi looked realistic enough for to be 100% believable. You didn't have any of the "Dead on the Inside" type feeling you get from other movies with computer generated characters (I'm looking at you, Polar Express).
The 3D was also well done. You had none of the "in your eye" type shots to remind you of the 3D, and in fact, except for a few scenes, I pretty much forgot that there was any 3D at all. There was one scene with insects though that - I swear - almost made me raise my hand to bat them away. This is how 3D should be done.
>>> Read more @ Coldfusionjedi
'Avatar' grosses Rs.6.75 crore on opening day in India
Acclaimed director James Cameron's much-anticipated 3D sci-fi epic 'Avatar' spelt magic at the box office in the big cities as well as smaller towns by grossing about Rs.6.75 crore (Rs.67.5 million) on its opening day.
Touted as the biggest ever Friday opening for any Hollywood film in India so far, the movie was released in 2D- and 3D-formats in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
'Even theatres in the interiors (of the country), where the film is being shown in Hindi in 2D format, have been doing fantastic business,' Vijay Singh, CEO, Fox Star Studios India, said in a statement.
The film is doing well in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, said Singh.
>>> Read more @ Sify
Avatar moons may become a science fact
Habitable alien moons like the one depicted in the blockbuster movie Avatar may become science fact within the next few years, according to a leading astronomer.
In the 3D film, a race of 10ft blue-skinned giants inhabits an Earth-like moon called Pandora.
Their world orbits a gas giant planet similar to Jupiter that cannot support life.
US astronomer and planet-hunter Lisa Kaltenegger, from the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, believes there is every chance a real-life version of Pandora exists and will soon be found.
She has conducted research showing that a planned new space telescope will be able to identify nearby "exomoons" and discover if they are habitable.
>>> Read more @ The Independent
James Cameron’s Top 6 Visual Effects
Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)Effect: Spaceship backdrop
The Terminator (1984)
Effect: Robot self-surgery
Effect: Robot self-surgery
The Abyss (1989)
Effect: Water tentacle
Effect: Water tentacle
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Effect: The T-1000 morphs into an LAPD patrolman
Effect: The T-1000 morphs into an LAPD patrolman
Titanic (1997)
Effect: A virtual crowd on the ship’s deck
Effect: A virtual crowd on the ship’s deck
Ghosts of the Abyss (2003)
Effect: 3D dives to the Titanic wreckage
Effect: 3D dives to the Titanic wreckage
'Avatar' dominates int'l boxoffice
Director James Cameron's "Avatar" commanded the international circuit on the weekend, soaring to No. 1 with boxoffice of $159.2 million in its opening five days from 14,461 screens in 106 territories.
Distributor 20th Century Fox says the much-anticipated futuristic 3D spectacle's worldwide gross total of $232.2 million ranks as the "highest-grossing nonfranchise, nonsequel opening ever." The overseas per-screen average was $11,008.
>>> Read more @ The Hollywood Reporter
Avatar: The event movie of 2009>>> Read more @ Examiner
Avatar movie review: Avatar both 'awesome' and 'disappointing' in theatersAvatar movie review: Avatar both excites and disappoints at the box office. While most reviews are glowing, some are disappointed with James Cameron's new creation. What are they disappointed with? For the most part, most complaints stem from the story line, which is said to sound like Dances with Wolves. It's also said that as "Titanic" had themes of "Romeo and Juliet", "Avatar" has themes of "Pocahontas."
Still yet, there's one thing everyone agrees on: the special effects are awesome. The Na'vi - the 10 foot tall blue creatures that Sully encounters - are unlike anything ever seen before. The colors, the special effects, everything in this film (which cost hundreds of millions of dollars to produce) are what makes the show so awesome.
Want to see something really great? Go see Avatar in 3D. It is said that the 3D version of the film is phenomenal.
Here are some of the glowing Avatar Reviews from Rotten Tomatoes:
Pay attention to what James Cameron has done with his truly spectacular looking Avatar. This, my friends, is the right way to create a 3D film experience. - Kit Bowen
Pandora is so immersive, its native cultures so well realized that any fantasy novelists watching will surely weep from the world-building gauntlet thrown down. Top this! - Nathaniel Rogers
It stops being a story at all and is instead just a sheer, unmitigated visual and auditory experience, two hours and forty minutes of being exposed to a brand new world. - Tim Brayton
Here are some of the not-so-glowing reviews of Avatar.
This movie takes itself way too seriously; there are no cute or funny moments, no rah, rah, nothing. I didn't love this movie or hate it. It''s one big blurry pile of meh. - Michelle Alexandria
The corniest movie ever made about the white man's need to lose his identity and assuage racial, political, sexual and historical guilt. - Armond White
While visually perfect, Avatar suffers from a story that is unoriginal and a script that lacks emotional connection. However, the last 40 minutes are stunning. - Kevin McCarthy
>>> Read more @ Examiner
Avatar's Moon Pandora Could Be Real, Planet-Hunters Say>>> Read more @ Sciencedaily
Spielberg on 'Avatar': the most evocative sci-fi movie since 'Star Wars'Cameron (pictured left) held a private screening of "Avatar" on Dec. 4 for a few friends of his. Among the attendees were Arnold Schwarzenegger and Steven Spielberg (pictured right), a filmmaker who is also experimenting with motion-capture technology. (Spielberg and Peter Jackson are in the middle of mo-cap pic "Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn.")
At the premiere last night, I heard that Spielberg's reaction was overwhelmingly positive.
Today I was able to confirm through his reps that after the screening, Spielberg called "Avatar" "the most evocative and amazing science-fiction movie since 'Star Wars.'"
Not too shabby of an endorsement, eh?
Source: Heat Vision
Fandango surveyed more than 2,000 Avatar ticket-buyers and found:* 76% consider themselves fans of James Cameron
* 45% say that "James Cameron's return as a director" was the main draw
* 72% say the positive advance reviews have increased their interest in the movie
* 70% say they do not care about the film's budget
* 72% had seen STAR TREK in theaters
* 62% had seen TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN in theaters
* 48% had seen TERMINATOR SALVATION in theaters
* 15% are ages 18-24
* 37% are ages 25-34
* 33% are ages 35-49
Source: Deadline
Avatar Movie Review
Avatar is the much-hyped and much-anticipated return of James Cameron as director of a major feature film after an extended hiatus — he has not directed one since 1997’s Titanic. During that time he focused on documentary filmmaking, a couple of television shows and he helped develop the digital 3-D Fusion Camera System, a technology he used to film Avatar.
In the movie, Sam Worthington plays Jake Sully, a U.S. marine who is paralyzed from the waist down. Sully is recruited to travel to a planet called Pandora, a beautiful moon covered with deep forests and magnificent waterfalls and inhabited by a wide array of incredible life forms including the planet’s indigenous population known as the Na’vi. Sully will participate in the Avatar program, whereby he will inhabit the body of a genetically-engineered Na’vi hybrid known as an Avatar.
When Sully transforms to an Avatar, his life changes. He is blue, he is 10-feet tall and he can walk freely around the planet (humans cannot breathe Pandoran air). During his initial rendezvous on the planet, Sully meets a beautiful female Na’vi named Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and for different reasons, he is accepted into the tribe. The Na’vi are fully aware that Sully is a hybrid so obviously not everyone in the tribe is happy about his presence. But Sully is not there to cause problems. He has simply been asked to observe the Na’vi, to learn about their culture and their habits. It turns out that the main Na’vi camp is situated on top of the largest deposit of a rich mineral that the humans are there to extract. With Sully’s help, the humans are hoping to move the Na’vi off the land peacefully. Unfortunately, this is sacred land for the Na’vi and when they refuse to cooperate with the humans, they do what often happens when it comes to greed, power and money. They decide they are going to forcefully move the Na’vi. This leaves Sully caught in a war between the group of humans who brought him to Pandora to help them out, and Neytiri and the rest of the Na’vi, to whom he has quickly grown very close and attached. An epic battle ensues and the fate of Pandora and the Na’vi rests in the hands of the Americans who have invaded the planet.
I had the opportunity to see Avatar in 3D, a technology of which I have never been a huge fan. I find it sometimes makes the film appear dark and at times, a bit blurry. With Avatar the 3D, for the most part, worked quite well. Where this movie triumphed was in the special effects. The CGI in Avatar has to rank as the best ever in a movie — simply unbelievable. Watching this movie you would never guess it was taking place on an imaginary planet and you actually might believe the Na’vi are a genuine culture. The visual effects in Avatar are outstanding.
As for the acting, well, Sam Worthington is pretty much perfect for the part he plays. He narrates a good part of the movie and has a voice with a bit of an attitude — yet still calming — that was needed to fit the bill. The other actor that stands out is Stephen Lang, who plays the tough-as-nails Colonel Miles Quaritch. If I were to picture in my mind the type of person who should have played Colonel Quaritch, it would be Stephen Lang. I found Giovanni Ribisi to be an odd choice to play the corporate weasel heading up the project. He just seemed a bit young for the part. Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver and Michelle Rodriguez all did a fine job but none of them were called upon to go over and above what you might expect from them. I had totally forgot CCH Pounder was in the cast and when I saw her name in the final credits, I still couldn’t picture her in the movie. I’ll have to look out for that the next time I see it.
The story of Avatar was okay — but probably the weakest part of the whole production. If you step back and look at the basic premise of the movie, it was all pretty simple. The corporate bullies, with the help of the army, step in to take something valuable and they don’t care who they are inconveniencing by doing it. We’ve seen this a million times before on film and probably more times in real life. The only difference with Avatar is that it is happening on an alien planet, with a race of which we have never heard and with some of the best special effects we have ever seen. I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t feel as much emotion as I thought I would feel during the movie. Cameron has done it to me before. I’ll admit I had a tear in my eye when Jack died in Titanic. Hell, I even think I felt a bit sad when the Terminator died in T2. Avatar seemed to be really lacking in that department. Deep down I was cheering for the Na’vi, but I just didn’t feel that raw emotion that you sometimes feel when you are at the movies.
With all that being said, I did immensely enjoy Avatar. It is an outstanding movie to watch and well worth the price of admission. As I just mentioned, the story is decent, but it wasn’t exceptional. The characters are okay but besides Sam Worthington’s Sully, no one was very remarkable. Where this movie is head and shoulders above anything I have ever seen is in the special effects and in the imagination that it took to put it all together. For that, I have to tip my hat to James Cameron and friends. They really did some remarkable work on this film that should impress millions of movie fans around the world. (8.5 out of 10)
Source: Empire movies
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