...r: A Rev iew Essa y Nekeisha Alexis-Baker By the time I decided to see James Cameron’s Avatar, I had already heard enough about the film to be unsure whether it would be worth the time, effort and petroleum to see it. People’s comments about the film ranged from praise for its groundbreaking 3D animation; to criticism of its racist portrayal of the indigenous; to disappointment with the overly predictable storytelling; to appreciation for its critique of colonization and civilization. I even heard complaints from fellow peace church Mennonites about its overwhelming use of redemptive violence. After seeing the film through my Christian anti-civilization (anti-civ) anarchist vegan antiracist woman of color lenses, my sense is that Avatar is more complex than many of its detractors or advocates acknowledge. Set on the planet Pandora, Avatar is a sci-fi story of a mercenary-backed corporation’s attempt to confiscate and mine the land inhabited by humanoid aliens known as the Na’vi. Enter Jake Sully, the paraplegic U.S. marine protagonist who joins the science and anthropology wing of the operation as a substitute navigator for his deceased twin brother’s avatar. Early in the film, we discover that the avatar is an expensive high-tech clone that allows its user to temporarily experience and subsequently infiltrate the Na’vi community. After a series of unexpected events during his first avatar excursion, Jake finds himself living amongst the Na’vi clan known as the Omaticaya where...
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...The Effect of Virtual Worlds Virtual Worlds have become a trend and it affects the people in several ways. They become less social, they hide behind their fake characters and waste their money on virtual items. Being attached to unreal life is making people relay on being unknown and instead of living the real world, they tend to make the Internet an essential element in their life. Staying unhidden makes people unsocial; they lie, cheat and live an unrealistic life. They start to make the virtual world as their place to live, they make new characters that are called avatars, and these characters usually resemble the person who made it. Most of the people, or “users” as they are supposed to be called, since this world is a game and not an actual place, have a habit of making their avatars look how they really want to look in real life, they show how they actually want to be instead of their own looks and personality. This may reveal how most people dislike their features in the real world and this may be the most reason why people prefer virtual worlds instead of the real world. Nowadays, computer-generated worlds, which are not real, have become the most used worlds between people. They gave people the ability to be who ever they wanted to be, thus making each and every user’s life a lie. Virtual Worlds have affected the lives of many people in the most negative way; they lead to obesity and loss of concentration. “In one experiment conducted at Cornell University, for example...
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...Essay on Avatar Movie This is a free sample essay on Avatar movie: Avatar is the title of the high grossing film produced by James Cameron and released in 2009. the movie stars Sam Worthington, Stephen Lang, Zoe Saldana, Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver. It is set in the year 2154 on the moon Pandora found in the Alpha Centauri system. The moon is inhabited by a blue-colored humanoid tribe known as the Na’vi. Humans have discovered a mineral, unobtainium, on Pandora. The mining activities by humans have led to conflicts between then and the native Na’vi tribe. The title of the film is taken from the genetically altered human-Na’vi hybrids created by a team of researchers from earth. The avatars are used by the researchers to help in interacting with the Na’vi. Though the movie is about the Na’vi-human conflict on Pandora, it is also mainly about the love relationship that develops between the avatar Jake (played by Sam Worthington) and a native Na’vi, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). The two have to fight off the invading humans, although this puts Jake in danger since he is half Na’vi half Human. In the end, the human invaders are defeated and Jake becomes a full Na’vi, after re-affirming his love for Neytiri. Cameron started developing the 162-minutes long movie in 1994. With a budget of more than $246 million, he was able to create one of the most innovative movies of all times. The movie was released in 2D and 3D formats all across the world. It managed to gross a total...
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...James Cameron’s movie Avatar was a major discussion amongst my friends when it came out. All of them had seen it at midnight opening, while I was stuck home doing errands and work. For weeks they would talk about how amazing the scenery was and how epic the fights were between the Na’vi and humans. I was completely lost during each discussion we had when we hung out at Starbucks or each other’s houses. I hated not knowing what the movie was about and finally I decided to watch it online. Now I know the reason why people thought it was awesome. I was just like every other viewer who thought the scenery was breathtaking and the story was amazing. Although I have seen Avatar about a hundred times now, I never once thought there were hidden messages occurring behind the movie. I had to watch it again so I could see why people seemed to view Avatar as being an environmental or political issue. The movie seems able to predict how our future will turn out, a type of religion being practiced, and show us acts of imperialism being displayed throughout the story. I was so distracted by the technology used to create Avatar’s scenery; and how amazing the creatures and characters looked that I never once noticed how it could be possibly be allegory of our own world. The movie seems to predict that our future will become miserable. That we will gradually fall short of supplies and that Earth will end up dying. So far this seems to be true because the earth is already fighting back for...
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...American Apparel clothing designed to be worn by the avatars that users create to populate Second Life. American Apparel was soon joined by other brands. In October 2006, Starwood, the owner of hotel brands such as Westin and Sheraton, premiered its Aloft hotel brand on Second Life. Starwood saw its virtual hotel as a way of generating early customer insights about its venture long before any of the hotels opened. A month later, Pontiac, the US car-maker, launched Motorati Island. According to Mark-Hans Richer, marketing director at Pontiac, it was designed to 'empower the car community in Second Life and develop with them in a unique and meaningful manner'. From April, Second Life boasted the ultimate marketing patronage when Coke launched a 'virtual thirst pavilion', where visitors could compete to create a virtual vending machine selling not Coke, but, according to the firm's website, 'the essence of Coca-Cola: refreshment, joy, unity, experience'. It all sounds pretty amazing, until you visit Second Life. Having spent last weekend walking around its virtual universe, I have to report that the whole thing is pretty crap - a bit like Milton Keynes with a very bad hangover. The branded locations that sounded so impressive in the pages of BusinessWeek are very basic and virtually devoid of visitors. Despite Second Life's bold claims of 8m residents, the limited server space means that locations can handle only 70 avatars at a time. Once you leave the congested entry portal...
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...Case Study 1: Is Second Life Ready For Business? By: Raven Tyler Q1: In the Business world Second Life can be valuable by using cost effective ways to engage in meetings within their corporation. The use of the virtual world allows for companies to have meetings with staff members who may be in another state or even a country. Within a business the main goal is to generate profits, so by having Second Life it minimizes traveling costs. According to the case study IBM is currently investing $10 million into Second Life because of the possibilities. IBM believes that they can not only use Second Life for meeting but also customer service, product development, and marketing. By using the three-dimensional world for these tools, IBM is able to interact with the user almost directly and is able to generate feedback. According to nbhorizons.com there are many companies that are currently invested in Second Life. Companies such as: BMW, Coca-Cola, Circuit City, Sony, Comcast, and many more. Q2: Businesses that would benefit from second life the most are the ones who would want to boost their brand recognition and would want to target a new market place. Since second life isn’t very popular and is far behind other social networks, businesses that invest in this virtual reality should already have some following and have generated popularity in other markets. They shouldn’t use this as a main outlet to grow it should be used as a tool to help increase business activity. Businesses that...
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...COM-120 February 16, 2014 Intercultural Communication Paper I chose to write about the movie Avatar. Avatar is a science fiction movie set in the 22nd century. The film's title refers to a genetically engineered Na'vi body with the mind of a remotely located human, and is used to interact with the natives of Pandora. The story centers around a paraplegic marine named Jake Sully. Jake’s twin brother was a scientist on the planet Pandora, and part of an avatar program. When his brother died, Jake was offered his job, as he had the same DNA match up as his brother’s avatar body. Shortly after arriving, he is asked by the greedy corporate figureheads, Parker Selfridge and Colonel Quaritch, to infiltrate the native humanoid "Na'vi" people of Pandora and negotiate the surrender of their sacred tree home because there was a huge unobtainium mine worth a lot of money under the tree. If Jake agrees and is successful, he will get a spinal surgery that will fix his legs. When Jake took his brother’s job, he did not know anything about Pandora and its people. The Na’vi were a ten-foot-tall, blue-skinned native tribe, considered to be a very eco-friendly, living off the land, and only taking what they needed to survive. In addition, The Na’vi were a peaceful civilization. They did not fight amongst themselves, but worked together to grow as a whole. As Jake learned the language and culture of the Na’vi aliens, he grows to love them, and in turn, falls in love with the beautiful...
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...RUNNING HEAD: AVATAR AVATAR Film Review Directed by James Cameron Eric Anderly ARTS/100 Deborah Laws Review “Avatar is set in the Year 2154 on the distant planet Pandora.” (French, 2009) The planet has been inhabited by Humans and was targeted because it vast supply of unobtainium, which is an energy source that the Human desperately are in need of in order to sustain life on Earth. (French, 2009) The human have hired a mining crew that is responsible for the extraction of the inobtainium. An army of hired soldiers to ensure the safety and forcibility of the mission has also accompanied the mining crew. (French, 2009) Although the planet has gravity is does not have oxygen, so the Human must wear mask to supply them with air to breath. One of the obstacles that the miners and army must face is the Native tribe of the Na’vi who has inhabited the planet and is determined to protect it from the Humans. The Na’vi is a primitive tribe and do not rely on technology as the Humans do, but yet, the instincts and training they have used for a lifetime to fight. The Na’vi have a sacred place of worship within their jungle know as the “Tree of Souls”. This also to be the area that contains the largest amount of the unobtainium material and the Mining company is determined at an cost to get it, even if it means killing the Na’vi or destroying the forest. A recruit by the name of Jake Sully has been selected to work in the Avatar program as has signed on to regain...
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...I choose the movie Avatar because it demonstrates a universe where we can see the beautiful and enlightened nature with animations, spirits that interact with human beings. One expression of this movie was that those creatures were physically and emotionally connected with other creatures in order to control them. First of all, I will start talking about the world views portrayed in this movie. From my point of view i would say the movie portrays a pantheistic spirituality and I can see a little bit of naturalistic worldview. The Na'vi people in the movie are spiritually connected to their entire world, including their animals and their plants. Even though they are so primitive, the Na'vi people think that they are above the reality of the nature itself. In their everyday life, they are enlightened and are always in communion with Eywa, called the "All Mother". The "All Mother" Eywa is not regular being, like we view God as, but Eywa is their powerful force behind the existence of their nature. The Na'vi people are so connected to nature that they say prayers of gratitude; sometimes they would even cry when they kill an animal for their food. You can see spirituality in every detail of their lives including what they eat, how they pray, how they worship the planet, and also how they relate to each other. After watching that movie two or three times, I can how pantheistic spiritually literally being preached to the audience through the characters and how they interact with...
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...a brief analysis of James Cameron's Avatar, a massively successful film that has managed to gross, so far, a half billion in revenue. With its popularity and mass appeal, it has also incurred a considerable amount of criticism from a variety of sources, targeting a variety of topics of the film, from its presentation of alien natives and a colonial corporate military, to race issues and a depiction of cigarette use. This essay attempts to explore main threads of the film, analyzing criticism, and offering its own critique and deconstruction. It will employ diagnostic critique, as well, in order to analyze how Avatar is equally a reflection of and an active influence on contemporary culture. Avatar takes place in the virtual world of Pandora, created by Cameron with digital technology and colonized with fantastic creatures and an indigenous race of tall blue aliens called the Na'vi. The film is presented in three-dimensions, a technology that has been around for some time but this is the first time it seems to be used without reference to novelty. In this way Cameron and Twentieth Century Fox made a film, or rather an experience that cannot be pirated; a considerable amount of its revenue is from viewers paying extra to watch it in three dimensions, undoubtedly multiple times, on a monolithic IMAX screen. The virtual world within Avatar is closely reminiscent of virtual spaces like Second Life; in both environments, individuals use avatars to plug into the space, roam around...
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...Paige Johnston Film Essay Avatar The critical acclaim that followed the box office destroyer, Avatar, out shined most films since the creation of Hollywood and the American cinema composition. Coming in at the second highest grossing film of all times only behind Titanic, James Cameron and his crew of artistic creators surely gave their audiences something to talk about. The film takes place in two separate worlds, the industrialized earth and the beautiful and plush avatar infested world of Pandora. The controversy of the film is centered on the humans mining the world of Pandora for a highly valuable element worth an estimated $20 million dollars a kilogram. The artistically drawn battle between the humans and the natives of Pandora, bring about a reminder of several classically organized stories that seem to follow along the same paths that Avatar treads upon. With this controversy that is being brought to light, the issue of race, racial tolerance and other problems dealing with color are brought up throughout the film in a multitude of ways. Whether it be embodied in the thoughts and processes of the characters, through the actual actions of the film, or the eerily similar comparisons that can be made between Avatar and other racially charged films, race is definitely a subject that was vividly dug up when the film crossed the minds of the viewers. Many reviews of the film Avatar put most of the racist charges and blames of inequality onto the writers of...
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...and help customers to familiarize themselves with the company location to increase interaction and user involvement” (p. 1368). There is little to no engagement without someone there to interact with visitors. Tikkanen et al. (2009) also found in a survey of 200 Second Life users that “72 % of respondents were disappointed with the marketing activities in Second Life and only 7% considered current virtual world marketing activities to be having a positive influence on brand image and on their buying behavior" (p. 1364). Another study of Second Life by Mackenzie, Buckby & Irvine (2009) surveyed 20 businesses on Second Life and found there was an “apparent inability to attract, engage, or sustain engagement of Second Life lead user avatars” (p. 198). A few weeks ago we discussed how blogs were effective because of the engagement factor. In Second Life, the engagement is in real-time, so immediate reactions and responses are most effective. Also, the potential engagement is more limited. Second Life can...
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...unobtanium - a valuable mineral. The planet is inhabitant by Na ‘vi, a blue skinned species which are human like with feline characteristics. As Pandora’s atmosphere does not any human survival, scientists create human-Na’vi hybrids known as Avatars. These avatars are controlled by genetically matched human operators. Jake Sully was sent as a replacement for his identical twin brother who was recently murdered. Jake is a paraplegic war veteran. Dr. Grace Augustine who is the head of the Avatar Program appoints Jake as a bodyguard. In Pandora, Jake escorts Augustine and biologist Norm Spellman. The group was attacked by a large predator and eventually Jake gets separated from his team. Later, he was rescued by Neytiri, a female Na’vi. Hse took Jake to their clan where he was given a warm welcome. Back in the camp, Jake was identified by the leader of RDA security forces colonel Miles Quaritch who promises Jake to get back his real legs in exchange for intelligence about the natives. He was also appointed a task of making the Na’vis to abandon Hometree which was situated above a large deposit of unobtanium. In the meanwhile, Jake grows close towards Neytiri and her clan Omaticaya. Jake started enjoying his life through his avatar and eventually tries to stop his people to destroy the Omaticaya’s peaceful life on the Hometree. Selfridge then decides to destroy the Hometree as he was convinced that the Na’vis will not come accept any other their given negotiations. But Augustine...
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...d as James Cameron's Avatar) is a 2009 American[9][10] epic science fiction film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron, and starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Joel David Moore, Giovanni Ribisi, and Sigourney Weaver. The film is set in the mid-22nd century, when humans are mining a precious mineral called unobtanium on Pandora, a lush habitable moon of a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system.[11][12][13] The expansion of the mining colony threatens the continued existence of a local tribe of Na'vi – a humanoid species indigenous to Pandora. The film's title refers to a genetically engineered Na'vi body with the mind of a remotely located human, and is used to interact with the natives of Pandora.[14] Development of Avatar began in 1994, when Cameron wrote an 80-page treatment for the film.[15][16] Filming was supposed to take place after the completion of Cameron's 1997 film Titanic, for a planned release in 1999,[17] but according to Cameron, the necessary technology was not yet available to achieve his vision of the film.[18] Work on the language of the film's extraterrestrial beings began in summer 2005, and Cameron began developing the screenplay and fictional universe in early 2006.[19][20] Avatar was officially budgeted at $237 million.[6] Other estimates put the cost between $280 million and $310 million for production and at $150 million for promotion.[21][22][23] The film made extensive use of cutting...
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...Avatar Pandora is an Earth-like moon that is a host to life. It has a very similar but different biosphere compared to that of the Earth’s. It has twenty percent less gravity than Earth making the proportional scale several times larger than Earth’s, the animals, the plants, everything is huge in comparison to the Earth. The atmosphere on Pandora is made up of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, xenon, ammonium, methane, and hydrogen sulfide. The carbon dioxide and the hydrogen sulfide are non-breathable for humans, this is why they humans have the wear oxygen masks (exopacks). Pandora is a very biodiverse locale. It has its own functioning ecosystem with a unique fauna and flora. Some characteristics of Pandora’s flora are that it is made up...
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