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AVATAR: A Movie that is not science but will be for millions a quasi-scientific exercise for their imaginations.-Ron Price, Tasmania
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The film Avatar has finally been released this month after being in development since 1994. I have not seen it yet, but I have read about it and discussed it with several people who have. This prose-poem tries to encapsulate some of my initial thoughts on this blockbuster, its initial reception and some of its meaning.

James Cameron, who wrote, produced and directed the film, stated in an interview that an avatar is: “an incarnation of one of the Hindu gods taking a flesh form." In this film, though, avatar has more to do with human technology in the future being capable of injecting a human's intelligence into a remotely located body, a biological body. "It's not an avatar in the sense of just existing as ones and zeroes in cyberspace,” said Cameron; “it's actually a physical body." The great student of myth, Joseph Campbell(1), should have been at the premier in London on 10 December 2009. I wonder what he would have said.

Composer James Horner scored the film, his third collaboration with Cameron after Aliens and Titanic. A field guide of 224 pages for the film's fictional setting of the planet of Pandora was released by Harper Entertainment just five weeks ago. The guide was entitled Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora. With an estimated $310 million to produce and $150 million for marketing, the film has already generated positive reviews from film critics. Roger Ebert, one of the more prestigious of film critics, wrote: “An extraordinary film: Avatar is not simply sensational entertainment, although it is that. It's a technical breakthrough."-Ron Price with thanks to Wikipedia, 30 December 2009.

Like viewing Star Wars back in ’77
some said/an obvious script with an
earnestness & corniness/part of what
makes it absorbing/said another/Gives
you a world, a place/worth visiting/eh?
Alive with action and a soundtrack that
pops with robust sci-fi shoot-'em-ups...

A mild critique of American militarism
and industrialism.....yes the military are
pure evil........the Pandoran tribespeople
are nature-loving, eco-harmonious, wise
Braveheart smurf warriors. Received....
nominations for the Critics' Choice Awards
of the Broadcast Film Critics Association &
on and on go the recommendations for the..
best this and that and everything else. What
do you think of all this Joseph Campbell???
You said we all have to work our own myth(1)
in our pentapolar, multicultural-dimensional
world with endless phantoms of our wrongly
informed imagination, with our tangled fears,
our pundits of error, ill-equipped to interpret
the social commotion tearing our world apart
and at play on planetizing-globalizing Earth.(2)

(1)Google Joseph Campbell for some contemporary insights into the individualized myth we all have to work out in our postmodern world.
(2)The Prophet-Founder of the Bahá'í Faith, Bahá'u'lláh, has been presented as an avatar in India beginning, arguably, in the 1960s. With only 1000 Baha’is in India in 1960 to more than 2 million by the year 2010. Baha’u’llah has been associated with the kalkin avatar who, according to a major Hindu holy text, will appear at the end of the kali yuga, one of the four main stages of history, for the purpose of reestablishing an era of righteousness. There are many examples of what one might call a quasi-cross-cultural messianistic approach to Bahá'í teaching in India.

This approach has included: (a) emphasizing the figures of Buddha and Krishna as past Manifestations of God or avatars; (b) making references to Hindu scriptures such as the Bhagavad Gita, (c) the substitution of Sanskrit-based terminology for Arabic and Persian where possible; for example, Bhagavan Baha for Bahá'u'lláh, (d) the incorporation in both song and literature of Hindu holy spots, hero-figures and poetic images and (e) using heavily Sanskritized-Hindi translations of Baha'i scriptures and prayers.

Ron Price
30 December 2009

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NQS.

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Apologies for my belated response, TheFallibleFiend. As a Megastar perhaps you could tell me what the acronym NQS means.-Ron Price, Tasmania

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Originally Posted By: RonPrice
Apologies for my belated response, TheFallibleFiend. As a Megastar perhaps you could tell me what the acronym NQS means.-Ron Price, Tasmania


[quote=Mike Kremer]

Not sure what it means either Ron.
But here is a very interesting 'TheFreeDictionary' that you can use for Acronym's
or most anything else for that matter. You can even put in your friends initials,
and get an answer. smile

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/


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Perhaps NQS is the "Not Quite Science" forum?

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Yep, I am sure you are right pokey, although in this case the
topic IS IN the Sci-Fi column.


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In order for poetry and especially drama to succeed there has to be "a willing suspension of disbelief". Avatar falls into this category. It is a fantasy, a story-telling and has a point of view or a lesson to be learned, debated or ignored as you choose! Had it won the Oscar I feel that film-making may well have been changed for ever.

Personally I enjoyed it for what it was, and the 3D effects were brilliant. Like "Star Wars", (one of my favourite films), Avatar is a re-relling of an archetypal myth as old as historical time. It is a story up-dated for our time perhaps, told to us with all the technical gloss now available. I would have edited some of the obligatory Final Battle Scene though- (but then I'm not a teenage boy).

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fantastic movie...i can relate the story of avatar...especially the romantic park of avatar....
make money online

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It has been some nine months since my initiating post in this thread and I thank those who have responded to what I wrote about the film Avatar. I have nothing to add at this stage of the discussion.-Ron in Australia

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Originally Posted By: RonPrice
AVATAR: A Movie that is not science but will be for millions a quasi-scientific exercise for their imaginations.-Ron Price, Tasmania
----------------------------------->
................................>
.............................>

Ron Price
30 December 2009


[quote=Mike Kremer}

Ron... you certainly did an amazing write up on Avatar,
and you had not seen it at that time!
Well I have seen it twice now, and I agree with you, its a
fab, colourful unique SF film.
I believe that they are in the process of making a sequel.

There is a rather irrevelent name for Avatar making the rounds here..... 'Pocahontas in Drag'

(Pocahontas born in 1595 the daughter of a great Native American tribe Chief)

[/quote=Mike Kremer]


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Actually that is a good description Mike. The blue people even look like the Disney Pocahontas, and I remember thinking when I saw the movie it reminded me of that film. I have watched Pocahontas quite a few times as I have 2 little granddaughters. It's not their favourite but it's quite popular.

Why are they making a new episode? Will it be like 'Star Wars' and the dreadful clones? I hope not! I have to watch them with my 2 little grandsons. What a travesty of my favourite SF movie! (Ep 4 of course!).

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Just dropped back to this site and, again, I thank those who posted for their participation. I also have found the acronym site. A useful addition to my information base.-Ron

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really a movie with scientific effects and feels us real science.


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