Avatar is the
story of an ex-Marine who finds himself thrust into hostilities on an alien
planet filled with exotic life forms. As an Avatar, a human mind in an alien
body, he finds himself torn between two worlds, in a desperate fight for his
own survival and that of the indigenous people. More than ten years in the
making, Avatar marks Cameron's return to feature directing since helming 1997's
Titanic, the highest grossing film of all time and winner of eleven Oscars
including Best Picture. WETA Digital, renowned for its work in The Lord of the
Rings Trilogy and King Kong, will incorporate new intuitive CGI technologies to
transform the environments and characters into photorealistic 3D imagery that
will transport the audience into the alien world rich with imaginative vistas,
creatures and characters.
One
of Us by Joan Armatrading Every Last One of us Immortal "Being
The
Matrix System
Jedi
Army is a group of human+beings who support and come under the command of the
Lord Jesus+Christ. Our aim is to recover the Ark of the Covenant and the stone
destiny and in a short while to put our king on His throne. We are looking for
any others who are willing to do the same. the time is very short and we need
your help to overthrow this evil empire and put the real King on the Throne
today. http://jahtruth.net/truth.htm In speaking of the Truth, Henry David
Thoreau once said: "Any Truth is better than make-believe ... rather than
love, than money, than fame, give me Truth." Winston Churchill is quoted as having once
said: "Most people, sometime in their lives, stumble across truth. Most
jump up, brush themselves off, and hurry on about their business as if nothing
had happened." Just as a bell that has been rung cannot be
"unrung", the annoying problem with the Truth is that, once you learn
it, you can not "unlearn" it.
How Avatar Became
the Highest Grossing Film of All Time - History of Awesome
Five Years Ago,
'Avatar' Grossed $2.7 Billion But Left No Pop Culture Footprint
Scott
Mendelson
Contributori
Dec
18, 2014, 10:00am 220,173 views
James
Cameron's Avatar defied the skeptics and became the highest-grossing film of
all time, but five years later it is all but forgotten in the pop culture
landscape.
Today
is the fifth anniversary of the theatrical release of James Cameron’s 3D action
spectacular. Avatar earned rave reviews, went on to become by far the
highest-grossing movie of all time, and won several Oscars. It then almost
immediately vanished from the popular zeitgeist, leaving almost no pop culture
impact to speak of. It did not inspire a passionate following, or a deluge of
multimedia spin-offs that has kept the brand alive over the last five years.
Few today will even admit to liking it, and its overall effect on the culture
at large is basically non-existent. It came, it crushed all long-term box
office records, and it vanished almost without a trace.
James
Cameron’s Avatar was the exact opposite of a sure thing. Even with the famously
grandiose auteur returning to cinemas 12 years after sailing Titanic to the top
of the box office record books and winning 11 Oscars, the film itself was
something of a question mark. Cameron had been teasing the film for a decade,
promising something that would (my words) change cinema forever and/or make
your face melt off and burn a hole through the floor below you. For a decade,
Avatar was just a notion, it was just something that Cameron was working on in
between trips to the bottom of the sea to explore the actual wreckage of the
Titanic. Almost nothing was known about the picture until mid-August 2009 when
the first teaser dropped, at which point we discovered that the film was
basically a variation on the likes of (deep breath) Fern Gully: The Last Rain
Forest, Pocahontas, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Dances With Wolves, The Last
Samurai, and/or Battle for Terra.
The
initial previews were visually spectacular, especially if you saw them on the
so-called Avatar Day, when Fox rented out IMAX theaters around the country for
a 17-minute sneak preview (I did, and it was the most efficiently run studio
event I have ever been to). Sure the footage looked neat and the 3D looked
pretty remarkable for a live-action film, but the giant blue creatures were easy
fodder for mockery and the film’s somewhat well-worn plot left us underwhelmed
in terms of the whole “revolutionizing cinema” thing. But we had forgotten the
first rule of film punditry: Never bet against James Cameron.
Titanic
underwent equally dismissive pre-release hand-wringing, but once critics
actually saw the film, well, we all know what happened seventeen Decembers ago.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day was the first film to cost $100 million and ended up
being the third-biggest global grosser ($519m in 1991) of all-time behind E.T.:
The Extra Terrestrial and Star Wars at the time. And it was the case for Avatar
as well. It didn't have the luxury of being based on a preexisting property
(Sherlock Holmes felt like the easy lock for Christmas box office supremacy),
and it was burdened with reports that wildly exaggerated its production and
marketing costs so as to be able to crow that 20th Century Fox had spent $500
million on the picture. But Cameron had been down this road before.
But
if we can carp about the mezzo-mezzo marketing materials, the seeming rush to
proclaim Cameron as an emperor lacking clothes, or even Fox’s apparent lack of
confidence by scheduling Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel a week later
as a safety net, we must admit that Fox had a secret weapon: the movie
itself. The film screened for critics on
December 10th, and I attended the second (IMAX) screening on December 14th,
just days before the film’s December 18th theatrical release. At that point,
the word was out that the film was, to use my sophisticated critical jargon,
f****** spectacular.
Yes
the plot was a little well-worn and no the script wasn't full of quotable
Sorkin/Tarantino-esque dialogue, but the 3D was truly eye-popping, Zoe Saldana
gave what is still one of the great motion-capture performances alongside Sam
Worthington, and the movie just-plain worked like gangbusters. It didn't quite
revolutionize cinema as we know it, but the hype was more or less real. But would rave reviews be enough to turn the
tide? Heck, King Kong, which opened on
the same weekend in 2005, actually suffered due to overly rave reviews since it
had pundits thinking it would actually challenge Titanic for similar box office
and Oscar glory. Fox and company held their breath over opening weekend. Avatar
rode the wave of buzz and weathered a brutal snow storm to open with $77
million, which was and still is the largest opening weekend of all-time for a
“not based on anything” motion picture.
But
opening weekends are about marketing and pre-release interest, the rest of the
theatrical run is generally about the movie. Audiences having been knocked out
by what they saw, in terms of the 3D, in terms of the visually glorious Pandora
, and yes in terms of the primal “indigenous people beat back murderous
invaders with the help of a turncoat member of the enemy” story that explicitly
referenced a decade of post-9/11 imperialistic warfare. I talk a lot about not
giving away the game in the marketing campaign can boost positive word-of-mouth
since it will make the film’s real joys appear to be more of a discovery for
moviegoers, and Avatar fit the bill. Like Jurassic Park in 1993, no one quite
got how visually stunning Avatar was going to look, and quite a few of them
came back for seconds. Well, this is where those who grew up in the late 90’s
following this stuff got a jolt of déjà vu.
I
distinctly remember the excitement in the air as the opening weekend of Titanic
gave way to obscenely positive word of mouth leading into the Christmas season,
and I honestly felt the same kind of heat this time around. I remember, as
Avatar went from a $24 million Sunday to $16m single-day grosses for Monday,
Tuesday, and Wednesday, thinking out loud “This can’t be happening again, can
it? He can’t have done this twice in a row, right?” But history indeed repeated
itself as James Cameron’s sci-fi 3D opus dropped about 1.5% on its second
weekend to earn $75.6m over the Christmas weekend. Not to be outdone, Sherlock
Holmes earned $62m that weekend while Fox’s “safety net” Alvin and the
Chipmunks: The Squeakquel debuted with $47m over what is still the
single-biggest box office weekend on record.
Avatar’s second weekend gross of $75.1 million was eventually supplanted
by The Avengers ($106m off a $207m weekend debut), but Avatar still holds the
record for the biggest gross for weekends 3 ($69m), 4 ($50m), 5 ($42m), 6
($34m), and 7 ($31m). Guess what movie still holds the record for weekends 8,
9, 10, 11, and 12.
Avatar
crossed $1 billion by the end of its third weekend and topped Titanic's $1.8b
worldwide cume, or what I used to call the 'Joe DiMaggio 56-game hitting
streak' of box office records, in just 38 days. It went on to earn $760m
domestic (compared to Titanic’s $600m haul in 1997/1998, not counting the 2012
3D reissue) and a stunning $2.7b worldwide, topping the (at the time) $1.8b
worldwide cume of Titanic by 50%. Even five years later, there are only 22
films that have grossed even half of Avatar’s final $760m domestic cume. Even
five years later, only Titanic and The Avengers have earned half of Avatar’s
$2.7b gross while just 30 films have earned a third of that worldwide. Avatar
is the highest grossing film of all time by such a margin that we may not see
anything approach its global cume for a very long time, if ever. Yet for all
intents and purposes, the film is all-but-forgotten.
It
did not become a cultural touchstone in any real sense. Kids don’t play Avatar
on the playground nor with action figures in their homes. There is
little-if-any Avatar-themed merchandise in any given store. Most general
moviegoers couldn't tell you the name of a single character from the film, nor
could they name any of the actors who appeared in it. Even its strong showing at the Oscars hurt
the film, as the narrative turned into “mean and scary James Cameron” against
“weak and helpless Kathryn Bigelow” as if the former Ms. James Cameron needed
any sympathy votes as she went on to become the first female Best Director
winner for The Hurt Locker. Avatar didn't inspire a legion of would-be Avatar
rip-offs, save perhaps for Walt Disney DIS +0.01%’s disastrous John Carter. It
didn’t set the mold for anything that followed save its use of 3D which turned
the post-conversion tool into a valuable way to boost box office overseas.
If
Avatar has any legacy at all, it is by normalizing and/or incentivizing studios
to release their biggest would-be tent poles with some kind of 3D modification
in order to charge more money for tickets. That’s obviously not necessarily a
positive thing, as it led to a few years when seemingly every big film was
artistically compromised by a half-hearted or rushed 3D conversion for the sake
of a ticket up-charge. That’s less of an issue in America, although it remains
a driving factor of international box office today. James Cameron wanted to
show the world how great 3D could be, and Hollywood responded by showing us how
terrible it could be too. Despite a pretty swift case of blockbuster backlash,
whereby pundits quickly attributed the film’s box office success entirely to
the 3D effects, I still think it’s a pretty fantastic adventure film. The
characters are simple but primal, and the storytelling is lean and efficient
even while running nearly three hours. Avatar was arguably the right film at
the right time, with a potent anti-imperialism message that came about just as
America was waking up from its post-9/11 stupor and the rest of the world was
more-than-ready to cheer a film where murderous private armies were violently
defeated and driven away by impassioned indigenous people.
But
it was basically a historical cinematic footnote not a year later, with no real
pop culture footprint beyond its record-setting box office and groundbreaking
3D. What’s sadder than what Avatar was remembered for (very little) is what it
wasn't remembered for. The positive lessons of Avatar’s success, an original
story that resonated on a narrative and socially-topical level with truly
eye-popping visuals being delivered by an auteur at the top of his game that
touched the entire world for a brief period, were forgotten in favor of
“everything must be 3D.” Avatar was not the first mega-blockbuster where
Hollywood learned all of the wrong lessons (examples: nearly every other
blockbuster ever made). But considering how big a deal it was for a brief
period in time, it is all the more odd that exists solely as “that 3D movie
that made a bunch of money.”
Aside
from arguably cementing IMAX as the go-to destination for the biggest of big
blockbuster movies (just over a year after they expanded via the digital IMAX
screens) and kickstarting a mad dash for live-action 3D, Avatar didn't really
change the industry in any real way, for better or worse, and its seemingly
franchise-ready world didn't really go beyond the single initial film. For the
moment, Avatar is a footnote in cinematic history. I've seen the film once in
IMAX 3D, once on 2D blu-ray, and I caught the third act on an airplane last
year, and I can speak with some authority that the film still holds up. But
even with James Cameron swearing that Avatar 2, 3, and 4 will “make you shit
yourself with your mouth wide open” (challenge accepted) and Walt Disney
tentatively planning for “Avatar Land” in various parts of their theme parks,
it would seem that the chance for Avatar to be the Star Wars of its generation,
or really the anything of its generation, came and went five years ago.
That’s
okay of course. A great blockbuster movie can just be a great blockbuster movie
without capturing the lunchbox market. And considering how often James Cameron
actually lives up to his own hype, I am incredibly excited to see what he has
in store for our next trip(s) to Pandora. The odd thing is that, despite the
fact that Avatar grossed $2.7 billion worldwide, I might be the only one who
still cares.
The film "They Live", by John
Carpenter (1988), demonstrates both the fight on Earth, between the servants of
God and the servants of Satan and his mammon-materialism, who are finally
discovered, revealed and defeated, and also that things on this planet are
seldom as they seem to be, due to Satan’s lies that he has used to deceive the
whole world and give people truth-blindness.
THEY = Abbreviation for - The Hierarchy
Enslaving You.
From
They Live!
...our
impulses are being redirected. We are living in an artificially induced state
of consciousness that resembles sleep… ...the movement was begun eight months
ago by a small group of scientists who discovered, quite by accident, these
signals being sent through television... ...the poor and the underclass are
growing. Racial justice and human rights are nonexistent. They have created a
repressive society and we are their unwitting accomplices... ...their intention
to rule rests with the annihilation of consciousness. We have been lulled into
a trance. They have made us indifferent, to ourselves, to others, we are
focused only on our own gain. We ha... ...please understand, they are safe as
long as they are not discovered. That is their primary method of survival. Keep
us asleep, keep us selfish, keep us sedated... ...they are dismantling the
sleeping middle class. More and more people are becoming poor. We are their
cattle. We are being bred for slavery. The revolution... ...we cannot break
their signal, our transmitter is not powerful enough. The signal must be shut
off at the source. We have...
Matthew
10:26 Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be
revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.
10:27
What I tell you in darkness, [that] speak ye in Light: and what ye hear in the
ear, [that] preach ye upon the housetops.
10:28
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but
rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell-fire.
STARWARS
(Episodes 4 to 6 inclusively)
Fact NOT Fiction
by JAH
George
Lucas quite naturally believes that he wrote "Starwars", when, in
reality, he was told telepathically what to write in the original first three
Episodes (4-6), by the very "Force" to which the films refer, and was
"forced" to make only episodes 4-6, first, as a very important step
in the preparation of mankind for the long-awaited TRUTH, about the real
reasons for human life on Earth ("what on earth am I doing here?"),
the meaning of life and its purpose, contained in "The Way home or face
The Fire", from which episodes 1-3 should have been made, as I did my
best, frequently, to tell him.
Unfortunately
George Lucas has exercised his "Free-will"; ignored me and made
Episode 1 - "The Phantom Menace"; with arrogant actors who publicly
ridicule the real message and the real fans, which undermines the original
theme and Divine Message; contradicts it and is mere fiction (lies),
telepathically fed to him by the Dark-side force (Satan), to try to confuse
everyone and undo the good (God's) message contained in the earlier three films
(Episodes 4-6). This is Satan's standard-practice and very predictable. He has
done it with the Old Testament; New Testament and Koran and the three major
religions who claim to be based on them.
