Watching Avatar again is still a masterpiece.

In an interview with Time magazine in 27, Cameron explained the relationship between the title and Hinduism. "It is the incarnation of Hindu gods when they appear in physical form. In this film, this means that the future technology of human beings can inject a human intelligence into the remote-controlled biological body. "

1. avatar and Hinduism

The name of the movie is not an English word, but an Indian Sanskrit-Avatar, where "Ava" means "downward" or "leaving" and "tar" means "crossing" and "crossing". In Sanskrit, this word means that from heaven to earth, God only came to earth in mortal flesh.

It was originally the exclusive religious vocabulary of Vishnu Sect in Hinduism, and later it was absorbed by secular society and had a broader meaning of "incarnation". In the movie, Jack entered the Nami people's bodies and integrated into their society through a soul transfer machine named "Avatar". This process from human civilization to Pandora's indigenous tribes can be said to be an "incarnation" behavior based on the future high-tech level.

Of course, the Sanskrit word Avatar is not only related to the superficial level of "incarnation", but we have to go back to Hinduism first to understand its meaning. There are three gods in Hinduism: Brahma, the creator of the world, Vishnu, the maintainer of the world, and Shiva, the destroyer of the world. The three of them are one but each has his own duties.

"Avatar" is basically synonymous with Vishnu in Hindu history. As a world maintainer, he often incarnates into different images in Indian epics to punish evil and promote good and save mankind from danger.

Rama, the protagonist of the famous Indian epic Ramayana, is the incarnation of Vishnu in the world, and Vishnu is the incarnation of clichy in another epic, Mukhabrama.

In addition, he was incarnated as Manu, the ancestor of the big fish to save mankind, and became the goddess of the earth to save the golden-eyed devil from the giant wild boar; Became a dwarf, also known as the three-step god, and asked the demon king Barry for a three-step place. As a result, he crossed the three realms of heaven, earth and air in three steps and defeated the demon king Barry. Twenty-two different incarnations of Vishnu are recorded in the Bhagavan Puranas.

In the movie, Jack's "avatar" just came to Pandora's virgin forest, and was surrounded by spores of sacred trees. It was based on this vision that Princess Nadiri of Nami decided to bring him back to the tribe according to the prophecy.

Later, Jack succeeded in subduing the air overlord Bat Chirosaurus, led the Nami people to resist the human colonial forces together, and drove the human mercenaries back to the earth, which further proved that he was the savior of the Nami who was chosen by heaven to undertake a special mission. Therefore, the title Avatar not only echoes the "soul transfer" technology in the story, but also implies from the etymological cultural background that the protagonist shoulders the natural mission of saving the Nami people.

Second, Avatar and Cameron

It can be said that any great work of art is an autobiography of the artist's life or a history of his soul, and it will definitely be branded by the creator personally, either implicitly or explicitly.

In 1994, Ka Shen completed an 8-page script of Avatar and its background in just two weeks. In August 1996, he announced that he would start filming Avatar after finishing Titanic. But I didn't expect this dream, which has been treasured for two years, to come true on the big screen for 13 years.

The image of Na Mei Ren in the movie actually comes from a dream of Ka Shen's mother long ago. In her dream, she saw a blue woman who was 12 feet tall. Therefore, he added this image to his first version of the script. During the interview, he also talked about the reason why he chose blue as the main color of Nami people. "I have always liked blue … Besides, it has something to do with Hindu gods, and I like its concept." You should know that Vishnu, the great god in Hinduism, has blue skin.

Of course, the themes of Avatar, such as civilization and barbarism, science and technology and nature, weapons and life, are also related to the cultural background of Ka Shen and his experience of watching movies and reading.

There may be many people who don't know, James? Cameron is actually a Canadian. The history of the invasion and slaughter of American Indians by European white colonists and the expulsion of indigenous people from the land where they worked and lived for generations is a compulsory course for every American and Canadian citizen.

Children have been guided to face this disgraceful history of their own country objectively at school since childhood. Therefore, the guilt, repentance and aversion to war and violence of the aborigines are naturally imprinted in the mind of Ka Shen.

In addition, Cameron also said in the interview that the script of Avatar was inspired by every science fiction novel he read as a child. He said that he borrowed from Edgar when he wrote? Rice? John from burroughs? Carter series.

It tells the story of a former military officer who was traumatized during the American Civil War and crossed to Mars. Because Mars' gravity is less than that of the earth, he became a "superman" with infinite strength and leaps, and intervened in local tribal conflicts. This series was also put on the big screen in 212, called "Battlefield of Aliens", but only one film was filmed and it ended in vain.

Of course, the theme that the wounded soldiers in the film were attracted by the original hostile camp culture was also influenced by the film Dancing with Wolves.

In addition, the story of Avatar has a more realistic orientation. In the Iraq war in 23, the United States bombed major cities in Iraq with extremely advanced weapons. Although it achieved the established military goals, it also caused great harm to the lives of local civilians.

Cameron said in an interview, "We know what it's like to launch a missile, but we don't know how people abroad feel, and we don't know what it's like to let a missile land in our own country. Therefore, in Avatar, he arranged for human mercenaries to wantonly destroy Pandora by choosing rotorcraft and land fighter armor to show the ruthlessness of mechanized warfare.

He said, "If you talk about some things, someone will definitely say that you are unpatriotic; But I think it is very patriotic to question a system that should be supervised, otherwise it will be in danger of becoming another Roman Empire. " Therefore, "Avatar" is also the embodiment of the sense of civic responsibility of the card god who accuses and criticizes world hegemony.

III. Avatar and Avatar Universe

After winning the great success of Avatar, which has been sharpened for 12 years, Ka Shen once again fell into a period of devoted creation for 12 years. However, this time he went abroad, what he brought to the fans was an even broader creative plan of "Avatar Universe": the second one was released in 222, the third one in 224, the fourth one in 226 and the fifth one in 228.

Since 222, Kar Shen will gradually reveal more secrets of Pandora for the audience at a steady rate every two years. But he also said that Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 would not be released if the box office of the two films were dismal.

In 29, through his team's 3D camera which simulates human binocular vision mode and the excellent production which takes an average of 6, man-hours per frame, Ka Shen showed the wonderful Pandora planet to the audience, thus attracting a large number of fans around the world.

Looking back at Avatar 12 years later, compared with other sci-fi and fantasy works that were born after inheriting the special effects of the card god, the ecosystem of Pandora has been slightly simplified, and the biological species are not rich. Some creatures in the film can only form a very simple food chain and biological cycle system:

Na 'mei, the only known intelligent species on Pandora, can use cold weapons and fire, and its social organization form is primitive tribe.

Pandora monkey, a small creature similar to lemur, can climb and glide among trees with flexible arms and wing membranes.

Pandora is a fierce horse, with six legs and armor on the head, covering the back of the head along the neck. Its respirator is long on its chest, so it can't cross the chest water. Can be tamed by the Nami and connected to the master through nerve fibers.

Bat raccoons, a flying carnivore similar to pterosaurs, can also be tamed by Nami people, but only one owner will accompany them for a lifetime.

Bat Chironosaurus, an enhanced variant of Bat Chironosaurus, was more magnificent, with yellow, red and black stripes all over its body. Feeding on bats, raccoons and Nami people, only a few Nami people with extremely strong spirit can tame it and become tribal leaders.

Lei Shou, a herbivore similar to rhinoceros, is about the size of two elephants. His head is like a hammerhead shark, and his skin is extremely hard, and he can even resist gun attacks.

The spotted bull, a giant land beast on Pandora, is five meters high and weighs ten tons. Gentle, gregarious, and moving along rivers.

These ideas were amazing at that time, and they are not without rivals today.

For example, Kong: Skull Island in Legendary Pictures's ambitious "Monster Universe", as a closed ecological space, the island is full of exotic animals with special evolution, which brings no less shock to the audience than Avatar.

Of course, as an independent planet, Pandora still has a lot of room to dig. In the first film, we only saw the ecological appearance of the tropical region of Pandora. We still don't know anything about its marine, plateau, mountain, plain, Gobi and desert ecosystems.

According to the known information at present, there are a lot of underwater scenes in the filming scene of Avatar 2. I believe that in the sequel, Ka Shen will lead us to dive into the mysterious seabed and show the other side of the mysterious Pandora.

We can also look forward to Avatar 2 with more questions. For example, what is the difference between the Nami civilization by the sea and that in the jungle? What's Nami's boat like? What are the wonderful creatures in the ocean? Did human colonists find a new Pandora treasure in the ocean this time? Looking back at the masterpiece Avatar by Ka Shen, we may find something new.