《Avatar》　阿凡達(dá)　一場絕美的視覺盛宴

No.008　《Avatar》　阿凡達(dá)　一場絕美的視覺盛宴

英文導(dǎo)讀

Avatar is a 2009 American epic science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron. 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. The expansion of the mining colony threatens the continued existence of a local tribe of Na'vi—a humanoid species indigenous to Pandora.

Avatar takes us to a spectacular world beyond imagination, where a reluctant hero embarks on an epic adventure, ultimately fighting to save the alien world he has learned to call home. James Cameron, the Oscarwinning director of "Titanic", first conceived the film 15 years ago, when the means to realize his vision did not exist yet. Now, after four years of production, Avatar, a live action film with a new generation of special effects, delivers a fully immersive cinematic experience of a new kind, where the revolutionary technology invented to make the film disappears into the emotion of the characters and the sweep of the story.

We enter the alien world through the eyes of Jake Sully, a former Marine confined to a wheelchair. But despite his broken body, Jake is still a warrior at heart. He is recruited to travel light years to the human outpost on Pandora, where corporations are mining a rare mineral that is the key to solving Earth's energy crisis. Because the atmosphere of Pandora is toxic, they have created the Avatar Program, in which human "drivers" have their consciousness linked to an avatar, a remotely-controlled biological body that can survive in the lethal air. These avatars are genetically engineered hybrids of human DNA mixed with DNA from the natives of Pandora... the Na'vi.

Reborn in his avatar form, Jake can walk again. He is given a mission to infiltrate the Na'vi, who has become a major obstacle to mining the precious ore. But a beautiful Na'vi female, Neytiri, saves Jake's life, and this changes everything. Jake is taken in by her clan, and learns to become one of them, which involves many tests and adventures. As Jake's relationship with his reluctant teacher Neytiri deepens, he learns to respect the Na'vi way and finally takes his place among them. Soon he will face the ultimate test as he leads them in an epic battle that will decide nothing less than the fate of an entire world.

Development of Avatar began in 1994, when Cameron wrote an 80-page treatment for the film. Filming was supposed to take place after the completion of Cameron's 1997 film Titanic, for a planned release in 1999, but according to Cameron, the necessary technology was not yet available to achieve his vision of the film. 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. Avatar was officially budgeted at $237 million. Other estimates put the cost between $280 million and $310 million for production and at $150 million for promotion. The film made extensive use of cutting edge motion capture filming techniques, and was released for traditional viewing, 3-D viewing (using the RealD 3D, Dolby 3D, XpanD 3D, and IMAX 3D formats), and for "4-D" experiences in select South Korean theaters. The stereoscopic filmmaking was touted as a breakthrough in cinematic technology.

The film broke several box office records during its release and became the highest-grossing film of all time in North America and worldwide, surpassing Titanic, which had held the records for the previous twelve years. It also became the first film to gross more than $2 billion. Avatar was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won three, for Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, and Best Art Direction. The film's home release went on to break opening sales records and became the top-selling Blu-ray of all time. Following the film's success, Cameron signed with 20th Century Fox to produce two sequels, making Avatar the first of a planned trilogy.

獲獎情況

2010年第82屆奧斯卡：最佳視覺效果、最佳藝術(shù)指導(dǎo)、最佳攝影、最佳藝術(shù)指導(dǎo)獎，并榮獲最佳影片提名、最佳導(dǎo)演提名。

影片信息

導(dǎo)演：詹姆斯·卡梅隆

編?。赫材匪?middot;卡梅隆

主演：薩姆·沃辛頓、佐伊·索爾達(dá)娜、西格妮·韋弗、史蒂芬·朗

類型：動作、科幻、奇幻、冒險

制片國家（地區(qū)）：美國、英國

上映日期：2009-12-18（美國）

片長：162分鐘、178分鐘（加長版）

又名：《天神下凡》《化身》《異次元戰(zhàn)神》《神之化身》

劇情簡介

因在戰(zhàn)斗中負(fù)傷而下身癱瘓的前海軍戰(zhàn)士杰克·薩利決定替死去的同胞哥哥到潘多拉星球，操縱格蕾絲博士用人類基因與當(dāng)?shù)丶{美部族基因結(jié)合創(chuàng)造出的“阿凡達(dá)”混血生物。杰克的任務(wù)是打入納美部落，說服他們自愿離開世代居住的家園，從而使采礦公司可以肆意的開采地下昂貴的“不可得”礦。這種礦物元素是別的星球上沒有的，所以人們對它的渴求到了瘋狂的地步。

在探索潘多拉星球的過程中，杰克發(fā)現(xiàn)這里就像夢中的奇幻花園，美景簡直無法用語言來形容：高達(dá)900英尺（約274米）的參天巨樹、星羅棋布飄浮在空中的群山、色彩斑斕充滿奇特植物的茂密雨林、晚上各種動植物還會發(fā)光。

不過，在這片美麗的土地上，到處充滿著危險：一頭圣獸與他狹路相逢，在逃命過程中杰克與隊友失去了聯(lián)系，在晚上的時候又被一群土狼襲擊，杰克奮起戰(zhàn)斗，在整個戰(zhàn)斗的過程中杰克寡不敵眾危在旦夕，危急關(guān)頭中一支箭射死了土狼，杰克得救了。救他的是那維族的公主，杰克從她口中了解到了更多潘多拉星球的知識。

然而，人類在利益的驅(qū)動下，不管杰克等人的意見，執(zhí)意摧毀那維族人所生存的家園樹。杰克與他們協(xié)商，自己去和那維族人交涉，讓他們離開那顆大樹，然而當(dāng)他說明了一切之后，那維族人都很憤怒，特別是杰克喜歡的那個那維族人女孩更是憤怒，那維族人就把杰克和一名女教授一起捆在了刑架上。采礦公司派遣的戰(zhàn)機發(fā)現(xiàn)他們協(xié)商失敗了，于是就下令開火，摧毀了他們前進(jìn)的障礙——那維族人賴以生存的那棵巨樹，那維族人的領(lǐng)袖也被炮火炸死。

沒有了生存之地的那維族人被迫暫居神樹之下。而杰克等人的正義行為因為和采礦公司的利益相沖，被他們關(guān)了起來。后來，他們借機駕機逃跑了，杰克騎著“魅影”到達(dá)了那維族人暫居的神樹下，呼吁那維族人作出反抗，他終于又得到那維族人的信任。那維族人的反抗聯(lián)盟和采礦公司的軍隊展開了血戰(zhàn)。結(jié)果，那維族人反抗軍最終打敗了人類。

在那維族的精神領(lǐng)袖的帶領(lǐng)下，那維族人用自己的感受器（辮子）與神樹相連，借助神樹的力量，將杰克·薩利的精神（靈魂）轉(zhuǎn)移到他的阿凡達(dá)身上，杰克最終成為了這個星上那維族人的領(lǐng)袖。

制作花絮

曾憑借《泰坦尼克號》創(chuàng)造過驚世票房紀(jì)錄的好萊塢重量級導(dǎo)演詹姆斯·卡梅隆，經(jīng)過14年的醞釀，耗資5億美元（約合人民幣27.2億元），歷時4年拍制的科幻巨獻(xiàn)《阿凡達(dá)》于2009年年底亮相。

男主角杰克·薩利由澳大利亞籍男星、《終結(jié)者2018》男主角薩姆·沃辛頓出演，女主角妮特麗則由曾出演《星際迷航》的黑人女演員佐伊·索爾達(dá)娜出演。此外，《賽車風(fēng)云》野性女星米歇爾·羅德里格茲和《異形》系列女主角西格妮·韋弗也在片中參演重要角色。

奧斯卡獎金牌制片人喬恩·蘭道及金獎配樂大師詹姆斯·霍納也繼《泰坦尼克號》之后再度與詹姆斯·卡梅隆攜手。

動畫渲染需要的硬盤存儲空間就超過1PB，要由500塊2TB的硬盤搭建這套存儲系統(tǒng)。其中40%的畫面由真實場景拍攝，60%完全由電腦動畫生成，拍攝立體畫面使用的全新3D合成攝像機系統(tǒng)也耗費了大量的成本。

卡梅隆自己的Raelity攝像系統(tǒng)公司，主要負(fù)責(zé)3D效果的拍攝與制作。

重點學(xué)習(xí)

Jake is still a warrior at heart

我們都知道，at heart是“在心里，在內(nèi)心”的意思，它常常被引申為“本質(zhì)上，實際上”的意思，比如：Yet, even though you may be angry, I would know that at heart, you are a kind person. （然而，即便你可能生氣，我也知道你本質(zhì)上是個好人。）另外，at heart還可引申為“秘密地；關(guān)心，重視”的意思。

Jake is taken in by her clan

Take in是英語中應(yīng)用十分廣泛的一固定搭配，它詞義豐富，在文中是“讓…進(jìn)入；接納，接受；吸收”的意思，比如：Our club plan to take in 20 new members.（我們俱樂部計劃吸收20名新會員。）

另外，該短語較常用的意思有“拘留，把…帶至警察局拘留起來；注意到；看出；一目了然；領(lǐng)會，理解”等，此外，該短語還常用于口語表達(dá)中，是“欺騙，哄騙；使上當(dāng)”的意思，比如：He took the girl in with his story.（他用一套謊言蒙騙了那個女孩。）

單詞時間

epic[?epik] adj. 史詩的，敘事詩的

mineral[?min?r?l] n. 礦物；（英）礦泉水

habitable[?hæbit?bl] adj. 可居住的；適于居住的

indigenous[in?did?in?s] adj. 本土的；土著的；國產(chǎn)的；固有的

cinematic[?sini?mætik] adj. 電影的；影片的

revolutionary[?rev??lju:??n?ri] adj. 革命的；旋轉(zhuǎn)的；大變革的

warrior[?w?ri?] n. 戰(zhàn)士，勇士；鼓吹戰(zhàn)爭的人

consciousness[?k?n??snis] n. 意識；知覺；覺悟；感覺

infiltrate[?infiltreit] vt. 使?jié)撊?；使?jié)B入，使浸潤

stereoscopic[?steri?u?sk?pik] adj. 立體的；體視鏡的；有立體感的

filmmaking[?film?meiki?] n. 制片，電影攝制

breakthrough[?breikθru:] n. 突破；突破性進(jìn)展

trilogy[?tril?d?i] n. 三部曲；三部劇