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If you want to see for yourself, you can read the full script for Avatar and download it for free. Although I loved the visuals of Avatar, and the world of Pandora, the script didn’t really excite me that much. In fact, the story is like a sci-fi version of Pocahontas, where Sam Worthington’s character is concerned – falling in love with a ‘native’. But the entire creativity and technology behind the film are, without a doubt, without an equal.
Despite the 3D elements, Avatar’s director James Cameron is denying claims of plagiarising the concept or the world of Pandora from a Russian fantasy novel series:
But the film director James Cameron was facing claims today that his 3D blockbuster Avatar owes an unacknowledged debt to the popular Soviet fantasy writers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.
Cinema audiences in Russia have been quick to point out that Avatar has elements in common with The World of Noon, or Noon Universe, a cycle of 10 bestselling science fiction novels written by the Strugatskys in the mid-1960s.
It was the Strugatskys who came up with the planet Pandora – the same name chosen by Cameron for the similarly green and lushly forested planet used as the spectacular backdrop to Avatar. The Noon Universe takes place in the 22nd century. So does Avatar, critics have noticed.
And while there are clear differences between the two Pandoras, both are home to a similarly named bunch of humanoids – the Na’vi in Cameron’s epic, and the Nave in Strugatskys’ novels, read by generations of Soviet teenagers and space-loving scientists and intellectuals.
Arkady Strugatsky died in 1991. Last week Boris, the surviving brother, said he had not yet seen Avatar, which – only four weekends after its release – has become the second-highest grossing film after Cameron’s Titanic.
Strugatsky, 76, appears to have shrugged off suggestions of similarities between Avatar and his Noon Universe, and denied reports circulated last week that he was accusing Cameron of plagiarism. On Monday, however, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper devoted an entire page to the affair, and carried out its own close comparison of Avatar with the World of Noon.
Anywho, there was a sex scene cut from the film, which will be added to the DVD version. According to Zoe Saldana,
And because Jim was shooting for a PG-13 rating, we couldn’t move in certain directions. The motion would look a little too past the PG-13 rating standards. So it was really funny for Sam and me. We had a lot of giggles there.
We had it in and we cut it out. So that will be something for the special edition DVD, if you want to see how they have sex.
The love scene in Avatar has to be one of the most creative. It’s all about the Na’avi tendrils. It’s not about penises and vaginas.
He puts his face close to hers. She rubs her cheek against
his. He kisses her on the mouth. They explore each other.
Then she pulls back, eyes sparkling.
NEYTIRI
Kissing is very good. But we have
something better.
She pulls him down until they are kneeling, facing each other
on the faintly glowing moss.
Neytiri takes the end of her queue and raises it. Jake does
the same, with trembling anticipation. The tendrils at the
ends move with a life of their own, straining to be joined.
MACRO SHOT — The tendrils INTERTWINE with gentle
undulations.
JAKE rocks with the direct contact between his nervous system
and hers. The ultimate intimacy.
They come together into a kiss and sink down on the bed of
moss, and ripples of light spread out around them.
THE WILLOWS sway, without wind, and the night is alive with
pulsing energy as we DISSOLVE TO –
LATER. She is collapsed across his chest.
Sometimes porn overdoes intimacy. There is nothing intimate about the genital focus and gonzo porn – which I dislike immensely. Although Avatar’s script/storyline isn’t different from the usual White Caucasian and, corporate, stories of unfair dominion, it does contain innovative scenes and concepts.
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