In the movie poster of James Cameron’s Avatar, we find two characters, a human and an alien, are trying to be like each other and ultimately reach a mental state where both of them discover a new dimension of life. The poster is clearly divided into three layers by three clear and straight lines. The first of the three straight divisions are smaller than the other two divisions and it shows the name of the film on the background of a forest that can is sure to incite the excitement of the audience. The name of the movie, “Avatar” is written in a different font and it is predominantly blue. The other two parts of the poster are equally dividing the remainder of the poster. Both the pictures prominently feature both the lead characters of the Film. The first part shows the hero of the film, Jake in his Navi avatar along with Neytiri, who is teaching Jake to throw an arrow. In the aspect of this part of the poster, we can get a clear indication of the plot of the picture. It will be a love story with two different characters, and they are not human. The alien landscape is clear in this picture as if we look closely we will see that the forest in the background of the two characters is quite different than the regular forests we see, and it is enough to evoke curiosity. The feeling that comes out of the poster is love and love is present in a universal appeal defying differences of species.
The aspect of love is shown through the characters’ wide eyes. Burgeoning love is mirrored in their eyes. The eyes are deep and wide and show longing and a glimpse of tear. The characters are aliens, but it does not prevent them from showing human emotions and they, by showing the emotions, come close to us in all the respect of humanity. Both of them are looking like humans but they are not human. They are predominantly blue and have sharply pointed ears and a different shaped nose. The color of the eye is quite different too. Their body is also slightly stripped. These characters are no doubt computer-generated and all the hype surrounding the film that says that the director has to make new technology to capture the film. The proximity between the two characters shows the relation between them. It also shows that though the two characters though they come from different places still interact with each other and develop a warm relationship.
The aspect of love between the two species is evident in the third part of the poster too. Here we see the faces of the two lead characters over the background of a blue sky. Sam Worthington who plays the lead role is recognizable, but on the other hand, Zoe Saldana who plays the female lead Neytiri is also unrecognizable in her Navi attire. The part of the poster is hiding half portion of the faces of these two characters. It makes the poster more mysterious. The viewer will be immediately attracted to the poster and consequentially to the film by the first two parts of the poster, but the last part will make him want to see the film as it has a beautiful mystical feeling. The glowing eyes of the characters somehow both of them are emotionally connected though they are physically different in all other aspects. The face of Neytiri is blue and has some glowing dots in it. This can be a typical feature of the Navi people as we can understand by the poster. The magnificent glow in her face makes the viewer look at her and immediately like the character (Sin-Hwa 473-482). The last two parts have Neytiri as in her Navi avatar, while Jake in his two Avatars. This implies the change of Neytiri’s attitude towards Jake in the course of the movie.
The female character in the poster is the manifestation of love. Her hairs are like any other woman but the positioning of her ears and eye differentiate her from them. The other part of the poster is the face of Sam Worthington in his earthly avatar. His face has a slight sentimental quality that can be attributed to the theme of the story that he is a partially disabled person in the film. Again his eyes speak volumes about the character and also may be it resonates with the second picture where we see him in Navi’s avatar. In the Navi avatar, he is completely controlled by Neytiri as we see in the second part. She here is seen to adjust his hands’ position as he is preparing to shoot an arrow. This implies that the movie though at the first glance looks like an adventure in a distant plant is basically a love story between the two lead characters (Murray 1437-1449).
Apart from the characters, the color of the poster plays a good part in portraying love. The poster is predominantly blue. The blue color will be abundant in the movie, and the glowing elements of the font also imply that there will be a mysterious glow throughout the film. The forest is suggesting the wilderness that will prevail throughout the movie (Oyewole 161-171). It would be noted that we call earth ‘the blue planet’, and the abundance of blue would sure to make the audience feel comfortable and sense the love for the environment.
The poster of Avatar is custom-made to make the audiences curious to know about the World of Avatar. The poster shows the rhetorical situation of the two lead characters and what types of conditions they are thrown upon. The poster successfully transports us to the World of Avatar and also shows the change of attitude between the two lead characters. The feeling that the audience receives from this movie poster is radiant love and the vibe induces the audience to watch the movie, which is the main goal of the poster.
Works Cited
Murray, Norman. “Eye gaze in virtual environments: evaluating the need and initial work on implementation.” Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience 21.11 (2009): 1437-1449.
Oyewole, Oyekoya. “Eyelid kinematics for virtual characters.” Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds 21.3-4 (2010): 161-171.
Sin-Hwa, Kang. “Virtual humans elicit socially anxious interactants’ verbal self-disclosure.” Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds 21.3-4 (2010): 473-482.