AVATAR: The Sequel

[Ed Lantz]

I've had a lot of discussions about the film AVATAR here in Los Angeles since the film's release. Most people loved the film, but not all.  Some of my more sensitive friends though it was too violent, as if the filmmaker lulled them into falling in love with a beautiful baby then blew it to bits.  Others have criticized the story as being overtold, a Pocahantas in Space, if you will - see the mashup video at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/26/avatar-and-pocahontas-get_...

Clearly, the story of greed and insensitivity towards nature and gentle people is an old tale.  Here is my challenge to you:  HOW COULD THE AVATAR STORY HAVE ENDED DIFFERENTLY?  Or, perhaps more realistically, WHAT COULD THE SEQUEL TO AVATAR BE?  Specifically, could AVATAR model solutions for bringing together the technologically advanced culture from another world and the beautiful, indigenous culture of beauty and sensitivity?  AVATAR showed us our current state of being, with powerful militaristic ignorance battling a gentle, harmonious culture. But it did not model the SOLUTION to this dilemma. What would a sequel to AVATAR look like if it ended with these two worlds coming together in harmony?

Wouldn't it be great if movies inspirde us with how to heal our issues, not just shove these issues into our face?  Shall we write our own sequel, perhaps? 

[Miles A Moody]

Wonderful discussion, Ed. As it happens, a movie depicting an alternate ending has already been released. Its an nicely animated film entitled "Battle for Terra." Here the synopsis provided by netflix:

Battle for Terra
(2007) PG
In this animated feature, a spirited teenage alien (voiced by Evan Rachel Wood) resolves to keep human invaders (led by Brian Cox) from pulling off a hostile takeover of her peaceful planet, Terra, by kidnapping a human pilot (Luke Wilson) whose aircraft crashed on her turf and nursing him back to health. With the pilot on her side, can she find a solution that will support life on Terra for both aliens and human beings?

This film is amazing in its unfolding of a plot not unlike Avatar most of the way, that diverges at its climax with an example of 'the ultimate unselfish sacrifice' that inspires both sides to seek the peace that has thus far eluded them.

[Susan Manning]

Hello Ed and All,
I have seen the movie, read many disdainful and some truly inspiring reviews, & read some of the comparisons. Good discussions, but short on solutions to the problems besides those of violence in these movies. I believe that what is ignored in these movies are all the people in between the extremes presented. We know and on many levels we are those people in the middle - we are not those who live simply and quietly not noticing when the predator is stalking you nor are we the militaristic predators. But we may only be more like the kid from Home Alone, using more creative ways to dissuade the perpetrators. But I believe we are on the brink of discovering how the sequel can go.

What I'd like to see would be an author to not ignore the how interconnected these gentle harmonious people are with All That Is. I'd like to see that there was a faction of this group that pays attention to all past examples of as many civilizations as there is access to so that a model can be created to parry the takeover energies into something that could be transformed or use that energy in something that is more workable before everything gets out of hand and their whole world gets destroyed. Some of this has actually happened with the Stargate shows that begin with a military point of view and mode of action, but inevitably when deeper thought and communication is engaged, other options show themselves, some work, others may need some tweaking.

I do wonder why we keep getting stuck in the same old story and the same old solution, with no visit to the future to see how long the 'happy' ending lasted. We have a good idea of how the future of Pocohantas really didn't continue to be any happily ever after existence. No war or violence ever really seemed to lead to Peace and a truly harmonious existence, but we have a vast history of peaceful solutions being ignored in favor of military violence as if it always works, yet it is only because they are the most powerful. Throughout the ages we have been warned and even Eisenhower tried to warn us, but perhaps it will only be through writing a Sequel to Avatar that engages the growing group of spiritual, Loving, intelligent military-savvy Peace-beings to gather together to make the military and the banks and corporate amerika fully obsolete even to themselves. It was Buckminster Fuller who said, "The only way to make significant change is to make the thing you are trying to change (in this case human behavior) obsolete."

Sounds big, but we could certainly write a movie....and I'm sure it will be compared to something that has already been written or made into a movie, but if we have a bunch of Avatar-type movies, why not have a few different solutions movies....

[AZARRA]

Hi Ed, I am so glad that youi started this discussion.............. like you, l have worked on conscious media productions for many years.......and would humbly suggest that if we want to see specific types of movies made with positive themes that would help evolve our collective human spirit, then we need to create these movies ourselves...in the words of the Hopi and Mayan Elders with whom I have worked, WE ARE THE ONES WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR.............it is up to us to be change we want to see in the world.............If you ever wish to form some type of committee that can actually put scripts together and move towards the production of those scripts, let me know, and I will help you in that effort......my media background includes the founding of several companies....GLOBAL PEACE MEDIA....GLOBAL VISION TV & RADIO PRODUCTIONS, WOMEN IN MEDIA, and my present project, MEDIA LIGHT CENTER.......I am not much of a computer person, so I do not have much on the web, but one of my friends, who is also on this architects' site has put some of my info . there......go to , www.kynthia.net, and click on the GLOBAL PEACE MEDIA link if you are interested to know my media background........................thanks for the work you are doing on the planet.......I wish you many BLESSINGS................AZARRA

[Brian Van Korn]

Its, 5 years later,and a choking polluted Earth is busily harnessing its last remaining vestiges of energy.
Their goal? deploy a massive force, of heartless robotic excavators to Pandoria.
Retrieve the ore, at any cost . Repeat,at ANY cost !

Pandoria is being shaken apart, by volcanic eruptions, causing large planetary chunks, to break off into space.
Both Planets are doomed unless......

A unique Pandorian child is born . She is able to breathe in both atmospheres, and inherits the advanced technical knowledge of her father .
She begins experiencing horrific visions, of a civilization being obliterated. She continues to have these visions into her teen years. She can't fixate on who, or what kind of creatures are being destroyed.
She senses something, strangely familiar about them. In her twentieth year, her visions abruptly change, and reveal a large machine.
Each night her visions become more and more detailed, finally showing her what has to be done. A flying machine has to be built for the survival of her people, and their arch enemy Earth.

Explaining her visions to her father, he is shocked she has such a vast understanding of his former species technology. He has left that life behind, and condemns anything dealing with earths old machines.
He encourages her to concentrate on the spiritual, and let the planet deal with those dead,decaying, metallic monsters. Eventually a deep rift between the father and daughter causes the tribe to split.
Her followers feels the earths technology will stop the planets destruction.
His followers have accepted their fate,and will wait to join with their ancestors. With great sadness the daughter and her people go their separate ways .
They will go to the distant regions few had ever returned from. Those who did return, had been infected with untreatable disease, or wounded by ravenous beasts.

Something out there holds the truth, and before they can return they must find it.

After two grueling years of battling hellish creatures and close to starvation, on the edge of a smoldering volcanic rim,they discover the ruin of a city.
From the cities ancient pictures and texts,they pieced together,Pandora's dark past.
They learn their distant ancestors were technologically advanced,barbaric, and had almost, obliterated their world.
The Pandorian's who populated the planet then,would have appeared quite different, almost human.
How could this have been? Further translating of the text provided the answer.
Shortly before the destruction, a nearby planet had been chosen, to send a small community to survive the coming madness .
The texts further showed where,that small ship was sent too. Most Pandorian's had been taught to watch that place in the heavens .They knew it would bring death, it had always brought the insane earth creatures ! This was impossible ! Earth creatures were their distant children ?! Human was their original form ?! . How had they become the beings they were now?


After weeks of searching for a clue, they found the missing piece of this evolutionary puzzle.

All though the planet had been badly damaged, some had survived. Over the eons of time, the survivors bodies had evolved to breathe the poisoned atmosphere.
To with stand, the suns full UV rays, their skin pigment changed to a deep blue. Gravitational shifts caused their massive increase in size . Many other physical differences were explained.

They were ready, it was time to fulfill, her final vision.

Armed with the knowledge whom the earth people really are. She will unite the split tribes, and convince them it is not time to die. Earths technology is really their own. A ship will to be built that hovers in the highest level of the atmosphere .This way they show the coming invaders they are not simple minded beings .
The truth as to whom they both are, and mutual cooperation, is the only way to save both planets . Impoverished and desperate earth,needs safe clean energy.The ore will provide that . Pandora needs earths machines to quell the volcanos .

Now with the understanding, they have been and are, true blood brothers and sisters in the spirit . Pandora is stabilized, and the now, energy abundant earth, embraces the pandorians beliefs of connectivity to nature.
Over a short period of time, both worlds join their technology and spiritual knowledge, to explore the far reaches of the universe, seeking out like beings .

The Prodigal Pandorians , have returned to both their houses.

[Ed Lantz]

Wow, Brian! Great story - very creative. Bless, Ed

[Susan Manning]

Ed, wouldn't it be nice to create a movie that does not go the same route of so many of these movies...? Most of them will spend so much time building and telling the story of selfishness and stupidity and then the quickie 'feel good' ending that is just like all the other endings. I don't want to see the same old happy ending or the sad losses of an unhappy ending. It seems like too many of our movies are big on action, thoughtless conversations and explosions/violence/death/destruction. We know already how selfish and stupid the world has become; don't need to see it acted out in another movie.

There are so many big name, A-List writers, directors, actors that "put their money where their mouth is" and take part in projects for the greater good of All. They have great ideas and even the ones that rely on formulaic movies might just jump at the chance to create and huge hit about 'Possibilities' - the possibilities that can and will shift humanity. Could it be beings like the Avatars or the human who joined the Avatars coming back to interact with the cultural and conscious creatives in our 3D world helping us to find our way out of this dimension. Some say that there is an imminent Ascension process and some people believe in the Rapture. Others probably believe other processes that I don't even know about. Yet none of us really knows that that is or means...or the actual outcome..some people just believe and think that 'knowing'. Could a story blend all of these as the next step for humanity and then NOT have an actual 'ending' but just one of those 'riding into the sunset preparing us for the next sequel' ending.

Just a stream of consciousness that has been bangin' around my head and I know there are writers with ideas or snipets of ideas that can create the (or a) solution to the dilemma that seems to be presented in so many movies...never solving or presenting a positive harmonious conclusion.

I've always loved M. Night Shyamalan but always wanted to speak to him about making a BIG movie about aliens who are really great, intelligent and helpful to us and who assist Earthlings to create harmony. Alas, I do not have a contact for him, but that's what I'd love to have a conversation with him about....perhaps someone already has. We need a hopeful movie not another doom and gloom movie!!

Love and Peace,
Susan xoxoxo

[katina andoniadis]

my hope when going to see the film was that i would meet a gentle people who are able to beat back the greedy monsters through their intuitive understanding of how to live peacefully - that they would show us a new way of living and addressing evil. instead, they needed rambo and his bimbo scientist to blow everything up - isn't that what we've been doing for millennia?

for the sequel - take us more into their world and their philosophy of living - what can we learn from them? we need them - they don't need us. we've been doing it wrong forever.