Critical Analysis of Avatar - Assignment Example

Avatar Question Hexapede The hexapede, its Na’vi is ‘yerik’, is a herbivore that occupies various biomes such as the savanna, mountain region of Pandora also likely to be residing in subarctic tundra and rainforest regions (Wiki, 21). They are one of the most beautiful organisms on Pandora. They are a potential target for both aerial and land predators including the Na’vi, as they are a source of food. They are also a target for the ‘stingbats’, which on several occasions may attack them (Wiki, 22). To protect the species from extinction because of their position in the food chain, they have a fast reproduction cycle. From earth point of view, the hexapede combines three earth templates to give it its unique integration and beautiful look. First, the hexapede takes the form of a deer with a unique twist of an extra pair of legs. They have a dark blue color with matching white and yellow stripes originating from the back running towards the belly. Moving to its head, their skull is small and has a slope-top with retractable fan structures. These fans resemble an eye pattern similar to that of the Luna Moth found on earth. These fans also serve as a defense mechanism by making them appear larger to the predators. The hexapede’s ability to run real fast and ability to camouflage in the grass resembles that of the earth’s gazelle and antelope (Wiki, 27). Thanator In Na’vi, its name means, “dry mouth bringer of fear” (palulukan). This fierce predator lives on Pandora, appearing as an enormous and extremely powerful with unique abilities that strike fear into some of the largest and fierce creatures of Pandora. Their main habitat is the rain forest floor of the Pandora. The Na’vi also despite their outstanding courage, are sometimes shaken by the presence of this creature as they get to encounter them during their hunting trips. Despite being a large predator, the Thanator largely resembles the panther in terms of hunting and body structure. It happens to hunt at night within its territory and only hunts during the day on rare occasions. Its body has an impressive musculature that gives it sufficient power during its runs and leaps while hunting more like the earth panther. The Thanator has an impressive speed and power in its neck and jaws giving it a swift strike on its prey. These features combining with its powerful tail blows give it a resemblance of the earth’s crocodile. Other crocodile-like features include the massive distensible jaws with long sharp teeth. The shape of the thanator’s head also resembles that of the monitor lizard with quills emerging from the rear of its skull giving it a more menacing look. Mountain Banshee These are unusually large aerial predators native to the Pandora world. They are a source of transport for the Na’vi while hunting and when travelling long distance. They are known as ‘Ikran’ in the Na’vi language and during a battle, they provide best attack to the opponent from an aerial position. The mountain banshee despite their large body size they highly resemble earth’s birds. They appear as reptiles but have a metabolism similar to that of a bird generating remarkable heat. These creatures have a large lung structure that bellows from inflation through rib movement but unlike terrestrial animals the air aft through slits on its side that resemble gills. The creature’s eye structure resembles that of the earth’s spider with two primary eyes and two other secondary eyes. Their eyes have a transparent nictating eye membrane similar to that of the eagle. Their skin is leathery with a wide range of color schemes. Another bird-like feature is they display an attractive array of colors during the mating season to attract potential mates. The mountain banshee also resembles the earth’s bat in various ways, which can be a good template for inspiration in creating the creature. First is the ability to sense reflected sound giving them an echolocation same as the bats. Their wings shape is a mixture of bat-like and earth’s birds. The wings have membranes and an arm-like structure that has four fingers and a thumb, which forms their claw similar to that of a bat. The banshee’s wings also to extent resemble those of the earth’s dragonfly. Their smaller hind wing is used as a horizontal stabilizer similar to birds and some time to propel it similar to use as the fish tail fin. Question 2 Thanator Viperwolf Na’vi Prolemuris Hexapede direhorse Kingdom animal animal Animal animal animal animal Phylum chordata chordata chordata chordata chordata chordata Order carnivora carnivora Primate insectivora Perissodactyla Perissodactyla Genus Thanatora caniferratus Homo Prolemuris Sexcruscervus Equidirus Species Thanatora ferox caniferratus costastus Homo pandoras Prolemuris noctis Sexcruscervus caeruleus Equidirus hoplites The taxonomy of these creatures includes Kingdom, phylum, order, genus, and the species names. All the creatures have been classified into kingdom animal due to their behavioral traits such as the ability to move on their own. The creatures all fall under the phylum chordate due to the presence of a defined bone structure and a backbone. The next classification is the order where the creatures now start to vary. The Thanator and the viperwolf both fall into the carnivore order because of their feeding habits, which tend to be mainly carnivorous. The Na’vi, which strongly resembles the humans, falls under the order primates due to the presence of collarbones and grasping fingers. The prolemuris goes under the order insectivore due to its occasional feeding habit that includes insects similar to earth’s moles. Both the hexapede and direhorse fall under the order Perissodactyla that is similar to the earth’s horses and zebras. They both are herbivorous and their young adapt to the environment quickly, they also tend to live in large herds. All the creatures selected belong to different genus and species with their names being coined from some of their character traits and features. The Thanator species name comes from its fierceness, which simply translates, into Thanatora ferox meaning a fierce Thanator. The viperwolf on the other hand gets its species name from its tough look and strips on its body. The name translates to Caniferratus costatus, which means a striped armored wolf. The Na’vi are human representational of the Pandora planet and their species name simply translates to Pandora humans hence the name Homo Pandorus. Prolemuris are small is a non-aggressive creature mostly found on the trees. They have a few resemblances with the Na’vi showing that they could have been linked in a way or another. However their species name comes from their over resemblance to the squirrel. Their species name is Prolemuris noctis meaning a night squirrel due to their restricted daylight movement. The hexapede is a copy of the earth’s deer giving it a species as Sexcruscervus caeruleus that means blue six-legged deer. The direhorse, Pandora’s representation of a horse gets its name from the tough looking body combined with horse like features. The direhorse species name is Equidirus hoplite that translates to a feared armored horse. Question 3 The direhorse Some of its traits that will survive natural selection include the two long thin antennae, which have feathery tips immersed in tiny cilia. These antennae constantly seek to communicate with antennae of other direhorses when moving together. The touch by the antennae to other direhorses is not entirely for pleasure but transfers information such as sources of food and area posing potential dangers. The animal’s six legs are also an advantageous trait to the direhorse enabling them to reach up to a speed of ninety-five kilometers per hour. These traits can bound to be naturally selected because of they are adapted to help the direhorse survive and are frequently used. Some of the traits most likely to suffer natural selection include the two extra small eyes that look reptilian like. They are most likely to disappear due to their inconsistent use and their size. Na’vi The Na’vi bearing human like features are the most advanced creatures on the planet due to their reasoning ability (Jody and Fizzypatrick, 52). They have some of the most sophisticated traits compared to other Pandora creatures. To some extent they could easily be mistaken for foreigners as most of the Pandora creatures bear some similarities. Some of the feature likely to withstand natural selection is their body stature, tails, ears, carbon fiber reinforced skeleton, their skin color and their dentition. The skin color helps in times of hunting as a camouflage. The tail is used primarily for the balance due to their natural height, which is about 10 feet. The ears have sensors they use to communicate and control the animals they ride such as the direhorse and the Mountain banshee. Their dental formula is adapted to their omnivorous nature and the four fingers and a thumb on each hand helps them in grasping things around them. The Na’vi uses all their bodily functions making it hard for any of their body parts a victim of natural selection. Hammerhead Titanothere At approximately eleven meters, this monstrous grazing creature is among Pandora’s largest creatures. It is however social, and travel in packs of 10 to 20 animals. Some of the traits this monstrous creatures poses are their heads, which is made of cartilage rather than bone and allows bending ( Marowitz, 47). This is advantageous as it allows it to pass through certain places that require its head to adjust in shape. This however upon maturity hardens forming a bone to which the creature uses as a weapon when charging towards threats. Some of the traits that the Hammerhead is more likely to lose through natural selection are the eyes. The creatures have a short sight and in most cases use their ears to estimate distance through their acute hearing and good sense of smell (Joddy and Fizzypatrick, 53). They also tend to injure their eyes a lot while fighting amongst themselves. Question 4 The movie revolves around a great idea with a lot of creativity and exploration of many fantasies (Marowitz, 49). However, an element of biasness cannot be ruled out, as there are certain effects entirely do not make sense or are exaggerated. For starters, is the takeover of the Na’vi body by a human and in just three months he already can out do their prowess despite having lived their entire life in their bodies. The complexity in their global system of exchanging signals between animals, trees, and natives but unfortunately this happens in the extreme conditions such as a warning of alien invasion. What does not make sense is the ability of single undying organisms’ unused abilities evolving. Another bias comes in terms of gravity, as much as their gravity is less than on earth it is still unrealistic for some of the huge trees, flying ships and local gigantic flying animals to hold themselves up. Some of the Na’vi’s ecological footprint is almost similar to that on earth with a food chain from plants going up to the large predators. The Na’vi are omnivorous and live in large communities feeding on the available vegetation and hunting for meat (Joddy and Fizzypatrick, 55). They have advanced hardware that can enable them have direct mind contact with their domesticated animals. The entire ecosystem also poses a natural ability to communicate with each other especially in giving out warnings. This shows that were they to exist they would have the most sophisticated defense mechanism through their ecosystem. Example of impacts that would occur wwere Pandora’s ecology to exist would include the following: The large animals living near Na’vi communities are prone to extinction due to being hunted for meat same way it happened on earth thousands of years ago. Another example is that their ecosystem would not be exactly as it is because it would be impossible to support the amount of energy required throughout the ecosystem. The expended energy by the jungle plantation and the animals’ life is too much to be supported by the amount of sunlight the planet gets. Work Cited Marowitz, C. (March 8, 2010). "James Camerons Avatar. Film Review". Swans magazine. Retrieved from http://www.swans.com/library/art16/cmarow160.html Jody, D. & Fitzpatrick, L. (2010). The Making of Avatar. New York, US. Abrams Books. p. 52. Wiki (2009) James Cameron: Avatar retrieved on 14 Oct. 2012 from http://james-camerons- avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Avatar Read More