Avatar and Halo
While watching Avatar, one thing that was constantly running through my mind was how similar Halo and Avatar were. Call me obsessed with Halo (and you maybe right), but I couldn’t stop wondering about the similarities
Putting aside the story for now, the first thing that struck me was how colorful the worlds were in both Halo and Avatar. Halo fans would swear that the colorful imagery was one of the reasons why they have been so engrossed to the series. Pandora, described in Avatar, is every bit as colorful as the world of Halo. The design, the foliage and the color scheme of Avatar is just too similar to the Halo series of games.
Even the background in Avatar seemed too familiar. Good, but familiar. And yeah, they seemed to be like the soundtracks of Halo!
Now coming to the STORY, both are about how a technologically advanced alien species attacks another for its own benefits. The difference being that we the humans are the species under attack in Halo, but are the attackers in Avatar.
And don’t get me started on the aircrafts that appear in the movie. The Hornet from Halo is the helicopter like craft that was shown throughout the movie and I would go on to say that the makers of Avatar definitely got their “inspiration” from the Halo games for this design.
For a Halo fan like me, Avatar was almost a Halo movie. Just missed the Master Chief in action though. And the thought of what a real Halo movie would be, in the right hands ( read the Avatar team), is enough as I wait for Halo: Reach to be released.
December 28th, 2009 at 3:16 am
James Cameron must have an understanding with Halo as they share more than just what you mentioned. The beginning of the Original halo when the Pelican would drop off Master Chief was very similar to “Aliens” and the space marines being dropped off planet side. The names of Banshee & Hornet were used in Avatar, Also the name Turok which is a Dinosaur hunting video game was used for the giant flying reptile. I think their is a mutual admiration. The floating rock areas stood out to me before I ever watched the Movie Avatar so I thought about Halo when I walked into the theater.
December 28th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
This was my exact thought. Especially the helicopters. The whole film was very… halo. But still really enjoyed it. The sergeants pistol looked just like a halo pistol too. And just the general look of the creatures on the planet (other than the avatars themselves) were very familiar. The only thing that I really don’t like so much is the Title, because to me the definition of Avatar will always be:
“A movable image that represents a person in a virtual reality environment or in cyberspace”
December 30th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
I went with my two kids, one is 16 years old and my daughter 9 years old. Afterwards by the buss stop, we looked at each other, and in unison we knew and agreed, we had experienced something extraordinary at many different levels, an once in a lifetime moment. This is truly by far the movies of all movies. The only bad thing that I can say about this movie is I never wanted it to end, all from the jaw dropping scenery to the emotional computer graphics. I takes a hold of you as I never experienced it in the theaters before.
January 4th, 2010 at 8:50 pm
Okay call my crazy.
Master Chief is the “Avatar” from Pandora he is this guy. This is his story, the movie is the first episode. It’s before Halo, before Earthlings meet the Covenent. It would be an awesome backround story for the game arc. (am I making any sense?)
January 11th, 2010 at 11:54 am
no
January 19th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
Avatar also copied the Cyclops armor from Halo Wars.
January 22nd, 2010 at 12:13 am
Anything and everything is not truely original. Seeking similarities is just a passion-based reflex from halo. There were so many things that were so un-halo. The tree, the animals, the floating lands, the fact that there was a FRIENDLY species on the planet.
The only true similarity is the hornet and chopper from avatar. And even then, you can redesign small mobile flyers so many times. If you look it up, you can see many differences.
Lastly, anyone who says that the cyclops are like the ones in avatar is just completely unaware that Halo Wars were not the first to do it at all. That idea has been around for many years in video games. It’s nice to see it in an epic 3-d movie.
peace
January 22nd, 2010 at 5:31 pm
Very very similar! The big bomber ship looked like the Vulture from Halo Wars. Those dropships looked like Pelicans. The big armored suits looked like Cyclopses from Halo Wars. The copters looked like the hornet like vehicles seen in the trailer for Halo Reach. Everything was so similar! What about the storyline? An alien race inspired by religion! The scenery is also very similar to the scenery on the halos.
JC doesn’t like to admit it though and gets very grumpy about the subject.
January 26th, 2010 at 8:34 am
You guys do realize that one of Halo’s influence was Aliens…which is directed by *uh hem* James Cameron. =P
Move said: “Avatar also copied the Cyclops armor from Halo Wars.”
And how many gun-toting exoskeleton power suits are there in the fantasy world? There was one in Matrix, one in Starcraft, and oh, there was one in…
ALIENS. Do you remember the exo-suit toward the end of the movie?
So Cameron didn’t really copy Halo. It was more like the other way around. =P
January 26th, 2010 at 8:36 am
Oh, and just to reinforce my claim: http://www.vg247.com/2010/01/12/cameron-says-avatars-comparisons-to-halo-are-unfounded/
January 26th, 2010 at 1:30 pm
@move, Harri
My aim was to just think on the similarities between Halo and Avatar. I wanted a Halo movie from the same team, which can bring out the world of Halo as beautiful as it did Pandora. Calling Avatar copied from Halo, Halo copied from Aliens and so on is pointless. Anyone who has seen Aliens and Starship Troopers will realize that Halo definitely got its inspirations from those two, and also Ringworld. Any sci-fi movie/ game is bound to have similar elements, with their own alteration, twists and changes. It is these changes, minor and subtle as they may be, that matter!
February 3rd, 2010 at 7:05 am
@lordofthweb
I completely agree with you. Nothing is completely original; everything must have inspiration from something. The only reason for the above post is to refute the Halo fan boys that say Avatar=Halo with Blue Cat-People and Cameron completely copied the Halo series, which I thought was an incorrect, and unfair, accusation.
February 6th, 2010 at 5:29 am
dude you guys are retarded halo is a rip off of james cameron’s aliens and another videogame called tribes
February 7th, 2010 at 11:51 pm
One thing I found more like Halo than everything was the pilot who went rogue. She reminds me so much like the one from Halo 1, down to the voice as well. Which isn’t bad. Halo is an awesome game. Avatar is an awesome movie.
February 9th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
I tell you one thing; if Master Chief was there the battle would of ended differently. He would have gone in there and raped the Na’vi. You know what, screw it. Just release the flood on to the planet come back in a year and have Master Chief wipe out the remaining flood. Hows that for a battle tactic?
But i am getting a little carried away. I like the back story that ASDtwins came up with. However there is a major flaw in his idea. John (MC) was taken as a child and trained on Reach (i believe). Also the Marines in this movie and the ones in Halo are no comparison. The game ones are use to fighting the Covenant who’s bad assery is far greater than the Na’vi’s.
You know, I would kill for a Halo vs Avatar movie. Something like AVP but not gay. Some billionaire read this and please make it your life’s one and only goal.
February 11th, 2010 at 6:08 am
I think the helicopter from Avatar was a bit like the US drone from Frontlines: Fuel of War >.>
http://www.gameandplayer.net/images/inset/inset2_08_0310_frontlines.jpg
February 24th, 2010 at 5:56 am
that is all because the avatar movie was originally going to be the halo movie but was changed in the middle of production
February 25th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
tbh there seems to be more similarities between avatar and pocahontas than with halo, the majority of the similarities listed that are in halo i’ve seen in games, movies etc. before they were in halo. avatar was in essence a completely stereotypical storyline. the story was really unimaginative (unobtainium anyone?), where the movie was unique and brilliant was in its production.
March 8th, 2010 at 3:14 am
i buyed assasines creed II yesterday and i think they copied also the “Animus”…its like the Gadget for controlling the Avatar… u can call me crazy, but i also thought at halo in the movie^^
March 14th, 2010 at 9:31 am
Halo doesn’t remind me of Aliens. Halo reminds me of Starcraft.
The blue natives in Avatar remind me of Halo’s Elites, which were also aliens that were much taller than humans.
I wish they would bloody make a Halo movie already. How long do we frigging have to wait.
March 20th, 2010 at 6:57 am
Umm??Do any of you know that er…Avatar took ten years to make?And then halo comes along which got released in 2003…but then theres the book…Look i do not know but i dont think Avatar copied halo.
March 27th, 2010 at 12:47 pm
I noticed the similarities as well. With the aircraft though it was not just the hornet that stuck me. The pelican came to mind as well as the longsword, albatross, vulture and others. I also noticed that those big armour things the marines use were similar to those cargo things in Aliens. I was like ‘he took that from that other movie! Oh, he made that other movie’ Also halo was being made a long time before its release in 2001 (not 2003). Also they did get some obvious ideas form Aliens, but many that were also similar in Avatar were original in Bungie. I’m not saying that one copied the other, but I don’t really think there is a real ‘original’ idea anymore.
April 25th, 2010 at 11:32 pm
He made aliens so he helped make halo so why not have him make a movie(Avatar) to see if a halo movie could be made
April 28th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
this is quite random but the large ships in avatar are like the large ships in terminator (im not good at remembering names) so i just think james cameron copies himself basicallly
May 2nd, 2010 at 9:37 am
Okay…so it took ten years to make Avatar, it was released in 2009. Halo was released in 2003 and…what, it took four minutes to make the video game? Halo was a massive breakthrough game for the Xbox and I’m sure it took just as long to create such a powerful improvement. So no, it’s not possible for Halo to have stolen from Avatar. Plus, a film with so many special effects can easily be changed to fit in new ideas, vehicles, and story boards. It took 10 years; you don’t think they could have added a few Hornet-steal scenes in there?
May 2nd, 2010 at 9:46 am
And by the way @aldred, Avatar wasn\’t originally going to be a Halo movie. You have it mixed up. District 9 began as a Halo movie, but the budget was so high that Microsoft couldn\’t afford it, so they changed it. JC began Avatar on his own.
June 3rd, 2010 at 6:19 pm
I agree, Avatar and Halo are just too comparable. srsly. Cryyo chambers in the beginning of Avatar. Also in the beginning of Halo 1.
And the human aircraft in Avatar is almost identical to a UNSC Hornet. Don’t even get me started on Jake; he gets to be as a na’vi originally to learn the na’vi from the inside out, but then defends said natives and kills some of his fellow humans. The same thing when The Arbiter(who, just like MC, would utterly annihilate the na’vi, hands down) is sent on suicidal missions, discovers the true purpose of the Halos, then becomes a Covenant Separatist (along with Shipmaster and eventually all Elites). These movies were almost equal.
June 8th, 2010 at 10:41 pm
idiots if you knewo your stuff they bought the movie from bungie duh!
July 19th, 2010 at 3:21 am
i haven’t read every post here, but of the ones i read i failed to notice anyone mentioning the music. not all of it, but a good amount of it, was VERY similar to the music in the halo series. especially the first portion of the credits
another similarity is the prospect of the world itself holding a bigger secret/purpose than is initially understood.
i’m not a halo fanboy by any means, (beat halo 1, played parts of 2 and 3 at friends’ homes) but i definitely walked away from this movie with the impression that JC, or someone on his production team, had just finished a halo marathon when they started production on this movie.
August 6th, 2010 at 11:42 pm
District 9 wasn’t going to be a halo movie. It was about the aparthied in South Africa the whole time. It was suppose to be sending a message. You don’t go from saying “let’s make a halo movie” to “Nevermind, I want to put a deep message about equal rights and discrimination” into a movie. And yeah Halo is easily my favorite video game, and Avatar is a badass movie, AND they are definitely similar, but i dont get why evryone takes the similarities to ofense.. You should be saying “oh this bad ass movie just made a halo movie even more possible.
August 9th, 2010 at 7:09 am
it does seem like halo no doubt or halo seems like it or whatever why does this matter so much to you people. halo was going to make a movie but then stopped its production btw. i love halo its one of the greatest games ever like top three, ive only seen trailers for avatar and the first i saw were the hornets. those are very very very close and i dont like that but the story is basic and a pre-schooler could come with it but it still makes for good movie so how about no one copied anyone and we can all just give it a rest