FROM MTV.COM: "Kaltxì! Oeru lu fpom, slä oel tspìyang ngati fa swizaw oeyä! Ngaru tut?" In case you're not yet fluent in the language of the future, I just said, "Hello! I am well, but I am about to kill you with my arrow. And you?" in Na'vi.

Eight weeks into its release, and extreme fandom for "Avatar" is still feverish. But not all "Avatar" fans are created equal. One growing group of superfans is trying to perfect "lucid dreaming" in an effort to transport themselves to Pandora. And while we all wish we had a little distance from our parents, when moms and dads express a deep desire to live on Pandora, that's a whole new set of family issues.

Continue reading 'Avatar' Junkies Are Proud Of Their True-Blue Fandom

There's a wacky bit of circularity in the end of the seven weeks "Avatar" spent at the top of the box office. The blockbuster juggernaut hit theaters in mid-December. Over the weeks that followed, it proceeded to shatter box office record after box office record, including the holy trinity of accomplishments -- top-grossing domestic, international and worldwide release of all-time -- held by James Cameron's previous effort, "Titanic."

The movie that ultimately unseated "Avatar" was "Dear John," a couples-friendly romantic drama that likely drew in a large number of women viewers this weekend while dudes were watching the Super Bowl. Which isn't to say that the two sexes can't find something to enjoy in both the Super Bowl and a modern-day love story; rather, I'm simply speaking to the broad demographics of each one's intended audience. Read more...

Quentin Tarantino did not direct his two-part revenge thriller "Kill Bill" as well as he would have liked. And according to a statement made during a "Directors on Directing" panel held in Santa Barbara yesterday, it wasn't until the Oscar-nominated filmmaker saw "Avatar" that he realized, or at least recalled, what was missing.

No, he doesn't wish he'd included giant blue-skinned CG characters or done the movie with a lot of blue-screen work. Nor would he have made "Kill Bill" in 3-D. Rather, after watching fellow Oscar-nominee James Cameron's sci-fi blockbuster, Tarantino was reminded of his intended goal. Read more...

1. "Dear John" ($32.4 million)
2. "Avatar" ($23.6 million)
3. "From Paris With Love" ($8.1 million)
4. "Edge of Darkness" ($7 million)
5. "Tooth Fairy" ($6.5 million)

At long last, "Avatar" has fallen. James Cameron's widely embraced science fiction epic finally fell from its position at the top of the box office charts this weekend, surrendering the first place medal to newcomer "Dear John," the romantic drama starring Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried. Read more...

1. "Dear John" ($13.8 million)
2. "Avatar" ($6.1 million)
3. "From Paris With Love" ($3 million)
4. "Edge of Darkness" ($2.3 million)
5. "When in Rome" ($2 million)

After seven straight weekend victories, is it possible that "Avatar" is finally about to fall to a romantic comedy? That's certainly how the weekend is shaping after "Dear John," Sony-Screen Gems' adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' romance novel starring Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried, took first place on Friday night with $13.8 million. Read more...

In my capacity as MTV Movies Blog editor, I see a fairly broad cross-section of trailers, fan-made shorts, promotional spots and the like. This one blows them all away. These are things that might actually happen in the video below:

* A CG polar bear creates a lightsaber hockey stick out of thin air.
* An Arctic icebreaker is sliced in half by said hockey stick.
* A squadron of bear-piloted fighter jets bomb multiple universities.
* The world explodes.

"Avatar" was kind of cool, I guess. Michael Bay is good at making stuff explode. But this? This is the best promotional short for a college hockey team that you will ever see. True fact.

Over at MTV Movies main, we posted an article exploring whether the Oscar nominations for “District 9” and “Avatar” could finally snap the Academy’s long-held sci-fi stigma. While writing it, I took a look at the list of the greatest sci-fi films of all time on IMDb -- ranked by hundreds of thousands of votes from moviegoers -– and was floored by some of the titles that earned little or no Oscar recognition.

Below are some particularly egregious crimes against the genre – with the actual Best Picture winner listed in parenthesis. You tell me – all these years later, which film is better remembered? Read more...

I'm not gonna lie. Today's Daily TwitPic is awesome. We've had some good ones in the months since this column started, but today's may very well be one of my favorites.

For starters, it's all about Larry King. The veteran newsman may come off as a real old-guard reporter, but he's actually very hip and in touch with today's culture. Even if you don't watch "Larry King Live," all you really need to know is that he has an active, fun-filled Twitter life. Dude's finger is on the pulse, folks.

He's also without fear. King doesn't mind being the butt of a joke, or making himself look ridiculous in the public eye. He doesn't come off as someone who's after all the attention either; to a casual observer, it really just looks as though the guy likes to have fun. And that's the spirit of today's twitpic, which shows us what King would look like if the RDA grew a Na'vi avatar body for him. Read more...

In the future, all movies will be apparently be retrofitted and re-released in 3-D. For now, though, we're only hearing rumors of all kinds of old favorites being considered for a format upgrade. "Star Wars" trilogy, "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "Titanic," and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" have all been talked about for theatrical 3-D reissues. We have no definite confirmation on anything yet. Only speculation and heresy in the wake of "Avatar" changing the game for Hollywood.

Sony has at least now made a statement that they will definitely be converting many films from their library to 3-D for home entertainment releases, if not theatrical engagements. Bloomberg reports that the company, which helped develop and promote the Blu-ray format and which is now invested in 3-D Blu-ray players, 3-D Playstation games, 3-D television sets and a 3-D cable network, will begin releasing 3-D versions of old films as early as this April. Read more...

FROM MTV.COM: In the grand scheme of the Academy Awards' 82-year history, it's no secret that comedies are typically overlooked on Oscar night. But if that's the case, then this week's surprising "District 9" Best Picture nomination — teamed with the likely domination of Oscar favorite "Avatar" — reminded us that sci-fi takes a close second in the race for Oscar irrelevance.

What do "The Empire Strikes Back," "The Matrix," "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," "Alien," "Back to the Future" and "2001: A Space Odyssey" have in common? Each are among the top-rated science-fiction films of all time, as rated by hundreds of thousands of fans on IMDb, and not a single one earned a Best Picture nomination. In fact, if you don't include such debatable sci-fi fare as "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," the genre hasn't been represented on Oscar night since "The Lord of the Rings" films broke through at the beginning of the new century. Go back further, and the last true sci-fi nominee was "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" in 1982.

Continue reading Have 'Avatar' And 'District 9' Shattered The Oscars' Sci-Fi Stigma?