Avatar
I think all of us can point to cinematic moments that will stay with us forever. From Luke’s triumphant run on the Death Star to Superman and Lois Lane’s romantic flight over Metropolis, these moments use the latest in technology to help us believe in the fantastic. Today, Director James Cameron uses the latest in digital technology to bring the fantasy world of Avatar to life. The end result is perhaps one of the visually stunning things I have ever experienced on screen.
James Cameron is no stranger to cutting edge visual effects. In the 90s he used computer graphics to bring the menacing T1000 to life. The results were so amazing that everybody was asking, “how did he do that?” And nearly every science fiction movie afterward has incorporated CGI to some varying degree (some more effectively than others). Today, Cameron’s latest film is a triumph of 3D viewing and stereoscopic filmmaking with cameras that were specially designed for the film. By now we’ve all seen the new 3D movies. Usually they are relegated to animated films that can easily disguise any limitation that the production may have. They provide depth and the occasional sight gag, but that’s about it. The difference in Avatar is the 3D is so good, so engrossing, that you actually feel like you are part of the action. It’s so good in fact that about an hour into the film you actually forget you’re watching a 3D movie; you’re too involved in what’s going on.
The story comes from a 114 page manuscript that Cameron wrote back in 1994. Cameron admits he was inspired by every science fiction book he read as a kid and so many themes feel very familiar to us. The year 2154, and the RDA corporation is mining Pandora, a lush, Earth-like moon for a rare mineral known as Unobtanium. The local inhabitants called the Na’vi oppose the mining and destruction of their forest home. To help ensure the mining continues, Parker Selfridge, (Giovanni Ribisi) employs former marines as mercenaries to provide security for the operation.
Enter Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic marine who is seeking a second chance in the Avatar program. You see, humans cannot breathe Pandora’s atmosphere, and in an attempt to educate the natives and win their favor, scientists have genetically engineered human/Na’vi hybrid bodies called Avatars, which are controlled by genetically matched human operators. Jake’s twin brother was supposed to pilot the Avatar but was murdered. And since Jake shared the same genetic code, he is the perfect replacement. Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), head of the Avatar Program, considers Jake an inadequate replacement for his brother, relegating him to a bodyguard role.
While Jake is escorting Augustine and biologist Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore) in their Avatar forms, the group is attacked by a large predator, and Jake becomes separated and lost. Attempting to survive the night in Pandora’s dangerous jungles, he is rescued by Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña), a female Na’vi. Neytiri brings Jake back to Hometree, which is inhabited by Neytiri’s clan, the Omaticaya. Mo’at, (C. C. H. Pounder), the Na’vi shaman and Neytiri’s mother have a vision about Jake and she instructs her to teach him their ways. What follows is a futuristic version of Dances with Wolves as Jake becomes attached the people he has sworn to relocate.
This film has been in the making for quite some time, and Cameron even admitted that he needed to wait for technology to catch up with his vision. Luckily for us, CG technology has come a long way in ten years. A few years ago, we watched as Peter Jackson made Smeagol, the Gollum character in Two Towers, so life like that we quickly forgot he wasn’t real. I believe this worked because while humanoid in nature, Gollum is not human. The same can be said about the Na’vi in this film; they are humanoid in nature, but they are clearly not human. That’s important because every attempt at making a human CG character falls short because there is always something not quite real about them. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is an excellent example of CG people falling apart very quickly. It looks cool for ten minutes, but then the limitations of human CGI distract from the movie experience (that and lack of a real story hurt that film). But because the Na’vi are new humanoid characters they come across as very real; and like Gollum, we forget that they are computer generated.
The movie has a lot of action and is quite fun. However within this fun there is a deeper theme being espoused that tugs at all of us. At Comic Con last year, Cameron told attendees that he wanted to make
”something that has this spoonful of sugar of all the action and the adventure and all that. He wanted this to thrill him “as a fan” but also have a conscience “that maybe in the enjoying of it makes you think a little bit about the way you interact with nature and your fellow man.”
I am far from a tree hugger, but the nature of the film helped me buy into its message and I found it very powerful.
All this being said, there are some things that I feel Avatar is lacking. For one, despite its technical achievement, there is very little that is new in Avatar. Because Cameron draws from so many science fiction stories and themes, you have this constant déjà-vu feeling. ”Hmm where have I seen this before?” Most notably the last half of the movie felt like an extended version of the battle on Endor in Return of the Jedi; although, I must admit, this fight was far more bad ass!
The other gripe I have with Avatar isn’t really a dis on the movie itself, but rather how the market is handling 3D movies. I took Tiny and my wife to a matinee and thanks to the fabulous $3 surcharge per ticket, our movie going experience was almost $30, and that was before the popcorn. The theater then had the audacity to show a “we’re combating the recession commercial” in the film. Seriously? Now I know there is some overhead for the 3D glasses, but don’t you think that at the end of the film I should be able to keep what I paid for? No, they get recycled in a big plastic bin. As long as the cost of seeing 3D movies is this much higher, I doubt the experience will really catch on. It’s just too darned expensive. Here is an idea: offer the opportunity to rent or buy the glasses. That way when I know I am going to a 3D show, I’ll bring my glasses and if I forget I should have to pay the ridiculous rental fee.
Extra money and familiar themes aside, Avatar is a movie that demands to be seen on the big screen, and in the format that it was designed for: 3D. The experience was well worth the money I paid for, and one that I will be talking about for quite some time to come.
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Tags: 3d, Adventure, Avatar, Blue People, James Cameron, Science Fiction
December 30th, 2009 at 8:55 am
Did they make you throw them in the recycling bin!? We had recycling bins for the glasses at my theatre and I just left with my glasses anyways as a souvenir.
I wasn’t as impressed by the 3D. I disagree about it being so good you forget you’re watching a 3D movie. Aside from the fact that those glasses are uncomfortable as hell, any scenes where there was a live actor or real objects started looking like a Magic Eye book where the “3D” is just another layer of 2D popped out. The 3D was done amazingly well when there was only CG on screen though.
Enjoyed the article. Avatar is definitely a must see.
December 30th, 2009 at 10:06 am
I enjoyed the movie, but thought some parts were a bit over the top, dialog and “message” wise. The Colonel in particular was like a big cartoon character and the whole “corporate greed is evil” message is something I can get behind, but could have been told in a less ham-fisted way.
January 3rd, 2010 at 8:22 am
@Delarat, yeah some kid was policing the door ensuring that the glasses got dumped. I pretended to…HA! TAKE THAT BITCHES!!!
@John, yeah I can see that, but I guess it didn’t bother me as much. Lots of fun movies have far worse dialogue. Go and rewatch the original Star Wars and you’ll see that Avatar could win a Pulitzer compared to that script. Bottom line for me is, would I have liked to turn right around and watch it again. and the answer for me was yes. Very few movies do that for me.